Photo: Lovin Ostenrik

Today we catch up with NYC artist Colleen Thomas. Colleen wrote her artist profile on the blog back in September 2013. 

How would you describe the past 4 years?

The past four years have been my most creatively fruitful as well as devastating. I’ve questioned my place in this career, this city, this community and whether I am truly happy, only to come around to how grateful I am for all that I hold. This has been a familiar pattern for me (and dare I assume many artists), but became much stronger in the past few years….….the biggest shifts in my life and career in recent years have been the noticing – noticing what is wrong and bad in this world, commenting on it in all ways (through art, activism, discourse) and really seeing what is good and feeling the gratitude.

I’m not sure if it's because I’ve lost important people in my life (the recent loss of two of my good friends from graduate school hit me hard) or because the political reality consumes me, or because I have become just so much more aware of immortality, that I am beginning to have moments of deep gratitude for the people, life, art, food, and experiences that make my life so rich and basically make me feel good.

I made a conscious choice about 4 years ago to work and share space with people that were positive, supportive, here, as well as inherently interested in the process and able to feed my work/life. I have worked with amazing people – Samantha Allen, Adriane Fang, Darrin Wright, Olawadamilare Ayorinde, Jenna Riegel, Sadie Mosko, Pedro Osorio, Anthony Phillips, Jessica Stroh, Adrian Silver, Katherine Bergstrom, Amy Jacobus, Rachel Jones Bellas, Keith Johnson, John McGrew, Rebecca Makus, Jason Somma, Robert Boston, and Bill Young…. I’m actually realizing that there are way too many people to write down.  But, as I write this the gratitude grows because these people are my family and my family has grown – the feeling of this growth is overwhelming.

My work has become more political, feminist, and an important outlet for me to share the questions I have in this life. I have traveled to Greece, Paris, Poland, Italy, Germany, Wyoming, Vancouver, Shanghai, Brazil, among other places to teach, share, create, and perform.

What would you say is the most major change in your dance career since writing your artist profile?

Four years ago I was just getting organized when it came to my choreographic work. My second child was 2 years old (if you’re a parent you know this is when you start getting some little moments to yourself), and I decided to test out working on the business side of my dance making. Like many artists, I was not that excited about it but I realized that if I wanted to connect to people, if I wanted my art to have more exposure, then I needed to take a few steps in that direction. I hired an administrator (Katherine Bergstrom), Raja Kelly re-did my website, and Amy Jacobus started telling me what I should do and when with respect to PR. It’s true that when you put yourself out there, more comes back to you. I have worked consistently in the past four years – I’ve created two evening length works that I am very proud of, and have ventured into more international projects than ever in my career. I have also gone deeper into my improvisational practice – writing about it, creating new improvisation courses at Barnard, and began work on a neurological study on improvisation with a colleague at Colombia University. 

Photo: Julias Discenza

What is on your calendar for 2018 – teaching, performing, choreographing, and residencies?

I am an Associate Professor at Barnard College. This semester I am teaching Dance/Music Improvisation: Critical Practices in Negotiation, Embodiment, and Freedom. I’m also teaching Modern Technique and restaging one of my works on the students for the Miller Concert this spring.

I very recently created and performed a 15 minute solo that looks at what happens when fascism grows around the female body. This year I will share this solo with women artists from Venezuela, Brazil, Greece, Poland, and Turkey. I will weave together these six perspectives from women artists (dancers, artists, filmmakers) who are living in countries where they don’t necessarily agree with the political climate, to culminate in an evening-length dance work.

I have been commissioned to create and premiere a work at the International Dance Theatres Festival in Lublin, Poland. I am making a 40-minute collaborative dance work on six Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian dancers as well as members of my company, Colleen Thomas Dance. The world premiere will take place in Lublin in November 2018, and the U.S. premiere will be held in New York in March 2019.

The seed of this dance work is the joining of experience, which for me begins with a feminist expression, a reaction to inequity and objectification. Our work thus far has focused intently on the dancers' perceptions of how their local governments and communities are reacting to the influx of Middle Eastern migrants and refugees and treating these vulnerable populations.

My husband and I are also continuing to work on a new piece for Bill Young/Colleen Thomas Co.  I am a dancer and performer in this piece rather than choreographer.

For the month of June, I will bring 7 students to this year’s (our 8^th) Dance in Paris program that I co-direct with the program’s creator, USF Professor Michael Foley.

I will spend a magical 5 days at the Watermill Center for my third year at the Arts and Science residency. And I am in the midst of a neuroscientific study on improvisation with Dr Andrew Goldman, a colleague of mine from Columbia University.

What does wellness mean to you? How to support wellness, balance, exertion/recuperation in 2018….

I really began my focus on self-care about 4 years ago when I decided to make better choices like the professional and personal choices I wrote about earlier. I started to become so busy and felt like I was drowning most days. I thought it was due to motherhood or having a full-time job and two dance companies and doing extra projects on the side. A friend suggested I try Vipassana meditation and a silent retreat in Massachusetts. It changed my life. What I can say briefly is that the time in the woods, meditating, and practicing compassion and loving kindness, made me feel connected and a sort of peace that I hadn’t had in a decade. So to support wellness (especially in the craziest, most appalling political environment of my time), meditation, compassion, sleep, food, water, kindness, laughter and friendship are the practices I try to experience at least once a day.

Photo: Clarrissa Lapolla

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Related posts:

The Arts Administrator's Alphabet: 88 pages, 180 Terms and Concepts

The 2018 Artists' Gratitude Project

A Year of Wellness: Post for January

Artist Profile #41: Colleen Thomas

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