Jonah Bokaer (born October 1, 1981) is an American choreographer and media artist. He works on live performances in the United States and elsewhere, including choreography, digital media, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and social enterprise.[1]
Education
Originally from Ithaca, New York,[2] Bokaer trained in dance at Cornell University, and subsequently graduated from University of North Carolina School of the Arts as a North Carolina Academic Scholar (Contemporary Dance/Performance, 2000).[3] Recruited for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the unprecedented age of 18,[4] Bokaer pursued a parallel degree in Visual & Media Studies at The New School (2003–2007),[5] where he received the Joan Kirnsner Memorial Award. Additional studies in media and performance occurred at Parsons The New School for Design, NYU Performance Studies, and through self-taught explorations into digital media and 3D animation: such studies led to the development of a rare, multi-disciplinary approach to choreography, addressing the human body in relation to contemporary technologies.[6]
Bokaer is the author of 30 original choreographies, produced in Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Recent engagements include the Attakalari Performance Biennale (Bangalore 2009), the Rotterdamse Schouwburg (Holland 2010), Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA 2011), Festival d'Avignon (Avignon, 2012), BAM Next Wave Festival, and a commission from the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, D.C.).[8]
Activism and social enterprise
Under the leadership Bokaer in 2002, a group of artists and choreographers formed Chez Bushwick,[9] an adventurous arts organization that has significantly impacted a new generation of dance artists, choreographers, and performers in the United States, and beyond. Founding artists developed a series of public programs that have become emblematic of a new way of working in New York City: across borders, across disciplines, employing variable aesthetic signatures, and overturning divisions between choreographer, curator, producer, and audience member. Through strategies of collaboration, activism, and public dialogue, these cultural strategies have achieved economic justice during a challenging real estate and funding climate in NYC. Chez Bushwick was recently awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund.[10]
Bokaer is a co-founder of the Center for Performance Research (CPR), a nonprofit organization in collaboration with John Jasperse/Thin Man Dance. CPR's L.E.E.D.-certified green building, the first in Brooklyn, provides affordable space for rehearsal and performance, arts programming, education and engagement with the community.
Writing
Bokaer's writings have been published in Artwurl, The American Society for Alexander Teachers, Critical Correspondence, AADIAL Magazine, Goldrush Dance Magazine, ITCH, Movement Research Performance Journal, and NYFA Current.
Bokaer's choreography over the past decade has been made possible in large part through a vigorous artistic relationship with France.
Dance and choreography
Working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company throughout 30 French cities, in 9 regions, over the course of 8 years
Touring new choreography to Alternative Spaces in Paris - Naxos Bobine (2006), La Générale (2006), Atelier de Paris (2007), Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin (2007, 2010)
Production support in Marseille - La Compagnie (2006), Ballet National de Marseille (2010), MAC Marseille (2010)
Production support in Lyon - Les Subsistances (2007)
Production support in Nîmes - Le Carré d'Art (2009)
Production support in Paris - Art/Dan/Thé Festival, Vanves (2010)
Production support in Avignon - Les Hivernales Festival (2011), Les Penitents Blancs (2011), CDC Avignon (2011)
Receipt of the FUSED / French U.S. Exchange in Dance grant (2011)
Production and presentation
Provision of residencies to Alexandre Roccoli (Chez Bushwick, 2007)
Provision of residencies to Christian Rizzo (CPR, 2008)
Provision of residencies to Steven Cohen (CPR, 2009)
Provision of residencies to David Wampach (CPR, 2009)
Restaging of French choreography on U.S. artists via David Wampach (CPR, 2009)
Leadership
Induction into Young Leaders of the French American Foundation 2008 (Paris, Strasbourg) / 2009 (Chicago)
Partnerships
FUSED / French U.S. Exchange in Dance (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011)
Cultural Services of the French Embassy (2008, 2009, 2010)
FIAF's Crossing The Line Festival (2007, 2008, 2009)
ONDA (2010)
Awards and honors
Bokaer has been honored with a Human Rights Award (Public Volunteerism, 2000), a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Dance & Media, 2005–2006), the inaugural Gallery Installation Fellowship from Dance Theater Workshop (2007), and one of four national Dance Access Scholarships from Dance/USA, with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2007), and the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (2009).[11] Additionally, Bokaer recently accepted the Special Citation at the New York Dance & Performance / Bessie Awards, for the arts organization Chez Bushwick (2007); his choreography "The Invention Of Minus One" was also awarded a Bessie Award for original lighting design by Aaron Copp (2008). He is also a 2008–2009 Young Leader of the French American Foundation, and is the first dance artist to have been awarded.[12]
Boisseau, Rosita and Philippe, Laurent, Photographier La Danse. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Scala, 2013.
Copeland, Roger, Merce Cunningham: The Modernizing of Modern Dance. New York: Routledge, 2004.
DeMers, Anna Sycamore, "On the Beach by Jonah Bokaer and Davide Balliano". The Johns Hopkins University Press: Theatre Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1., pp. 101–102 (March 2013). DOI: 10.1353/tj.2013.0017
England, Betsy, Gray Matter: Daniel Arsham, Jonah Bokaer, and Judith Sánchez Ruíz's REPLICA. The Drama Review: Vol. 55, No. 1. (Spring, 2011).
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Artists for Artists: Fifty Years of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. New York: Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2013.
On Vanishing: "New Mythologies for Choreography in the Museum, Jonah Bokaer". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art (May 2014), Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 10–13 (doi: 10.1162/PAJJ_a_00190)
