About

“Work with a noticeably personal style … gorgeously fluid, strongly rooted movement.  Ms. Donovan felt like a force of nature.”- Roslyn Sulcas from the New York Times

About Kelley Donovan

Kelley Donovan splits her time between Boston and New York City, teaching and choreographing in both cities.  She has performed work by Ann Carlson, Amy Spencer & Richard Colton and Liz Lerman. Her work has been produced in Boston by World Music/Crash Arts, Tufts University, Lesley College, MIT, Mobius, Harvard, Mass College of Art, Salem State College and The Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. Most recently she has shown work at Movement Research, DanceNow NYC, The Merce Cunningham Studio, The Duo Theater, Joyce SoHo, The Hatch, WAX, Green Space and the 92nd St. Y in New York City.  Recently the New York Times and Boston Pheonix cited her work as among the best of 2009 and she has received financial support from The Artist Foundation of Boston and a Harkness Space Grant from the 92nd St. Y.  Kelley studied choreography with Mark Morris and Bessie Schönberg and received a B.A. from Bradford College in 1989.

About Kelley Donovan and Dancers

Kelley Donovan & Dancers create dance that investigates the internal world of transformation and expresses the intimate self through movement, ranging from soft fluidity to athletic physicality. Exploring the gray area between the extremes of purely classical modern dance and theatrical narrative, Donovan creates movement rich with imagery, experienced viscerally and expressive of transformation.

Acclamations:

“The choreographer … enters midway like the eye of the cyclone that has been generating movement all the while. She is like a double helix in motion, constantly flipping perspective. She seems to reach out and coil inward at the same time, her body twisting and spiraling, arms curving forward and back with quick shifts of dynamics.”
– Karen Campbell from The Boston Globe

Kelley Donovan, CV

 

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I finally got around to compiling a list of the dances I’ve made since starting my career in Boston, there are YouTube links to many of the pieces so you can see them and say a little bit about each etc…still under construction!   dances since 1986.

 

 

Entwined (2012) Boston performance

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Realm of Not Knowing (2012)

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Stone and Whispering Pages (2012)

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Untitled piece for Roger Williams University (2011)

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Fractured Realm (2011)

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Fractured Realm Adapted for Tedx Gramercy called “Motion for the Dancers”

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Vigilant (2012)

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What is Stable Shifts, What is Solid Slips (2011)

and excerpt:

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Improvisation October (2011)

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In A World (2011)

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Age of Unraveling (2010)

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Urban Chamelion (2010) Roger Williams University residency

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Tree of Ash (2010)

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Dance Residency at the DUO Multicultural Arts Center, East Village, NYC

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Poetry and Dance at 100 Grand, fundraiser, Anna Brown Massey

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Borrowed Bones (2009)

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Apt to Alphabetize, a short dance podcast, part of the International Podcast Festival, fillmed by Pascal Roekert, Flexcurve Dance

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Made of Paper (2009)

This earlier version had 12 dancers and was performed at APAP and a friends Loft on W. 3rd St., quite a different looking piece. We recreated the ending before the show in Boston and I think I liked it better.

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Within and Between (2009)

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Duet excerpt

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Untitled Work, June 2008 Fundraiser, created with students at UMass Boston

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Triadic Memories (2008) an evening length work performed to the music by Morton Feldman, exploring decay and memory.

http://exploredance.com/article.htm?id=2286

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It’s All Forgotten Now (2007)

and an excerpt:

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Inside of the Ending (2007)

excerpt of the ending!

