Jillian Peña is a dance artist whose work seeks to make visible the confusion and desire between self and other, and focuses on the most complicated relationship we all have: that of the self to itself. Her work is in dialogue with psychoanalysis, queer theory, pop media, and spirituality. Jillian was awarded the 2014 Prix Jardin d'Europe, the European Prize for Outstanding Emerging Choreography at ImpulsTanz Dance Festival, and received a 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer nomination. She has been presented internationally, including at Danspace Project, The Chocolate Factory, 92nd St Y, Dance Theater Workshop and The Kitchen in New York, and at ImPulsTanz Vienna, Modern Art Oxford, Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, and Sophiensaele Berlin. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Lower Manhattan Cultural Center, PS122, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Movement Research, and the National Dance Center of Bucharest, and has created work for American Ballet Theater and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
Yes to spectacle.
Yes to virtuosity.
Yes to transformations and magic and make-believe.
Yes to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.
Yes to the heroic.
Yes to the anti-heroic.
Yes to trash imagery.
Yes to involvement of performer or spectator.
Yes to style.
Yes to camp.
Yes to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.
Yes to eccentricity.
Yes to moving or being moved.