Monica Bill Barnes
Monica Bill Barnes is a New York based choreographer described by Deborah Jowitt of The Village Voice as “one of the wittiest young choreographers around–she can stir your heart as well as make you laugh.” Barnes has created over eleven evening-length dance works for her own company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company arranging from a two woman vaudevillian traveling side show to an intergenerational dance extravaganza for fifteen performers.
Her dances have been produced in over twenty venues in New York City ranging from Joe’s Pub (DancemOpolitan Series) to Symphony Space and Danspace Project/St. Mark’s Church, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Dancenow/NYC/The Festival and Dancing in the Streets. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally by organizations including Jacob’s Pillow, The International Fabbrica for Choreographers (Florence, Italy), The Fourth International Dance and Movement Festival on the Volga (Yaroslav, Russia), Tanz Festival (Karlsruhe, Germany), Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego, CA), DancePlace (Washington, D.C.), The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Yard. She has been the invited Guest Artist at the North Caroline School of The Arts University, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Riverside, Vassar College, James Madison University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Dance New Amsterdam’s Modern Guest Artist Series (1999 to present). In 2003, Lincoln Center Institute commissioned This ain’t no Rodeo! a two-woman show that has since been performed over hundred times through the LCI Repertory Season 2003-2005.
Her latest site-specific dance, The Limelight Fountain Tour, is an outrageous dance event where local performers dance in working public fountains. This work was originally commissioned by San Diego Dance Theater’s Trolley Dances and has since been performed in New York City’s Bowling Green Fountain through the SITELINES festival (July, 2005) and Philadelphia’s Love Park through The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (September, 2005). The Limelight Fountain Tour was described as “too much fun to miss” by Jack Anderson of The New York Times. Through various site-specific projects and intergenerational large group works, Barnes has brought over seventy-five people to the stage and continues to create work that reflects everyday life with humor and poignancy.
Monica was a Dance Major at UCSD and went on to receive her MFA from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. She has received support from the Greenwall Foundation, Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation and the Puffin Foundation. Barnes has also received artist residencies at Dance New Amsterdam, The Yard, The Joyce Soho Artist Residency and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography.
For more info visit Monica’s web site at monicabillbarnes.com