Arts on Tap with Visiting Artist, JoAnna Mendl Shaw

  •  October 18, 2017
     6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Arts on Tap Lecture/Presentation

JoAnna Mendl Shaw, Artistic Director of The Equus Projects

Shaw will share stories with the Arts on Tap audience about her unique choreographic journey, creating performance works with dancers and horses. Her company, The Equus Projects has created site-specific performance works and installations in 16 States and in Europe, merging dance with equestrian artistry in works created for polo fields, bull running arenas, an historic ruin in southern Sweden and a small horse farm in rural Maine.

Shaw takes her the work with humans and equines into a movement practice she calls Physical Listening that has found application in multiple fields beyond dance. The Equus Projects has taught Physical Listening sessions for Naval engineers, medical students, equestrians, actors, visual artists, corporate consultants and PR executives.

Shaw’s visit to Wisconsin marks the initiation of research and creation project that will focus on bringing the Arts to Rural America.

Arts on Tap is a Free event that The Warehouse hosts monthly. Enjoy the conversation and grab a beverage from the “Inspiration Bar.” 

This visiting artist program is partially supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from Wisconsin Arts Board and the Crane Group.

About JoAnna Mendl Shaw:

JoAnna Mendl Shaw has been making works for stage and for rural and urban landscapes since the 1980’s. She is the Artistic Director of The Equus Projects, a dance company known for its site-specific performance works that often bring dancers and horses into shared landscapes. The company is currently developing projects in Santa Fe, upstate New York, rural Wisconsin and a multi-year Pullman Project, an immersive community based work being developed for the historic Pullman District in south Chicago.  The 2013 creation of a work for dancers, horses and a cast of autistic performers in Sweden, is the subject of the documentary film, Håstdans på Hovdala.

The innovative choreographic structures and Physical Listening practice emerging from their creation process with equines is taught in master classes and workshops calibrated for a broad range of populations ranging from dancers to educators, therapists to engineers and physicians. The Equus Projects has created commissioned works in 16 States and in Europe.

Shaw’s proscenium and site works have been presented by Danspace, DTW, 92nd Street Y, Dancing in the Streets, Neubeger Museum, Chashama, The Drawing Center, Dance NOW, River to River Festival, Florida Dance Festival, Swamp DanceFest, Bates Dance Festival and Heifetz International Music Institute. The recipient of two NEA Choreographic Fellowships, Shaw’s work has been funded by Harkness, Jerome Robbins and Oppenheimer Foundations and a 2017 NEA Interdisciplinary Arts grant for her on-going work in the Pullman District of South Chicago. Shaw has taught on faculty at NYU/Tisch, Juilliard, Ailey, Marymount, Princeton and Montclair State. She has brought her work with Physical Listening to the NYU Medical School and the Naval War College.