CHOREOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR

Shannon Gillen, Artistic Director of Shannon Gillen & Guests (SGG), received her BFA from The Juilliard School, where she was mentored by Martha Clarke. Upon graduating, Gillen studied Meisner acting at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. She has presented her work at Alice Tully Hall, the Clark Studio Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, HERE Arts Center, with Movement Research at Judson Church, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the Joyce SoHo season and as part of The AWARD Show!, with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Sitelines Series as part of NYC’s River to River Festival, and the Wave Rising Festival. She has held residency with Festival Oltre Passo in Lecce, Italy, Fresh Tracks at Dance Theater Workshop, as an Artist in Residence with DNA, and with LMCC’s Swing Space. This past summer she premiered ‘GABBRO’ at Usine C in Montreal, as part of Springboard Danse Festival and ‘eluvium’ at Purchase College and Ailey Citigroup Theater as part of Reverb Festival 2010. SGG toured ‘WALL’ to PULSE Art Fair in Miami, Florida as part of Art Basel in December, and then re-mounted the work at DNA this past January. Recently SGG has performed in DNA’s APAP Presents, at Judson Church, and with Dance Conversations at the Flea Theater. Shannon was commissioned by The University of Hartford to set a new work on students from the Hartt School, which premiered in April. SGG’s current project ‘CLAP FOR THE WOLFMAN’ premiered at the IAP in St. Mark’s Church in May will tour to Montreal, Canada in June. The company will also perform at the Bain St. Michel as part of the ‘Piss in the Pool’ series. While in Montreal, Shannon has been invited to return to Springboard Danse to create an original work. She will continue to develop this piece while in residency at the Stella Adler School of Acting this summer. Shannon was awarded a Dean Fellowship to pursue her graduate studies at NYU Tisch in the fall.

SHANNON GILLEN & GUESTS was formed in 2008 in New York. The company utilizes different physical and contextual standpoints within a space to construct layered feeling states. These feeling states are rooted in questioning the emotional life embedded in form, content and location. Rigorous choreographic experimentation and a commitment to the emotional spontaneity of the moment are ultimately what shape the context and performance of the work. Being expressionistic by nature, the creative process is indelibly shaped by the presence of the performers.