Carl Flink | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Choreographer, dancer, director and academic |
Title | Nadine Jette Sween Professor of Dance Black Label Movement Artistic Director |
Awards | Minnesota Sage Award for Dance - Outstanding Ensemble Black Label Movement Two Mcknight Artist Fellowships for Choreographers |
Academic background | |
Education | B.A., Political Science and Women's Studies J.D., Law |
Alma mater | University of Minnesota Stanford Law School |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Minnesota Stanford University |
Carl Flink is an American choreographer,dancer,director and academic based in Minneapolis,MN USA. He is the founder and artistic director of Black Label Movement,a contemporary dance company based in Minneapolis. He is also the Nadine Jette Sween Professor of Dance and director of the dance program at University of Minnesota. Flink was a member of the Jose Limón Dance Company from 1992 to 1998,among other NYC based dance companies including Creach/Koester Men Dancing,Janis Brenner &Dancers and Nina Winthrop &Dancers. He has been a frequent guest artist with Shapiro &Smith Dance. [1]
Flink's work is focused in choreography,theatrical movement direction,contemporary dance and partnering technique,and dance/science collaborations. His work as a dancer,choreographer and director has been featured in the media numerous times. [2] [3] [4]
Flink's TED talk in 2011 entitled Dance v. PowerPoint has received media recognition. [5] He has been named to the University of Minnesota Theatre Arts &Dance Department Wall of Note and was featured in Dance Magazine in an article entitled "Flying through Space." [6] [7]
Flink graduated in Political Science and Women's Studies from University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts in 1990. He then earned his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 2001,where he was a Public Interest Law Fellow and a Skadden Fellowship Alternate.[ citation needed ]
Flink's work is focused in choreography,movement and performance direction in theater and dance and collaborations between science and dance. Over the past decade his creative work has expanded to include multiple TED Talks,music videos and other internet and film content. Upon completing his bachelor's degree he moved to New York City,where he joined the JoséLimón Dance Company from 1992 to 1998,in addition he worked with Paul Taylor,Creach/Koester Men Dancing,Janis Brenner &Dancers and Joanna Mendl Shaw,among others. In 1998,he attended Stanford Law School where he also served as a guest lecturer with the Stanford University Dance Division until graduation in 2001. In 2001,he joined Farmers’Legal Action Group,Inc. [8] as a staff attorney and also the University of Minnesota Dance Program as an affiliate instructor. In 2005,he joined the dance program as the Endowed Nadine Jette Sween Professor of Dance. He was appointed as an associate professor at the university in 2004 and was promoted to professor in 2017. [1] Flink chaired the University's Theatre Arts &Dance Department from 2008 till 2014 and was appointed as director of the Dance Program from 2005 –2008 and 2017 - present.
Flink is the artistic director of Black Label Movement,which he founded in Minneapolis. [9] [7] Through Black Label,he has created commissions for MADCO (St. Louis,MO),the American Dance Festival Footprints Series (Durham,NC),Same Planet Different World (Chicago,IL) and Company C (San Francisco,CA). He has also created presentations for the 2011 TEDx Brussels,2012 TED:Full Spectrum (Long Beach,CA),2013 TEDMED (Washington D.C. and the 2020 TEDx Minneapolis). His residencies for college dance programs include University of Florida-Gainesville Brenau University,University of North Georgia,University of Utah,Utah Valley State,University of Illinois –Urbana Champaign University of Iowa,Mount Holyoke College and Roger Williams University,among others.
