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contact name: Megan Mayer
email: pitchred@gmail.com

Megan Mayer is a choreographer, performing artist and photographer based in Minneapolis. Her dances resonate with audiences by fusing nuanced imagery gleaned from vulnerable situations with a strong sense of musicality and comic timing. By unearthing and luxuriating in anti-performance moments, traditionally undisclosed aspects of performance in turn become the focus. She excels at revealing and showcasing performers' distinctive personalities and characteristics in her dances. She credits/blames her parents for her irreverent humor and affection for diverse musical styles.

Mayer is a recipient of a 2010 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Choreography. Additionally, she was awarded a 2010 Jerome Foundation Travel Study Grant, affording her a choreographic mentorship and workshop with New York dance artist Douglas Dunn in Fall 2010. Her production We tried to throw the light(2010) was commissioned by The Southern Theater. I Could Not Stand Close Enough To You(2009), co-commissioned by The Walker Art Center and Southern Theater for Momentum: New Dance Works, was named 2009's top dance event by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. Her suite ofPulp Dances(2007) was commissioned by theMinnesota History Center.

She has premiered original dances at Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, The Southern Theater,The Walker Art Center,The Soap Factory,Bedlam Theater, in the CATCH series (NYC) and in public bathrooms. She has a growing body of work of short dance films, several of which are in collaboration with film artist Kevin Obsatz. Her dance film Over Time (2009) was created for Skewed Visions' online Cubicle series. An engaging performer, she has worked with many artists including Charles Campbell, Laurie Van Wieren, Karen Sherman and The Ethnic Dance Theatre.She holds a B.A. in Dance from the University of Minnesota.

2012 MANCC residency

2010 McKnight Foundation Fellowship in Choreography 

2010 Jerome Foundation Travel Study Grant recipient
2010 Southern Theater commissionof We tried to throw the light
2009 Walker Art Center & Southern Theater co-commission of I Could Not Stand Close Enough To You
2007 Minnesota History Center commission of Pulp Dances
I won a killer tool set in a hula-hoop contest once.

PHOTOGRAPHY:
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Salon 300, 2007 & 2009
http://www.lit6project.com/photos.html

http://skewedvisions.org/apps/blog/

http://sparkling-robots.vox.com/library/post/upcoming-
mad-king-thomas-show-ridiculous-pictures.html
VIDEO/FILM:
http://youtube.com/boyscoutgirl
Bathroom Dancing Project:
Director and Performer
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=27DCD3B41F2D2EAE

Kevin Obsatz's video installationThe Gate to the Enclosure
Performer/choreographer
July 9-August 23, 2009
Weisman Art Museum
part of the Artists on the Verge show presented by Northern Lights and the Jerome Foundation.
http://weisman.umn.edu/exhibits/AOV/home.html
http://northern.lights.mn/programs/aov/obsatz/

Coarse Confluence, October 2008.
A collaborative dance/film project with Kevin Obsatz.
Performer/Collaborator
Screened as part of Cinema Revolution's Dance Film Project, Intermedia Arts, December 12/13, 2008.

Four Frame Dance Project, July 2008
by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones
Performer
http://blog.videohaiku.com/2008/09/four-frame-dance-project-megan-mayer.html

The Birthday Party, 2007
by Sarah Kruchowski.
Performer (Monster)
WRITING:
http://blogs.walkerart.org/performingarts/2008/10/10/eiko-komas-hunger-overnight-observation-by-megan-mayer/
http://www.catalystdance.com/postreview2.html

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=27DCD3B41F2D2EAE
Brady Bergeson of The Lit 6 Project and Electric Arc Radio, has this to say: "The public bathroom is a place where I attempt to touch nothing and leave quickly. Megan Mayer enters a bathroom and touches everything, She climbs toilets, caresses walls and then twirls. At first, her bathroom dances are unsettling, especially to a germaphobe like me. But then you are forced to consider the spaces she discovers. To watch her press her body into the corner of a bathroom stall, squirming to find a position (to find comfort?), as if she is yearning for a hug or embrace, is to witness something uniquely sensual."

Country of Citizenship:
United States

Birth Date:
July 14, 1968

Gender:
Female

Active Place:
Minneapolis

Minnesota County:
Hennepin

Performing Artist

http://meganmayer.com