photo by Alan Kimara Dixon

Laurel Jenkins’ choreography emerges from rigorous experimentation and interdisciplinary dialogues in the realms of contemporary dance, opera, music and theater. She engages with the choreographic process as a radical space for reimagining our collective human experience. Her work has been presented by Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, REDCAT, Automata, the Getty Center, Show Box LA, Danspace, Berlin’s Performing Presence Festival, and Tokyo’s Sezane Gallery. She recently choreographed Bernstein’s MASS with the LA Phil and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. In addition, she has choreographed for LA Contemporary Dance Company, The Wooden Floor, California State University, Long Beach, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Jenkins was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 2007-2012, and developed original roles in Brown’s final works. Jenkins also danced in New York with Vicky Shick and Sara Rudner. She performed the role of Ismene in Peter Sellars’ staging of Oedipus Rex conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. This spring she will perform solos by Merce Cunningham in Los Angeles as a part of the Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. Jenkins is the recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Grant, an Asian Cultural Council Grant, holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence, and an MFA from UCLA. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Middlebury College in Vermont.

The book mentioned in the interview is RIE Manual: Resources for Infant Educarers edited by Magda Gerber, Mothering from your Center: Tapping into your Body's Natural Energy for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting by Tami Lynn Kent

Nmon Ford, the Celebrant, and dancers in Lincoln Center’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS at the 2018 Mostly Mozart Festival. © Richard Termine.

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra Music Director Louis Langrée and the orchestra and cast of Lincoln Center’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS. © Richard Termine.