| HISTORY:
The Foundry is a contemporary dance
company founded in 1998 by choreographers Alex Ketley and Christian
Burns as the repository for their collaborative and individual
projects. Based on
their varied artistic interests, the company works on a per project
basis and since its inception has produced numerous live performance,
video installation, and single channel video pieces. The work
is informed by an extensive background in classical and contemporary
ballet combined with a deep interest in the fine arts, improvisation,
and collaborative process. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the
company's experimental work is considered at the forefront of
movement-based performance and video installation.
For
specifics on seeing The Foundry, please visit our calendar page.
2009
•
The Foundry and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance move into
their permanent home. Two beautiful studios located in the heart
of downtown San Francisco.
•
Alex Ketley and media-artist Les Stuck are Awarded a prestigeous
Gerbode Hewlett Commissioning Grant to create the new work Theater
Irrelevant. For details regarding this project visit the
calendar page on this website.
•
Alex Ketley is awarded a choreographic fellowship at the Maggie
Alessee National Center for Choreography in Florida
2008
•
Alex Ketley creates For You... for Groundworks Dance
company in Cleveland Ohio.
•
Alex Ketley creates Vessel in collaboration with poet
Carol Snow for AXIS Dance Company's 20th Anniversary. The duet
from this work is considered one of the "Top Ten Dance Events
of the Year" by Voice of Dance and wins an Isadora Duncan
Award.
•
Alex Ketley creates If Ever (an Ocean) Relinquished,
for DanceWorks Chicago. He also concieves of a national composer
competition relative to the new piece. For more information click
here.
•
The Foundry presents Monument for the ODC Local Hero's
Festival. The piece is directed by Alex Ketley in collaboration
with a diverse range of dancers from many different disciplines.
Voice of Dance reviews the piece and comments: “The theory
that dance can express the inexpressible has rarely been so adeptly
illustrated.”
•
The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance is the first summer dance
program in the nation to similtaneously offer the work of choreographers
William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, and Jiri Kylian.
•
Alex Ketley creates the double duet Duo for ARC Dance
in Seattle. It is reviewed as being an "evocative piece...
representing some of the most tender moments of the evening."
•
Alex Ketley creates To Color me Different for AXIS Dance
company. The duet is the first full piece he creates for dancers
who have disabilities.
•
Ballet Nouveau Colorado awards Alex Ketley second place in their
inaugural 21st Century Choreography Competition for his work This
Act of Three Collissions. In addition to the choreography
Alex also created the video projection.
2007
•
The Foundry collaborates with The Translation Project's director,
Niloufar Talebi, on a new multimedia work exploring contermporary
Iranian Poetry. It connects the myth of Icarus with the migration
of Iranians, and the solitary journey of the artist/migrant in
the search for artistic freedom. Video and choreography were created
by Alex Ketley, and the original score was created by composer
Bobak Salemi. It premiered November 15 in San Francisco.
•
Christian performs as a guest artist with The Forsythe Company
in Dresden on a new performance Installation created by William
Forsythe titled EQUIVALENCE.
•
Alex Ketley creates the quartet Drift for Ballet Met
as part of their 30th Anniversary Season. It premiered August
23 in Columbus, OH.
•
The company premiered Imprint, May 10-12 at ODC Theater
in San Francisco. The creation and presentation of Imprint
has been generously supported by the Santa Fe Art Institute,
ODC Theater, the Ucross Foundation, CASH and Zeelrbach Grants,
as well as a James Irvine Foundation Dance: Creation to Performance
Grant.
•
Alex Ketley premiered a new work for San Francisco State
University in March and another for Stanford University in May.
•
The company was in residence at ODC Theater in San Francisco to
create Imprint. This work will look at The Foundry's
entire seven year video history through video artists Anthony
Dicenza and Torsten Zenus Burns - with music by former Ballett
Frankfurt composer Leslie Stuck.
•
Alex Ketley created a new work for AXIS Dance Company through
the Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography's "Free
to Rep" program in Tallahassee, Florida.
•
The company was in residence for the month of March at the Ucross
Foundation in Wyoming to prepare for the San Francisco premiere
of Imprint.
•
Alex Ketley was awarded a yearlong CHIME Grant/Residency
to mentor with veteran artist Charlie Moulton. Ketley will explore
older undeveloped ideas regarding text, as well as an interface
with the movie "Battle in Heaven", by mexican director
Carlos Reygadas.
•
Christian Burns created and premiered a new work for the
advanced students at Mt. Holyoke College.
2006
•
Chris Burns created a new work for the advanced students
at the Laban Center in London, England. He created this wortk
in collaboration with Kirstie Simson.
•
Alex Ketley presented Careless in January for
the opening night of the American College Dance Festival. During
the festival his new his new work for San Francisco State University
will also be performed.
•
October - The company was in residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute
to explore and develop initial performance ideas for Imprint.
•
Alex Ketley presented Careless for two sold out shows
at the 2006 West Wave Dance Festival, July 27-28 at Theater Artaud
in San Francisco.
•
February 24, 25, 26 (2006) Alex Ketley presented Lost Line
at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA. This work was
a performance piece working with video shot during 2005 exploring
California, and was generously underwritten by an Irvine: Creation
to Performance Grant.
•
Alex Ketley is appointed Resident Choreographer at the San Francisco
Conservatory of Dance.
2005
•
Alex Ketley received
an inaugural Princess Grace Award for Choreography to create The
Marking of Apology for Robert Moses' company KIN.
