Heather Kravas

Base Residency Entry Point
Saturday, Aug 16

Since 1995, Heather Kravas has investigated choreographic, improvisation and collaborative practices in contemporary dance to explore the edges of performance.
Her work investigates:
lines
shapes
distances
presence
exertion
intersections
endurance
calamity
contradiction
concentration
tension
failure
sacrifice
labor
love
the cobbled together
+
words
Precise and extreme, these dances look like landscapes punctuated by Rube Goldberg machines. Glacial movements give way to strange loops, still forms tremble and transform, DIY folk dances turn into complicated parables. Full of contradictions and emphatically non-spectacular, they invite audiences into the terrain of their own minds.

*[Image Description: Sylvia Schatz-Allison in Échapée, from tropisms by H. Kravas.]*
*Photo by Erin Johnson*

Kravas grew up in Pullman, Washington where, under the tutelage of Deirdre Wilson, she studied classical ballet and the experimental theater theories of Jerzy Grotowski. Significant to her understanding of dance as a vital and complex form are the many artists/teachers/colleagues/collaborators she has been privileged to work with/for: Antonija Livingstone, DD Dorvillier, Dayna Hanson, Stephanie Skura, Marina Abramovic, Okkyung Lee, Yvonne Meier, Mary Overlie, Tere O'Connor, Dean Moss, Neil Greenberg, Rebecca Brooks, among many. A Guggenheim Fellow, Ms. Kravas has also received support from Creative Capital, the Doris Duke Impact Award, Foundation for Contemporary Art, MAP Fund, National Performance Network, Seattle Arts Commission, 4 Culture, f.u.s.e.d, Bossack-Heilbron Foundation, the Yard, Pact-Zollverein and Performance Works Northwest. Her choreography has been presented at venues including American Realness, Base, Chez Bushwick, The Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project @ St.Markʼs Church, Fusebox Festival, The Kitchen, Movement Research @ Judson Church, On the Boards, Performance Space New York, Tonic and Velocity Dance Center as well as internationally. Her current project, The Be Sides or The Fold or Le Plié will premiere with New York Live Arts. Heather currently lives in Seattle with her partner and 2 kids.