Performing in Rome for the Genderotica Festival and Fem Conference was huge pleasure and an honor. What a great opportunity to engage with thinkers, movers and shakers from all over the world, talking about drag, gender and the performance of femininity.

After a stay in Florence with my friend the brilliant designer Andrea Cammarosano (my Instrument costume designer) I headed to the Venice Biennale and got right to making plans for 2015.

Then to Catania, Sicily to perform at Gay Pride. Incredible coming from the SF gay bubble to perform in a place where lots of people actively try to prevent Pride from happening. The folks at Arcigay Catania are my heroes.

photo: Agata lo Monaco

Two huge honors:

Beautility, my site specific solo for the City Hall staircase, was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for individual performance.

I was one of the inaugural recipients of the Della Davidson Prize, rewarding women choreographers in honor of the bold and beautiful work of its namesake.

Full of gratitude.

photo: Arturo Cosenza

Dear Friends,

Happy Spring! Here’s the latest, and some events that are fast approaching.

Thursday April 25 I join some of SF’s finest Dance Artists in Move to the Now, a free night of dance at 111 Minna -  part of National Dance Week and hosted by the great Amy Seiwert/Imagery. 6-9PM

Friday April 26 – two exciting events:

First, I am very honored to announce that I am one of the inagural recipients of the Della Davidson Prize. Honoring the life and work of choreographer and teacher Della Davidson, this annual prize supports innovative dance artists producing work in the spirit of Davidson, known for interdisciplinary work that explored  the strength and sensuality of women. I accept this great tribute during Dancers’ Group’s Bay Area Dance Week Kickoff. And then we dance.  Union Square  Free  12 noon

Later I join inspiring superstar and lady-after-my-own-heart Ana Matronic  along with many other talents, in Auroville, a media ritual conjured and organized by brilliant composer Nick Hallett. I saw another incarnation of Auroville in 2009 at the New Museum, and am so thrilled to be a part of this honest-to-goodness happening! At a  new space we all need to check out. Performance Art Institute   8PM   (tickets here)

Sunday May 5 I perform in May Day, the annual 3-day fundraiser for our beloved CounterPULSE. I will show an excerpt from my latest work Instrument (still photo above by Kegan Marling) in the company of some of your favorites. Join me in the audience May 3 & 4 and support San Francisco’s hub for risk-taking performance.   CounterPULSE   8PM    (tickets here)

At the end of May, I fly to Rome! Eyes Wild Drag, a great group of Italian faux queens and drag kings, is bringing me to their city to participate in the Genderotica Festival & Fem Conference where I will perform and present. If anyone has ideas about what I should see or where else I should perform in Europe in June, let me know. Grazie!

Since my last update, there have been a few highlights:

Instrument, the culmination of my work at the de Young, premiered at CounterPULSE at the end of 2012. My collaborators Chris Black, Miguel Gutierrez and Amy Seiwert led me into some really deep work of which I am particularly proud. This is just the beginning for this piece, and I look forward to the next phase. Here is some great press.

I recently presented, with my dear drag sis Mica Sigourney at TYPO, an international design conference. It was really refreshing to place my work in this kind of context, and I hope to do it more. Our taliks will be available soon on their site.

This year I take part in CHIME Across Borders with the brilliant choreographer Tere O’Connor (and fellow mentees Christy Funsch and Lisa Townsend – who are so smart). It has already changed my life. Here is a short interview I did with Tere at PPP is Dance, curated by Abby Crain (video by Mark McBeth). More details about CHIME public events to come. CHIME is a seriously helpful  project of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.

Beautility, my solo for the City Hall Rotunda staircase, with brilliant costume by Mr. David was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award!

I wrote a piece for the fab literary site Her Kind as their Lady in the House. Read it here.

As always, you can make a tax-deductible contribution to my projects through Dancers’ Group (select me as a recipient). I cherish all forms of support you offer. Thank you.

photo: Michelle Blioux

For the last few months I have been at work on a brand new project, Instrument,  a solo performance created in an experimental process with three choreographers: Chris Black, Miguel Gutierrez and Amy Seiwert. Instigated by discussions with curators at the de Young Museum during my fellowship there, especially about their current exhibition Rudolph Nureyev: a Life in Dance, I invited the three choreographers to create movement on my body that I shaped into the final piece. The work looks at the performing artist’s slippery relationship to authorship and authority; and at dancing as an act of translation and creation. It has been a thrill to put my work in the hands of these incredibly talented artists. Our studio process has been incredibly rich and crazily fun.

