RESUME OF DEBORAH HAY
Personal Information
| Born: | December 18, 1941 | New York City |
| Address: | 1703 Alta Vista Ave | Austin, Texas 78704 |
| Phone: | 512/707 2512 | email: Deborahhay@aol.com |
Important Teachers
Professor Cheng Man-Ching Tai-Chi Chuan NYC 1966-69
Judson Dance Theatre participants: NYC 1961-66
Judith Dunn, Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Lucinda Childs, Robert
Rauschenberg, Alex Hay, Malcolm Goldstein, Carolee Schneemann,
Elaine Summers, Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, Philip Corner, John
Herbert McDowell
Merce Cunningham modern NYC 1961-64
Robert Dunn composition NYC 1961-62
Mia Slavenska ballet NYC 1962-65
James Waring ballet, modern NYC 1961-64
Bill Frank modern NYC 1956-61
Shirley Goldensohn (mother) all disciplines , through age 12
Present Status
Artistic Director of the Deborah Hay Dance Company since 1980
Career Summary
Brief Narrative of Career
Press Quotes
Performance History
Performance Documentation, 1961 To Present
Select list of university workshops since
1985
DEBORAH HAY "is a phenomenon capable of expanding and diversifying the language of movement in the most striking and unexpected ways." Dance Australia. Her choreography, from exquisitely meditative solos to the dances she makes for large groups of untrained and trained dancers, explores the nature of experience, perception, and attention in dance.
Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Deborah grew up making annual pilgrimages into Manhattan with her mother, to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and the New York City Ballet at City Center. She was a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater, one of the most radical and explosive art movements in this century. In 1964 she danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In 1965 she abandoned all dance training. By 1967 she was choreographing exclusively for untrained dancers thus removing herself from the performing arena.
Hay left New York in 1970 to live in a community in northern Vermont. Her daughter Savannah was born one year later. It was here that she began to follow a rigorous daily movement practice which, to this day, continues to inform her as a student, teacher, and performer. She created a series of Ten Circle Dances, which did not have public performance as a goal. Her book, Moving through the Universe in Bare Feet, Swallow Press, l975, is a collection of these simple dances.
In 1976 she moved to Austin, Texas, and began performing as a solo artist for the first time. Since l980 she has conducted fifteen annual large group workshops, each lasts four months and culminates in public performances. The group dances become the fabric for her solo performance repertory. Her book Lamb at the Altar: The Story of a Dance, Duke University Press, l994, documents this unique creative process.
Deborah received a 1983 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography and was awarded numerous National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships. She was awarded the prestigious McKnight National Fellowship from the Minnesota Dance Alliance to conduct an extensive performance residency in 1996 in Minneapolis. She is also the recipient of a l996 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship in collaboration with the Austin sculptor, Tre Arenz.
She tours extensively as a solo performer and teacher. Her writings appear in The Drama Review, Contact Quarterly, Movement Research Journal, and the Performing Arts Journal. She was just awarded a National Dance Project Touring Grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts which will help subsidize her tour My Body, The Buddhist, on Tour from January through May 2001. My Body, the Buddhist, from Wesleyan University Press, will be available Fall 2000.
Since l980 she has collaborated with composer/musicians Pauline Oliveros, Richard Landry, Terry Riley, Ellen Fullman, with poet/percussionist Bill Jeffers, visual artist Tina Girouard, and Tre Arenz, and theater directors Saskia Hekt and Johannes Birringer.
Press Quotes / Deborah Hay
"There are aspects of dance performance that I had always
accepted as a given. Working with Deborah Hay has deepened my
understanding of what we do as dancers. She has helped bring
a greater vitality to the stage.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, 2001
"A master performer sensitive to the slightest shift
of imagery and tone, Deborah Hay has continued in the postmodern
tradition of the Judson Dance Theater, which she helped to found,
for more than four decades now."
New York Times, 2001
"I marvel at her high-wire walk between clarity and enigmashe
transforms in seconds from shaman to trickster to bawdy comedian
to grave adventurer. You don't so much read her gestures or decipher
her whispers as inhale them."
Village Voice, 2001
" It's a simple act made glorious by a consuming dance
intelligence."
The San Diego Union Tribune, 2001
"FIRE examines the visceral experience
of the performer faced with spectators... Boom Boom Boom
represents both an ideal introduction and a distillation of Hay's
utterly inimitable art."
Austin American-Statesman, 2000
"...she charged the room with receptivity... what endured
was sense of the elusive mutability of fire, much like her moment-to-moment
process of creating movement."
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2000
"The spell was cast by Texas' grand dame of modern dance...
she proved that one doesn't have to leap around the stage to
bristle with energy."
Houston Chronicle, 1999
"Hay's magnificent presence - is invested with newfound
dramatic meaning..while her comic timing was never more precisely
calibrated. It's a performance to remember."
Austin American-Statesman, 1999
"...the best work I saw: dance so physical that it becomes
metaphysical -- without gimmicks, hype, or spin."
