We engage with the vital materiality of our bodies and minds to create live performance that facilitates a re-enchantment of embodiment, relationship, and presence. Our research questions how tools from dance, choreography and somatics can support our collective evolution in this moment of planetary crisis.
History
2023
Resisting Extinction at the Performance Arcade in Central Park, Wellington, New Zealand and Merimetsa, Tallinn, Estonia in collaboration with Tantsuruum
2022
Resisting Extinction SITE, Sweden, Bærum Kulturhus, Bygdøy, Oslo with a Nordic Residency at SITE, Sweden
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
a collection of fluid spaces in residence at the Norsk Teknisk Museum, NTNU and DansIT, Trondheim
2020
Lineage at Oslo International Theater Festival
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 Undertide, a 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.