Jacqulyn Buglisi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1951-02-19)February 19, 1951 (age 74) New York City,New York, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Choreographer,artistic director,dancer,educator |
| Awards | 2020 Bessie Award |
| Website | Buglisi Dance TheatreTable of Silence |
Jacqulyn Buglisi is an Americanchoreographer,artistic director,dancer, andeducator.[1] In 1993, she co-founded the Buglisi Dance Theatre withTerese Capucilli,Christine Dakin, and Donlin Foreman.[2]
Buglisi primarily choreographsballet works and has created a repertoire of over 80 pieces.[3]
Internationally her work has been featured at theMelbourne International Festival (State Theatre), International Dance Week inPrague,Sadler's Wells Theatre inLondon, Rovereto Festival inItaly, and other venues across theCzech Republic,Japan,France, andIsrael.[4]
In a 2001 review forDance Magazine, dance criticLynn Garafola wrote, "Buglisi is a rarity in today's world, a woman who delights in the many splendid forms of female being. Probably no woman, other than Graham, has plumbed such emotional depths choreographically."[5]
In his review of Buglisi’sUnder the Buttonwood Tree, which Buglisi had choreographed for Lower Manhattan Cultural Council,Alastair Macaulay ofThe New York Times remarked, "Cecil B. DeMille would have been proud."[6]
Buglisi has collaborated with Venezuelan painter and filmmakerJacobo Borges on works includingRain (music byGlen Velez),Sand (music byPhilip Glass), andBlue Cathedral (music byJennifer Higdon). She has also worked with composer Jack Mehler.[7]
Buglisi is the co-creator, with Italian visual artist Rosella Vasta, of the Table of Silence Project 9/11, a large-scale public tribute and ritual performance presented annually onSeptember 11 atLincoln Center since 2011.[8][9] The free performance is a ritual and call to action for peace. Lincoln Center live-streamed the tribute viaYouTube.[10][11]
Site-specific performances ofTable of Silence have been staged at multiple venues, includingSyracuse University's Pan Am 103 Remembrance Wall during the company'sNYSCA residency, in Perugia and Assisi (Italy), and at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, as a tribute to the victims of the May 23, 2014,Isla Vista shooting.[12]
Buglisi’s company repertoire is archived at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of theNew York Public Library for the Performing Arts.[13]
Buglisi was associated with theMartha Graham Dance Company.[2] She performed in tribute to Graham during the CBS-televisedKennedy Center Honors, and was featured in the PBS specialAn Evening of Dance and Conversation with Martha Graham.[14][15]
Coached byJane Sherman, she performed solos byRuth St. Denis at venues includingJacob's Pillow and the Lyon Biennale de la Danse. She appeared in the documentariesTrailblazers of American Modern Dance andThe Spirit of Denishawn, each of which highlight early 20th-century pioneers of American modern dance.[16]
Buglisi has been commissioned by the Juilliard School's Emerging Modern Master's Series, Ailey/Fordham University B.F.A. Program, theUniversity of Richmond,California State University, Long Beach,George Mason University, Purchase Conservatory of Dance,Interlochen Center for the Arts, the State Ballet College of Oslo, Oklahoma Arts Institute,Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival,Boston Conservatory of Music,Randolph-Macon College, andNational Dance Institute, among others.[17]
In 1970, Buglisi founded the first school of contemporary dance for the community ofSpoleto, Italy, and was the Master Artist-in-Residence atKaatsbaan Cultural Park and at theAtlantic Center for the Arts.[2] She taught for the Dance Aspen Festival from 1990 to 1995, theJulio Bocca Center in Argentina, theVictoria College in Melbourne in 1999, and the Chautauqua Institution and Festival from 1995 to 2005.[18]
She was named honorary chair for theMarymount Manhattan College 2005 Gala[19] and served as a panelist for both the Heinz Family Foundation and theNew Jersey State Council on the Arts. Buglisi holds creative and educational residencies atKaatsbaan International Dance Center,Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts-Institute,SUNY Purchase, California State University, Long Beach,George Mason University,University of Richmond, The Mahayfee Theater Class Act in FSU at Tallahassee, Petersburg, Florida, andSyracuse University.[20]
Buglisi was on the Dance/USA's Board of Trustees as Chair of the Artistic Directors' Council from 2010 to 2013.[21]
Buglisi's awards and honors include theAmerican Dance Guild Award for Artistic Excellence, the Italian International Lifetime Achievement Award 2016, the Fiorello LaGuardia Award for Excellence in the field of Dance, the 2014 Kaatsbaan International Playing Field Award, the Gertrude Shurr Award for Dance, andAltria Group's 2007 Women Choreographer Initiative Award. Buglisi has received grants for new work from theNational Endowment for the Arts,New York State Council on the Arts,NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Harkness Foundation for Dance,Howard Gilman Foundation, and The O'Donnell-Green Music & Dance Foundation.[22]
Buglisi received theJuilliard President’s Medal[23] and the 2021Bessie’s Awards Special Citation forTable of Silence Project 9/11.[24][25]
