Polly Motley is a dance-maker, performer, collaborator and teacher. Her long-term study is of the interactive relationships of video and performance. She works with video-artist, Molly Davies, to create large scale environments of multiple projections and light. Davies mixes live-feed and pre-recorded images to change our perceptions of scale and time.
Motley's work has been presented in New York by the Asia Society, the Baryshnikov Art Center, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, Dance Theatre Workshop, Movement Research, The New York Improvisation Festival, The Jack Tilton Gallery and Zone Chelsea. It has also been presented at the Hammer Museum, ICA Boston, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, DIVA/Paris, the Contemporary Arts Museum/ Houston, Colorado Dance Festival, The Indonesian Dance Festival, Morishita Studios/ Tokyo, Ballet Freiburg/ Pretty Ugly, Mouson Turm Frankfurt, the Flynn Theatre/ Burlington, Bates College Museum of Art, and The Edge Festival/ San Francisco. Collaborators include: dancers Steve Paxton, David Brick/Headlong, Barbara Dilley, Cori Olinghouse, Stacy Spence, Dana Reitz, Simone Forti, Diane Madden and James Clouser; composers Charles Amirkhanian, Takehisa Kosugi, Fred Frith, Sean Clute and DJ M. Singe; video artist Molly Davies, and poets Anne Carson and Jack Collom.
Motley facilitates others’ performance-making. She teaches What do you want to do?Where do you want to do it? How long do you want to do it?, Dance Party!!, Performance and Media (with Molly Davies) and Technique for What? She trained extensively in post-modern and modern dance, classical ballet, improvisation, and composition. She studied dance ethnology, body-mind centering, dance therapy, Feldencrais, Alexander, and traditional and experimental vocal techniques.
She was a guest artist at Naropa Institute where she studied dance ethnology with Allegra Fuller Snyder and worked with Barbara Dilley in improvisation, creative process and contemplative dance. She was Associate Director of James Clouser's Space/ Dance/ Theater in Houston, and was Clouser's choreographic assistant for the Houston Ballet Company, the Pittsburgh Ballet, and the Dallas Ballet.
She has recently taught at Middlebury College, Bennington College, University of Vermont and Johnson State College. She was a faculty member at the University of Houston, Naropa Institute, and Loretto Heights College/ Regis University in Denver. Her duties at the university level have included advising graduate and undergraduate students, choreographing and directing student and faculty concerts, directing graduate and undergraduate creative projects, initiating and evaluating new courses, inter-departmental committee work, recruitment and fund-raising.
She lives in Vermont with video-artist, Molly Davies.
Master of Fine Arts in Choreography, 1992
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Bachelor of Science in Religious Education, 1974
University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas
2016
The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Glyph, choreographed by Katherine Litz, in the exhibit Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1934-1957
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
The Glyph, choreographed by Katherine Litz, in the exhibit Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1934-1957
Johnson State College, Johnson, VT
Video-Performance residency with Molly Davies
2015
Dia Beacon, Beacon, NY
FLAT, in Selected Works of Steve Paxton
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
In No Time, A retrospective of ideas in the work of Polly Motley
2014
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
Exposed
2013
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
2012
2011
River Arts Center, Morrisville, VT
Critical State, two week installation/performances using entire Grange Hall
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts/Downstreet Art, North Adams, MA
Drawing From the Body, a performance/installation with video by Molly Davies and sound by Paul Geluso
2010
Diva/Paris
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie and Dressing
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
2012
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly, performance and lecture demonstrations
2011
River Arts Center, Morrisville, VT
Critical State, two week installation/performances using entire Grange Hall
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts/Downstreet Art, North Adams, MA
Drawing From the Body, a performance/installation with video by Molly Davies and sound by Paul Geluso
2010
Diva/Paris
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie and Dressing
River Arts Center, Morrisville, VT
Critical State, two week installation/performances using entire Grange Hall
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Alliance for the Visual Arts, Lebanon, NH
Falling Downstairs, with video by Molly Davies
