Jordan Fuchs

Professor of Dance, Dance Division Head

Jordan Fuchs is a choreographer, performer and teacher whose choreography for stage, screen and alternative venues is grounded in improvisational practice, specifically the bias towards disorientation, sensation and process of contact improvisation, a movement form he has been practicing for more than 30 years. His choreographic research focuses on the crafting of relationship between dancers, whether spatially through the use of counterpoint or through the touch-based partnering. More recently his research has focused on language-based prompts for movement generation and on blurring boundaries between the visual and performing arts through dance that functions as sculpture and painting, and through the layering of photographic image onto dance.

Fuchs’ choreography has been hailed as “magical” by Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times, noted for “redefining chaos” and for creating “illusions of delicate complexity” by Deborah Jowitt of the Village Voice and “at once contemplative and dynamic, intimate and abstract, minimal and luxurious” by Nancy Wozny. He has received commissions from Danspace Project, Dance New Amsterdam, Texas Christian University, Kristina Isabelle Dance Company, Alfred University and Perpetual Motion Dance and his choreography has been presented nationally at numerous venues including: Dance Theater Workshop, FLICfest, Movement Research at Judson Church, Performance Mix Festival, Dancenow/NYC, Dance New Amsterdam, the 92nd St. Y, Chashama and the Flea in New York City; Sushi in San Diego; Dancer’s Group Footwork and New Performance Gallery in San Francisco; Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation; Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex in Houston; the Fuse Box Festival and Austin Dance Festival in Austin; New Genre Arts Festival in Tulsa and internationally by the Arts and Cultural Development Council of Geraldton, Western Australia and the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Czech Republic. In addition, his choreography for screen, including collaborations with Melissa Sanderson and Yeajean Choi, has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including the Seoul Dance Film Festival, São Carlos Videodance Festival in Brazil, Dans Kamera Istanbul Festival in Turkey, Festival Agite y Sirva in Mexico, Frame x Frame Film Festival in Houston and the Light Moves Festival of Screendance in Ireland.

Fuchs is a Professor of Dance and Head of the Dance Division at Texas Woman’s University and the founder of the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF). A former Fulbright Specialist, he has been on faculty at Hunter College and Movement Research and taught at numerous venues nationally and internationally, including at NTUA in Taipei, Tsekh Summer School in Moscow, WCCIjam in Berkeley, California and Contact Fest Freiburg in Germany. Based in San Francisco in the early 90's and then in NYC, he has performed for many artists including K.J. Holmes, Kirstie Simson, Mark Dendy, Lizz Roman, Potrzebie, Scott Wells and Rebecca Lazier. He has served as a curator for screen dance festivals, including the EnCore Dance on Film Festival, kNOwBOX dance Film Festival and the Third Coast Dance Film festival and was formerly a Dance Specialist in the Jerome Robbins Moving Image Archive of the Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Currently he currently serves on artist advisory boards for TDIF and kNOwBOX dance. A recipient of the prestigious TWU Mary Mason Lyon Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching and Service, he holds a BA in Religion from Oberlin College and an MFA in Choreography from Ohio State University, where he was awarded a University Fellowship.

www.jordanfuchs.org