ABOUT

BANDportier
BAND is a project-based dance collective directed by Kendra Portier. Bringing together independent, multi-hyphenate artists, BAND/kp develops collaborative choreographic works that function as both performance and practice. Their work has been commissioned, presented, and supported by DanceNOW (NYC), Art for the People (NJ), Dance New Amsterdam (NY), NYS DanceForce (NY), Dixon Place (NY), Gowanus Arts+Production (NY), CRAWL / the People Movers (NY), New York University’s Tisch Summer Dance (NYC), Bates Dance Festival (ME), MadDash at the University of Maryland, the Madden Dance Project at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Zenon Dance Company, Dance Place (D.C.), among others.

COLLABORATORS:
Emilia Bruno, Tristan Koepke, Christina Robson, Allie James, bree breeden, Jessie Young, Allie James, Greg Catellier, Kristen O’Neal, Rebecca Steinberg, Zoe Walders, Daniel Miramontes, Brit Falcon, MK Ford, Adriane Fang, Stevie Oakes, Candace Scarborough, Adam Crawley aka DJ Plié (sound),  Sam Crawford (sound), Jake Meginsky (sound), Marielis Garcia, Sydney Lemelin, Chris Brusberg (lighting), Anna Adams Stark, Laurel Snyder, Jasmine Hearn, Marion Spencer, Sarah Beth Oppenheim, Edward Rice, Simon Thomas Train, Aya Wilson, Sydnie Liggett, Molly McSherry, Katie Stehura, Sara Gibbons, Emma Judkins, Patrick McGrath Needham, Leighton Lachman, Meg Madorin, Dante Brown, Marcos Duran, Rebecca Lubart, Megan Adele Bascom, Meghan Frederick, Morgan Griffen, Theresa Elwell, Madeline Wilcox, Jenna Riegel, Michael Ingle, Leah Wilks, Alexis Miller, Phoebe Ballard, Lindsey Jennings, Mary Kate Ford, Natalie Stehly. Mike Wall\SoundFORmovement (sound), Albert Mathias (sound),

KENDRA PORTIER
I was born in a blizzard, on the lands of the Myaamia and Hopewell peoples—the Mound Builders before them—in what is now called Ostrander, Ohio. My family is an extensive forest. My parents are wild, solid, and kind: my mom, a tiny motorcycle-ridin’ woman from Detroit; my dad, one of 9 boys, born in the Netherlands, his parents before him born in Indonesia. I am eldest of four.

‍Drawing from her visual arts practice, Kendra’s work lives in embodied study, tested and realized through choreographic processes that shape thought and color into movement. She has facilitated and shared dance across the globe—from San Diego to Salzburg, Dushanbe to Athens (Greece, Georgia, and Ohio).

She has cultivated a teaching practice that has unfolded across more than thirty academic commissions, faculty positions with multiple NYC-based dance organizations, and invitations to festivals, workshops, and residencies nationwide. As a collaborator and performer, Portier has contributed to a wide range of interdisciplinary projects—from a decade-long tenure with David Dorfman Dance to current projects with Jasmine Hearn Collaborates, Jungwoong Kim, and Cynthia Oliver / COCo Dance.

Portier holds a BFA with Honors from the Ohio State University and an MFA in dance with specialization in visual design from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is awarded the Maya Brin Endowed Professorship in Dance.
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