Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Georgia Stephens - Season 7, Episode 93

Georgia Stephens was active as a Dance Theater choreographer, director, writer andsound designer from 1975 through 2009. She moved to the Twin Cities in 1980 toparticipate in the newly formed Independent Choreographer’s Alliance (MICA). Throughthis organization, she received numerous performance opportunities and financialsupport for her work from the McKnight, Jerome and Northwest Area Foundations, twoawards from the National Endowment for The Arts, Metropolitan Council for the Arts andthe Minnesota State Arts Board. Georgia was commissioned in 1993 to create anoriginal piece for the New Dance Ensemble and in 1986 for the Zenon Dance Company.She was one of five choreographers invited to create an original dance/video piece withvideographer James Byrne, in his project SOLO!.Although Georgia delighted in the process of interweaving original text and soundscores into her work, she also frequently collaborated with musician David Means.In 1986, Georgia was awarded a Bush Foundation Fellowship for Choreography. Withthese funds, she prepared an evening of new and old work titled Crosstalk, presented atDance Theater Workshop (NYC) in 1987. Performers included Laurie Van Wieren, TomCarlson, Alan Lindblad, Mary Beth Elchert and Mary Abrams. After a brief hiatus toassimilate her journey, she immerged with several evening-length Dance Theatercreations: World Without End Amen, produced by the MN Dance Alliance with JeromeFoundation funds in Extended Play; Omoomofamaliamenia, a collaborationcommissioned by The Southern Theater with the music group Zeitgeist; and severalself-produced theater events for a variety of venues.In 1990, Georgia incorporated as Georgia Stephens Contemporary Dance Theater. Thisgathering of dance performers included John Munger, Wendy Ansley, Diane Aldis,Ethan Emanual Balcos, Jill Haeberlin, and many other guest appearances (Mary Easter,Linda Shapiro, Lisa Carlson, Marilyn Habermas-Scher, Wendy Morris, Marty Winkler,Rebecca Katz). Around this same time, she joined with fellow dance artists Paula Mannand Shawn McConneloug to create SpaceSpace, an informal rehearsal andperformance studio. Georgia created work for this venue almost exclusively until its endin 1999. Georgia then began creating original work for David Means’ Nobels eXperimental interMedia Group. They presented several full-length pieces between 1999 and 2005 at Metro State University’s Nobels Performance Space, Intermedia Arts, The Walker choreographers’ Evening, Patrick’s Cabaret, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater and Edison Theater in St. Lous MO. Between 2005 and 2008, Georgia created a series of showings at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater. Georgia’s final premiere, Alibi Simile, featuring Jon Spayde, was created for Red Eye Collaboration’s 2008 New Work series.During her career she taught classes and workshops at Webster College andWashington University of St. Louis, Ozone Dance, Carlton and St. Olaf Colleges.Georgia still pops up now and again to participate in various ways, as a participant inDavid Means’ performances, as a stage arts consultant, and as an advocate for up-and-coming performing artists who push boundaries and challenge perceptual norms. Herwork was always based on the adage, “I move when I speak. I speak when I move.”This realization came to life out of the physical frustration of growing up as a stutterer. Itproduced a fascinating lifetime of liberating words “stuck inside” via breath andkinesthetic release. This, and her background of figure skating, provided Georgia with afoundation for her technique and unique movement style.And finally… THANK YOUA quick read of this biography caused me to realize that a mere mention of who didwhat and when, seems profoundly inadequate. I could not have brought to life my