Interwoven
Choreography: Jessie Jeanne Stinnett in collaboration with the performers
Visual Art Installations: Kim Radochia
Performed by BDT Core Members: Olivia Coombs, Khris Henry, Sean Pfeiffer, Henoch Spinola
Playlist curated from music inspired by, or made with plants - artists include: Sarah Cahill, Steve Roden
Mon Cher Theo, Henry the Rabbit, Beatrice Morel Journel & Semay Wu, Moss, Stephen Vitiello, Steve Roden , spoken word by performers and Kim Radochia
Duration: 25 Min.
Jessie received a grant from Manship Artists Residency and Artists for the Great Marsh, which provided her and the team with the much needed time and space to focus on the continuation of 'The PLANTS Project'. During the week at Manship, the artists of BDT spent every day at Kim Radochia's property to research the Great Marsh and explore the possibilities of movement generation in response to this research. The week concluded with a showing of the new, interdisciplinary work-in-progress, titled 'Interwoven'
Both of these interdisciplinary works were created to be experienced in-the-round and include conversation between artists and audience, as well as other participation elements. The works are adaptable to many different spaces, including: art galleries, outdoor and in-the-air barns and venues, performance halls, classrooms, and more.
FILM + SITE SPECIFIC WORK
together apart
Choreography and visual design by Jessie Jeanne Stinnett with the performers
Performers: Gabriela M. Amy-Moreno, Isvel Bello, Olivia Coombs, Khris Henry, Henoch Spinola (also Project Manager)
Videography by Ernesto Galan / Scalped Productions
Original music by Grant Stinnett
Costumes and set design by Zane Kealey
Commissioned by Goethe-Institut Boston 2021
Prompted by Goethe-Institut Boston’s newly appointed director Christoph Mücher to imagine a coming together again post COVID-19, BDT founder/co-director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett teams up with videographer Ernesto Galan, costume and set designer Zane Kealey, composer Grant Stinnett, and the dance artists of Boston Dance Theater to envision a dance installation created for film. Informed by documentary interviews sourced from 1989 Germany following the collapse of the Berlin wall, an event that sparked a complex process of healing and reunification, Stinnett and her collaborators explore connections between those stories and their experiences of the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
Unfurling
Choreography: Jessie Jeanne Stinnett in collaboration with the performers
Visual Art Installations: Kim Radochia
Performed by BDT Core Members: Olivia Coombs, Khris Henry, Sean Pfeiffer, Wesley Urbanczyk, Henoch Spinola & BDT Trainees: Kasey Aguilar, Rowan Casillas, Tatyana Johnson, Katie Kennedy, Anna Pettigrew
Playlist curated from music inspired by, or made with plants - artists include: Shane Mendonsa, Natural Sounds Selections, Caroline Shaw/Attacca Quartet, Meredith Monk, Whitney George, Yuji Dogane/Mamoru Fujieda, David Lang/FRAMES Percussion, spoken word by performers and Kim Radochia
Duration: 25 Min.
Kim’s sculptural and mixed media works translate her observations of meadow systems. Inspired by Kim’s portfolio, Jessie took a deep dive into 15+ books on plant emergence. She absorbed scientific and Indigenous perspectives, bringing lessons she learned from plants into embodied and creative practices with the dance artists of BDT. Plant life centers cooperation, adaptation, and altruism in ways that can suggest new approaches to human behavior, and relationships. We have applied some of these lessons to our process of creating this work, which is iterative, adaptive, and emergent. It unfolds in relation to the site, the present moment, each other, and those who witness it. Because of this, it will look and feel different each time it is performed.
Boston Dance Theater with Yoni Battat
Choreography: Jessie Jeanne Stinnett with the dancers
Music composition and live music performed by Yoni Battat
Costume design & realization: Zane Kealey
Duration: 30 minutes
Performers: Isvel Bello, Olivia Coombs, Khris Henry, Carley Lund, Sean Pfeiffer, Henoch Spinola, Sarah Takash, Anelise Tatum,
Wesley Urbanczyk
Supported by Combined Jewish Philanthropies
In partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservation
We know that racism is not a new threat to anyone in the BIPOC community and that the state of antisemitism in the US is cause for concern. Artists have a level of responsibility to assure that their art-making is socially relevant, and this has become ever-more critical in the world that has emerged since 2016.
Jessie Jeanne Stinnett has consistently made curatorial choices that amplify the voices of BIPOC artists. Her work brings awareness to issues such as climate change, environmental and racial justice, and women’s rights.
