September 2017: Featured Artist
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Dancer, Choreographer & Educator:
Heather Harrington
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Heather Harrington received her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is an award-winning dancer and choreographer. She has danced with several renowned companies, including the Doris Humphrey Repertory Company, the Martha Graham Ensemble, the Pearl Lang Dance Theater and Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. She ran her own modern dance company, Heather Harrington Dance Company, in New York City for nine years, performing nationally and internationally with a focus on site-specific dance.* Her choreography has been presented by various venues including Danspace Project, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Sitelines series, Fresh Tracks at Dance Theater Workshop, Rockefeller Center, Boston University, and many others.
Heather has received numerous grants for her work: from Meet the Composer, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation, and the Harkness Space Grant from the 92nd Street Y. |
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She was resident choreographer for The Yard’s Bessie Schonberg Choreographers and Dancers Residency, Kaastbann International Dance Center and the Hotel Pupik series in Austria. Heather has created a number of site-specific pieces including "Giscard Games" for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and "Melt" (2014) at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ for the Outlet Dance project. In 2013, she staged a gun violence protest piece as a part of the Art=Ammo project at Washington Park in Newark, NJ.
Heather is currently an adjunct professor of modern dance and theory at Kean University, and she also teaches at Seton Hall University. |
Photo Credit: Mark Frohna
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Photo Credit: David Elwood
From performance of "Melt" |
*Editor’s Note: Site-specific dance is defined as a dance piece that is conceived in relation to a particular place (therefore “site-specific”), instead of for the stage. The location becomes as much a part of the performance as the dancer’s body.
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Photo Credit: David Elwood
From performance of "Melt" |
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The above duet is based on "Lady Macbeth."
Photo Credit: Dave Rheingold
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Upcoming Performances:
June 2018
Location: New York City Part of the Dancer-Citizen platform. There will be site-specific performances addressing social issues in the U.S., Brazil, Spain, Germany and England. *Heather is a contributor for The Dancer-Citizen, an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal exploring the work of socially-engaged dance artists. Note: Heather performed in Beirut, Lebanon at the Lebanese American University on August 28. Photos and news about this performance titled Our Bodies, Our voices will be posted in our December issue. |
Myrna Beth Haskell interviewed Heather about her lifelong love of dance, her early years as a figure skater and her current endeavors.
