Jody Oberfelder Projects creates art which aims to illuminate life. Whether stage, film, or installation, Jody Oberfelder works to expand how one experiences dance. Her works provide audience’s with experiences of intimate engagement by taking them on journeys through theatrical environs, historical habitats, bridges, train stations, and ordinary places.

——————————————————

News:

Life Traveler and Walking to Present on tour!

Jody Oberfelder Projects has been invited to DANCE Munich Festival May 2021. The Festival is a platform that has historically invited people changing the face of dance: Lucinda Childs, Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Deborah Hay, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Akram Khan, Louise Lecavalier, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Angelin Preljocaj, Hofesh Shechter, Wim Vandekeybus, Sasha Waltz and many others.  I am honored to be invited by curator Nina Hümpel into this prestigious festival, entering this canon of boundary breaking  choreographers. 

Walking to Present

Walking to Present is a guided tour which stretches the boundaries of what could be called choreography and theater. In this work the audience's experience is hands-on.  Eight dancers guide participants on a walk, collecting and sorting evidence that situates the audience in the foreground of a place with a rich background. We perform this first iteration at Olympiapark, a “Trümmerberg” a site built upon the piles of rubble from World War II. In this embodied "guided tour”--we asks questions about history, our place in it, and how we move through it.   On a clear day you can see the Alps.  

Life Traveler

In Life Traveler, we engage in dialogue with ideas of aging, journey, travel, baggage, and the present moment.  The piece presents the question  "how can simply walking or dancing on or across a bridge become a forum for interactivity which invites engagement, contemplation, and personal connection?”.  Life Traveler, through convivial convergences, sparks  both physical and verbal conversation, and allows participants to purposefully cross bridges, and bridge gulfs while traveling amid others.  First performed as a solo in September and October 2019 for a duration of two hours, on five bridges in Ingolstadt, Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin, as well as on a sidewalk in New York, the version presented at Dance Munich will feature 7 dancers performing simultaneously on various bridges along the Isar River.

JOP is grateful to have been awarded funding from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation - US Artist International, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and the Harkness Foundation

Jody is Featured in Modern Women: 21st Century Dance a Coloring book by Julie Lemberger.

“… Using dance photographs, spanning the first two decades of the 21st century, presented are New York City's living women DANCE creators, innovators and interpreters in many diverse genres and perspectives. It is a fun way for dance aficionados, adults, students and children to interact, investigate and illustrate women in DANCE today!…”

You can buy a copy by visiting Julie’s website: https://julielembergercoloringbook.julielemberger.com/

Five Short Films

X and O

Jody Oberfelder Projects is excited to announce our new film “X and O”, conceived and directed by Jody Oberfelder with animation and editing by Eric Siegel, and music by Andy Akiho. The piece simulates a virtual, human tic-tac-toe game with 26 players. “X and O” emphasizes a desire for connection in a time of physical distance and presents this desire through a lens of joy and playfulness.

Coming Soon:

Rube G

Inspired by Rube Goldberg machines, where one thing affects another, we are creating a choreographic connective construct in collaboration with animator/editor Eric Siegel and composer Frank London. Jody has collected over 300 actions from almost 100 people.  Stay tuned.