•
Ketley and
Burns collaboratively created two new works for the advanced summer
students of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, which will
premiere this summer at the Regency Center in San Francisco. One
of which was the systemic work Hedda Stern.
•
Alex Ketley created Field Effect / The Wish for Even Ground
for North Carolina School for the Arts and Hubbard Street
2.
•
In May The Foundry: Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, and Kirstie
Simson presented Capacity from Shallowness for the San
Francisco International Arts Festival.
•
Alex
Ketley, as a recipient of the 2005 Choo San Goh Award for Choreography,
created Second Memory
for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, collaborating with former Frankfurt
Ballet composer Les Stuck.
•
Alex Ketley presented his new work Syntax at ODC Theater
in San Francisco. This systemic work was a 45 minute duet based
on the mechanics of language created by California poet Carol
Snow.
•
For October,
Alex Ketley and Christian Burns traveled to Taiwan as artists
in residence at the Taipei Artist Village to participate in a
festival investigating inprovisation.
2004
•
In collaboration with Kirstie Simson, Christian Burns creates
a new work at the Laban Center in London, England.
•
The Foundry's video piece "Joygame" is screened at the
Moving Pictures Festival in Toronto, Canada.
•
Christian Burns receives a Choo-San Goh Choreography Award to
create his new work Zenas for the James Sewell Ballet
in Minneapolis, MN.
•
Alex Ketley receives a Creative Work Fund Grant to create Syntax
with San Francisco poet Carol Snow which will feature Foundry
dancer Andrea Flores and her husband Justin Flores.
•
Chris and Alex collaboratively create Dallas for the
advanced students of Alonzo King's LINES Pre-professional Summer
School.
•
Alex Ketley wins a top award at the International Choreographic
Competition of the Festival des Arts
de Saint-Sauveur in Quebec, Canada
•
The Foundry's video piece Jealous Guy (1998) is presented
in the group show Transmit and Transform at the Santa Fe Art Institute
(SFAI) along with the work of artists including Gary Hill, Sharin
Neshat, and Jenny Holzer. For September both Chris and Alex travel
to SFAI as artist in residence to begin the creation of a new
work.
•
As a choreographer representing Hubbard Street Dance Chicago,
Alex Ketley contributes his work Trace Fulfillment (2001)
to the repertory of Florida State University.
2003
•
Chris Burns collaborated with Kirsti Simson to create Untitled
Spaces for the advanced students at the Laban Center in
London England.
•
Alex Ketley completed his second commission Fragments (Repeat
Forever) for Hubbard Street 2, which premiered for the main
company's Inside/Out Program.
•
Alex and Christian created and presented their first evening length
video work, Joygame, at Headlands Center for the Arts.
•
The Foundry's Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, Maurya Kerr, Nicholas
Yagoda, and Andrea Flores created Within Once as a company
in residence at The Yard, a colony for performing artists in Chilmark,
MA.
•
The Foundry's Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, Marina Hotchkiss,
Nicholas Yagoda, Andrea Flores, and Summer Lee Rhatigan present
The Fleshing Memory as the culminating piece of their
Wattis Artist Residency at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The
company is reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle as being “at
the vanguard of American dance.”
2002
•
The Foundry's Alex Ketley and Christian Burns are Wattis Artist
in Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco,
CA. While in residence they create, with the rest of the company,
a three channel video installation and an evening length performance
work for the center's Bay Area Now Festival.
•
Dance Magazine announces The Foundry as one of the Top 25 Dance
Companies to Watch.
•
The Foundry's Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, Nicolas Yagoda, Andrea
Flores, Marina Hotchkiss, Ansuman Biswas, and Anthony Luensman
create and present Kid Thunder at Headlands Center for
the Arts. This show is reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle
as being one of the Top Ten Dance Events of the Year.
2001
•
Alex Ketley and Christian Burns are artists in residence at Headlands
Center for the Arts where they create their performance installation
Capacity from Shallowness . This is reviewed by the San
Francisco Chronicle as being one of the Top Ten Dance Events of
the Year as well as being the impetus for the front-page article
titled Foundry Takes Bay Area Dance to the Next Stage .
•
Alex Ketley wins the Hubbard Street 2 National Choreography Competition.
•
Chris Burns wins the Paula Citron Choreography for Camera Award,
from the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video,
in Toronto, Canada.
2000
•
Alonzo King commissions Alex Ketley and Christian Burns to create
Sea Green and Blue Already Rising for his LINES Ballet
spring season.
•
Alex Ketley creates Tar.JMB for a festival of new composers
at the Marin Civic Auditorium.
•
The Foundry's Alex Ketley, Sandra Stringer, and Derek Powell perform
Salt Flat Pieces (1998) at the gallery 111 Minna.
1999
•
The Foundry: Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, Derek Powell, Eric
Lee, Sandra Stringer, Jennifer Herbert, Don Ketley, and Simon
McCourt present Park as part of Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts outdoor performance series.
•
The video Jealous Guy (1998) is presented at the Impakt
Festival and on ALMANAC Art for Television, both in the Netherlands.
•
Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, and Sandra Stringer create their
performance video work Current Form for Dancers' Group's
Edge Festival.
•
The JennJoy Gallery presents the performance installation Saltwater
in their downtown San Francisco space.
•
Salt Flat Pieces (1998) is presented for Venue Nines
Q Cabaret.
1998
•
Their first piece, Salt Flat Pieces, is performed for
no more than 50 people at San Francisco's Shotwell Studio. This
first piece is reviewed by the San Francisco Guardian as being:
“A gorgeous thing.”
•
Artists Alex Ketley and Christian Burns come together to create
and co-found The Foundry.
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