With support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies and in partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservation, Stinnett teams up with Yoni Battat and the BIPOC dance artists of Boston Dance Theater (BDT) to create a new work of dance and music that celebrates multiculturalism and resilience.
Incorporating both historical and contemporary ideologies, the work will celebrate our artistic cohort’s multicultural heritage and community in anticipation of the emergence of a more interconnected and conscientious society.
This artistic process is an opportunity to reflect on what 2020/21 has taught us about hope as we emerge from a global pandemic having witnessed many acts of violence, especially toward our BIPOC families and neighbors.
Shadows & Flame
Choreography by Jessie Jeanne Stinnett with the performers
Performers: Gabriela M. Amy-Moreno, Isvel Bello, Olivia Coombs, Khris Henry, Henoch Spinola
Film by Ernesto Galan / Scalped Productions
Original music by Grant Stinnett
Costumes by Zane Kealey
Commissioned by: Museum of Fine Arts + Jewish Arts Collaborative in 2020
“Shadows and Flame” is a co-commission by the Jewish Arts Collaborative and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston for their annual Hanukkah celebration. Co-director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett had originally been asked to choreograph a dance work that would live in the gallery space for an audience of 3,000 people. The project shifted however, in favor of a dance film collaboration with Ernesto Galan of Scalped Productions, where dancers can be viewed from only a single light source and the light and shadow of their dancing bodies is at play. Grant Stinnett, Jessie’s brother, composed the score for this work, creating a tone scale that references traditional Hebrew folk songs.
SURGE (film preview)
Choreography by Jessie Jeanne Stinnett with the performers
Performers/Boston Dance Theater Core Members: Gabriela M. Amy-Moreno, Isvel Bello, Olivia Coombs, Tahimy Miranda, Henoch Spinola
Videographer Ernesto Galan
Scientific input by Dr Larry J Pratt
Sound by Grant Stinnett
Shot on location at Jeremy Point in Wellfleet, Cape Cod
Costumes by Zane Kealey
In 2018 Jessie Jeanne Stinnett teamed up with ocean physicist Dr. Larry J. Pratt to envision a dance+science project centered around the latest scientific research on sea level rise and climate change in Boston Harbor. Initially supported by the Dancemakers Residency at Boston Center for the Arts and Boston Dance Alliance, Stinnett, Pratt, and the dancers of Boston Dance Theater (BDT) developed ‘Surge’ (working title), a performance work which enacts the salient factors of sea level rise. The work also draws attention to the devastating impacts that general mean sea-level rise has on coastal and island communities over the globe. BDT’s Sea Level Rise project aims to join a global effort of engaging artists and scientists in conversation, process, and performance in order to aid global transformation with regard to environmental sustainability.
New Dances for Goethe Institut
Choreography: Jessie Jeanne Stinnett
in collaboration with the dancers
Costume design & realization : Zane Kealey
Music: Stockhausen, Schumann, Bach, Praetorius, von Bingen, Mundry
Duration: 45 minutes, 12 dancers
Commissioned by Goethe Institut Boston in 2019
After being delayed from 2019 due to building renovations and the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston Dance Theater and Sound Icon presented the in-person world premiere of “New Dances for Goethe-Institut” in 2022, a site-specific work that takes place over the five floors of the historic headquarters of Goethe-Institut Boston. BDT founder and co-artistic director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett collaborates with Artistic Director of Sound Icon Ensemble Jeffrey Means to create the new work, accompanied by live music. Music selections are from famous German composers spanning Germany’s musical history.
Filmed on location by Troy Ewing
Little Match Girl Passion
Choreography and costume design: Jessie Jeanne Stinnett
in collaboration with BDT dancers
Costume realization : Jamie Stinnett
Music: David Lang (2008 Pulitzer Prize)
Duration: 35 minutes, 4 dancers, 4 musicians/vocalists
Premiere date April 2018
Supported by: Boston Cultural Council
Commissioned by Emmanuel Music 2018
An interdisciplinary work commissioned by Emmanuel Music, with Emily Marvosh (contralto), for the Late Night at Emmanuel concert series. David Lang’s Pulitzer-Prize-Winning the little match girl passion tells an everyday story in a hauntingly simple way. The human story of a starving girl freezing to death is framed within, and brilliantly juxtaposed with the divine St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. If Bach’s masterpiece is less familiar to you, this intimate performance will spark your curiosity and introduce you to the heartbreaking themes of this eternal story.