Jane Comfort to be In-Residence February 2010

The Columbia College dance program was awarded an American Masterpieces in South Carolina grant to bring renowned choreographer Jane Comfort to Columbia College to present “Four Screaming Women” with Columbia College dance company with additional cast from the Power Company.  Martha Brim, Professor of Dance and Director of the Power Company, was the principle author of the grant for this award.
 
Jane Comfort, choreographer, writer and director, has traveled throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America with her award winning work. Comfort is an activist/artist and her piece "Four Screaming Women" premiered the day after the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated, October 4, 1982.  Comfort will be in residence at Columbia College in February, 2010, and will be working with students, leading workshops, and re-staging her work for the Columbia community.

American Masterpieces Dance Grants are administered by the South Carolina Arts Commission and provide funding to South Carolina dance companies, college and university dance ensembles, or South Carolina presenters in partnership with a South Carolina dance company. The purpose of the program is three-fold: to offer historically and artistically significant American dance works to South Carolinians, to engage and expand adult and student dance audiences and to foster creative partnerships between S.C. presenters and dance companies.

American Masterpieces in South Carolina is a part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius initiative. The program aims to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. Through this initiative, the NEA will sponsor performances, exhibitions, tours and educational programs across all art forms that will reach large and small communities in all 50 states.

About Jane Comfort
Jane Comfort earned a B.A. in painting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill before finding her way to dance. After two years in the Peace Corps in Venezuela, she moved to New York and began studying with Merce Cunningham. She performed with a number of downtown choreographers, including David Gordon, Dana Reitz, Kenneth King, and Jamie Cunningham, before founding her own company in 1978. She has collaborated with visual artists, composers, spoken word artists, DJ's, puppeteers, and dancers to create dance theater works that integrate text and movement. Her work has been produced in Europe, South America, and throughout the United States. Comfort has never shied from relevant social issues and her work gives voice to those afflicted by these issues: women, gays and lesbians, the homeless, the disabled, and the abused (Suzanne Carbonneau, 2006, "Jane Comfort's America" Bates Dance Newsletter). Comfort has worked with several artists to produce multidisciplinary dance theater works throughout her career. Her past collaborators include Tigger Benford, Arthur Elgort, Carl Hancock Rux, Joan La Barbara, Steve Miller, Toshi Reagon, Keith Sonnier, DJ Spooky, and puppeteer Basil Twist.