Performance: Molissa Fenley: Bardo
Sunday, May 4, 2025
LGBT Community Center, New York City
with Christiana Axelsen, Betsy Cooper, Justin Lynch, Michael Trusnovec, and Timothy Ward; Music by Somei Satoh; Organized by Nick Hallett
Gallery:
About the Event:
Molissa Fenley’s Bardo, first conceived as an homage to artist Keith Haring (1958—1990), was presented by the New York City AIDS Memorial on what would have been Haring’s 67th birthday and 35 years to the day after its original premiere at Haring’s memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Being seen for the first time in 30 years, the troupe performed Bardo twice back-to-back, representing the passage of time between the work’s origins and the current remount, as well as the time between now and Haring’s passing.
Fenley first met Haring in his hometown of Kutztown, PA, while she was a visiting artist at the local University. The two would become friends and collaborators, even creating a video work together, titled “Video Clones” (1978), while Haring was still a student at the School of Visual Arts. In Bardo, Fenley pays tribute to Haring’s legacy while she mourns his passing. The work’s title is drawn from a Tibetan word suggesting the dreamlike passage between one’s death and their reincarnation. Bardo incorporates stillness and movement in movements that evoke a space being repeatedly emptied and filled, perhaps a reflection on the liminal space between death and birth.
Past contemporary dance programs produced by the New York City AIDS Memorial have included Neil Greenberg’s Disco Project Remix in 2022 and an open rehearsal of the John Bernd Variations, directed by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez, with music by Nick Hallett, in 2023, co-presented with Danspace Project.
About the Artist:
Molissa Fenley was born in Nevada in 1954 and grew up in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria (1961-71), before returning to the USA, where she attended Mills College 1971–1975. She moved to New York in 1975 and founded Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977. The Company has performed globally at such institutions as the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Dia Art Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, La MaMa Dance Moves Festival, and New York Live Arts/Dance Theater Workshop. She is the recipient of Bessie Awards for Cenotaph (1985), State of Darkness (1988), and the revival of State of Darkness (2021). Fenley has choreographed for the Australian Dance Theatre, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, among many others, She has received fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, Asian Cultural Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. She is Professor Emerita at Mills College, where she served on the faculty from 1999–2020. The book Rhythm Field: The Dance of Molissa Fenley was published by Seagull Press/University of Chicago in 2015.
Support
Support for public programming at the New York City AIDS Memorial is provided, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Photographs © Julie Lemberger