She has been called a force of nature – this petite, now 63-year-old choreographer, with the pixie haircut and a build to match. But on stage, Molissa Fenley was a lion – engulfing space, swallowing time, attacking movement with unbridled ferocity. In the 1980s, when edginess ruled the New York fashion and art scenes, for Fenley modern dance was highly visceral and with a limit-pushing physicality. Today, she’s still experimenting and discovering.

Read the Full Interview - MOLISSA FENLEY

ICONS INSPIRE is a monthly digital portrait and a one-on-one interview with a groundbreaking choreographer. Get the insider point of view on an important dancemaker creative process, background and training to inspire, provoke and challenge your intellectual repertoire.

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• IS ALL CHOREOGRAPHY ART?
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Your responses...

• Vlad A. - There is a difference between “choreographic phrase” which is mostly art, and “movement combination” which is not always art.
• Liz G. - No, all choreography isn't art. Broadly, choreography consists of organizing movement, which may be everything from a routine for aerobics or folk dance (which may be the basis for a work of art but isn't art itself) to a ballet performance.
• Septime W. - Any time the human body moves in service of communication there is choreography happening. It may not be "high art" as we know it, but there is (almost) always something ennobling about communicating with our bodies.

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