Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Cynthia Stevens - Season 10, Episode 120

Cynthia Stevens/ INSITU slips into swamps, streams and
forests creating environmental performance and media. This
multidisciplinary work explores the interconnections of dance
with original music, somatics and ecology to foster a visceral
sense of place. 


Over the past 40 years her productions have been presented in the
United States, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. She has created
over 60 works including What If I…; Calling Down the Moon;
Unearthed with Judith Howard in their collaborative company
Flying Sisters Theatre; numerous site-based works for her group
INSITU including Leonora’s Dream in collaboration with poet
William Reichard  in Wirth Park, Minneapolis and in the
Kröller-Muller Scupture Garden, Otterlo, Netherlands, Bodies of
Water in the Chain of Lakes, Mpls, BIG TREES/small dance in Muir
Woods National Monument, California for its Centennial, and the
SOURCE series of performances and film set in Six Mile Creek, the
water source for Ithaca, NY. Recent solos include Still Here,
exploring species extinction; and site-specific works Dwell, Limb
to Limb, and Near/Far. 


Cynthia’s productions features original, live music including her
own vocal compositions, the vocal and violin compositions of Jane
Anfinson for several works in Flying Sisters Theatre, as well as
collaborations with Sera Smolen, Max Buckholtz, Mary Ellen
Childs, Michelle Kinney, Carl Witt, Kate Lynch and Annie
Enneking.





Cynthia has collaborated with numerous improvisers including
Nancy Stark Smith, Karen Nelson, Kirstie Simson, Megan Flood,
Jane Shockley, Andrew Harwood, Martin Keogh, Chris Mathias, and
site-specific outdoor improvisation for five years with Julie
Nathanielsz. She has performed with choreographers Diane Elliot,
Hijack, Ann Carlson, Bill T Jones, Georgia Stephens, and FX
Widarayanto, and in the dances of Hanya Holm and Nancy Hauser.





Her work has been recognized by, among others, two McKnight
Fellowships; grants funded by the Jerome Foundation;  an
NEA/Intermedia Arts Interdisciplinary Arts Grant; MN State Arts
Board Grants;a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts
for her film, SOURCE; NY Danceforce commissions; and artist
residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the SEEDS
Festival in MA and META in North Carolina.





Cynthia has a BS in Natural Resources/Wildlife Ecology from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a certified Somatic
Movement Educator and Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering(R). She
has taught courses and workshops in site-specific dance making,
dance, somatics and eco-somatics to participants of all ages in
universities, schools, festivals and workshops. She currently
lives with her husband, Jean-Luc Jannink, in Ithaca, NY.