The Drama Review, 1998
An experimentalist in soul and body
New York Times, 3/30/97
" her imagination has always been marked by playfulness
in seriousness, by a blend of sophistication, thoughtfulness,
and seeming naivete."
Village Voice, 1996
"... Hay plumbs the tragic in the humorous, and vice
versa, keeping us emotionally mobile and receptive. The condition
of watching, and of being, becomes perpetually transformational,
without continuity or closure. It's an experience of constant
deferment."
Texas Observer, 1995
"For 40 minutes, we were alive. Voilá proved to
be the most concentrated 40 minutes of performance in this critic's
recent memory."
Austin American-Statesman, 1995
"Only one strongly centered can be this eccentric. The
entire community lives in her."
Village Voice, 1994
"...a revelatory, sometimes maddening experiment in elemental
movement. [She is] a choreographer of exceptional vision."
Chicago Sun-Times 1994
"The room remained charged with our attention... It's
a testament to her personal magnetism that we left with new energy,
reflecting on how remarkable human beings are."
The Village Voice 1992
"...a dance of adjustments wrought with delicate precision,
following the guidance of the body as opposed to the mind."
The Village Voice 1990
"Hay is such a strong, sure and seasoned artist that
one is willing, as always, to follow her fearlessly into her
luminous world. The effort of attention is repaid."
The New York Times 1990
"...she purges the viewer's perception by disallowing
both the superfluous and the superficial."
Dance Magazine, 1989
"Hay's work remains unrepentantly bizarre, partially
because of its insistent simplicity, also from the choice and
juxtaposition of movements, but more from the way it defies intellectual
analysis and forces strong reactions."
Oasis, The Magazine of Texas Arts 1988
Press Quotes, continued
"...an artist who has steadily forged an unmistakable
style and esthetic."
The New York Times 1987
"One tends to study Hay closely, because her metier is
transformation of movement so expertly achieved, it's difficult
to tell how it is done."
Dance Magazine 1986
"Hay's work appears to be meticulously conceived, recalling
Noh drama in its concision and compactness."
Express/News, San Antonio 1985
"...she had a presence that would have done credit to
Isadora and the concentration of a Balanchine ballerina."
The Weekly, Seattle, WA 1984
"She makes dances of uncanny beauty...Everything counts
in her mysteriously evocative dance edifices."
Artlines, Taos, NM 1983
"No one else in the world would do these things!"
Dance Magazine 1981
Performance History
Deborah Hay's Dances
l961-65
Hay's earliest dance pieces were choreographed in a setting of
interdisciplinary artists who comprised the iconoclastic Judson
Dance Theater in New York City.
l964
Hay toured the world for six months as a member of the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company.
l965-72
Hay choreographed works exclusively for untrained dancers called
Deborah Hay with a large group of people from _____ . Presenters,
mostly museums, galleries, and alternative spaces sponsored Hay's
workshop/performance residencies that lasted anywhere from three
days to three weeks and culminated in performances by and for
the local community.
l972-l976
Hay created a series of Ten Circle Dances that was published
in book form, Moving through the Universe in Bare Feet, by Swallow
Press, Chicago, Illinois. The goal for the choreographer was
to create a language that would summon an immediate kinesthetic
appeal from any group of people committed to ten consecutive
evenings of participation in her prescribed Circle Dance Event.
Hay conducted the ten circle dances in 25 communities during
four years. The dances were designed to produce an immediate
and unselfconscious response to movement direction and participation.
l974-76
Hay developed the idea of a participatory community dance practice
into THE GRAND DANCE.. This was a three-hour performance event
for trained and untrained dancers that was specifically guided
by the choreographer and performed in communities throughout
the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
l976-l980
For the first time in her dance career Hay performs as a solo
artist, touring throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada.
The one-hour solo contained respites during which she talked
to the audience about life and her art. The solo was not choreographed
in terms of movement in time and space, but it was also not improvised.
From l970-76 Hay devised a performance meditation practice which,
in a sense, meticulously prescribed the choreography of her consciousness
while she danced. This form continues to apply to her work.
l980-1996
Hay conducted her Austin-based Playing Awake four-month workshop
for trained and untrained dancers. These workshops all culminated
in public performances for the Austin community. Her solo work
derives from the dances choreographed for the large group. From
l980 to 1985 Hay also choreographed for a company of four dancers.
The work for this exclusive group of women performers ended in
l985 when Hay chose to limit her attention to the large group
and solo work.
1996-Present
Hay divides her time between teaching and performances on tour and in Austin, Texas.