Since 2009,he has worked with University of Minnesota biomedical engineering professor David Odde in a collaboration called The Moving Cell Project (Moving Cell). Through Moving Cell,Flink and Odde created their bodystorming rapid modeling system that uses choreographic strategies,human bodies and space to rapid model scientific research. [10]
As a dance performer,Flink garnered significant critical feedback,particularly during his 8-year career with the Limón Dance Company. His Paul Taylor’s "Epic" (1957) was reviewed by Jennifer Dunning as "there is a stringent,acerbic freshness and drive to Epic,filled as it is with shocking eruptions of something other than stillness in that chill,still landscape." [11] He also performed Daniel Nagrin's Strange Hero,reviewed by Anna Kisselgoff in 1994 as "Mr. Flink enters with total cool…Mr. Flink,superbly weighted and square in his movement,suddenly unleashes the dynamic spurts that tell the strange hero's story. A sudden drop into a plie,a slide to the floor and a spring or a series of incredibly fluid falls recount a furtive existence covered up by surface bravado." [12]
Writing about his performance in JoséLimón's Missa Brevis (1958) and The Winged (1966) Anna Kisselgoff wrote in 1997 that "Daniel Charon,Carl Flink and Francisco Ruvalcaba exemplified an intensity that was expanded into the passionate performance of the entire cast. Mr. Flink and Mr. Ruvalcaba,a young newcomer,are outstanding dancers,and they saved The Winged. [13]
Flink has worked as artistic director of Black Label Movement and as an independent choreographer for dance. He choreographed Wreck,an evening length work,which premiered in January 2008. It was favorably reviewed by Dance Magazine. [14] The work received a Minnesota Dance Sage Award in 2014 for outstanding ensemble for its performance at the Guthrie Theater's Lab Theater in July 2014. HIT was commissioned by the Chicago-based dance company Same Planet Different World in 2011. The work premiered on March 11,2011 at the Dance Center of Columbia College. [15] Black Label Movement's performance of the work was nominated for a 2012 Minnesota Dance Community Sage Award.
Flink began his professional career as a director of movement for theater in 2009. Mary’s Wedding (2009) –The Jungle Theater's production of Stephen Massicote's Mary's Wedding directed by Joel Sass was Flink's premiere theatrical production. [16] Flink made his directorial debut in collaboration with Twin Cities theater artist Luverne Seifert in their theater production of Büchner's Woyzeck,Te Woyzeck Project. In 2012,he directed Spring Awakening:The Musical and made his musical theater debut as a choreographer for Theater LattéDa's production of Spring Awakening:The Musical directed by Peter Rothstein. [17]
Flink was the movement coordinator for Theater Latte's Da's production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 2015. The production topped the Twin Cities Star Tribune's list of top theater productions for 2015. [18] He was the director of movement for the Guthrie Theater's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night directed by Thomas Quaintance. [19]
Since 2009,Flink has been in regular collaboration with University of Minnesota biomedical engineer David Odde through their Moving Cell Project. This collaboration has led to the development of their Bodystorming System,a rapid modeling system that employs choreographic strategies,human bodies and space to develop models for scientific research. Bodystorming has been the subject of a Science Magazine article,an invited essay in Trends in Cellular Biology,a 2013 TEDMED Talk and a Twin Cities Public Television Minnesota Original segment. [10] [20] [21] [22]
Flink's work has also been featured in television and video projects,including:TPT MNO Duet for Wreck (2012) –A Twin Cities Public Television Minnesota Original segment that received a 2012 Regional Emmy Award. The video features a duet choreographed by Flink that he performed with his wife Emilie PlauchéFlink. [23] The work features an original composition by composer Mary Ellen Childs. [24]
Matt Wilson &His Orchestra's music video for When I Was a Writer featured Black Label Movement and choreography by Flink.
Flink's 2021 film "A Dream of Touch When Touch Is Gone" has received numerous awards and film festival official selections across the United States and across the Globe including the 2021 Dance Camera West,2022 Beirut International Women Film Festival,2022 ADF's Movies by Movers (Durham,North Carolina),2022 Athens International Digital Film Festival AIDFF,2021 Kadoma International Film Festival 2021 (Osaka,Japan),among many others.
Flink's 2021 film "cage(d)" has been officially selected six film festivals including the 2022 Andromeda Film Festival (Los Angeles,USA/Istanbul,Turkey),2022 South London Screendance Festival,and the 2021 Threadbare Mitten Film Festival,Holland,MI.
