and then, now (premiering may 2024)

Guided by the visionary choreography of Jody Oberfelder and the enchanting musical repertoire of Glass Clouds Ensemble, And Then, Now invites participants on a transformative journey through Green-Wood's verdant springtime landscape and its permanent art and sculpture.

With the profound power of resilience at its core and the interconnectedness of past, present, self, and surroundings, three dancers and three musicians act as guides, leading attendees through the cemetery's winding paths. As participants travel onward, they encounter site-specific performances at key architectural landmarks, each moment reflecting the diverse and storied history of Green-Wood.

Walking to Present (ongoing)

Walking to Present is a site-specific piece conceived as an embodied "guided tour” with “stations” -- stopping points for conversation/active embodiment/dancing. We site-specifically guide participants on a walk, asking questions about history, our place in it, and how we move through it. Our interactions leave physical and perceptual imprints that can be adapted for each site.

The piece was commissioned by DANCE München Festival to be performed on a Trümmerberg (literally a trauma mountain—at Olympiapark, which was built upon rubble from World War II).

We experience movement as a critical interface with space and time. On this journey, each step is a chance for embodied research, as we guide new ways of looking, hearing, feeling the ground, and our traces. We encourage the audiences’ spontaneous participation, both in thought and actions.

LIFE TRAVELER (ongoing)

Life Traveler is an interactive piece that can be performed on any bridge. Imagine crossing a bridge and seeing a dancer walking with two vintage suitcases. Are you dreaming. In this one on one interactive piece, that haw been performed in Munich, London, Düsseldorf, Minneapolis, Amsterdam, NYC, Philadelphia, London, Berlin, and Frankfurt, we offer a chance to pause and reflect on presence while traversing a bridge--an invitation to contemplate the present moment, age, history, and journey.

Rube G - THE CONSEQUENCE OF ACTION

Rube G. – The Consequence of Action is a physically charged, immersive, and audience participatory dance. The springboard and inspiration for this piece is a Rube Goldberg Machine. We’ll be looking at all angles of how things work as a connective unit, thereby connecting all of us.

The piece can be performed on a proscenium stage, with some audience members onstage with us. However we do enjoy performing it in an open space, with 40-80 stools threaded in a giant “S”.

Music by Frank London and Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Costumes by Claire Fleury. Performed by Paulina Meneses, Ashley Merker, Jody Oberfelder and Grace Yi-Li Tong

SPLASH DANCE (2022)

Splash Dance was first performed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the John Madejski Garden on April 23, 2022. Part of the V & A's Performing Arts Festival, Splash Dance inscribes the pool in the center of the courtyard with a dance both reverent and irreverent. Splash Dance is the finale in the full version of a longer work; Walking to Present, which is a museum and site specific work, inspired by the historical content and artifacts of a site. When we were told we could pick one place for a taste of the whole piece, the fountain was hands down my first choice. Splash Dance is a joyous evocation of humanity’s timeless fluidity. Prior to the performative action of the piece, we mingled with people and asked simply “Do you think we make a ripple in time?” Then, migrating into the fountain pool, eight dancers move in a joyous and energetic celebratory dance of life and regeneration, so important in these hard-edged times.

Costumes: Katrin Schnabl - Music: Smetena - Video Documentation: Alexis Iritani

RUBE G AT ROULETTE (2021)

Rube G. – The Consequence of Action is a physically charged, immersive, and audience participatory dance. The springboard and inspiration for this piece is a Rube Goldberg Machine. We’ll be looking at all angles of how things work as a connective unit, thereby connecting all of us.

Excerpt from: Relevant Tones 10th Anniversary Festival (Useless Machines at Roulette 2021)

Amphitheater (2021)

Amphitheater was a joyous world premiere of live dance of four dancers of JOP and music by Grammy award-winning trumpeter Frank London, and challenged the pending demolition of this 50-acre park that transformed Lower Manhattan more than 80 years ago. Performed on the summer solstice, the premiere is one of the many events around the world for Fête de la Musique and MAKE MUSIC NY, a global festival to encourage free live music and art to fill public spaces. Additionally, the program will open with a poem by Eileen Myles and a land acknowledgement by Emily Johnson.

Rube G - The Film

Rube G brings to light how things (and people) connect. Conceived and directed by Jody Oberfelder and inspired by Rube Goldberg the object artist and inventor, Oberfelder collected over 300 clips of dancers and regular people who were given direct prompts: spin, pop up, drop down, leap, fall, etc. Oberfelder assembled these into a five-minute film, with animation by Eric Siegal. Original music composed by Frank London.

Madame Ovary (2019)

Madame Ovary was a contemporary exploration of the body as a site of intuition, agency, and identity with choreography by Jody Oberfelder, music composed by Missy Mazzoli (funded by New Music USA), and lighting by Kathy Kaufmann. Oberfelder boldly weaved together small stories, broad contexts, and big dancing. With empathy, humor, embroidered breast plates, and badass rocker panache, Oberfelder addressed the ever-evolving terrain of womanhood.

On the Move Shortly (2018)

On the Move Shortly is a short piece of interactive dance devised for the passengers of St. Pancras Station. It allows travellers to pause in between departure and arrival, reflect upon stillness and movement, and feel their own presence in the midst of motion. It is a private and personal experience in a public space; a respite from the flurry of activity of life, and an invitation to contemplate the present moment in the midst of our various journeys.

