Pillow Pages: Alumna Spotlight on Amanda Selwyn
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Alumna Spotlight: Amanda Selwyn, Choreographer's Lab 2008
by Ben Fried, Press/Editorial Intern, Doris Duke Theatre
Amanda Selwyn, a Boston-bred choreographer and teacher, celebrated her birthday last year while attending The School at Jacob's Pillow Choreographers Lab. Returning just after her birthday this year she brings her company, the Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, to the Inside/Out stage.
A dance company of her own was always Amanda's aim. After graduating from Northwestern in 1994, Amanda went to Israel, taught dance, interned, and learned Hebrew. Returning to Chicago, she encountered the first dilemma: whether to give herself to theatre or dance. Dance eventually won out; after Amanda realized that image interested her more than narrative, and that her incorporation of theatrical technique into dance was more fruitful than vice versa. A Master's degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts followed. She has lived and worked in New York City ever since--and in 2000, she founded Notes in Motion.
Theater, teaching, and choreography, the three strands of Amanda's professional life, were all served by Notes in Motion, an expansive operation for an expansive creative personality. It grew to two distinct entities: Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, a more traditional company rooted in Amanda's choreography, and Outreach Dance Theatre, a vehicle for delivering dance education to New York City public schools, which also earned revenue.
Choreographically, Amanda's point of departure is not an image or a gesture, but a theatrical imperative felt in her insistence on expression, rather than line or beauty, as the main function of a dancer's body. All the while, her choreography feeds off her teaching. Amanda describes her collaborations with dancers as "harvesting their movement," and she takes the same approach to her students--herself learning while teaching.
Last summer at The School at Jacob's Pillow Choreographers Lab, Amanda was one of twelve choreographers brought together under the theme of "Artistic Process/Community Interaction." The participants created movement, discussed their process, prepared a showing, and wrote their personal artistic statements. With its emphasis on choreographing in and for communities, the Lab mirrored Amanda's own parallel pursuits of local activism and artistic absorption. Jacob's Pillow ultimately gave her the confidence to think of her collaborative creative method as a place of community itself.
Now in its ninth year, the company is touring its 16th production and bringing 16 dancers to the Inside/Out engagement. See the Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre for yourself on August 26th at 6:30pm on the Inside/Out stage.
Click here to read the next Pillow Pages article: Alumni Updates
by Ben Fried, Press/Editorial Intern, Doris Duke Theatre
Amanda Selwyn, a Boston-bred choreographer and teacher, celebrated her birthday last year while attending The School at Jacob's Pillow Choreographers Lab. Returning just after her birthday this year she brings her company, the Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, to the Inside/Out stage.
A dance company of her own was always Amanda's aim. After graduating from Northwestern in 1994, Amanda went to Israel, taught dance, interned, and learned Hebrew. Returning to Chicago, she encountered the first dilemma: whether to give herself to theatre or dance. Dance eventually won out; after Amanda realized that image interested her more than narrative, and that her incorporation of theatrical technique into dance was more fruitful than vice versa. A Master's degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts followed. She has lived and worked in New York City ever since--and in 2000, she founded Notes in Motion.
Theater, teaching, and choreography, the three strands of Amanda's professional life, were all served by Notes in Motion, an expansive operation for an expansive creative personality. It grew to two distinct entities: Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, a more traditional company rooted in Amanda's choreography, and Outreach Dance Theatre, a vehicle for delivering dance education to New York City public schools, which also earned revenue.
Choreographically, Amanda's point of departure is not an image or a gesture, but a theatrical imperative felt in her insistence on expression, rather than line or beauty, as the main function of a dancer's body. All the while, her choreography feeds off her teaching. Amanda describes her collaborations with dancers as "harvesting their movement," and she takes the same approach to her students--herself learning while teaching.
Last summer at The School at Jacob's Pillow Choreographers Lab, Amanda was one of twelve choreographers brought together under the theme of "Artistic Process/Community Interaction." The participants created movement, discussed their process, prepared a showing, and wrote their personal artistic statements. With its emphasis on choreographing in and for communities, the Lab mirrored Amanda's own parallel pursuits of local activism and artistic absorption. Jacob's Pillow ultimately gave her the confidence to think of her collaborative creative method as a place of community itself.
Now in its ninth year, the company is touring its 16th production and bringing 16 dancers to the Inside/Out engagement. See the Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre for yourself on August 26th at 6:30pm on the Inside/Out stage.
Click here to read the next Pillow Pages article: Alumni Updates