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer,director,choreographer,and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Jerome Robbins was an American dancer,choreographer,film director,theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet,on stage,film,and television.
Shen Wei is a Chinese-American choreographer,painter,and director who resides in New York City. Widely recognized for his defining vision of an intercultural and interdisciplinary mode of movement-based performance,Shen Wei creates original works that employ an assortment of media elements,including dance,painting,sound,sculpture,theater and video. Frequently,critics have commented on his innovative blend of Asian and Western sensibilities,as well as his syncretic approach to performance art.
Alwin Nikolais was an American choreographer,dancer,composer,musician,and teacher. He had created the Nikolais Dance Theatre,and was known for his self-designed innovative costume,lighting and production design. Nikolais gave the world a new vision of dance and was named the "father of multi-media theater."
The American Dance Festival (ADF) under the direction of Executive Director Jodee Nimerichter hosts its main summer dance courses including Summer Dance Intensive,Pre-Professional Dance Intensive,and the Dance Professional Workshops. It also hosts a six-week summer festival of modern dance performances,currently held at Duke University and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham,North Carolina. Several site-specific performances have also taken place outdoors at Duke Gardens and the NC Art Museum in Raleigh,NC.
Gawain Garth Fagan, CD is a Jamaican modern dance choreographer. He is the founder and artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance,a modern dance company based in Rochester,New York.
Bill Cratty was an American modern dancer and choreographer.
JoséArcadio Limón was a dancer and choreographer from Mexico and who developed what is now known as 'Limón technique'. In the 1940s,he founded the JoséLimón Dance Company,and in 1968 he created the JoséLimón Foundation to carry on his work.
Bodystorming is a technique sometimes used in interaction design or as a creativity technique. It has also been cited as catalyzing scientific research when used as a modeling tool.
Daniel Lewis is a U.S. choreographer and dance teacher,currently the Dean of Dance at the New World School of the Arts.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers,led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.
Moses Pendleton is a choreographer,dancer and the artistic director of MOMIX. MOMIX is a dance company that he formed in 1981 as an offshoot of the Pilobolus,which he had co-founded while a senior at Dartmouth College in 1971. He remained a full-time member with the company until 1980. He choreographs dance sculptures that bring together acrobatics,gymnastics,mime,props,and film.
Doug Varone is an American choreographer and director. He works in dance,theater,opera,film and fashion. He is an educator and advocate for dance. His company,Doug Varone and Dancers,has been performing for over three decades.
Tarantella is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Grande Tarantelle by Louis Moreau Gottschalk,arranged by Hershy Kay. The ballet premiered on January 7,1964,at the New York City Center,performed by New York City Ballet's Patricia McBride and Edward Villella.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet,folk,ethnic,religious,and social dancing;and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of,or rebellion against,classical ballet,and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Paul Belville Taylor Jr. was an American dancer and choreographer. He was one of the last living members of the third generation of America's modern dance artists. He founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954 in New York City.
Colin Connor is a Canadian–British dancer,choreographer,and educator,based in the United States. With over forty commissions that span the worlds of contemporary dance,ballet and flamenco. Works draws from a large range of influences –musical,literary,social,and scientific –all used to bring attention back to the communicative power of the human body. He frequently,collaborates with artists of other disciplines,including composers,artists,and designers. As a choreographer,teacher and dancer,Connor is currently influencing the next generation of contemporary dancers and dance makers. Dancers who have trained with Connor have gone on to Mark Morris Dance Group,Scapino Ballet,Hubbard Street Dance,The Limon Dance Company and others.
Henning Rübsam is a choreographer and dancer based in New York City. He is the artistic director of SENSEDANCE,a faculty member of The Juilliard School and Fordham University,and a visiting guest professor at Texas Academy of Ballet. He is the dance curator for Arts at Work and a resident choreographer for Hartford City Ballet.
Johannes Wieland is a choreographer,teacher and dancer.
Elizabeth Johnson Sullivan,known professionally as B.J. Sullivan,is an American dancer and choreographer and the founder of safety release technique in postmodern dance.