About:

Stefanie Batten Bland

– Jerome Robbins Awardee –

Beginning in New York City, followed by over ten years in Europe before a return to Soho five years ago, Stefanie Batten Bland’s career has taken a geographically circuitous path to her present stage as a Jerome Robbins Award honoree. Batten Bland is a choreographic artist and artistic director of Company SBB.  New York Resident Magazine in 2012 wrote “When it comes to tackling demanding subject matter, there are few choreographers as intellectually ambitious as Stefanie Batten Bland.” Through the dance arts, she creates performances rooted in community, highlighting the delicate threads that connect us to one another and to our planet. Based in interdisciplinary arts, Batten Bland constructs futuristic environments with installations ripe in poetic theatrical flavors that are emotionally driven.

In 2008, while head choreographer of the Paris Opera Comique in France, Batten Bland founded Company SBB so that she might better investigate the human condition and relationships within our natural world.

Patient(ce) 2015

 

Patient(ce) is an evening-length, interdisciplinary work is inspired by father daughter conversations between Stefanie Batten Bland and controversial composer and film maker Ed Bland.  This creation examines the structure of jazz with its formal emphasis on the eternal present.  Through a collaboration with futuristic jazz ensemble Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber and visual installation by Ms. Batten Bland and Alaric Hahn, PATIENT(CE) will examine the critical relationship that the musical, physical and visual arts have with space and time.

Photo by Kisha Bari

Germe

Germe is an experience that redefines borders. It is the seed of an idea, the beginning of possibilities. Germe takes place in the moment before definition takes hold. In either an installation durational performance over time or in a theatre, it is  the meeting place of art and science, Germe allows an intimate experience with the tendrils of an organism growing and in search of more…

Solo, Duo or Group:12 – 90 minutes (depending upon the venue’s needs and performance style)

Music: Olafur Arnalds

Costume: Buffy Price

A PLACE OF SUN

Created under the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Jerome Robbins NEW Fellow program. 2012

Premiered May 10th, 17-18th at the Baryshnikov Arts Center/Jerome Robbins Theater. SUN… was inspired by the BP oil spill of 2010, this piece looks at our power of adaptation. Collaborating with artist Benjamin Heller and set to Karol Szymanowski’s choral work “Stabat Mater” this fusion of the visual and physical arts enables a journey of destruction and discovery in a new habitat.

Running Time: 45 minutes
(can be arranged for versions of 10-20minutes)

Dancers: 6
Premiere: May 10, 17-18 2012
Choreography: Stefanie Batten Bland
Environment & Sculptures: Benjamin Heller
Music: Karol Szymanowski
Lighting Design: Lacee Godman
Costume Design: Stefanie Batten Bland

Photo Julieta Cervantes

MADONNA

Created in 2010 Festival Danse a Lille

30minute double solo Costumed Environment: Stefanie Batten Bland
Music:  Mathieu Werchowski

TERRA FIRMA

Created under the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Jerome Robbins NEW Fellow program. 2010-11

TERRA FIRMA examines migration, immigration—the search for solid ground. Collaborating with artist Andrew Lyght’s sail boat installation and set to John Adams “The Chairman Dances” this piece explore free movement versus bound to express the conflicts of uncertainty, precariousness, solitude, resilience, sacrifice and personal identity that one faces in transit.

Running Time: 45 minutes
(can be arranged for versions of 10-20minutes)

Dancers: 6
Premiere: September 2010
Choreography: Stefanie Batten Bland
Environment & Installation: Andrew Lyght
Music: John Adams, Stefanie Batten Bland
Lighting Design: Lacee Godman
Costume Design: Stefanie Batten Bland

(texts website SBB)