About Kristi Spessard Dance Projects
Since 1997, Kristi Spessard Dance Projects has been known for its capacity for wildness and an interest in challenging expectations. The seed for this group originated as Kristi Spessard took her solo performance on the road, dancing in Ohio, North Dakota, Michigan and Pueblo, Mexico. In response to the first full evening show, Topography: landscapes of the imagination, Victoria Yaffe of Show business Weekly Magazine wrote, “Spessard took us through her imagination and introduced us to her mental and physical evolution as a choreographer and dancer…Spessard’s choreography is a triumph.”Called “strangely evocative and haunting” by Gia Kourlas of the New York Times, Spessard’s work also stimulates the senses and enters the minds of her audience through surprise, underlying subversiveness, sexual charge and kinesthetic empathy. Upon first glimpse, her works are portraits of silken formality and physical virtuosity; then, the extremely heightened awareness and magnification of commonplace moments/behaviors create a substrata of meaning delivered both kinesthetically and psychologically. To achieve this end, Spessard surrounds herself with collaborative artists in theater, visual design, and music in order to intersect ideas and fertilize the imaginative outcome of her work.
Spessard attributes her distinctive style to the experience of being raised in southern culture, her continuing work as a Laban movement analyst and her long performing career with a eclectic group of choreographers including: Bessie Award Winning Amy Sue Rosen/Derek Bernstein, Guta Hedewig, Amy Cox, Jody Oberfelder, Karl Anderson, Luara Staton, Jeanne Travers, Susan Hadley, Vickie Uris, and Claudia Murphey.
Kristi Spessard Dance Projects has been showcased by TorNaDa Theater, FRESHTRACKS at DTW, New Dance Alliance, Museum of the Moving Image, Movement Research at Judson Church, Danspace Project’s Out-of-Space, Dixon Place, Barnard College Theater Department, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and EGG the Arts Show – on PBS. Elsewhere, her work has been performed at University of the Americas - Mexico, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Virginia School of the Arts, Alfred University, Arts in the Parks – North Dakota, Goose Route Dance Festival, and Western Michigan State University. Kristi Spessard Dance Projects has produced two full evening productions, the wildly driven Coney’s Mind, performed at Williamsburg Arts Exchange (WAX) and Pier 52, and Topography – Landscapes of the Imagination at Cunningham Studio Theater.
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