Koosil-ja is a
conceptual experimental choreographer who responds to French philosopher Gilles
Deleuze’s process-based ontology of the body, in which the body is viewed as a
site for a series of processes, movements, and flows. This is expressed through
a combination of movement and interactive digital technology.
She created a performance technique called Live Processing
and with her dance and media group, koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO builds digital media
and digital systems to restore the body and therefore dance, in a constant
process of de-configuration and reconfiguration.
In deadmandancing EXCESS (2003) she
practiced the idea of “extension of body”, mimicking dying performances
collected from over 40 films.
For
mech[a]OUTPUT (2003, 2007) she
meticulously followed a video of a Japanese Noh play. The original was decomposed - movement shown in onstage monitors,
setting rendered in 3D gamespace, emotions represented via video installation –
then re-synthesized.
Dance Without Bodies (2006) studies the nature of image and
presence, actual and virtual. The performance space is divided, cameras and
projection used to fold the space back on itself, with dancers appearing in
person and onscreen.
After
graduating from Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 2007, Koosil-ja
presented her work Dance Without Bodies
for the festival Nomadic New York in Berlin, Germany in August and participated
in Flying Circus Project 2007: Travelogue in Singapore and Vietnam in October
and November. In 2008, she was awarded a fellowship from Asian Cultural Council
to research her new project Blocks of
Continuality/ Body, Image and Algorithm and stayed in a new Korean town
located in Tokyo, Japan for a over month. When she returned to New York, she
began creating the project Blocks
with her dance and media group. Please see more about Blocks in the project description below.
In addition, Koosil-ja co-composes music for all of her
dance works and creates and performs song for her works and others like The
Wooster Group’s To You The Birdies!
(Phedre). Her music Like Us was
licensed for Robert Wilson’s digital project Portraits for the Beijing Exhibition in May 2008. In 2009 and 2010 she worked with The Wooster Group as a performer
in North Atlantic presented at
REDCAT, CA, and Baryshnikov Arts Center, NY.
She
was nominated for United
States Artists Fellowship (10). She received a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
President Award (11).
She
holds a Master of Science degree from Polytechnic Institute of New York
University (07).
After
moving to New York from Japan in 1981 to study dance with Merce Cunningham,
Koosil-ja danced for Wendy Perron Dance Company.
Koosil-ja
received fellowships from NEA (4 awards) and NYFA (3 awards), Guggenheim
Foundation (07) and Asian Cultural Council (08) and "Bessie" award
(04).
Koosil-ja
participated in Media in Transition conference 5 at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (07) and Flying Circus Project 2007 Travelogue in Singapore and
Vietnam (07) and taught in USA, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and
Mexico.
In
1984, she co-founded the band Bosho as a percussionist and vocalist, released
albums, and toured over 30 cities in Europe and Japan. She performed music with
Takehisha Kosugi, Mimi Goese and others and co-created music and wrote songs
for all of her dance works and also for Woo.Co Dance Company, Copenhagen (04).
She also wrote songs for The Wooster Group's To You the Birdie! (Phedre). Her
music Like Us was released on the Agriculture Record (02) and was licensed for
Robert Wilson’s digital project Portrays for the Beijing Exhibition in May
2008.
She has worked
with The Wooster Group for their productions, North Atlantic and To You The
Birdie! (Pherdre).
Koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO
has been presented and commissioned:
(In
New York) 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center; The Kitchen; La MaMa E.T.C.;
Aaron Davis Hall; Performance Space 122; Performing Garage; Danspace Project;
Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors; Central Park SummerStage; Whitney Museum of
American Art at Altria, Japan Society and Dance Theater Workshop.
(Nationally)
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival; The Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, Dance
Umbrella Austin, Diverseworks Houston, Jumpstart San Antonio, Walker Arts
Center Minneapolis, American Dance Festival Durham, University of Wisconsin
Madison, On The Board Seattle, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography
and Columbia College Chicago.
(Internationally)
European Dance Development Center in Arnhem, (Netherlands); Dusseldorf, and
Lisbon, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and iDANS, Istanbul.
Maggie Allesee
