MISSION

Our artistic work cultivates tools with somatics, dance, and choreography to support our collective evolution in this moment of planetary crisis. We engage with the vital materiality of bodies, minds and the more than human world to co-create live experiences that generate re-enchantment, relationship, and presence.

HISTORY

 

2024

weather walk, Kehä festival, Oulu, Finland
Circling the Line, work in progress, Tanzhaus temporär, Kassel, ++, Black Box, Oktoberdans, BIT Teatergarasjen
Resisting Extinction pitch at Norway Now presented by The Royal Norwegian Consulate General & Performing Arts Hub Norway, NYC

2023
Resisting Extinction at the Performance Arcade in Central Park, Wellington, New Zealand and Merimetsa, Tallinn, Estonia in collaboration with Tantsuruum

2022
Resisting Extinction residency and performance at SITE, Sweden with the support of a Nordic Residency, and Bærum Kulturhus, Bygdøy, Oslo
a collection of fluid spaces premieres at the Norsk Teknisk Museum

2021
closer(solo) is remounted for the 10th anniversary of the Performance Arcade, Wellington, New Zealand
Resisting Extinction premieres in Trondheim, Norway with DansIT and is performed in Bygdøy, Oslo, DanseFestival Barents, Hammerfest
artists in residence at the Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo with a collection of fluid spaces

2020
Lineage at Oslo International Theater Festival
artists in residence at the Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo with a collection of fluid spaces

2019
Oslo Ministry of Culture commissioned TOGETHERING for Schous Plass in Oslo
Lineage at KHiO, Oslo
felt room for Carle Lange’s Live ReMake, KHiO, Oslo
Follow is loaned to Auckland Art Gallery and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Center, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Somatic Education Australia offers the first professional Body-Mind Centering(R) Somatic Movement Educator certification in Australasia.

2018

Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand acquires Follow, their first intangible dance acquisition for the permanent collection. 
felt room, Lineage and action movie were presented at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Weisman Art Museum

2017

BodyCartography produced Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Embryological Foundations of Movement workshop in Auckland, New Zealand
felt room and Lineage in residence at the Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College
action movie at the Art Shanty Projects and Performance Arcade, New Zealand

2016

BodyCartography in residence at Carleton College 2016-17 creating two commissions, teaching and developing  felt room
Vital Matters Dance Festival is launched in Minneapolis premiering new works by ten local artists & 4 days of workshops & other programming
action movie premieres at Vital Matters Dance Festival
Lineage work in progress showings take place in Norway and Minnesota
Commissions for Wayne State University & Young Dance
SEEDS Festival reignited at Earthdance
Headlands center for the Arts Alumni residency for felt room
closer tours to the Performance Arcade in New Zealand with Footnote and the Chicago Cultural Center

2015

Embodied Performance intensives begin in Minneapolis and Berlin
closer features on PBS News Hour and premieres in Minneapolis in partnership Northern Lights, Minnesota Museum of American Art,  Walker Art Center, Loring Alley Rally, Minneapolis City Hall and the Red Eye Theater
Super Nature tours to Kelly Strayhorn New Moves Festival, Pittsburgh, and Dance Place, DC
Future Interstates performance series is established at the Cowles Center for Dance & Performing Arts in collaboration with Hijack

2014

Super Nature tours to TBA, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art
Touch Compass commissions Undertidea short film and performance
Footnote New Zealand commissions Low 
Fall 2014,  a new series for contact improvisation in the Twin Cities in collaboration with the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts
War<so>Vie Festival residency, Warsaw, Poland
Nash Gallery residency, Minneapolis
Bedlam commissions Softening the Curves of the City

2013

City Pages names BodyCartography Project the Best Dance Company of the Twin Cities
Soap Factory residency
The City of Minneapolis commissions Underpass
Symptom tours to CounterPulse in San Francisco
Super Nature tours to American Realness and Performance Space 122’s COIL Festival, NYC and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs
Something for Myself screens on MNTV

2012

Super Nature residency at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Super Nature installation at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and presented by TanzLaboratorium, Karas Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine
Something for Myself, a short film commissioned by Young Dance, Minneapolis

2011

Super Nature residencies at Impulstanz, Vienna, Lilysprings, Wisconsin, Studio 206, Minneapolis
Symptom premiere in NYC at COIL Festival, Performance Space 122

2010

Symptom premieres at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis
Symptom residency at MANCC, Florida
BodyCartography is awarded a McKnight Fellowship
Mammal, a commission for the Lyon Opera Ballet, premieres at Les Subsistances, Lyon, France
1/2 Life premiere at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis and tours to Performance Space 122, NYC

2009

Holiday House tours to COIL Festival, Performance Space 122, NYC
Residency at K3 Zentrum für Choreographie in Hamburg, Germany
Curators for the Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening
Performance tour for Dan Graham: Beyond exhibit at the Walker Art Center
1/2 Life installation and events open at Art of This Gallery in Minneapolis
Hello Nervous System is presented at PanCreas Festival, Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark
GO tours to Anti-Festival, Finland and Stromerien, Zurich

2008

Named Artists of the Year by the the Twin Cities City Pages
Cheshire Dance commissions Station/Stationary, a large community performance and installation work for Crewe Train Station, UK
Entreterritorios, a dance film and installation, initiated and made in collaboration with Marila Velloso, is shot in incredible landscapes of northern Argentina and Brazil
Named Sustainable Art Making Fellows by Public Art St Paul 
Hello Nervous System is presented at Dance Theater Workshop, NYC

2007

The site version of Holiday House wins an Outstanding Performance award from the Minnesota Sage Awards
Artists in residence in Kyoto Art Center, Japan 
GO, Modern Efficiency, Hello Nervous System and are presented at Gare Au Theater, Paris
Holiday House and Plant screen on MNTV on Minnesota Public TV

2006

Performance Holiday House was commissioned by the Walker Art Center’s Momentum series and won the People’s Choice at the Minnesota Sage Dance Awards
Residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California

2005

Seawall wins a Certificate of Distinction from American Dance Festival Dancing for the Camera Festival

2004

ROOM was highly commended in the experimental category at the Kerry Film Festival in Ireland
Wharepapa screens on MNTV

2003

Wharepapa was shot in the South Island wilderness of New Zealand
Lambton Harbour Management commissions the development of LAGOON and the work wins the prestigious Perlorous Trust Creativity award at the NZ Fringe Festival

2002

The first LAGOON performance wins Best Outdoor Performance award at the New Zealand Fringe Festival
From a desire to extend our site work beyond urban centers and explore isolated and wilderness locations we begin to create our first video work ROOM during a residency at Centrum, just outside of Port Townsend, Washington

2001

Chaffers Marina performance awarded Best Outdoor Performance award of the New Zealand Fringe Festival

2000

Burning Man funds the BodyCartography Project to create a seven day interactive performance event in the desert of Nevada

1999

Otto Ramstad joins Olive Bieringa as codirector 

1998

The first large-scale BodyCartography intensive takes place in Wellington, New Zealand in 1998 with twenty-three site based performance events as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival. The events function as an open laboratory in which up to twenty performers of all skill levels and physical abilities participate.

1997

Olive Bieringa founded the BodyCartography Project in San Francisco. The BodyCartography Project began work in San Francisco with  Tom Sepe, Samantha Beers, Tracy Vogel and Olive Bieringa as facilitators.  BodyCartography offered free weekly laboratories for improvisational practice that planted the seeds for ongoing outdoor performance events as artists in residence at CELL Space and 848 Community Space.