2007 Lab Artist

Shannon Hummel

Shannon Hummel was born and raised in rural Virginia and much of that rural experience has influenced much of her dance making. After traveling and performing with companies in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Georgia, she moved to New York City and in 1997 formed Cora Dance, a contemporary dance company performing her collaborative choreographic work.

Hummel’s work is sophisticated, inventive and accessible. Richly theatrical and uniquely physical, her works are vivid explorations of the human condition. She marries the abstract power of compelling dancing with narrative’s concrete force of emotion. Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times has called Hummel, "…the modern-dance version of an eloquent short-story writer. [Her dances are] poignant, funny and remarkably assured and perceptive.”

Hummel has had her work commissioned throughout the U.S. by such institutions as Dance Theater Workshop/NY State Dance Force (NYC), Dixon Place/Mondo Cane! Commissioning Program (NYC), University of Maryland/College Park (MD), Rhode Island College (RI), James Madison University (VA) among many others. BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, BRICstudio, Dance Theater Workshop, dancenow, Dixon Place, La MaMa, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, HERE Arts Center, New Dance Alliance, Joyce SoHo, The Mulberry Street Theater, Huntingtondancers Arts Festival, among other venues, have presented Hummel’s choreography in New York City. She has received space grants from Union Street Dance and Brooklyn Arts Exchange and is currently the 2006-2007 Artist-in-Residence at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She is the co-curator of the UnderExposed Festival for emerging choreographers at Dixon Place.

Dedicated to bringing dance to rural places, Ms. Hummel developed The Crossroads Project in 2003 to offer contemporary dance to a broader audience. Since then, she has worked in small communities in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York. She has been on the faculty at James Madison University and she currently teaches at the Poly Prep Lower School and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in Brooklyn, New York.

Shannon Hummel was selected as a 2007 Lab Artist of Vermont Performance Lab. In the fall of 2007 she and members of her company, Cora Dance, were in residence in Vermont developing a new work inspired by the music of Richard Einhorn, "Voices of Light." For Hummel the work is informed by drastic shifts: emotional polarity, brutality and tenderness, insecurity and confidence.

While Ms. Hummel is in residence in Vermont, there were opportunities for the community to get to know her and her work through a variety of activities including informal talks, showings and classes. For a complete schedule of events visit Shannon Hummel / Cora Dance's Residency page.

Photos: Steven Schreiber, Woods Pierce