C O M A P N Y A N D A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R S
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer are recipients of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, based on their “impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.” Their innovative work developing “video partnering” — the total integration of live performance and video technology — has been acclaimed for exploding the partnering form into a magically populated stage where image and reality collide. Since 2001, they have been creating their own alchemy of the live and the virtual in works that probe the themes of identity and perception while asking the question: “what is real and what is image?” This has led to their current works, Trilogy and Double Expose, where they enhance the possibilities of dance by multiplying, transposing and manipulating their own life-size video images, and integrating these images into their live performance. Their distinctive use of technology, sensual partnering and surprising humor give the work a physically and theatrically riveting edge.
In addition to the Guggenheim Fellowship, they are recipients of grants from the NEA (’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ’11), NEFA, NYSCA, USArtists International, Performing Americas Project, two Choreography Fellowships and a BUILD grant from NYFA, and three NPN Creation Fund Awards.
Bridgman/Packer Dance has toured throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Central America, appearing at venues including: City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival, SpoletoUSA, Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, ICA Boston, Bates Dance Festival, the Flynn Center, Munich International Dance Festival, Festival Internacional de Artes Escenicas (Panama), and Kintetsu Theater in Osaka, Japan. They have been guest artists at over 100 universities including NYU Tisch School of the Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Ohio State University, Arizona State University, and the University of Utah.
Bridgman and Packer were selected as Dance Theater Workshop Digital Fellows and were highlighted in Dance Magazine’s issue on Great Partnerships. Their work in live performance and video technology is featured in the 2009 book “Gegenwelten, Zwischen Differenz und Reflexion” (Against Worlds, Between Difference and Reflection) by Jurgen Schlader and Franziska Weber, published in Munich.
