Faye Driscoll is a unique force in the dance and performance landscape, a disturbing voice that resonates with a quiet ferocity. Her singular works continue to boldly confront us with the limits of human interaction, especially in light of the dominant influence of today’s technologies. While stimulating our emotions and senses, her works address issues of social control and humanity in ways that are both challenging and enlightening.
Weathering is a sublime, epic performance experience that echoes the catastrophes and hopes of today’s world. Faye Driscoll is an ideal choice for this year’s Grand Prix de la Danse. Her work is an honest attempt to reconnect with bodies in a world where we think we are connected to many people but are actually very alone. Describing Weathering as “a requiem for the body in the world,” she reminds us that dance reflects the diversity of bodies – simple, natural ones – and invites us to rediscover our common humanity.
Performance-maker
Faye Driscoll is a Doris Duke Award-winning performance maker who has been hailed as a “startlingly original talent” by The New York Times and “a postmillenium postmodern wild woman” by The Village Voice. She was the 2021 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, a Bessie award, an Obie award, and the Jacob’s Pillow Artist Award. Her works have been presented at major American cultural institutions, including Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, ICA/Boston, MCA Chicago, and BAM, and internationally at Tanzim August, Kunstenfestivaldesarts (2021, 2024), the Venice Biennale, Festival d’automne à Paris (2015, 2023), Melbourne Festival, Belfast International Arts Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Centro de Arte Experimental in Buenos Aires, Festival Dias da Dança in Porto, Théâtre Garonne in Toulouse, Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, and Festival TransAmériques in Montreal.
She recently premiered Calving (2022) at Theater Bremen in Germany and Weathering (2023) at New York Live Arts. In 2020, her first solo exhibition, Come On In, opened at Walker Art Center, then went on to Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, On the Boards, and Esplanade in Singapore, offering gallery-goers an experience of six distinct audio-guided experiences called Guided Choreographies for the Living and the Dead. Driscoll’s newest work, Oceanic Feeling, a site-specific performance on Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, was commissioned by Beach Sessions Dance Series for their 10th anniversary season.