About Us
MAUREEN FLEMING COMPANY
Maureen Fleming Company, an internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary performance ensemble, 'gives birth to a new vision of the body' (Ballet Tanz International). The company includes a core of collaborative artists under Fleming's direction including: Christopher Odo, an eclectic artist, dancer, designer, videographer and photographer, has worked with Maureen Fleming Company since 1993 in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Russia and was in the original Tony award-winning M. Butterfly on Broadway. Bruce Brubaker, a pianist presented by Carnegie Hall has performed with orchestras throughout the U.S. and has toured Europe, South America and Asia. He received Juilliard’s highest award and joined the faculty in 1995 and is chair at Boston’s New England Conservatory. Brett Jarvis sound designs include: NY Shakespeare Festival; Roundabout Theatre; Joyce Theatre, Bill Irwin’s Mr. Fox: A Rumination, Mark Dendy’s Dream Analysis; and the long running hit The Donkey Show.
Maureen Fleming Company has collaborated in the original and touring presentations: 'AFTER EROS' (1996), 'DECAY OF THE ANGEL' (2004) and 'WATERS OF IMMORTALITY' (2007) and ‘B. MADONNA’ (2013). Crossing cultures and art forms, spanning five continents, MFC depicts images that ask what is universal about the journey of the soul and being human. The company has received national and international acclaim in the La Mama’s 2013 premiere of B. MADONNA in NYC; the NPN Performing Americas 2012 tour to Colombia’s International Festival of Manizales 2007, 2009, 2012, Argentina’s Teatro REAL 2012, Uruguay’s Teatro Verde 2012; Italy's Spoleto Festival 2011, Cleveland Museum of Art VIVA! 1998, 2009, 2011; Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater 2007, 2009, 2011; Korea's Seoul Performing Arts Festival 2004, 2007; Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2004, 2007; Boston’s Cutler Majestic Theater 2001, 2004, ICA 2007; Brazil's FILO 2005 and Mercado Cultural 2011, 2005, 2009; Jacob’s Pillow Festival 2008; Fall for Dance Festival at City Center 2006; among others. Fleming's evening length works include collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang and composers Guy Klucevsek and Philip Glass.
MAUREEN FLEMING BIOGRAPHY
Maureen Fleming (Artistic Director/Performance Artist) was born in Japan. In her multi-media performances, Fleming invents surreal movement poetry with the discipline of a classicist and the imagination of an iconoclast and explores through metaphorical images our never-ending search for what is universal about the journey of the soul. After extensive study in Japan with Kazuo Ohno, co-founder of Butoh, an avant-garde movement developed in postwar Japan, Ms. Fleming went on to perform with his son Yoshiro Ohno and to tour internationally with performance artist and choreographer Min Tanaka. Fleming continued her training in the United States as a scholarship student under the Cecchetti master Margaret Craske. In 1984 she became an artist-in-residence at La MaMa ETC in New York and has conducted residencies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and recently at The Seoul Institute of the Arts and The Juilliard School. Connecting cultures and art forms, Fleming is renowned for her original form of visual theatre.
Her solo and group works have received international acclaim in such venues as Japan's 1990 Butoh Festival, Italy's 1995 Spoleto and 1993 Milan Oltre Festivals, Venezuela's 1994 Encuentro International, Mexico's 1995 Jose Limon Dance Festival, Iceland's 1996 Reykjavik Arts Festival, France's 1996 International Mime Festival in Perigueux and Maison des Cultures in Paris, Germany's 1997 Tollwood Festival and Oldenburg Internationale Ballett-Tage '99, Russia's Mimolet 97, Colombia's Contemporanea International Festival 1998, 1999 ,2001, and 2003, Manizales International Festival 2003 and 2005, Korea's Seoul Performing Arts Festival 2003, Brazil's FILO 2005 and Mercado Cultural 2002, 2005, 2009, LaMaMa E.T.C.(with Yoshito Ohno) 1991, 2004, the Pittsburgh Dance Council 1992 and 1996, the 1994 Bates Dance Festival, the 1995 San Francisco Butoh Festival (with Akira Kasai), the 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Project 1996, the Kitchen 1998, University of Cincinnati CCM- Dance 2002, 2009, Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater 2000, 2002, 2009, The Cleveland Museum of Art 1998, 2009, 2011, The Virginia Museum of Fine Art 1999, Symphony Space 2003, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, the Flynn Center for the Arts 2004, 2007, Jacob’s Pillow Festival 2008, Boston's Majestic Theater 2002, 2004 and the 2006 Fall for Dance Festival at City Center, Performing Americas Tour 2012 to Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay.
She has been awarded fellowships from the National Performance Network Creation Fund 1996 (After Eros), 2002 (Decay of the Angel), 2005 (Waters of Immortality), 2006, 2009 (Community Fund), National Endowment for the Arts (1993-1995, 2001, 2004, 2013), New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project (1997-1999), Rockefeller MAP Fund (1997, 1998), Arts International (1993- 2003), Performing Americas Project (2003, 2012), Meet the Composer Choreographer Project (1992), New York Foundation for the Arts (1980) in Choreography and Performance Art (1990, 1997), Greenwall Foundation (1998, 2004), the Asian Cultural Council (1990, 2004, 2006), NEA Japan US Friendship Commission (2001), Japan Foundation Performing Arts Japan (2002, 2004, 2007). She is a recipient of a Fulbright Commission in Colombia (2005) and Korea (2006, 2007). Fleming's evening length works 'After Eros' and 'Decay of the Angel' and ‘Waters of Immortality’ and ‘B. MADONNA’ included collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), composer Philip Glass, and light and visual artist Christopher Odo.
ARTIST STATEMENT
"The goal of my work is to reveal the transcendent through images which focus on the human body as a vehicle of transformation. I am specifically interested in finding a universal art which touches the evolutionary traces imbedded in human experience and transcends the limits of nationality and gender, placed on us all in an aim of discovering what is truly universal about being human." Maureen Fleming