Artist Statement
Each work I create has a distinctive spatial design and dance vocabulary, and starts in the studio from a free associative manner, extracting phrases from my experimentation and cataloguing them for use. I rarely start with music and am interested in dance having an intact rhythmic system; sometimes I find a piece of music that has a parallel commonality with what I have created thus far. I work methodologically – lists are made of dance phrases – each has a particular space and rhythm – the phrases are put together in an intuitive way and other times are put together according to a structural format. Each work represents and embodies these specific modalities of my artistic practice in the creation of the work and through the elements of the final product.A thorough-line in my choreographic work that I have returned to periodically is that of an interdisciplinary approach to an idea. The explorations of the compositional methodology of artists working within different mediums have illuminated my own procedures and systems. In the presentation of works created by these means, there results a visual dance in which form and image emerge and develop through the lens of contemporary art. The intellectual rigor and complex patterning that one might see in abstract painting is reflected. Visual elements are entwined physically, spatially and conceptually in the choreographic process. The varied range of textures, dynamics and conditions that are possible integrate dance with the contemporary visuals arts into a transformative performance.
Mali - choreography by Molissa Fenley, performed at the Agropoli Danza Festival, July 2022. Music by Laetitia Sonami, performed by Molissa Fenley and Jared Brown. Photo credit: Federica Capo