10 Choreographers You Should Know: 10. DD Dorvillier/human future dance corps ( Paris)

DD Dorvillier was born on flag Day, June 14, 1967 in San Juan Puerto Rico. She received a BA in Dance in 1989 from Bennington College in Vermont. Creating performances exclusively in and for New York City since 1989, Dorvillier began developing her works in other places starting around 2004, settling in France in 2010. Her work with her company human future dance corps has been shown in New York at The Kitchen, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project, and Performance Space 122, among others, and in Festivals and theaters internationally in places such as Kaai Theater (Brussels, Belgium), STUK (Leuven, Belgium), deSingel (Antwerp, Belgium), Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-St. Denis (Paris, France), ImpPulsTanz (Vienna, Austria), Tseh Festival (Moscow, Russia), Hau/Hebel am Ufer (Berlin, Germany), Melkweg (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and Tokyo Dance Biennale (Tokyo, Japan), among others.

In 1991 she and choreographer Jennifer Monson created the Matzoh Factory. For over a decade the studio was a grassroots site for wild experimentation where choreographers and artists congregated for low-tech/low-cost shows, rehearsals, parties, and readings. Over a dozen of Dorvillier’s early works were created at The Matzoh Factory from 1991 to 2003. These are the pieces that make up the content of the recent project A catalogue of steps (2013 and ongoing).

No Change or “freedom is a psycho-kinetic skill” (2005) commissioned by Danspace Project, marks an important turning point in Dorvillier’s artistic trajectory and working methods, and became a reference for her following works. It was reprised at St. Mark’s Church in the context of Danspace Project’s “certain difficulties, certain joy” Platform 2010 curated by Trajal Harrell.

Nottthing Is Importanttt (2007) commissioned by The Kitchen, was included in both the New York Times and TimeOut New York’s best of 2007 dance features. A frequent collaborator, Lighting Designer Thomas Dunn received a Bessie for his work on this project. Nottthing Is Importanttt was the beginning of an important collaborative relationship with composer Zeena Parkins, with whom Dorvillier has created many subsequent works, along with Thomas Dunn such as Choreography, a Prologue for the Apocalypse of Understanding, Get Ready! (2009) commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop; Danza Permanente (2012) co-commissioned by Stuk, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine St. Denis, and The Kitchen (as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival); and most recently Diary of an Image (2014) commissioned by Danspace Project, MANCC, LMCC, and Atelier de Paris/Carolyn Carlson.

Danspace Project Platform 2014: Diary of an Image by DD Dorvillier was an eponymous four-week series of events which sought to examine definitions of dance presentation and artist and institutional collaboration, and opened up possibilities for new ways of thinking histories together. Curated by Dorvillier in collaboration with writer and scholar Jenn Joy, the platform included a series of Solo Events with performances by artists who have impacted Dorvillier’s work and history as well as two new works by Dorvillier and collaborators: A catalogue of steps (2013) commissioned by Entre cour et jardin, LMCC, Danspace Project, MANCC, Atelier de Paris/Carolyn Carlson, and Diary of an Image.

Most recently she initiated a new collaboration with composer Sébastien Roux, and with Thomas Dunn. Extra Shapes (2015) commissioned by EMPAC, is a Creative Capital project. Current touring includes EMPAC (Troy, NY), Playground Festival (Stuk, Leuven), The Kitchen (New York City), Festival Les Musiques (GMEM, Marseille), and June Events (Atelier de Paris/Carolyn Carlson).

She was involved in several international collaborations: Anarchive #2: Secondhand (Kaai Studios/Brussels) with the German choreographic duo Deuffert/Plishke. Piece Sans Paroles (Brut/Vienna) with the Austrian choreographer Anne Juren and American theater director Annie Dorsen, and The Blanket Dance (Frascati Theater/Amsterdam) with choreographers Jefta Van Dinther and Frédéric Gies. With longtime collaborator Jennifer Monson she continues to tour and perform RMW(a) & RMW (Movement Research 1993 & Performance Space 122, 2004). In 2007 she created Half A Train, a collaborative photo installation with Belgian photographer David Berge, and in 2008 she performed in Jennifer Lacey’s Les Assistantes. She is currently part of In Tow, a long term research and performance project initiated and conceived by Jennifer Monson.

Dorvillier received two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies); one in 2003 for Choreography of Dressed for Floating(Danspace Project, 2002) and one for her performance in Parades & Changes, replays (New York Live Arts, 2010), a re-staging of Anna Halprin’s seminal work Parades & Changes (1965), initiated by French choreographer Anne Collod in collaboration with Anna Halprin. This production toured to over thirty different venues worldwide.

Dorvillier has been a Movement Research Artist in Residence (‘95/’96, ’07/’08). In 1999 & 2000 she was guest co-editor with Sarah Michelson and Trajal Harrell of Movement Research’s Performance Journal, the “Release” double issue, and was curator of the Movement Research Festival in 2004 and 2005. From 1996 to 2004 she curated HOTHOUSE, an infamous improvisational performance series at Performance Space 122 in New York.

She is a recipient of a NYFA Choreography Fellowship (2000), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award (2007), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2011), and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (2013). (source: http://www.humanfuturedancecorps.org)