Please join me to see the results.

November 29 – December 9        Thu – Sun      8PM     CounterPULSE

More information below – Tickets here

Instrument, the new solo by Monique Jenkinson exploits the vibrancy of the body in the ever-dying moment of live performance. Created in an experimental collaboration with three choreographers – Miguel Gutierrez, Chris Black, and Amy Seiwert – Instrument enacts, exposes and undermines the roles of dancer as workhorse and choreographer as auteur. The artist’s slippery relationship to authority and authorship is a major theme, as is the dancing body as translator, container of knowledge and preserver of culture.

In her unique voice, dancer/performance artist Jenkinson (aka Fauxnique), calls upon ballet hero Rudolph Nureyev, Performance Art heroes of the 60s and 70s, and current discussions about ‘the body as archive’ to create a collage of iconic movement, historical anecdote, and personal narrative. Instrument highlights the intersections of ballet and post-modern endurance performance – especially with regard to pushing the body to, through, and from exhaustion to create art.

With dramaturgy by Selby Wynn Schwartz, costumes by Andrea Cammarosano, light by Tiffani Snow, and sound design by Marc Kate.

In conjunction with Rudolph Nureyev: A Life in Dance at the de Young Museum, and supported by the de Young Museum’s Artist Fellows Program and partner organizations CounterPULSE and Dancers’ Group. Instrument is made possible in part by the generosity of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.

Here’s a recap of Spring & Summer

Making Scenes/Our People at the de Young

As part of my Irvine Fellowship at the de Young, I curated Making Scenes and created ‘Our People’

The piece started as a discussion about Jean Paul Gaultier and his politics of inclusion vs. his propensity for appropriation.
My brilliant collaborators included the legendary & incredibly talented Helen Shumaker

Helen Shumaker by Adrain Arias

and the wonderful Maryam Rostami, Rotimi Agbabiaka, Carlos Venturo, Lambert Moss & Joseph Copley

Maryam Rostami, Monique Jenkinson & Rotimi Agbabiaka by Adrian Arias

The evening featured the dancey art-pop stylings of Tim Carr, the immaculate DJ tastes of Stanley Frank, Down-E and Bear Z. Bub, and, an incredible collaboration between Seth Eisen and club Some Thing’s ‘Project Runtover’ in which KIDS GOT TO DRESS DRAG QUEENS!

festooning Honey Mahogany by Adrian Arias

In May & June, ‘Faux Real’ went to Stanford, Seattle, and ODC’s inaugural Walking Distance Dance Festival

June saw a reprise of  ‘Beautility’, my site-specific dance installation for the staircase at City Hall’s Rotunda, in conjunction with Dancers’ Group and Dance USA

I was featured in a fantastic article in San Francisco Magazine.
(the print version featured a two-page close-up photo – a rarity in this age)

Soon I leave for Berlin and Düsseldorf where I will represent as part of the US delegation at Tanzmesse

Fall : NEW WORK
Instrument
This the Fall I begin work on ‘Instrument’ – an experiment in collaboration with amazing choreographers  Miguel Gutierrez, Chris Black and Amy Seiwert, and dramaturg Selby Wynn Schwartz.
Incredibly exciting.
Premiering at CounterPULSE November 30
In progress and creation at the de Young and CounterPULSE Sept – Nov
Generously funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission.

The de Young Fellowship continues

Kimball Education Gallery de Young Museum

I am in residence at the de Young’s Kimball Education Gallery creating ‘Instrument’
September 5-30 Wed – Sun 1- 5PM (Friday until 8:30PM) with selected hours (TBA) for discussion/sharing of open process.

September 15 2PM
the de Young, Dancers’ Group, CounterPULSE and I will host Dance Discourse Project Series #13: Working in Museums

Friday Sept 28 6PM (showing at 7)
Closing Reception/Work in Progress showing

October Friday Night TBA
Work In Progress showing of Instrument

Maryam Rostami & Monique Jenkinson by Adrian Arias

merman Joseph Copley by Adrian Arias

Runtover results: Vivvyanne Forevermore, Lil Miss Hot Mess, Honey Mahogany, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, & Miss Raquel