2009
Baryshnikov Art Center, New York, NY
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Flynn Center for the Arts, Burlington, VT
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie, with Diane Madden
River Arts, Morrisville, VT
3 works in progress with NYC and Malaysian guest artists
Alliance for the Visual Arts, Lebanon, NH
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
2008
MassMoCA/ Regional Dance Development Initiative
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
2007
DIVA/ Paris
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Bedford-Stuyvesent Event Center, Bronx, NY
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
2006
Asia Society, New York, NY
Asia Society, New York, NY
Traditions, Inventions and Exchange, a collaboration with Mugiyono, Kota Yamazaki, Molly Davies
2005
Zone Chelsea, New York, NY
Drawing From the Body, a performance/installation with video by Molly Davies and sound by DJ M. Singe
2004
Smith College Fine Arts Department, Northampton, MA
Smith College Fine Arts Department, Northampton, MA
Drawing From the Body
2002
The Kitchen, New York, NY
The Kitchen, New York, NY
The Mirror of Simple Souls, an intermedia installation with images by Molly Davies, text by Anne Carson and sound by Fred Frith
2001
Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Drawing From the Body
2000
Yummi Dance Co., Matsuyama, Japan
The Kitchen, New York, New York
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
SNDD, Amsterdam
1999
MousomTurm, Frankfurt, GR
Yummi Dance Co., Matsuyama, Japan
The Kitchen, New York, New York
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
SNDD, Amsterdam
1999
MousomTurm, Frankfurt, GR
Drawing From the Body
1998
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
Drawing From the Body
1995
The Kitchen, New York, NY
You Can Sing Anytime, multimedia collaboration with Molly Davies and Charles Amirkhanian
1990
Boulder Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO
Boulder Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO
The Bale Light Stories, with installation/performance with architect, Vaida Daukantas
1989
University of Colorado Art Gallery, Boulder, CO
University of Colorado Art Gallery, Boulder, CO
Ladder, with installation by Vaida Daukantas, video by Janice Tanaka
1988
Spark Gallery, Denver, CO
Spark Gallery, Denver, CO
Articulating the Spark Space, with installation by Vaida Daukantas
1978
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX
My Fair Lady, performance/installation
Stage Performances
2016
The Yard, Chilmark, MA
Island/Chilmark 2016 with David Brick/Headlong
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC
Precarious, a 3-hr solo, included in Eiko Atake's platform: A Body in Places
2013
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC
Video Portrait, collaboration with Molly Davies and Cori Olinghouse
2009
Atlanta, Georgia
Charmed Romantics, quintet for CORE Performance Company
Atlanta, Georgia
Charmed Romantics, quintet for CORE Performance Company
2007
Canaldanse, Paris
Large Open House, with Olivier Besson and Mike Vargas
Canaldanse, Paris
Large Open House, with Olivier Besson and Mike Vargas
2004
Danspace Project, NYC
Dancing the Numbers, solo evening
Danspace Project, NYC
Dancing the Numbers, solo evening
2003
Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT
Vermont Iconoclasts, with Simone Forti
2002
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta
Field, solo
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta
Field, solo
Ballet Freiburg/ Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Director, The Dancer’s Mind
1997
The Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, NYC
evening of new works
The Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, NYC
evening of new works
Flynn Center for the Arts, Burlington, VT
Apple, with Simone Forti
1995
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta
set by Molly Davies, sound by Charles Amirkhanian
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta
set by Molly Davies, sound by Charles Amirkhanian
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lee, MA
Folk Dance; Stand By Your Man
Morishita Studios, Tokyo
Waiting: Walking and Standing
Waiting: Walking and Standing
1993
Dance Theater Workshop, NYC
Indigenous Culture, solo evening
Dance Theater Workshop, NYC
Indigenous Culture, solo evening
Edge Festival San Francisco, San Francisco
Stand By Your Man and Point of Rescue
1992
The University of Colorado, Boulder
DeChirico’s Daughter, with Molly Davies and Takehisa Kosugi
The University of Colorado, Boulder
DeChirico’s Daughter, with Molly Davies and Takehisa Kosugi
1991
Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany
Night of the Senses, directed by Molly Davies
1989
Pepsico Summerfare, SUNY Purchase
Suspect Terrain with Dana Reitz, Steve Paxton, Laurie Booth, Jennifer Tipton, and Hans Peter Kuhn
1986
Loretto Heights College, Denver, Colorado
DUET, The White Dance, Taiko