Polly Motley makes dances, performs, collaborates and teaches. 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, mixing 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 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.  Her collaborators include: dancers Steve Paxton, David Brick, 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’ singing, dancing and performance-making.  She teaches What do you want to do? Where do you want to do it? For 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, traditional and experimental vocal techniques, classical ballet, improvisation, and composition.  She studied dance ethnology, body-mind centering, dance therapy, Feldencrais and the Alexander Technique. 

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, the Vermont Studio Center, 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.

Education

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

Museum & Gallery Performances

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1981-1980
 

1979

 

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
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
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
Exposed
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly, performance and lecture demonstrations
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, sound by Paul Geluso
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
Baryshnikov Art Center, New York, NY
Go Tell Aunt Rhode
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
MassMoCA/ Regional Dance Development Initiative
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
DIVA/ Paris
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Bedford-Stuyvesent Event Center, Bronx, NY
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Asia Society, New York, NY
Traditions, Inventions and Exchange, a collaboration with Mugiyono, Kota Yamazaki, Molly Davies
Zone Chelsea, New York, NY
Drawing From the Body, a performance/installation with video by Molly Davies and sound by DJ M. Singe
Smith College Fine Arts Department, Northampton, MA
Drawing From the Body
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
Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New OrleansLA
Drawing From the Body
Yummi Dance Co., Matsuyama, Japan
The Kitchen, New York, New York
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
SNDD, Amsterdam
MousomTurm, Frankfurt, GR
Drawing From the Body
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
Drawing From the Body
The Kitchen, New York, NY
You Can Sing Anytime, multimedia collaboration with Molly Davies and Charles Amirkhanian
Boulder Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO
The Bale Light Stories, with installation/performance with architect, Vaida Daukantas
University of Colorado Art Gallery, Boulder, CO
Ladder, with installation by Vaida Daukantas, video by Janice Tanaka
Spark Gallery, Denver, CO
Articulating the Spark Space, with installation by Vaida Daukantas
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX
My Fair Lady, performance/installation

Stage Performances

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 Otake's platform: A Body in Places
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC
Video Portrait, collaboration with Molly Davies and Cori Olinghouse
Atlanta, Georgia
Charmed Romantics, quintet for CORE Performance Company
Canaldanse, Paris
Large Open House, with Olivier Besson and Mike Vargas
Danspace Project, NYC
Dancing the Numbers, solo evening
Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT
Vermont Iconoclasts, with Simone Forti
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta
Field, solo
Ballet Freiburg/ Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Director, The Dancer’s Mind
The Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, NYC
evening of new works
Flynn Center for the Arts, Burlington, VT
Apple, with Simone Forti
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
Dance Theater Workshop, NYC
Indigenous Culture, solo evening
Edge Festival San Francisco, San Francisco
Stand By Your Man and Point of Rescue
The University of Colorado, Boulder
DeChirico’s Daughter, with Molly Davies and Takehisa Kosugi
Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany
Night of the Senses, directed by Molly Davies
Pepsico Summerfare, SUNY Purchase
Suspect Terrain with Dana Reitz, Steve Paxton, Laurie Booth, Jennifer Tipton, and Hans Peter Kuhn
Loretto Heights College, Denver, Colorado
DUET, The White Dance, Taiko

Teaching

Bennington College
VermontCollegeDanceFestival/MiddleburyCollege
University of Vermont
Johnson State College
University of Houston
Open Dance Project/Hunter Dance Center, Houston
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

University of Vermont
VermontCollegeDanceFestival, UVM
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

Helen Day Art Center
CDFS, Montpelier, Vermont

CDFS,  Montpelier, Vermont
Shaw Hill Studio, Stowe, Vermont
Bailando Dance Festival, Corpus Christi, Texas

CDFS, Montpelier, Vermont
River Arts Center, Morrisville, Vermont

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Shaw Hill Studio, Stowe, VT

Berkshire Ballet, Johnson, Vermont
Barnevelder Center for the Arts, Houston, Texas

Movement Research, NYC
Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, TX

Barnevelder Center for the Arts, Houston
Movement Research, NYC
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC

University of Colorado, Boulder
Texas Commision on the Arts, Calhoun County, TX

Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia
Morishita Studios, Matsuyama, Japan

Tulane University Dance Dept., New Orleans
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam

Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam
Matsuyama Prefect: Yummi Dance Co., Matsuyama, Japan
The Kitchen, NYCBallet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany

MousonTurm, Frankfurt, Germany
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam

Dancespace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC

Movement Research, NYC

University of Houston, Houston

Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT
University of Houston, TX
Naropa University, Boulder, CO
Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder, CO
Glenwood Springs Dance Festival, Glenwood Springs, CO

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lee, MA
Morishita Studios, Tokyo, Japan
Taman Ismael Masurki, Jakarta, Indonesia

Naropa Institute, Boulder


University of Colorado, Boulder
Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany

Regis University, Denver


Colorado Council for Arts and Humanities/ Artist-in-the-Schools

Loretto Heights College, Denver, CO


Space/Dance/Theater School, Houston
Dallas Ballet Company
Pitsburgh Ballet Company

University of Houston, Clear Lake City