Fenley, Molissa (1954–)
Fenley, Molissa (1954–)
American postmodern dancer and choreographer. Name variations: Avril Molissa Fenley. Born Nov 15, 1954, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Grew up in Nigeria and lived in Spain; returned to US where she began to receive dance training at Mills College in California (1975); founded Molissa Fenley and Dancers in New York City (1977) for which she choreographed numerous works over next 10 years, including Energizer (1980), Hemispheres (1983), and Geologic Moments (1986); began focusing choreography on solo pieces created with visual artists and composers (c. 1987), such as State of Darkness (1988), Bardo (1990), Sightings (1993) and Trace (1997); choreographed numerous works for other companies, including Ohio Ballet, Australian Dance Theater, Deutsche Oper Ballet of Berlin, and National Ballet School of Canada. Further works of choreography include Cenotaph (1985), Esperanto (1985), Feral for Ohio Ballet (1986), Separate Voices (1987), Provenance Unknown (1989), Witches' Float (1993), Channel (1993), Bridge of Dreams for Deutsche Oper (1996), Voices (1999), Island (2000) and Weathering (2000).