Juliana F. May. Photo by Chris Cameron.
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This group conversation facilitated by Lena Engelstein will center Juliana F. May’s choreographic process over the last 20 years as she embarks on her current work Optimistic Voices premiering in the fall of 2025. Inspired by May’s ongoing Art Group workshops which generate community around making, all are welcome and are invited to participate by listening, asking questions, and bringing their own issues surrounding creative process, autobiography, and performance and setting material.
OPEN LAB invites artists and scholars to facilitate theoretical discussions and embodied workshops, providing a platform for practice-based inquiry and creative exchange.
Optimistic Voices is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
A Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, Juliana F. May has created ten evening length works since 2002 with commissions and encore performances from Dance Theater Workshop, New York Live Arts, The Chocolate Factory Theater, American Realness, and Abrons Arts Center. May has been awarded grants and residencies through The MAP Fund, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Gibney Dance In Process, and Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. In 2002, May received her BA in Dance and Art History from Oberlin College, and, in 2012, she received an MFA in Choreography from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. May served as the Artistic Advisor for New York Live Arts' Fresh Tracks Residency Program from 2017-2019 and 2024-present and has been on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College since 2017.
Lena Engelstein is a dancer, performer, and choreographer. She is part of the interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, headed by Lisa Fagan. Her work has been dubbed “The High Weird” by critics and lauded as “subtly campy and hilariously queer” by The Brooklyn Rail. Recent Choreography/Direction includes Deepe Darknesse at New York Live Arts’ Live Artery 2024 with collaborator Lisa Fagan and CHILD's 1-800-3592-113592 at Theater Mitu in March 2024. Recent performance credits include Alexa West, Barnett Cohen, Brendan Drake, Falcon Dance (company member, 2018-present), Isa Spector, Jo Warren, Owen Prum + Lili Dekker, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, and Third Rail Company’s Then She Fell (company member, 2019-2020). Engelstein currently choreographs for and performs with the band Lou Tides. She holds a BA in Mathematics from Colorado College and has taught at SUNY Brockport, Colorado Mesa University, Bard College, and The Field Center.