Degrees

M.F.A., University of Iowa (2007)
B.A., Maharishi University of Management (2001)

Teaching Interests

Contemporary Dance Technique, Contemporary Partnering Practices, Improvisation, Composition and Making, Repertory, Pilates

Awards and Honors

 B.A., magna cum laude, Maharishi University of Management
Zeta Phi Eta Memorial Scholarship for the Performing Arts (University of Iowa) 2006-2007

Scholarly and Professional Activities

2011- Present: Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Co.- Company Member

2007- Present: Daara Dance- Company Member

2018-Present: Riker’s Island Youthful Offenders Program- Movement and Creativity Workshops for Incarcerated Youth 

2018: Workshop for Paradise Square: An American Musical- Assistant Choreographer to Bill T. Jones 

2012- 2017: The Space We Make- Collaborator

2009-2011: Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Dancers- Company Member

2008- 2011: Alexandra Beller/Dances Co.- Company Member

2007- 2011: David Dorfman Dance Company- Company Member

Links

www.jennariegel.com

Research Interests

As a dance artist/maker/educator, my work is driven by curiosities invoked by the broad but ever poignant question, “Does what you do make a difference?”. Causality (the relationship between cause and effect), Newton’s Third Law of Physics (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), and the Vedic theory of Kharma from ancient India fuels my research in my embodied training and performance, my choreographic work and my teaching methods. Embedded in these theories is the belief that all actions and movement generate corresponding responses. My creative research delves deeply into my sense of social responsibility.

Performance

The bulk of my work involves the navigation of the collaborative creative process and its culminating performances. Making collectively with a large group of performers and multiple choreographers/artistic directors is a tenuous negotiation of needs, desires, questions, agendas, misunderstandings and magical coincidences. I am fascinated by the construction of pieces through the accumulation of ideas, perspectives, and opinions. My active participation within the world of ideas inside a process (or company) built the roles that I ended up performing. Works with my substantial contributions include Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s Analogy Trilogy, A Letter to My Nephew, A Rite (which was also a collaboration with the SITI Company) and Story/Time, David Dorfman’s Disavowaland Prophets of Funk,Daara Dance’s A Journey to Dustand Shifters,The Space We Make’s The White Whale/The White Wail, among others. 

Choreography

My sense of social responsibility magnetically draws me toward socio-political topics in my art-making. My choreographic work asks questions regarding conscious citizenship, social justice, gender and race inequalities, and interpersonal communication. It explores how dancing bodies hold inherent histories, meanings and associations that are inescapable and entirely irreplaceable. My work entrusts the body as a source of incredible intelligence, perception, awareness, sensitivity and empathy and, while creating, I defer to physical intuitions. My inquiries become cross-pollinated so that my work ends up being an amalgamation of theoretical questions and specific movement investigations. 

In future choreographic endeavors, I hope to deepen my research into the ways that dance serves as an embodiment of social responsibility. Creating collaborative work with artists and scholars from other fields including environmental science, psychology and sociology would be of particular interest to me. I am also intrigued by the interconnectedness and convergence of architecture, sculpture and dance and desire to investigate more site-specific work.  

Teaching

As an educator, I would like to delve into more concentrated studies of progressive pedagogy and dance forms that cultivate amenability and conscious citizenship. For me, that would include further research into democratic partnering practices such as Contact Improvisation, practices where your participation as an individual within a community is highlighted such as Viewpoints (as utilized by the SITI Company), training and certification in Countertechnique (a technique method that replaces judgement/criticism with tools for dancers to learn to become their own teachers and direct their own dance experience) and also studies in dance science (anatomy, kinesiology and somatic practices). In addition to teaching in the traditional dance studio/classroom setting, I intend to continue my work pursuing dance education with incarcerated youth.