Making dance has been a passion of mine for many years. My choreographies are built in close collaboration with the dancers. For me dancers are not mere instruments. they are my inspiration, my motivation, and they are the intrinsic energy of a new piece. My work is eclectic and does not reflect a single dance style. I like to use all choreographic tools available to me and to the dancers.
I was born and raised in France and trained in ballet and Russian character dance. I danced professionally in France and Europe before coming to the US with a student visa from the Merce Cunningham studio. In New York City, I immersed myself in the modern dance scene with a fascination for the works of Merce Cunningham, Jennifer Muller and Paul Taylor.
In Martha's Vineyard, I choreographed for the ensemble What's Written Within. There I also had the opportunity to collaborate with the dancers of the Yard. I created original works for the Vermont Dance Alliance winter gala and for the Junction Dance Festival in Vermont. With the support of the Vermont Arts Council, I produced and directed "Covid, a Poem and a Rope", a documentary about resilience and creative spirit in the midst of the pandemic, and "We Remember", a visual poem evoking the life of the copper miners in Corinth, VT.
My work is about collaborating closely with dance artists and performers. We all have different training, background, and aspirations; it is important to me to let the dancers speak and bring out their unique personality as we work together.
In 2020, I founded of The Junction Dance Festival, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of the Art of Dance in all its forms through performance. The organization sponsors a seed program, called ChoreoLab, encouraging dance artists to create and develop their own choreographic projects in a beautiful dance studio in Corinth, VT.
Biography
babettekurylo@gmail.com