Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Mabus.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I am originally from Dallas and found my calling as an artist early. When I was a little girl, my wonderful parents put me in ballet classes because I was painfully shy. Dance never quite cured my shyness, but it did give me my “voice.” My ballet teacher was a Holocaust survivor and taught us all that dance could be a way to define yourself in or against any situation. This early training set my interest in creating transformative experiences for my audiences. From there, I received a BFA in dance at Southern Methodist University and was fortunate enough to pursue my career professionally in New York City.
In New York, I was a founding member and soloist of Battleworks Dance Company, traveling the world and performing groundbreaking dance works. Robert Battle, the choreographer, and director is now the artistic director of the renowned company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. I met Robert when he was an emerging choreographer in a theater elevator, and excitedly told him that his work was very inspiring to me. Soon after, he asked me to be a founding member of his new company, and I danced for him for over 8 years. I also danced with the exciting choreographers Heidi Latsky, Takehiro Ueyama, and Amy Marshall. I began to present my own choreography in festivals and performance programs. Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times stated that my work “unspooled like a dream full of mysterious but potent small gestures.” After I had achieved some of the successes I had only dreamt of in NYC, I knew it was time to come home to Texas. I began teaching, at Interlochen Arts Academy, Texas Christian University, and Booker T Washington HSPVA and continued to perform with Bruce Wood Dance Project and Dark Circles Contemporary Dance Company as a founding member of both of those projects.
I decided to go to graduate school in order to deepen my choreographic voice. This brought me to Houston, to pursue my MFA at Sam Houston State University and to dance with Noble Motion Dance. In Houston, I discovered a supportive environment for new creative work and received artist residencies with Rice University, Pilot Dance Project, Noble Motion Dance, and Dance Source Houston. Much of my graduate school research was in Immersive Dance Theater, and I’ve presented three evening-length immersive dance theater works here. One of my works, “Requiem,” was in the historic Felix H. Morales Funeral Home and was a powerful experience of connection with the audience, while we danced about the process of healing from grief. I have been commissioned to create work on the dance companies Contemporary Ballet Dallas, Muscle Memory Dance Theater (TX), Omega Dance Company (NYC), and Elle Danceworks (TX), and have also presented work through creative residences at Interlochen Arts Academy, UT/Dallas, Booker T Washington HSPVA (TX), Sam Houston State University (TX), and at the historic Wynne Home and Arts Center (TX). I have also been commissioned to create work for the Miller Outdoor Theater and Zilka Hall at the Hobby Center by the Foundation for Modern Music and the Windsync ensemble.
My current creative research is focused on collaboration, particularly within the Transitory Sound and Movement Collective. The Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, founded by artistic director, Lynn Lane, brings musicians, sound artists, dance artists, spoken word and visual artists together to collaboratively create immersive and experiential evenings of sound, movement, and visual art. I am the core movement collaborator and have co-created evening-length dance and sound works in venues such as the Rothko Chapel, Rice University Gallery, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. We have exciting upcoming projects in Houston, Dallas, and Austin this coming year!
As a dance educator, I am also active in the Houston area. I am currently building a new and unique dance program at the University of St. Thomas, in collaboration with METdance Company and Center. We are offering dance electives, this Fall, and hope to have the planned BFA in Dance in place by 2019. Houston is becoming my creative home, and I am very grateful for the opportunities as an artist and educator that I have been afforded in this rich artistic community.
Please tell us about your art.
I strive for connection through my creative work. As a dance artist, my goal is to create “worlds” for the audience to enter and to be transformed by the experiences that they have in those worlds. Thus, I am constantly striving to find new movement and performance modalities can connect with others. In my choreography, I explore the interplay of fine art, kinesthetic empathy, and healing. I search to push my classically-influenced vocabulary of physically and emotionally expressive movement to places of both abandon and intimacy and to explore interactive technology that will enhance the semantics of the work.
I have been very engaged in performing outside of the traditional theater, creating site responsive and immersive works in galleries, museums, and historic sites. Such spaces create an environment for the audience, where unexpected dance and movement can have a profound impact. My work is also growing increasingly concerned with collaboration and the effect that combined voices from various artistic disciplines focused upon a singular concept can have upon performance. I frequently collaborate with sound artist Lynn Lane and the Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, where sound artists, dance artists, and visual artists work together to collaboratively create immersive and experiential evenings. As each artist listens, considers and contributes, something wholly original and powerful emerges. My voice joins with those of the other dancers, musicians, and artists to create a conversation with the audience.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
As a young artist, success meant being a professional dancer and doing what I loved. I was lucky that this led to some recognition, but the success to me was the feeling of vitality and connection with audiences I felt on stages all over the world. Now, I feel that I am successful if I am constantly pushing myself to try new ideas, if I am sharing my experience with others through my performing and teaching, and, again if I am doing what I love. I have never loved engaging the world through dance.
Thus, I believe that curiosity and constant engagement with one’s art is what is needed for success for any artist. I also believe there is something vital in remembering that we create to express who we are and to connect that expression with others. Recently, I walked with my family through my grandmother’s final struggles with Alzheimer’s disease, as one of her caregivers. When everything else is forgotten, human connection and kindness make an incredible difference. I strive to remember that the more deeply human I am and the more I listen, the more I become the artist I want to be.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
The best way to follow my work is through my websites. I have quite a busy season coming up in late fall and early spring both for my independent work and for the Transitory Sound and Movement Collective.
This Fall, I will be performing a new solo, collaboratively created with Lynn Lane, at the 254 Dance Festival in Waco, the University of Texas in Dallas, and for an Aids Outreach Center Benefit Concert in Fort Worth. I am hoping to present this work in Houston in the winter. A work I created on METdance will also be performed in the Dance Gallery Festival at Sam Houston State University. Transitory Sound and Movement Collective also has an active season ahead. We will be performing this Fall at the University of Texas in Dallas, as well as in some gallery and site-specific venues. For 2019, we have exciting commissions through various university and museum spaces.
As the arts season is just beginning, keep an eye out for some announcements! The best way to support any artist is to engage with their work as an audience and, thus, join the conversation. People can also come dance with me in my open adult classes! I teach beginners to professionals at two great Houston dance institutions, METdance Company and Center and Hunter Dance Center. Their websites will have all of the information.
Contact Info:
- Website: jenmabus.com and tsmcollective.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/jenmabus
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/jenmabusdance
Image Credit:
Photographer of all except image in Rothko Chapel: Lynn Lane, Rothko Chapel with musicians: Courtesy of Rothko Chapel/Runaway Productions
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