Joy Madden

Choreographer/Performer​

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Bio

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I am a movement-based artist. My background in visual arts has had a powerful influence on my work in dance. My choreography has been presented throughout the US and in Edinburgh, Scotland. Awards include The Tap Water Award for Best Dance Performance, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland; The Emerging Artist Award, Green Street Studios, Cambridge, MA; The New Art Space Assistance (NASA) Grant, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT; and The Johnnie Walker Keep Walking Fund Grant. In 2014 and 2015, I served as Community Mentor for Stephan Koplowitz’s online course, Creating Site Specific Dance and Performance Works, by California Institute of the Arts.

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Artist Statement

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My artistic process always begins with a nagging sensation, something pesters me until I can find a way to bring it out. I follow this feeling and start collecting things, sometimes I don't even know the significance until later. The pieces start to fit together... a gesture, a song, a phrase. My work tends to be very personal. I find that the more specific I get in my own experience, the more universal the story. I think that no matter what the medium, great art absorbs its audience so that there is nothing present but what unites us, what makes us human.  All that we ignore in daily life is laid bare and suddenly the mundane becomes the miraculous.  My goal with each dance is to be true to an emotion or experience, to tap into the common human experience that connects us.