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We did a talk show on CCTV in June of 2006

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Until the Water Runs Clear (2006) excerpt, Green St. Studios

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Visceral Threads (2005) Evening Length work

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Windows and Glass Walls (2005)

Windows and Glass Walls at Tufts University, Rough and Ready performance Series

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Visceral Threads, (2005) UMass Boston, Modern Dance Class

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One Way Window (2005) in Ten’s The Limit, CrashArts

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Gaining Ground (2004)

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Small Shifts (2004)

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Awake (2004)

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No Such Thing As a True Story (2003)

at the 92nd St. Y:

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Any Unraveling (2003)

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Things That go Unsaid (2003)

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Plunge (2002 cast)

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Chasing a Thicker Skin (2002)

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Conversation out of Silence (2002)

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Changing Skin (2002) Premiere, Improvisational Solo

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Solo

This was the entire performance part of Artist Behind the Desk at MIT, the solo and quartet  is near the end.

Strange Attractor (1994) was a dance I created while working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The concept strange attractor is a term from chaos theory, the dance consists of moving away and toward and unknown spiritual destination.  The Boston Globe said ”

Any Day Now, performance with Anne Carlson in Franklin Park, Boston

Poetry and Dance Collaboration, 2000 Squawk Coffeehouse

Halloween (2000)

Mobius works in Progress Fall 2000, KD&D Improvisation with Liz Heichelbech, Stacey Carson and Anne Schwartz.

Sifting (1999)  Mobius Works in Progress, collaboration with 19 year old Poet Sarah Tyler

Spirit of Dance Talk Show, April 1999, with Anna Zamarippa and Stacey Carson

Green (1999)

There Were Three (1999)

Movement in the Moment (1999)

Dance Distraction, part of Dance Month in Cambridge, at the Globe Fountain in Kendall Sq, Cambridge

Fragile Connections (1998) a video collaboration with Gene Preble, exploring our connection to one another and was performed by the newly formed Kelley Donovan & Dancers in April 1998 at Green St. Studios.  Dancers, Anna Zamarrippa, Michaela Rudis, Stacey Carson, Nicole Lazo, Jordana Alford & Anne Schwartz performed to Automatic Writing by Robert Ashley.  Debra Cash reviewing for the Boston Globe said, “ In “Fragile Connections” Mundane gstures don’t look mundance anymore. As the dadncers lift their legs, the afterimage on the videoscreen flattens the gesture into a citrus-colored fan.

This won’t hurt a bit (1998)

Scarcity (1998)

A Midwife’s Tale (1998)

Feet (1998)

Whole evening Concert Sept. 1998 at Green St. Studios

Strange Attractor, 1998 Performance

Silence (1997)

Unfolding (1997)

Squirm (1997)

Plunge (1997) Original Cast

Soft (1997) Music by Michael Oster

Invisible Spoon (1995)

Grounded (1995) Solo, music performed live by Michael Oster

Pressing for Passage (1994) Abydos Movement Collaborative, Co-choreographer with J. Bulger and K. Kissik

Winding Up, Winding Down (1995) percussive movement study in silence

Excerpt:

Full piece

Catching Up (1993)

Pacing (1993)

Mass College of Art Movement Art Showcase

Rotary (1993)

Rotary (1992) Solo filmed at SCATV, in Somerville

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Performance of the 3 Little Pigs, by Nora Laudani at the Boston Festival, Boston Ballet Studios, April 1993

Postcards (1993) co-choreographed with Jane Bulger

Dances at The Middle East, downstairs, Quickening, choreographer Jane Bulger, Abydos Movement Collaborative, May (1993)

Sensual Intelligence (1993) Abydos Movement Collaborative, Music by Martin, Majeski and Wood

Sojourn (1990) Guest choreographer with the Movement Theater Company

Suspicion Study, Jacobs Pillow, 1990 part of Bessie Schonberg Choreography Workshop, performed by Rebecca Rice

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Choreography at Bradford College 1986-89

Under the Moon (1988)

Many dances from 1986-89

At the Ferocious Phenomenon of 4 O’clock, composer Nathan Robbins, poetry by e.e. cummings

Birches (1988) based on the poem by Robert Frost, 2 other works

Fall 1987 Concert, a Duet and a dance to music by Meredith Monk

Two Dances Fall 1986 to Laurie Anderson Music

Liebkrieg (1986)

Performances from Fall 1989