Jill Sigman
Jill Sigman is a choreographer, performer, improviser, and
teacher. Trained in classical ballet, modern dance, analytic
philosophy, and the visual arts, Sigman has been making
dances and performance installations since the early 90s. In
1998 she founded her company jill
sigman/thinkdance as a vehicle for these artistic
experiments. In the same year she received her Ph.D. in
philosophy from Princeton University.
Sigman juxtaposes physical movement with elements such as
video, text, and light to create layered landscapes of
meaning that explore pressing questions of our time. To
engage audiences as intellectual partners, she has gravitated
to alternative spaces, socially conscious topics, and work
that plays with the boundaries of dance.
Born in Brooklyn, Sigman was trained extensively in classical
ballet at the Joffrey Ballet and Ballet Center of Brooklyn.
She discovered modern dance at Princeton University where she
received a Certificate in Theater and Dance and studied with
Ze’eva Cohen, Jim May, Mark Taylor, and Sally Hess. Sigman
went on to perform with Ze’eva Cohen Chamber Projects before
forming her own company. She has also been rehearsal director
of the Belgian Irma Vandenbroucke! Danstheater and
has collaborated with the Brooklyn-based collective Red Dive.
Known as a compelling solo performer, Sigman has created
numerous solo shows. "Sigman is riveting," the Village
Voice wrote of Vision Begins, "an elf with the
rebelliousness of the '60s avant-garde, the piscine fluidity
of a Tharp dancer, and the charisma and athleticism of
today's virtuosos." Her work for large groups grows out of
her exploration of solo performance.
As an educator, Sigman gives workshops in technique,
improvisation, composition, and dance theory, as well as
educational presentations at colleges, high schools, and
community centers. She has been a member of the dance faculty
at Princeton University, a Movement Tutor at the Imaginary
Academy in Grozjnan, Croatia, a professor of aesthetics at
Brooklyn College, and a frequent guest teacher in Belgium.
Sigman writes and lectures on art theory and has been
published in The Journal of Philosophical Research
and Midwest Studies in Philosophy, and profiled for
her integration of body and theory in the Serbian feminist
journal Pro Femina. She has been a guest editor of
the Movement Research Performance Journal.
In 2003, Sigman left 200 texts about why she makes art around
NYC- in buses, phone booths, public bathrooms, and
supermarket freezers.