Things (2018)

Things, a collaboration between NYC based performance group Jody Oberfelder Projects with Brisbane based music group Topology, is an interactive performance piece offering audience members a chance to reflect on tangible artifacts and the materiality of life. Performed in Brisbane, Australia.

Zaubernacht (2018)

Zaubernacht, composed by Kurt Weill in 1922, tells the tale of a magical night. The orchestral score was lost when Weill immigrated to the US, and was recently discovered in a locked file cabinet. Performed by Jody Oberfelder Projects and the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, this first time it is performed in NYC in NY since 1925.

Castle Walk (2017)

Site specific work inside a seventeenth-century baroque palace in Braga, Portgual! Salvo Conduto is a site-specific creation in unconventional spaces in the city of Braga, produced by Arte Total since 1997. During the creative process the audience is inadvertently in the dance that resides temporarily in this space.

Audience of One (2017)

This performance of "Audience of One" was originally to be a private performance for one audience member at a time by one dancer on one of three decks with red Adirondack Chairs. Tall reeds were to have kept the performance private. (The reeds were given a haircut just before our show). Instead of a "the doctor is in" durational performance, the structure for the INsitu Festival shepherded the audience from site to site, with 42 performance in one day! I adapted the performance on the spot; somehow adapting the role of gatekeeper to MC for a huge crowd for 15 minutes, three times a day. Still, I think the piece worked as a prototype.

The Brain Piece (2015-2017)

The Brain Piece, directed, written and choreographed by Jody Oberfelder, is about the "dance" that continuously takes place in each of our heads.  The dance, music, film and text create overlapping perceptual domains, enlivening the inner life of the brain. Oberfelder wants the audience to experience dance as a language that goes directly into the brain, like smell. Jody Oberfelder‘s collaborators include three dancers (Mary Madsen, Pierre Guilbault, and Hannah Wendel, in addition to Jody performing the role of the “head docent”), film co-director Eric Siegel, neuroscientist, Dr. Weiji Ma, composers Daniel Wohl, Sean Hagerty (New Music USA Grant recipient) and Angelica Negron. Our dramaturg is Jessica Applebaum, lighting designer is Kate Bashore, and our stage manager is Katie Houff. The Brain Piece can be performed as an installation work or in a theater/ on proscenium stage.  The company recently received a CEC Artslink Grant for touring. 

Street Greet (2014)

Street Greet begins as an interview with pedestrians and becomes a surprise encounter.

4CHAMBERS (2013-2014)

4Chambers is an immersive blend of dance, theater, film and visual installation. There are only 12 audience members at a time. It is a piece to be experienced and therefore we ruled out having cameras during performances. These four minutes, shot during previews with permission of audience members, show samples from several of the chambers from our performances, which ran Jan. 22-March 22 at Arts@Renaissance in Brooklyn, NY

Throb (2012) 

Throb is a conceptual and physically demanding work inspired by the biological workings of the heart. Oberfelder cultivates the heart for metaphorical meanings, associations, and physiological information.

RE:DRESS (2012)

RE:DRESS is a solo work that explores female iconic imageries and comic energies.

The Soldier's Tale (2011)

Vaudevillian spectacle and drama are served up through vibrant physicality in this danced-through production, with Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects and Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra. In presenting a fresh version of The Soldier’s Tale, choreographer/director Jody Oberfelder places this post-World War I story—originally a Russian folktale—in a modern world. The dramatic trajectory of the tale is conveyed through acrobatic physicality of the characters and the distinct storytelling of the narrator. Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale was performed on June 9-11, 2011 7:30pm at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, with live music by Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra.Jody's adaptation of the C.F. Ramuz text has been approved by Schirmer Publishing. This updated script and production is available for touring.

Dido & Aeneas (2008)

In this updated interpretation, Dido and Aeneas are a modern celebrity couple torn apart by the media machine. In a parallel visual narrative, tabloids expose and contribute to the buildup and dissolution of their relationship. Featuring eight dancers, chamber orchestra, six vocal soloists and chorus, Oberfelder's contemporary piece examines, through the prism of fame, universal themes of love and fate. Commissioned by the Orchestra of St. Luke's, this piece premiered at LaGuardia High School for Music, Arts, and the Performing Arts.

Rock Me Mama (2010)

A dance for mothers/fathers and their offspring. Original 1996 performing as teens, followed by new moms and their babies.
Excerpt of Rock Me Mama lyrics by Tine Kindermann and Jody Oberfelder:

Who are you, Who will you be
And who am I, Now that we're we
Cling with your heart, Fall onto my skin
Soften against me, I let you in

Approaching Climax (2009)

Approaching Climax teases the extraordinary of of ordinary encounters. By exploring the emotional intricacies of mundane, physical engagements, Oberfelder questions the nature of narrative and the mysteries of social arousal. Media design by Design Brooklyn. Costumes by Liz Prince. 
 

The Title Comes Last (2007)

In The Title Comes Last, the performers travel from a bland work-a-day world into a land of vibrancy, making sensuous connections along the way. Through their quirky quest, which references the senses, the dancers transform from the inside out.

LineAge (2005)

LineAge is a suite of short dances, rendered in audaciously physical and verbal wit, that plays with concepts of lines, age, and evolution, from tabula rasa to wrinkles.

The Story Thus Far (2002)

The Story Thus Far is a work inspired by stories of the Brother’s Grimm.

Tangram (2003)

Tangram, modeled on puzzle pieces, is a dance that investigates abstract relationships.

Wanted X: Cheerleaders

Kim Irwin and Jody Oberfelder 1994 Franklin Furnace/ PS 122