iLAND Inc. - Jennifer Monson
2010-2011 Swing Space Resident, Building 110: LMCC’s Arts Center At Governors Island
Jennifer Monson uses choreographic practice as a means to discover connections between environmental, philosophical and aesthetic approaches to knowledge and understandings of our surroundings. As Artistic Director of iLAND she creates large-scale dance projects informed and inspired by phenomena of the natural and the built environment. In addition, through the iLAB residency program of iLAND, Monson supports and mentors collaborative opportunities for movement based artists, scientists, environmentalists and others interested in our physical relationships to space and systems as a means to engage the public in a kinetic understanding of NYC’s urban environment. Monson is currently on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Dance Department.
Since 1983 Monson has been pursuing an original approach to experimental dance forms in NYC. In that time she created a wide body of work that incorporates well-developed collaborative relationships with many artists including Zeena Parkins, Kenta Nagai, DD Dorviller, Yvonne Meier, David Zambrano and John Jasperse among others. In 2000 her work shifted its focus towards issues of environmental awareness and sustainability.
iLAND will focus on the project, SIP/watershed, while in residence on Governors Island. SIP/watershed is an investigation into the NYC Regional watershed viewed as a meta- choreography of the historical, geological, and cultural layers of the interaction of built and natural phenomena of water in the region. The Governor’s Island residency situates the SIP / watershed collaborators smack in the middle of the New York City Harbor with ample opportunity to integrate outdoor rehearsal and research with indoor distillation of their process.
Photo: Val Oliverio
