Dancing With Horses

Dancing With Horses

  • 121 W 17th St
  • New York, New York
  • 10011

Website Links

Description

The Equus Projects partners professional dancers with horses and their riders to create site-specific performance works that merge the artistry of dance with the athletics of equestrianism. The company creates works for arts and equine venues that are virtuosic and diverse, and exchanges dance and equestrian pedagogy with members of each field, to establish an interdisciplinary performance language. In 1997, choreographer JoAnna Mendl Shaw engineered a unique collaboration between the Mount Holyoke College Dance Department and Equestrian Program, which resulted in a trilogy of site-specific performance works for dancers and horses. During the three-month process of creating this body of work, Shaw became fascinated by the visceral connection that developed between the dancers and horses. Following completion of the Mount Holyoke project, Shaw initiated a series of research and performance projects to further explore the language of communication between human and equestrian collaborators. Working in equestrian arenas in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Shaw, with her dancer and equestrian collaborators, developed a movement language and training technique based on a fundamental kinetic attending they called "Physical Listening". The multi-dimensional kinetic awareness that The Equus Projects' dancers use with the horses translates into dynamic movement training. "Physical Listening" is the focus for movement workshops taught by the Company. The Company has also taken...

Products & services

Similar companies nearby