BIO
Stuart B Meyers (@stuartbmeyers) is a multidisciplinary creator and performer. He primarily makes dance theatre and new Jewish celebrations.
Stuart's worked alongside Robert Wilson, Christopher Williams, Thomas Bo Nilsson, Colette Sadler, Julian Webber, Nick Cave, Ann Liv Young, A.R.M. and Tino Sehgal, and has performed in venues including Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin), The Stedelijk (Amsterdam), Schaubuhne (Berlin), Southbank Centre (London), The Park Avenue Armory, The High Line, and The Shed (NYC).
Stuart’s ritual-performance *The Shabbos Queen* has toured Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam & Krakow with support from Berlin’s Cultural Senate and several US-based organizations. “BE YOUR OWN YENTA!: a guide to becoming your own matchmaker,” recently premiered with support from the Brooklyn Arts Council. Other works include WITCH DANCE (Berlin), KOPFKINO (head cinema) (Berlin & NYC (NYLA) and Love Kills (for the 2019 Brooklyn Academy of Music Gala).
Stuart is a 2019-2020 NY Live Arts' Fresh Tracks Fellow, a 2020 CPR Artist in Residence, a 2018 danceWeb Scholar, a Hypnotist, has studied Torah & Talmud through Drisha & The Romemu Yeshiva, and works with Tarot, Morphology & Dreams through a Kabbalistic lineage (Bonnie Buckner & The School of Images). He’ a Boston University Graduate (BFA Theatre Arts, Minor Dance) and is based in Brooklyn.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is about waking people up, to themselves, their emotions, their bodies, and their spirits. I create dance-theatre, installations and ritual events so that the un-pinnable, the in-betweenness, and mystery can blossom and breathe.
From a young age, I was smack dab in front of the TV any chance I got. I paraded around my parents living room lip-syncing to Barbra Streisand and directed my friends in word-for-word, gesture-for-gesture movie reenactments. Alternatively, I've always felt connected to magic, to the occult, to that which lies beyond words and sense. I wrestle with questions like “Why am I alive?” and “What’s it all mean?” My work therefore lives between the light and the dark, energetically and thematically reaching deep below and rising to great, bright heights.
Choreographically, I remix contemporary and club dance, old movie-acting, pantomime and trance into a movement style which is uniquely my own. The result is rhythmically raucous, time-warping, soulful and sensitive, an attempt to feel under the surface of what is visible. I support my physical research through somatic practices such as Continuum Movement, Klein Technique and Feldenkrais. I also create events in which I translate ancient ideas and rituals, often Jewish, into fresh, contemporary experiences. Currently, I'm working to bridge the two in one piece.
All of my work is about recognizing personal dis-ease and calling for a repair. Some works serve as a harsh alarm clock, others offer solutions. My dance pieces “WITCH DANCE” and “KOPFKINO: head cinema,” for example, serve as a jolt, whereas my Queer, DIY & Dreamy Shabbat Dinner Delight & Extravaganza *The Shabbos Queen* and new matchmaking ballyhoo "BE YOUR OWN YENTA!" hold space for community and togetherness.
Through all of my art, I offer compassion, letting people know that they’re not alone in their struggle to be.
Stuart B Meyers (@stuartbmeyers) is a multidisciplinary creator and performer. He primarily makes dance theatre and new Jewish celebrations.
Stuart's worked alongside Robert Wilson, Christopher Williams, Thomas Bo Nilsson, Colette Sadler, Julian Webber, Nick Cave, Ann Liv Young, A.R.M. and Tino Sehgal, and has performed in venues including Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin), The Stedelijk (Amsterdam), Schaubuhne (Berlin), Southbank Centre (London), The Park Avenue Armory, The High Line, and The Shed (NYC).
Stuart’s ritual-performance *The Shabbos Queen* has toured Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam & Krakow with support from Berlin’s Cultural Senate and several US-based organizations. “BE YOUR OWN YENTA!: a guide to becoming your own matchmaker,” recently premiered with support from the Brooklyn Arts Council. Other works include WITCH DANCE (Berlin), KOPFKINO (head cinema) (Berlin & NYC (NYLA) and Love Kills (for the 2019 Brooklyn Academy of Music Gala).
Stuart is a 2019-2020 NY Live Arts' Fresh Tracks Fellow, a 2020 CPR Artist in Residence, a 2018 danceWeb Scholar, a Hypnotist, has studied Torah & Talmud through Drisha & The Romemu Yeshiva, and works with Tarot, Morphology & Dreams through a Kabbalistic lineage (Bonnie Buckner & The School of Images). He’ a Boston University Graduate (BFA Theatre Arts, Minor Dance) and is based in Brooklyn.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is about waking people up, to themselves, their emotions, their bodies, and their spirits. I create dance-theatre, installations and ritual events so that the un-pinnable, the in-betweenness, and mystery can blossom and breathe.
From a young age, I was smack dab in front of the TV any chance I got. I paraded around my parents living room lip-syncing to Barbra Streisand and directed my friends in word-for-word, gesture-for-gesture movie reenactments. Alternatively, I've always felt connected to magic, to the occult, to that which lies beyond words and sense. I wrestle with questions like “Why am I alive?” and “What’s it all mean?” My work therefore lives between the light and the dark, energetically and thematically reaching deep below and rising to great, bright heights.
Choreographically, I remix contemporary and club dance, old movie-acting, pantomime and trance into a movement style which is uniquely my own. The result is rhythmically raucous, time-warping, soulful and sensitive, an attempt to feel under the surface of what is visible. I support my physical research through somatic practices such as Continuum Movement, Klein Technique and Feldenkrais. I also create events in which I translate ancient ideas and rituals, often Jewish, into fresh, contemporary experiences. Currently, I'm working to bridge the two in one piece.
All of my work is about recognizing personal dis-ease and calling for a repair. Some works serve as a harsh alarm clock, others offer solutions. My dance pieces “WITCH DANCE” and “KOPFKINO: head cinema,” for example, serve as a jolt, whereas my Queer, DIY & Dreamy Shabbat Dinner Delight & Extravaganza *The Shabbos Queen* and new matchmaking ballyhoo "BE YOUR OWN YENTA!" hold space for community and togetherness.
Through all of my art, I offer compassion, letting people know that they’re not alone in their struggle to be.