August 23, 2021

Tiffany Mills - Guest Residency

Theatre/Dance welcomes Tiffany Mills as the Fall 2021 Guest Resident.

Residency Description

Each time Tiffany Mills works with students to create a piece, she provides an in-depth exploration into partnering, improvisation, and the Tiffany Mills Company’s creative process. Students at Lewis & Clark College will dive into weight, space, gravity, and momentum as tools to fly. Together with Mills, they will push boundaries, test extremes, and enjoy falling, in pursuit of finding a rich language and meaningful journey.

Mills will create a work titled “Crown shyness” on the Lewis & Clark College students. This 10-minute work is based on the notion of crown shyness–a phenomenon observed in some tree species, in which the crowns of fully stocked trees do not touch each other, forming a canopy with channel-like gaps, where sun can penetrate to the wooded floor.

Mills grew up in Oregon, but has resided in New York City for the last 20+ years. She often looks to nature as inspiration for her creative process.

Biography

Tiffany Mills is a choreographer and artistic director of the New York City-based Tiffany Mills Company. Mills moved to New York in 1995 and formed Tiffany Mills Company in 2000. She has created over 20 works performed with a “fearless sense of freedom and exhilaration” (Washington Post). Recent NYC seasons include: The Flea Theater as a Resident Artist (2018, 2019); La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival (2016, 2021); BAM/Kennedy Center’s Professional Development Program, which culminated in a NYC season at BAM Fisher (2013). The company’s work has been presented at: PICA’s TBA Festival (OR), Wexner Center (OH), Contemporary Dance Theater (OH), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Residency (MA), Dance Place (Washington D.C.), Austin Dance Festival (TX), Guggenheim Museum Works & Process Series, Duke on 42nd Street, Symphony Space Dance Sampler, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Dance Now at Joe’s Pub, Dancing in the Streets, Joyce SoHo, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project’s City/Dans Series, Dance Theater Workshop Fresh Tracks, PS 122 Avant Garde Arama, Movement Research at Judson Church, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, HERE Art Center, and in Russia, Italy, Mexico, and Canada. The company holds an annual winter and summer intensive (2006–present). Mills’ guest teaching includes: Trisha Brown Studios, Dance New Amsterdam, Gibney Dance Center, Peridance, The Playground, Earthdance (MA), Velocity (WA), Conduit (OR), ACDA, universities and festivals nationally and internationally. Mills has received awards and residencies from: NYU’s Tisch Summer Dance Festival (2015, 2020), National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (2019), CUNY Dance Initiative, (2014–15, 2017), BAM/DVIAM PDP (2012–13), the Joyce Theater’s Mellon Anchor Tenant Program (2011–16), Baryshnikov Arts Center (2010), LMCC Swing Space (2008–09, 2012), HERE Art Center (2002–03), as well as University of Oregon Alumni Award & Boekhelheide Creativity Award (2005 and 2006), and Bogliasco/Jerome Robbins Foundation Fellowship, Italy (2007), and Bates Dance Festival’s Emerging Choreographer Award (1998). Mills has received funding from the Asian Cultural Council, Mertz Gilmore (via La MaMa), Doris Duke Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NET/TEN, Evelyn Sharp Foundation, Harkness Foundation (via HERE), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Bossak/Heilbron Foundation, Sorin Charitable Trust, Puffin, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, O’Donnell Green Foundation, and New Music USA. Mills received a BA from the University of Oregon and an MFA from Ohio State University. https://tiffanymillscompany.org/