Sharon Mansur is a multi-media dance artist and lover of motion. Her work integrates choreography and improvisation, visual and visceral landscapes, formal and experimental performance approaches. Improvisation as a research approach and performance form is a particular focus, as well as embodying subtle layers of presence and identity, and site-specific performance installations. Sharon is currently based in the Washington DC area, and is an Assistant Professor of Dance in The School of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at University of Maryland.
INSERT [ ] HERE (2014)
photos by Zachary Z. Handler
Co-directed by Nick Bryson & Sharon Mansur
Site-situated performance/inhabitation throughout the newly renovated Dance Place building
with guest artists Daniel Burkholder, Naoko Maeshiba, and featuring performers: Katie Harris Banks, Erin Crawley-Woods, Maré Hieronimus, Lynne Price
sound by Tara Rodgers, with Alexa Cantalupo, lighting by Ben Levine
….the eyes move, the body shifts, the building responds….
Performances: Saturday, June 21 at 6:30pm and 8pm & Sunday, June 22 5:30pm and 7pm, 2014, Dance Place, Washington DC
The INSERT [ ] HERE project is a performative experiment in embodiment, co-directed by contemporary dance artists Nick Bryson (Ireland) and Sharon Mansur (Washington, DC) employing imaginative notions of insertion via kinetic, spatial, aural and visual realms. This work is evolving from Mansur and Bryson’s unique international partnership, involving creative practices in somatics and dance, along with contributions from collaborating artists. Also featuring guest artists Daniel Burkholder (DC) and Naoko Maeshiba (Baltimore), with experimental sound artist Tara Rodgers (DC).
Invited on a promenade throughout the recently renovated Dance Place building, the audience steps into a timeless suspension, a respite from typical daily rhythms. Performers and audience together create an intimate and meditative space, cultivating a gradual unfolding of relationships to time and sensation, sight and perception, space and place. Performers Erin Crawley-Woods, Kathryn Harris Banks, Maré Hieronimus and Lynne Price, along with musician Alexa Cantalupo join in to sweep off the sawdust after Dance Place gets a makeover. This transformative experience is offered as a rite of passage for this familiar yet new environment. In part, this site-situated event asks the question: what space does the dancing body cultivate? Through INSERT [ ] HERE we inhabit a shared realm that connects us to our essential humanity through body and spirit.
INSERT [ ] HERE is supported, in part, by a University of Maryland Creative and Performing Arts Award, the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts and the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, Ireland.
(re) semblance (2011)
(re)semblance (2011) is a site specific dance installation directed by Sharon Mansur
A site-specific multi-media performance/installation project examining the nature of feminine identity through movement, sound, photography and video, located outside theater buildings, in lobbies and through the audience aisles. Created in collaboration with mansurdance artists Maré Hieronimus, Erica Rebollar, Marcy Schlissel and Ginger Wagg, with sound/visual artist Rebecca C. Adams, video artist Boris Willis, and costumes by Sue Chiang with Tzveta Kassabova.
here/there (2007-2010)
photos by Eric Bandiero at Solar One Dance Festival, NYC
here/there (2007-2010) is s long distance dance performance, installation and dance for film directed by Sharon Mansur
A movement, photography and videography series reflecting on the nature of being present and absent, comprised of solo, trio, and group performances and a series of five short dance videos. Contributions from mansurdance artists Maré Hieronimus, Marcy Schlissel, and Ginger Wagg, sound by Myo, video editing by Boris Willis, photography by Sharon Mansur, Matthew Park, and Ginger Wagg, and costumes by Sharon Mansur