Jane Comfort of Oak Ridge, Tennessee is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 choreographer, director, and dancer. She is the founder and artistic director of Jane Comfort and Company based in New York, NY.

Biography

Jane Comfort earned a B.A. in Painting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

 before finding her way to dance. After two years in the Peace Corps in Venezuela, she moved to New York and began studying with Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham

Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...

. She performed with a number of downtown choreographers, including David Gordon, Dana Reitz, Kenneth King, and Jamie Cunningham, before founding her own company in 1978. She has collaborated with visual artists, composers, spoken word artists, DJ's, puppeteers, and dancers to create dance theater works that integrate text and movement. Her work has been produced in Europe, South America, and throughout the United States. Comfort has never shied from relevant social issues and her work gives voice to those afflicted by these issues: women, gays and lesbians, the homeless, the disabled, and the abused.

Choreography

Jane Comfort has choreographed many works for modern dance

Modern dance

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...

 stage as well as off-Broadway, Broadway, and opera stages.

Jane Comfort and Company

• Steady Shift (1978)
• Sign Story (1979)
• Eatless Textures (1981)
• Incorrect Translations (1982)
• Artificial Horizon (1983)
• TV Love (1985)
• Cliffs Notes: Macbeth (1986)
• Portrait (1989)
• Deportment: South (1990)
• Deportment: North (1991)
• Faith Healing (1993)
• S/He (1995)
• Three Bagatelles for the Righteous (1996)
• Underground River (1998) Bessie Award
• Asphalt (2001)
• Persephone' (2004)'
• Fleeting Thoughts: Mr. Henderson's 3AM (2006)
• An American Rendition (2008)

Choreography Credits

• Passion (1994) Original Broadway Musical, Plymouth Theatre, NY
• Amour (2002) Original Broadway Musical, Music Box Theatre
  Music Box Theatre
  The Music Box Theater is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.The once most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to...
  
  , NY
• Wilder (2003) Original Off-Broadway Musical, Playwrights Horizons
  Playwrights Horizons
  Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
  
  , NY
• Much Ado About Nothing (2004) Shakespeare in The Park, Central Park, NY
• Salome (2006) Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago
  Lyric Opera of Chicago
  Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
  
  

Collaborators

Comfort has worked with several artists to produce multidisciplinary dance theater works throughout her career. Her past collaborators include Tigger Benford, Arthur Elgort

Arthur Elgort

Arthur Elgort in New York) is a fashion photographer, who has become especially known for his work as a Vogue photographer.-Life and career:...

, Carl Hancock Rux

Carl Hancock Rux

‎Carl Hancock Rux is an award winning writer and performer; former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts and has taught or been in residence at University of California–San Diego, Stanford University, University of Massachusetts Amherst,...

, Joan La Barbara

Joan La Barbara

Joan La Barbara is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright...

, Steve Miller, Toshi Reagon

Toshi Reagon

Toshi Reagon is an American folk/blues musician. She is the daughter of Freedom Singers co-founders Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, with whom she has sometimes collaborated on musical projects and of Cordell Hull Reagon, a leader of the civil rights movement in...

, Keith Sonnier

Keith Sonnier

Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique...

, DJ Spooky

DJ Spooky

Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...

, and puppeteer Basil Twist

Basil Twist

Basil Twist is a New York City-based puppeteer who is best known for his underwater puppet show, "Symphonie Fantastique".-Life and work:Originally from San Francisco, Basil Twist is a third generation puppeteer. He graduated from the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette in...

.

External links

• Jane Comfort and Company