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Janis Brenner

Headshot Janis Brenner

“Brenner’s fierce, liquid voice is commanding… a witty, winsome performer, adept at teasing out the ambiguities of any given moment.”

-Claudia La Rocco, THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York 2009

JANIS BRENNER is an award-winning dancer/choreographer/singer/teacher and is Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in N.Y. Known for her “meticulous artistry” (The Village Voice), she has toured in 36 countries and is recognized as a “singular performer” (Eye On Dance) with a multifaceted artistic range. Honors/grants include: 2018 “Best Production” Award for Inheritance: A Litany at the United Solo Theatre Festival Off-Broadway, as well as the 2019 “Critic’s Choice” Award from All About SOLO, 2017 “Best Choreography” Award for Eva Petric’s eden, transplanted at United Solo Theatre Festival, NY Dance & Performance Award (group “Bessie”) for her performance in Meredith Monk’s The Politics of Quiet, Lester Horton Award for Choreography in LA, Copperfoot Award for Lost, Found, Lost at Wayne State University, a “Bessie” nomination for Solo for Janis by Richard Siegal, NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, The Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, the U.S. State Department, Asian Cultural Council, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, O’Donnell Green Music & Dance Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance (10 grants) UNESCO, US Embassies in Moscow, Bosnia, Jakarta, and Dakar, and a commission for the interdisciplinary work, The Memory Project from The Whitney Museum of American Art.

Ms. Brenner’s work has been commissioned/restaged on more than 50 companies and colleges worldwide, including at least six re-stagings each of Lost, Found Lost, The Memory Project, and Suspicions. She performed with Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble from 1990 – 2005, 2014 (recording on ECM Records) and is an Affiliate Member of the Vocal Ensemble leading workshops since 1994. She was the first artist to receive the gift of performing Monk’s Plateau #2 in 1993, and Monk’s iconic Songs from the Hill which she sang in concert for 20 years. She is a sought-after master teacher conducting workshops in Improvisation, Composition, Repertory and Vocal Work which, over the course of decades, created long-term relationships with artists and institutions throughout Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, Senegal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Basel, Stockholm, Florida, S. California and New York. She has coached and mentored hundreds of companies, artists and student work over the course of five decades.

Ms. Brenner was with the Murray Louis Dance Company from 1977-84, working with legendary artists such as Rudolf Nureyev, Placido Domingo, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joseph Papp/The Public Theater, Paul Winter Consort, Batsheva Dance Company, and Alwin Nikolais. Ms. Brenner staged Murray Louis’ work in the US and abroad, including at the Dallas Ballet, Balettakademien-Stockholm, the Univ. of Hawaii @ Manoa and The Juilliard School. She and composer/vocalist Theo Bleckmann recorded their acclaimed work Mars Cantata available through Earrelevant Music. She was Co-Choreographer for juggler/dancer and MacArthur “Genius” Award-winner Michael Moschen (1988-92: BAM’s Next Wave Festival, US tours, PBS’ Great Performances), and a soloist with Annabelle Gamson’s company of esteemed female artists (1984-87) performing Ms. Gamson’s work and historic solo repertory, particularly the solos of Mary Wigman which she continued to perform for more than 20 years.

Ms. Brenner was on faculty at The Juilliard School from 2009-2021, mentoring the Choreographers and Composers collaborations and teaching Improvisation, mainly under the Direction of Lawrence Rhodes. She is currently on faculty at Marymount Manhattan College and at STEPS Conservatory. She was on the Board of The Gender Project in NY, which sought to raise awareness of gender bias and empower women in Dance. Ms. Brenner received her MFA degree from the Hollins University/ADF in 2009, and has served as Director of Choreography for Regional Dance America’s National Choreograhpy Summer Intensives from 2010-11, 2017-2018, and 2024. She had her debut Visual Art exhibit at the Susan Eley/Fine Art gallery in Manhattan in 2022, and has been exhibited twice more in NYC in 2023, ’24, presenting Mixed-Media Collage works based both on abstracts and personal narratives. Her two critically acclaimed one-woman shows, Inheritance: A Litany (2018) and She Remembers Her Amnesia (2022), both billed as “personal narratives, dance-opera-non-linear plays and comic dramas”, have received more than 10 outstanding reviews and are currently available for continued touring.

Class Description
Improvisation-into-Choreorgrpahy
The goal of this course is to explore each dancer’s unique way of moving and to apply these discoveries through short compositional studies that develop creative potential and skill. The need to increase the range of movement ideas and qualities in order to say what you want to say will be greatly stressed as an essential element in developing a unique choreographic language. Improvisation will be employed and discussed as both a skill in itself and as the basis for investigating the wealth of possibilities in movement that can be applied to the creative process. Dancers will work on choreographing several movement studies, in solo and duet forms, using specific concepts such as space, body parts, time, texture, contrasting qualities, dynamics, sound, text work, emotional atmosphere, etc. Music as an essential element of dance work will be stressed and explored in terms of how sound affects what is seen and felt in a dance and why a particular piece of music may “work” or not work.

Each dancer will be expected to present developing material throughout the course to be discussed, dissected and enhanced by critical feedback and personal exchange. We will be looking to find ways to bring out the unique artistic self and to discuss the nature of being a performer, artist, and possibly a choreographer.

The student is expected to attend all classes and to work outside the classroom whenever possible on “digesting” the ideas discussed and to rehearse their compositions. There will be time allotted in class to rehearse and further develop the material. Reading assignments will include “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art” by Stephen Nachmanovitch. Each student will be expected to keep a dance journal for both personal use as well as for observations which may be shared and discussed in class.

Photo: Tom Caravaglia