Jill Sigman is a
choreographer, performer, improviser, and teacher. Trained in classical ballet,
modern dance, analytic philosophy, and the visual arts, Sigman has been making
dances and performance installations since the early 90s. In 1998 she founded
her company jill sigman/thinkdance as a vehicle for these artistic
experiments. In the same year she received her Ph.D. in philosophy from
Princeton University.
Sigman juxtaposes
physical movement with elements such as video, text, and light to create
layered landscapes of meaning that explore pressing questions of our time. To
engage audiences as intellectual partners, she has gravitated to alternative
spaces, socially conscious topics, and work that plays with the boundaries of
dance.
Born in Brooklyn,
Sigman was trained extensively in classical ballet at the Joffrey Ballet and
Ballet Center of Brooklyn. She discovered modern dance at Princeton University
where she received a Certificate in Theater and Dance and studied with Ze’eva
Cohen, Jim May, Mark Taylor, and Sally Hess. Sigman went on to perform with
Ze’eva Cohen Chamber Projects before forming her own company. She has also been
rehearsal director of the Belgian Irma Vandenbroucke! Danstheater and has
collaborated with the Brooklyn-based collective Red Dive.
Known as a compelling
solo performer, Sigman has created numerous solo shows. "Sigman is
riveting," the Village Voice wrote of Vision Begins, "an elf with the
rebelliousness of the '60s avant-garde, the piscine fluidity of a Tharp dancer,
and the charisma and athleticism of today's virtuosos." Her work for large
groups grows out of her exploration of solo performance.
As an educator, Sigman
gives workshops in technique, improvisation, composition, and dance theory, as
well as educational presentations at colleges, high schools, and community centers.
She has been a member of the dance faculty at Princeton University, a Movement
Tutor at the Imaginary Academy in Grozjnan, Croatia, a professor of aesthetics
at Brooklyn College, and a frequent guest teacher in Belgium. Sigman writes and
lectures on art theory and has been published in The Journal of Philosophical
Research and Midwest Studies in Philosophy, and profiled for her integration of
body and theory in the Serbian feminist journal Pro Femina. She has been a
guest editor of the Movement Research Performance Journal.
In 2003, Sigman left 200 texts about why she makes art around
NYC- in buses, phone booths, public bathrooms, and supermarket freezers.
Maggie Allesee