Dances choreographed by Deborah Hay from 1980 to the present
include:
HEAVEN/below, group l980
The Genius of the Heart, company l980
Leaving the House, solo l980
Heavily Laden Fruit, group l980
Grace, group l981
Shaking Awake the Sleeping Child, company 1981
Tribute to Growth, company l982
Promenade, group l982
The Well, solo l982
Three Meditations, solo l982
The Light of the Body, company l983
The Movement of Light, group l983
Midnight Well Water, company l983
A Performance in Four Parts, group l984
The Wanderer, solo l984
The Well, company l984
Tasting The Blaze, group, company, solo l985
Sweet, solo l986
Snakeskin's Girl, duet l986
The Love Song Project, group l986
Milk of the Cipher, group l986
The Man Who Grew Common in Wisdom, group l987
The Navigator, solo l987
Stretching the Practice, duet l987
Living Room Duets, duet l987
The Gardener, group l988
The Gardener, solo 1988
The Aviator, group l988
The Aviator, solo l988
The Man Who Grew Common in Wisdom, solo l989
Rediscovering Wonder, solo with audience l989
Spare Changes, group l990
Lamb, lamb,lamb...., group l991
Lamb at the Altar, solo l992
group, Austin l993
solo l993
duet, San Francisco l993
group, Houston l993
group, Chicago 1994
Creature of Flesh, group 1994
my heart , group 1995
Voila , solo 1995
Exit , solo 1995
1-2-1, group 1996
The Puppet Show, solo 1998
Tri-"O", trio 1998
"O", solo 1998
dances, quartet 1998
Italy: Real and Imagined, 3 hour group 1998
shopping, quartet 1998
The Other Side of "O" 1998
Knowledge and Melancholy 1999
"Fire" 1999
Select list of performances since 1985
Hay has performed more than one time, except where it is indicated,
in the venues listed below:
She has performed in nearly every theater and alternative venue
in Austin, TX
Danspace, Movement Research, Warren Street Performance Loft,
Paula Cooper Gallery, Judson Memorial Church, and Samaya Foundation,
in New York City
Diverse Works, University of Houston, and Lawndale Annex, Houston,
Texas
Footwork, San Francisco
CalArts, Valencia, California (one time)
University of California, Riverside, California (one time)
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Links Hall, Chicago, Illinois
Highways, Los Angeles, CA (one time)
Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut
Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, Maine (one time)
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina
Broadway Performance Hall, Washington Hall Performance Gallery,
and New City Theater, Seattle, Washington
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida (one
time)
St. Marks Church, Dancepace New York City
The Kitchen, New York City
DanceHouse, Melbourne, Australia
Zachary Scott Arena Theatre, Austin, Texas
Select list of university workshops since
1985
Wesleyan University Graduate Liberal Studies Program, Middletown,
CN
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam
European Dance Development Center, Arnhem, The Netherlands
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
University of Houston, TX
University of Texas at Austin
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Southern California Institute of Architecture
Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Northwestern University, Chicago, Il
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL.
- a three week artist-in-residence program in collaboration with
artist, Tina Girouard and composer, Richard Landry.
University of California/Los Angeles
University of California/Riverside
Deborah has served on the advisory board of the Dance Umbrella in Austin, Texas for more than five years.
On April 8, 1995, at The First Annual Dance Conference held in Austin, Texas, she was "recognized for outstanding contributions that have enhanced the cultural landscape of dance in Texas."
Sept 15 - 16, 21 - 24, 28 - 30, 2000 Austin, TX
The American Demons / Blue Theatre
Tour w/ White Oak Dance Project,
Oct 3 - 8 (6 performances) Anchorage, Alaska
Discovery Theatre - Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Oct 10 - 11 ( 2 performances) Lawrence, KS
Leid Center for the Performing Arts - U of Kansas
Oct 15 (2 performances) Tempe, AZ
Gammage Audiorium - ASU
Oct 19 - 21 (4 performances) Maui, Hawaii
The Castle Theatre - Maui Arts & Culture Center
Oct 25 - 29 (5 performances) Los Angeles, CA
UCLA Royce Hall - UCLA Performing Arts
Nov 1 - 4 (4 performances) Berkeley, CA
Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley
Nov 7 - 8 (2 performances) Pittsburgh, PA
The Byham Theatre - Pittsburgh Dance Council
Nov 10 - 11 (2 performances) Washington, DC
Lisner Auditorium - Washington Performing Arts Society
Deborah leaves the WODP to teach and perform her solo trilogy
Boom Boom Boom in the BodyWorks Festival 2000
November 17 - 28 Melbourne, Australia
My Body, The Buddhist on Tour
Jan 15 - 17, 2001
UC/ Davis Davis, CA
Jan 22- 24 Riverside, CA
UC/ Riverside
Jan 29 - Feb 3 San Diego, CA
SUSHI
Feb 7 - 9 Oakland, CA
Mills College
Feb 12 - 16 Brunswick, ME
Dept. of Theater and Dance / Bowdoin College
Feb 21 - 23 Middletown, CT
Center for the Arts / Wesleyan University
March 1 - March 4 New York, NY
Danspace
March 5. at 8 PM New York, NY
Movement Research Studies Project
My Body the Buddhist , a reading/ booksigning by Deborah Hay
March 7-9 Wed through Friday from 2-5pm New York, NY
Movement Research Workshop- Imagining Choreography
a movement/performance workshop for experienced dancers and actors