Marisa C. Hayes creates dance for stage, screen and other new media
formats as a multidisciplinary artist interested in the breakdown, and
subsequent overlap, between a variety of academic and creative spheres.
Her dance films and performances have been presented as far afield as
Mongolia, Cuba, and Romania; in addition to much of Western Europe and
North America. Trained in classical ballet from a young age, Hayes went
on to study contemporary dance techniques (Cunningham, Horton) before
developing an intense appreciation for improvisational practices and
experimental performance. Besides dance, she participated in theater,
video, and art history courses at Virginia Commonwealth University School
of the Arts and Goddard College while obtaining her undergraduate degree
in interdisciplinary arts. Hayes has also studied extensively in Japan
with butoh co-founder Kazuo Ohno and his son, Yoshito.
Recently, she has performed live improvisations
at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Espace Culturel Bertin Poirée
in Paris. Her screen dance projects have been presented at the Joyce
Theater in New York, the International Dance Film Festival of Tokyo,
Fabrica de Movimento's Video Dance Festival in Lisbon, Cuba's VIDEO
ARTE festival, and more. In 2008, Hayes was commissioned by the city
of Nancy (France) to create a butoh-inspired dance film in honor of
the country's national celebration of 150 years of diplomatic relations
with Japan. The film, entitled "Anatomie Externe" (External
Anatomy), had its sold-out premiere in the Grand Salon of the city's
town hall. She has received awards and grants from CEC ArtsLink New
York, the New York Theater Communications Group, and the Municipal Office
of Culture in Burgundy.
For the 2008/2009 season, she created a video
dance commission for the National Theater of Le Creusot (France) nestled
within the historic, industrial ruins of the city. In addition to creating
and performing dance, Hayes also enjoys writing about and teaching dance.
She contributes regularly to "The Dance Insider" http://www.danceinsider.com,
and in 2009 will publish an article about studying butoh with the Ohnos
in "Training Grounds", a UK-based research journal on dance
theater pedagogy. At the University of Burgundy, Hayes was recently
invited by the chair of the dance department to teach video dance practice
and theory-based workshops. She has also taught dance improvisation
workshops to adults with mental disabilities at the Foyer d'Acceuil
du Jour in Le Breuil, France. In Le Breuil, she co-founded and organized
the city's first international video dance festival in 2009, which will
soon announce its second edition. In April she was nominated to the
U.S. State Department's cultural envoy program. Hayes has recently been
invited as a guest to Johannes Birringer's "Interaktions Labor",
a multimedia artist laboratory in Saarbrücken, Germany, and her
short video, "Eye Vanish", created with a webcam, won the
Pentacle Movement Media's themed competition. Commentary and the video
can be viewed at http://www.movetheframe.wordpress.com.
Currently, Hayes is developing a live dance
installation and finishing a new performance, The Red Shoes