Molissa Fenley (1954-)is an American choreographer, performer and teacher of contemporary dance.

Early life and education

Molissa Fenley (née Avril Molissa Fenley) was born in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 15, 1954. She is the youngest of three children born to Eileen Allison Walker and John Morris Fenley. At the age of six months Fenley and her family moved to Ithaca, NY where her father was a professor of the Agricultural Extension at Cornell University. At the age of six, her family moved to Ibadan, Nigeria where her father worked for the US State Department's USAID program. Fenley attended high school in Spain, and in 1971, at 16, returned to the US to enter Mills College from which she received her BA in Dance in 1975.[1] Immediately after graduating from Mills, Fenley moved to New York City to begin her career as a choreographer and dancer.[2] ,

Early career

Upon arriving in New York City in 1975, Fenley trained with Merce Cunningham, Viola Farber and studied at the Erick Hawkins School. During her first years in New York Fenley danced for several choreographers including Carol Conway and Andrew deGroat. She began creating her own work and formed Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977. After a tour of European festivals in 1980 her work began to receive more critical attention in the United States and abroad. Her early career (1977–1987) was focused on presenting ensemble work. In addition to more traditional dance classes, Fenley and her dancers did workouts that included running, calisthenics and weight training. Fenley has maintained this aesthetic of athletic virtuosity throughout her career.

Solo work

In 1987 she disbanded her ensemble and made a shift to performing solo works, often in collaboration with visual artists including Roy Fowler, Keith Haring, Jene Hightstein, Richard Long, Kiki Smith, Keith Sonnier, Merrill Wagner and composers such as John Bischoff, Alvin Curran, Anthony Davis, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Pauline Oliveros, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Laetitia Sonami [. It was during this period that she created her work, State of Darkness (1988), which was commissioned by the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C. Set to Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, this 35 minute solo received critical acclaim for both its physical rigor, innovative use of Stravinsky's score and intense sense of ritual drama. Fenley reconstructed State of Darkness in 1999 at the request of New York City Ballet principal dancer Peter Boal, and again in 2007 for Boal's performance at Pacific Northwest Ballet. State of Darkness received a Bessie Award for both Fenley's original performance in 1989 and for Boal's reconstruction in 1999. The solo work was performed on successive evenings by seven dancers for the Joyce Theater Productions' revival in 2021.

Current work

After a decade of solo work, Fenley began creating ensemble pieces performed by herself and her company. She continues to create and perform in the United States and abroad. Fenley has maintained a long-time collaboration with composer Philip Glass and continues to collaborate with visual artists, composers and writers. . Recent works include De La Lumière, Entre Les Lampes (2023), with music by Philip Glass, Current Pieces 1-3 (2023) with pianist Min Kwon; The Cut-Outs (Matisse), (2017), with poet Bob Holman; Rue Surf (2016) with painter Roy Fowler and poet Bob Holman; Redwood Park, Part 1 (2014) with music by Joan Jeanrenaud; BEAMS (2014), with music by Alvin Curran; Found Object (2014) with Erin Gee, John Guare, Joy Harjo, and Rudy Wurlitzer; Vessel Stories (2011), music by Philip Glass and Credo in Us (2011) set to the John Cage piece of the same name. Her works have been presented in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, South America, Europe, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mexico [8]. Her work has been commissioned by The American Dance Festival, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Dia Art Foundation, Seattle Dance Project, Marymount Manhattan College, Deutsche Opera Ballet of Berlin, Robert Moses' Kin, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, the William Hale Harkness Foundation, The New National Theater, Tokyo, The Ohio Ballet, Australian Dance Theater, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barnard/Columbia, Repertory Dance Theater, Oakland Ballet, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Oakland Ballet, National Institute of Seoul and New York Live Arts. In 2015 Seagull Press/University of Chicago published Rhythm Field: The Dance of Molissa Fenley about her life and work. Other recent works in include: Archeology in Reverse with artist Catherine Wagner and Artifact in 2018, Untitled (Haiku) and Some phrases I'm hoping Andy would like in 2019, and The Cut Outs (Matisse) in 2020 with longtime collaborator and poet Bob Holman. In 2020, Fenley revisited her 1988 work State of Darkness, setting the solo on Jared Brown, Lloyd Knight, Sara Mearns, Shamel Pitts, Annique Roberts, Cassandra Trenary and Michael Trusnovec. The work was live-streamed in 2020 and performed live at The Joyce in 2021. Dancers Annique Roberts and Michael Trusnovec performed the work in 2022 at the American Dance Festival.

Recognition and professional affiliations

Fenley's contribution to her field has been recognized with awards in the United States and internationally. She is an eleven-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship. Fenley received a Bessie Award for Choreography in 1985 for her work Cenotaph and again in 1988 for State of Darkness. Fenley received a 2000 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, The Greenwich Collection, LIATIS, the Asian Cultural Council and the Cadbury Trust. She is a Guggenheim Fellow (2008), a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (2008) and recipient of the American Masterpieces Initiative from the National Endowment of the Arts (2010). Fenley is a member of many professional arts organizations such as the Atlantic Center for the Arts, American Dance Guild, Asian Cultural Council, CHIME Mentorship program, Dance USA, International Dance Council and New York Live Arts. She is the Executive Director of the Momenta Foundation which she founded in 1986. Mills College and Higher Education Teaching In addition to being one of Mills College's most esteemed alumna, Fenley worked as a professor in Mills College Dance Department faculty from 1999 to 2020. She began as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in 1999 and became an Associate Professor of Dance in 2006 and Full Professor in Fenley taught courses in technique. She was made Full Professor in 2013. Fenley taught courses in technique, choreography and oversaw MFA candidates' thesis projects. Additionally, Fenley often set work on Mills College's Repertory Dance Company. She was awarded the Mills College Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011. Extensive archives from Fenley's career were held at the F.W. Olin Library's Special Collections on Mills campus until 2022. They have been promised to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York. Fenley has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at New York University's Experimental Theater Wing, University of Georgia at Athens and University of Utah. She worked as a Resident Artist for the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The American Academy in Rome, Bard College, The Hotchkiss School, The Asian Cultural Council in Tokyo, Yaddo, the Bogliasco Foundation, Djerassi, Bloedel Reserve, Marble House Project and Harvard University. She has taught repertory workshops at Bennington College, Barnard/Columbia and Hunter College.

Personal life

Fenley resides in New York, NY and Summerland, CA. She is married to painter Roy Fowler.

Major works

Fenley, to date, has choreographed over 90 works, which include: