Jeanine Durning's dances are generated from a place where the body is the primary location for human experience and a conduit for meaningful exchange. Her creative interests lie in an observation of human behavior and endeavor, existing in a malleable and perceptual landscape. The reinterpretation of these observations for her are rooted in the physical body and the multiplicity of its expression. Jeanine's work resides in a place between the real and the imagined, the domestic and the epic, the mundane and the transcendent. Characterized by a physicality that is at once refined as it is raw and natural as it is designed, Jeanine's work seeks to not simply simulate real life but to have an imaginative and active interaction with it.

Made in close collaboration with participating artists in dance, theater, sound and visual design, each work is constructed from a true hybrid performance language that crosses disciplines and breaks with expectation. The content of each work emerges from spontaneous, as well as rigorously imposed situations within the group process, building upon the experience of the day and the process over time. The work engages with open curiosity in an unanswerable inquiry about "who we are" while defying the lines of narrative and definition. This results in work that is personal, real and deeply connected, allowing the audience to participate in a heightened experience of attention and perception and to share in this integral exchange. The performers are people with strengths and vulnerabilities, ambiguities and complexities, whose expression is sincere, honest and fully engaged.

Based in NYC, Jeanine Durning is a performer, teacher and maker of dance, directing a project-based group under her name. In support of her choreography most recently, Jeanine was awarded the 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and was the 2007 recipient of The Alpert Award in Choreography. In the past two years, she has been in residence at Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence College and CalArts and has been commissioned to make original work by individuals and companies in Minneapolis, Austin and Pittsburgh. Jeanine is known for her performances in the work of other choreographers, most notably in the early years, with David Dorfman Dance with whom she collaborated from 1993-2002.  She has since worked on a project basis with many choreographers, including most recently Deborah Hay (2006, 2008), Susan Rethorst (2005, 2007, 2008) and Chris Yon (2006, 2007).  Jeanine's work as a teacher has been an important and integral part of her ongoing inquiry of dance. She teaches regularly throughout NYC and is invited often as a guest artist at universities and festivals, including SUPA (a Festival of Choreographers) and TSEH Summer Dance (in Moscow).


Investigating the mechanics and poetics of memory and mythology of personal history, ex-memory: waywewere delves further into Jeanine's interest in movement as non-narrative biographical form, ex-memory challenges the audiences' perception and experience of real time events through memory and personal association by creating fictionalized documentaries. Durning will intersect the mediums of film and live performance to create an unexpected dialogue between fiction and reality, past and present.

Drawing on her more than 15 years experience in creating work, performing and teaching in academic, community as well as professional settings, Jeanine Durning offers classes and workshops in contemporary technique, composition, improvisation and performance.
Durning is available to create original work or set repertory on students, repertory companies and/or individuals.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE PRACTICE:
I've come to regard "technique" as an ongoing malleable practice of the accumulation of awarenesses, both physical and perceptual, and "technique class" as a laboratory in practicing and heightening these awarenesses.
This class engages in a physical and philosophical dialogue with what it means to be a contemporary dancer. The methodology and "aesthetic" of this class draws from a wide range of influences and a hybridization of ideas from various modalities, from the classical to the contemporary, the experimental to the formal. My goal in teaching is to offer perspective to the student, a way of regarding him/herself in the moments of movement which are not fixed, to cultivate recognition and awareness of the multiplicity of the body, to help locate and embrace an understanding and knowledge of conventional dance practices then quietly challenge those systems, to relinquish perceived limitations so as to invite possibility and potential, to nurture individuality. Oftentimes, we will work on physical paradoxes: the philosophical meeting the technical, the practical meeting the poetical, the behavioral meeting the architectural, the perceptual meeting the functional...  The individuated, personal translation, interpretation and integration of these awarenesses are what I attempt to guide and cultivate in my classes.