Kelly, John (Joseph)

Kelly, John (Joseph), gifted American experimental theater artist; b. Jersey City, N.J., Sept. 21, 1954. His education was varied and included ballet study at the James Waring Studio (1971), the American Ballet Theatre School (1972–74), and the Harkness House for Ballet Arts (1974–76), theater technique and repertoire classes at the Charles Weidman Expression of Two Arts Theatre (1972–74), drawing and printmaking study at the Parsons School of Design (1976–78), vocal training (with Peter Elkus) at the Accademia Musicale Ottorino Respighi in Assisi (1989), trapeze and tight- wire technique at the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco (1992), and study of the Decroux Corporeal Mime technique at the Theatre d’Ange Fou in Paris. Kelly’s career has been equally varied, and he functions, often simultaneously, as author, choreographer, director, and performer in works crossing a variety of genres, including solo and ensemble multi-media dance theater works which incorporate choreography, visual designs, film, and both solo and ensemble vocal work and song. Kelly has performed internationally, his U.S. appearances including three solo vocal recitals in N.Y. as well as in the San Francisco Sym.’s “Mavericks Series” (1998) in a particularly lyrical performance of John Cage’s Aria with Fontana Mix. He was also a featured singer/actor in James Joyce’s The Dead on Broadway in N.Y., a production that was subsequently mounted in Los Angeles. Other recent projects include a collaboration with David Del Tredici on Gay Life Song Cycle, in which he functions as both lyricist and composer. In the 2000-01 season John Kelly & Company, in collaboration with Dance Theatre Workshop, will give the first performance of Find My Way Home, a re-telling of the classic Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridyce for 10 Singers and Dancers that interpolates sections from Gluck’s beloved opera. Particularly popular among audiences is his one-man show, Joni’s Jazz, in which he emulates the vocal style of and performs works by the enduring American popular singer/songwriter, Joni Mitchell. Among his numerous honors are two Bessie Awards (1986, 1988), two Obie Awards (1987, 1991), the American Choreographer Award (1987), a Guggenheim fellowship (1989), the first Oscar Rubenhausen fellowship (1992), two fellowships from the N.Y. Foundation for the Arts (1991; 1997-98), five consecutive Choreographer fellowships from the NEA (1991–96), and a Rockefeller Foundation Grant (1999). He has also held various residencies, including repeat stays at both the Yaddo (1994, 1998, 2000) and MacDowell (1994, 1997) Colonies. In 1999 he began writing Chronicles of a Performance Artist: A Comprehensive Visual Autobiography.

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire