Thank you for celebrating our Season at BAM Fisher with us!

Our amazing Season at BAM Fisher kicked off on May 30th with a dynamic performance by the Company and ensemble of guest performers, followed by our Gala on BAM's Rooftop Terrace.

Thank you everyone who came to celebrate with us at our Gala and throughout the run of our show. You helped make our Season a HUGE success!!! And, thanks to all our donors near and far.

Check out some pics from our Gala. Visit our Facebook page for even more photos: (www.facebook.com/TiffanyMillsCompany)

Adding Style Through Music and Sets

As we move toward our Season at BAM Fisher, we are excited to be collaborating with two talented artists: Composer Jonathan Melville Pratt and Scenic Designer Ian Trask. Hear from them, in their own words, about their experience with the Company...

Composer Jonathan Melville Pratt:

Working with Tiffany Mills Company on this iteration of The Feast has truly been an enlightening collaboration and introspective experience. Upon first hearing Tiffany's ideas for the piece and its four clearly defined sections, and while viewing the movement in its first stages of conception, i was struck with an impression of something quite ancient and very human- insidious, innately violent, yet somehow desperately loving.... reminiscent of the Burroughs quote, "We don't like the word Vampire round here. We're trying to improve our public image.... Interdependence is the key word. Enlightened Interdependence..." All this in my mind... all this juxtaposed in a mesmerizing, stark, yet limitless realm of technology and crafted space. It drew me into a unique yet totally familiar perspective where I could look with ancient, more human, eyes at some of the most vicious cycles of modern consumption and hunger, some of which are very traumatically occurring in my own life. In an attempt to relay what I've found, I've used my voice, sampled and treated body percussion, 13 specially created synthesizers (most created from my voice), drum set, african djembe, hand made wood blocks, metal scraps, hand made shakers, and pencil and mat board (recorded a sketch i made attempting to rhythmically consume the page in the given time that the piece was occurring) among many other things. Thanks to Tiffany for her confidence and inspiring words, and to the dancers and their beautiful work during this process. And of course to my favorite venue in brooklyn, BAM. 

Scenic designer Ian Trask:

I have an incredible amount of respect for Tiffany and her amazing cast of smart and talented dancers. Fun collaborations like this fuel our passion and creativity as artists, regardless of what form our art takes. 

For this performance, my responsibility was to infuse paper, an otherwise inert medium, with the tension and personality necessary to mirror the dynamism of the performers on stage.  Knowing that the source of the paper would greatly impact both the possible scale and aesthetic, we settled on using books, specifically hundreds of discarded law books.

Check out his work:

Tiffany Mills Company Fall Workshop 2012

Tiffany Mills Company

Fall Workshop 2012

Despite Hurricane Sandy, we all bonded over a weekend of partnering.

Enjoying Bubbly with the Tiffany Mills Company

Tiffany Mills Company 

Champagne Toast 2012

Photos by Julie Lemberger, Copyright 2013

Following are photos from the Company's Champagne Toast (November 2012). 

The energy and excitement around our upcoming BAM Season was palpable.

We can't wait to see everyone at our show May 30-June 2, 2013!

Reflections From a Former Student...

Tiffany Mills has a strong history of teaching, both in NYC and around the country. She has taught at such places as Trisha Brown Studios, Dance New Amsterdam and ACDFA. Tiffany also teaches annually at Conduit, Inc. in Portland, OR, and has taught as a guest at Velocity Dance Center, Seattle, WA. She has a loyal following of students, who return for Tiffany's classes, as well as the Tiffany Mills Company Annual Summer Workshop. (And, the Annual Workshop has been so successful that the Company is adding its first Fall Weekend Workshop this November!) Here are reflections of two of Tiffany's previous students:


After a long search I found a job teaching middle school and high school way out in San Diego CA. So, in trying to help the school run and further develop their dance program, I've really been forced to get back into the dancing mindset that I haven't fully experienced since college. In college I always enjoyed dancing, but never really felt like I belonged or even really was a 'dancer'. That is, except when I was working with you. Your work always felt 'right' to me. It clicked, it was something I felt like I enjoyed exploring and pushing the limits on. I was always inspired by the way you talked about movement and the body. And I've been reflecting back on that a lot. I'm trying to teach like you, and I hope to have my students leave class the same way you always made me feel--challenged and inspired.

