by Corey Bliss
Shannon Gillen is a powerful, indomitable new voice in the contemporary dance world. A graduate of both The Juilliard School and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Gillen forged a prolific international career as a choreographer and performer. After dancing with the prestigious Johannes Wieland Company at the Staatstheater Kassel in Germany, Gillen returned to the US with a renewed focus to found her own dance theater company, VIM VIGOR, in 2015.
Shannon Gillen is a powerful, indomitable new voice in the contemporary dance world. A graduate of both The Juilliard School and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Gillen forged a prolific international career as a choreographer and performer. After dancing with the prestigious Johannes Wieland Company at the Staatstheater Kassel in Germany, Gillen returned to the US with a renewed focus to found her own dance theater company, VIM VIGOR, in 2015.
Shannon Gillen. Photo by David Flores. Well aware of the logistical and financial challenges of creating work and finding affordable rehearsal space in New York City, Gillen resolved to secure a more stable foundation for her company and her dancers. Quite serendipitously, NJDTE opened its state-of-the-art facility in Summit, NJ in May 2015. Artistic Director Nancy Turano envisioned the Ensemble’s new home as not only an innovative center for dance education, but also as a creative incubator for collaborative exchange. The timing was perfect.
After an initial meeting with Gillen, who said she immediately felt a “very true kinship” with NJDTE, Turano invited her to become NJDTE’s inaugural AiR® (Artist-in-Residence) Program choreographer in September 2015. “Having Nancy believe in what I’m trying to build was almost as important as having the space,” Gillen said.
After an initial meeting with Gillen, who said she immediately felt a “very true kinship” with NJDTE, Turano invited her to become NJDTE’s inaugural AiR® (Artist-in-Residence) Program choreographer in September 2015. “Having Nancy believe in what I’m trying to build was almost as important as having the space,” Gillen said.
“It was a blessing because it came at such a pivotal moment for me. I’ve been making work for ten years, and this is the first time I’ve wanted to build something that was not only sustainable but also something that has a value that I hope for in the dance world: a full-time working week, with world-class dancers that can immerse themselves in content and grow together.”
Vim Vigor rehearses SEPARATI at NJDTE. Over the course of five months, Gillen and her diverse, fearless troupe of five dancers rehearsed full time at NJDTE – free of charge – to create SEPARATI, an exhilarating hour-long dance theater experience. Co-commissioned by NJDTE as part of the AiR® Program, it premiered to rave reviews in January at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy in Brooklyn. For Gillen, creating at NJDTE was an immersive and transformative experience. The space “was very, very fertile for us. It allowed us to go way further than I had anticipated.”
For her part of the AiR® Program exchange, Gillen created a new work for NJDTE’s Ensemble Company, ARDOR, that will premiere at NJDTE’s spring repertory performance, i Balli di Primavera!, on Saturday, April 16 at Memorial Auditorium at Montclair State University. In working with the NJDTE dancers, her goal was to “meet them where they are right now" as developing dance artists, but also to introduce them to a new movement language of floorwork and partnering. In doing so, she allowed the dancers to access “bigger, bolder, more explosive, robust personas” as a true ensemble of performers.
For her part of the AiR® Program exchange, Gillen created a new work for NJDTE’s Ensemble Company, ARDOR, that will premiere at NJDTE’s spring repertory performance, i Balli di Primavera!, on Saturday, April 16 at Memorial Auditorium at Montclair State University. In working with the NJDTE dancers, her goal was to “meet them where they are right now" as developing dance artists, but also to introduce them to a new movement language of floorwork and partnering. In doing so, she allowed the dancers to access “bigger, bolder, more explosive, robust personas” as a true ensemble of performers.
"The kind of student that Nancy is building is hungry and curious and capable of things they’ve never done. They are both wildly disciplined and also playful, which is the other important part."
| For Gillen, having the same space hold both creative processes for SEPARATI and ARDOR was “lovely. It’s a very different process working with young people and established dancers. SEPARATI is the opposite animal [of ARDOR]. Instead of empowering the dancers, I’m pulling back the layers so they’re vulnerable on stage, so there’s nowhere to hide.” A fierce advocate of authenticity and honest commitment to the craft and art of dance, Gillen encourages young dancers to, as she says, “play the long game." |  Photo by JoAnna McClure. |
"The beauty of dance is that it promises to always challenge you no matter what and encourages you - if you leave yourself open to it - to grow and change and learn new things and forget old habits and discover something new about yourself. It’s an ongoing process that - if you’re paying attention - gives you permission to be mutable and not always stuck in one place. It’s about developing expertise in being an amateur. It’s not about the payoff or the celebrity. It’s ‘I want this to be my life.’ How can you be creatively living?”
Gillen’s AiR® Program residency will culminate with a weekend of exciting dance events for the community at NJDTE on February 27 & 28, including an open rehearsal of ARDOR for invited guests. In addition, NJDTE will host free master classes with Gillen for students from some of the state’s most prestigious performing arts high schools and dance programs, including Union County Vo-Tech, Kent Place School and Montclair High School.
“I’m very fond of Summit and my experience there. Hopefully it's the first of many! It’s about building and sustaining relationships with people who share your values and believe in dance as an integral part of our culture. And Nancy gets it. With NJDTE, she has created a home for dancers who are going to go on to have careers and she exposes them to the contemporary work that’s out there right now – not just in New York but also in Europe."
Indeed, Berlin is one of the next stops on Gillen's whirlwind teaching tour this spring and summer, before she returns as a Collaborator for NJDTE's Movement Invention Project® in July. VIM VIGOR will be a principal company at Springboard Danse Montréal and also host its own NYC summer intensive, all amidst preparations for what GIllen promises will be "another huge premiere" in early 2017. Keep up with everything that happens next here.
