Jonah Bokaer

Jonah Bokaer (born October 1, 1981) is an American choreographer and media artist.

He works on live performances in the United States and elsewhere, including choreography, digital media, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and social enterprise.

Originally from Ithaca, New York, Bokaer trained in dance at Cornell University, and subsequently graduated from University of North Carolina School of the Arts as a North Carolina Academic Scholar (Contemporary Dance/Performance, 2000).

As a dancer, Bokaer has worked with Merce Cunningham (2000–2007), John Jasperse (2004–2005), David Gordon (2005–2006), Deborah Hay (2005), Tino Sehgal (2008), and many others.

He has also interpreted the choreography of George Balanchine as restaged by Melissa Hayden.

Bokaer has been honored with a Human Rights Award (Public Volunteerism, 2000), a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Dance & Media, 2005–2006), the inaugural Gallery Installation Fellowship from Dance Theater Workshop (2007), and one of four national Dance Access Scholarships from Dance/USA, with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2007), and the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (2009).

Under the leadership Bokaer in 2002, a group of artists and choreographers formed Chez Bushwick, an adventurous arts organization that has significantly impacted a new generation of dance artists, choreographers, and performers in the United States, and beyond.

Founding artists developed a series of public programs that have become emblematic of a new way of working in New York City: across borders, across disciplines, employing variable aesthetic signatures, and overturning divisions between choreographer, curator, producer, and audience member.

Through strategies of collaboration, activism, and public dialogue, these cultural strategies have achieved economic justice during a challenging real estate and funding climate in NYC.

Chez Bushwick was recently awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund.

Bokaer is a co-founder of the Center for Performance Research (CPR), a nonprofit organization in collaboration with John Jasperse/Thin Man Dance.

CPR's L.E.E.D.-certified green building, the first in Brooklyn, provides affordable space for rehearsal and performance, arts programming, education and engagement with the community.

Bokaer's writings have been published in Artwurl, The American Society for Alexander Teachers, Critical Correspondence, AADIAL Magazine, Goldrush Dance Magazine, ITCH, Movement Research Performance Journal, and NYFA Current.

Bokaer's choreography over the past decade has been made possible in large part through a vigorous artistic relationship with France.

Dance and choreography

Production and presentation

Leadership

Partnerships

Recruited for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the unprecedented age of 18, Bokaer pursued a parallel degree in Visual & Media Studies at The New School (2003–2007), where he received the Joan Kirnsner Memorial Award.

Additional studies in media and performance occurred at Parsons The New School for Design, NYU Performance Studies, and through self-taught explorations into digital media and 3D animation: such studies led to the development of a rare, multi-disciplinary approach to choreography, addressing the human body in relation to contemporary technologies.

Bokaer is also a frequent choreographer for Robert Wilson (2007–Present).

Bokaer is the author of 30 original choreographies, produced in Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Additionally, Bokaer recently accepted the Special Citation at the New York Dance & Performance / Bessie Awards, for the arts organization Chez Bushwick (2007); his choreography "The Invention Of Minus One" was also awarded a Bessie Award for original lighting design by Aaron Copp (2008).

He is also a 2008–2009 Young Leader of the French American Foundation, and is the first dance artist to have been awarded.

Awards, honors, fellowships

Notes

Further reading

Recent engagements include the Attakalari Performance Biennale (Bangalore 2009), the Rotterdamse Schouwburg (Holland 2010), Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA 2011), Festival d'Avignon (Avignon, 2012), BAM Next Wave Festival, and a commission from the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, D.C.).