-- Robert Wagner, Tiffany Mills' Student


The artists in Tiffany Mills Company are such generous and insightful teachers: imparting energy, talent, and wisdom...all while deeply engaging with the students: feeling, intuitively, what students need and where to go next. 

In addition to this generosity of experience, I also appreciate the TMC generosity of in-experience: specifically, the dancers' willingness to reveal their own incomplete processes, on the partnering-technique journey. For example, sharing aspects of the pelvis still not completely understood; or outside research they've been working on; or movement/ideas they are still investigating. Such emphasis on the continual learning process, plus the open vulnerability from the artists themselves: this gives all participants the permission to be "in-progress" along with them. Hence the exercise, "come as you are", which I love so much!

I've never felt so comfortable in a partnering classroom than I do with TMC. Thank you for creating such a beautiful, sharing forum for dance artists, at ANY stage in their partnering-technique development. We all have wisdom to share, and yet, we all have naiveté as well. Naiveté is essential to curiosity...which then leads to discovery. And in a TMC classroom, it's this combination of both that creates the magic. I feel my dancing quality has transformed thanks to the Partnering Workshops, and I would highly recommend TMC education to anyone and everyone!

-- Andrea Dispenziere, Tiffany Mills' Student

 TIFFANY MILLS RETURNS TO SUNNY PORTLAND, OR!

Tiffany Mills returned to Portland, OR this summer to teach at Conduit Dance, Inc.'s Summer Intensive. Tiffany and enthusiastic participants spent four days exploring the wonderful world of partnering. Everyone is looking forward to returning -- including Tiffany! Check out some photos from the showing on the last day of the intensive. Here's a response from one of the participants:

My new sense of collaboration; is a colliding of forces where effort can bring us something new. Places [in the dance] I wouldn't normally go on my own and places [in the dance] that are meant to be shared.

I left your workshop feeling and sensing more possibility, personally and collectively and seeing the dance everywhere. I am appreciating every inch of my body as a potential prompt waiting to be danced and waiting to connect.

Looking forward to the next time.....

Warmly, Lanie Bergin
www.laniebergin.com
Portland, OR 

                                     

Tiffany Mills Company Summer Workshop 2012

The Tiffany Mills Company is mid-stream in our Seventh Annual Summer Intensive. The exchange of energy and ideas is palatable as we investigate partnering technique and partnering composition. Here's what workshop participants are saying at the end of each day. Leave a response if you are so moved!

May 29, 2012

Workshop Day #1

Rediscovering freedom of movement.

Beautiful bold choices. Bravery.

Surprise shifting.

Visceral Bliss.

From chaos comes clarity.

Very inviting.

Open forum for idea exchange and experiential learning.

Pevlic Freedom.

Sharing of the body intelligence builds trust and opens to inspire growth. 

The unused surface area and volume of my body came out to play.

Sliding into the space between what you intend to do and what will happen in the moment.

Great to be in a room full of people feeling comfortable and safe (and respectful) enough to explore movement chore to chore involving cavities of head, torso and pelvis and any and all combinations thereof.

Enhancing the dance of solo as a group exploration. The support of a duet helping me soar.

May 30, 2012

Workshop Day #2

Lapping.

Rediscovering.

Hello pelvis!

Repetition.

Essence.

Grab and let go.

Transformative.

Unknown to the known.

Enjoy the possibilities that you don't end up using. They help you find your way to more options.

Take off the lid!

Stay curious.

Moving a point within a cavity.

May 31, 2012

Workshop Day #3

Navel radiation into space as information and direction. Four destinations provide structured detours.

Small tools created such richness and fullness within the dance. They brought awareness so that freedom could be reached.

Opening my knowledge to the world of endless opportunity for contact.

Today bodies and air each found mass and each other.

Felt a refreshing sense of community and humanity through physical connection.

Facing my greatest fears and pushing past comfort levels...far, far, past comfort levels! Raw.

Spirals throughout the body, on the body, in the body.

Staying available to maintain/deepen connections.

This was so filling! I often can get drained giving and this fed back knowledge and energy and investment from all in room. Good stuff.

Allowing the point of contact to really direct -- channelling the rest of the body's energy into and out of that point.

Honoring my body, knowing it's okay to go gentle and still find just as many amazing possibilities.

Breaking habits, I can arch and open too!

I flew for the first time today! Thank you!

Much enjoyed the sense of teamwork (Round Robin) and equal explorative co-investigative partnership (duets). Very full and rich.