Blue Room
Performed by Tiffany Mills, Jordan Morley, Kenneth Olguin, Nikolas Owens, Emily Pope and Mei Yamanaka
Dramaturgy by Kay Cummings
Costume Design by Mary Kokie McNaugher
Lighting Design by Chris Hudacs
Sound Design by Max Giteck Duyker
Tiffany Mills’s newest work, Blue Room, is inhabited by six distinct personalities who butt up against physical and emotional boundaries. Blue tape delineates a room laid out like an architect’s floor plan. The dancers and their interactions bring dimensionality and dynamic interplay to this room as they explore how we connect, if we connect, the inner world that isolates, the outer world that is full of contradictions, and the consequences of our actions. Moments of isolation are attempts to leave the room, disappear, or transform. Moments of connection are built upon collision, invasion of personal space, or attempted cohabitation.
An eclectic array of music, featuring New York-based composers Daniel Wohl, Angelica Negron, and others, allows for radical shifts in movement and soundscape. With this work Mills asks: Can our boundaries be porous? Can we truly connect with those around us?
Tiffany Mills is choreographer and artistic director of the New York City-based Tiffany Mills Company (2000-present). The company celebrated its 15th anniversary season in 2016 at La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival (2016). Prior, the company participated in the inaugural session of BAM’s Professional Development Program, culminating in a NYC season at BAM Fisher (2013). NYC performing highlights include: Guggenheim Museum Works & Process Series, Duke on 42nd Street, Danspace Project’s City/Dans Series, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Symphony Space Dance Sampler, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Dancing in the Streets, Joyce SoHo, and Movement Research at Judson Church. The company’s work has been presented nationally at PICA’s TBA Festival (OR), Wexner Center (OH), Contemporary Dance Theater (OH), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Residency (MA), Dance Place (Washington D.C.), amongst others. Internationally, the company has toured to Russia, Italy, Mexico, and Canada. Mills holds an annual NYC Summer Intensive (2006–present), has taught at Trisha Brown Studios, Dance New Amsterdam, Gibney Dance Center, Peridance, The Playground, ACDA, plus universities and festivals nationally/internationally. Most recent awards and residencies include: NYU’s Tisch Summer Dance Festival, CUNY Dance Initiative, BAM/DVIAM PDP, the Joyce Theater’s Mellon Anchor Tenant Program, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and LMCC Swing Space. Mills has received funding from the Asian Cultural Council, Mertz Gilmore (via La MaMa), Evelyn Sharp Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance (via HERE), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Bossak/Heilbron Foundation, Sorin Charitable Trust, Puffin, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, and New Music USA, amongst others. Mills received a BA in dance from the University of Oregon and an MFA in choreography from Ohio State University.
Blue Room is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The development of this project has been supported by a 2017 CUNY Dance Initiative residency at Queensborough Community College with a performance at Queensborough Performing Arts Center; a Baker Artist-in-Residence at Muhlenberg College, PA; and a residency at Kenyon College, OH. Blue Room printed materials are made possible with funds from the Destination Brooklyn Program, funded by the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and NYC & Company Foundation, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.
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