"Through my art, my goal is to reveal the transcendent through images which focus on the human body as a vehicle of transformation. I am specifically defining a universal art which touches the evolutionary traces embedded in human experience and transcends the limits of race, nationality and gender placed on us all in an aim of discovering what is truly universal about being human."
About the Artists
Maureen Fleming Company, an internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary performance ensemble, 'gives birth to a new vision of the body' (Ballet Tanz International). Under Fleming's direction, the company includes a core of collaborative artists including: Christopher Odo, an eclectic artist, dancer, designer, videographer and photographer, has worked with Maureen Fleming Company since 1993 in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Russia and was in the original Tony award-winning M. Butterfly on Broadway. Bruce Brubaker, a pianist presented by Carnegie Hall has performed with orchestras throughout the U.S. and has toured Europe, South America and Asia. He received Juilliard’s highest award and joined the faculty in 1995 and is chair at Boston’s New England Conservatory Brett Jarvis sound designs include: NY Shakespeare Festival; Roundabout Theatre; Joyce Theatre, Bill Irwin’s Mr. Fox: A Rumination, Mark Dendy’s Dream Analysis; and the Off Broadway production of Avenue Q.
Maureen Fleming Company has collaborated in the original and touring presentations: 'AFTER EROS' (1996), 'DECAY OF THE ANGEL' (2004) and 'WATERS OF IMMORTALITY' (2007), ‘B. MADONNA’ (2013) and 'WILDFLOWERS, A Feminine Genesis' (2018-2019). Crossing cultures and art forms, spanning five continents, MFC depicts images that ask what is universal about the journey of the soul and being human. The company has received national and international acclaim in the La Mama’s 2013 premiere of B. MADONNA in NYC, the O' Shaughnessy in the Twin Cities, the ICA in Boston and was chosen among the Top 10 presentations of the year by the Minneapolis Star Tribune (2015) and the Boston Globe (2017). Other presentations include: the NPN Performing Americas 2012 tour to Colombia’s International Festival of Manizales 2007, 2009, 2012, Argentina’s Teatro REAL 2012, Uruguay’s Teatro Verde 2012; Italy's Spoleto Festival 2011, Cleveland Museum of Art VIVA! 1998, 2009, 2011; Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater 2007, 2009, 2011; S. Korea's Seoul Performing Arts Festival 2004, 2007; Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2004, 2007, 2018; Boston’s Cutler Majestic Theater 2001, 2004, ICA 2007, 2017; Brazil's FILO 2005, 2014 and Mercado Cultural 2011, 2005, 2009; Jacob’s Pillow Festival 2008; Fall for Dance Festival at City Center 2006 and the O’ Shaughnessy Women of Substance Series 2015 and 2019 among others. Fleming's evening length works include collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang and composers Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Guy Klucevsek and Philip Glass.
Awards include: National Endowment for the Arts (1993-1995, 2001, 2004, 2013, 2015), National Performance Network Creation Fund 1996 (After Eros), 2002 (Decay of the Angel), 2005 (Waters of Immortality), NPN Community Fund (2009, 2011), New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project (1997-1999), Rockefeller MAP Fund (1997, 1998), National Performance Network: Performing Americas Project (2003, 2012), Meet the Composer Choreographer Project (1992), the Asian Cultural Council (1990, 2004, 2007), NEA Japan US Friendship Commission (2001), Japan Foundation Performing Arts Japan (2002, 2004, 2007), Arts International (1993- 2003), USArtists International 2009, 2016, Irish Arts Council 2017, Culture Ireland 2019, Dance NYC Covid Relief Fund, and Guggenheim Foundation.
Maureen Fleming Company Biographies
Maureen Fleming (Choreographer/Dance Artist) is renowned for her original form of visual theater realized through choreography for photography, video and live performance. With the discipline of a classicist and the imagination of an iconoclast Fleming connects cultures and art forms in an interdisciplinary celebration of femininity and the universality of the soul’s journey. A Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, S. Korea, Colombia and Latvia, her solo and group works have toured spanning five continents including Italy’s 1995 Spoleto and 1993 Milan Oltre Festivals, Venezuela’s 1994 Encuentro International, Mexico’s 1995 Jose Limon Dance Festival, Iceland’s 1996 Reykjavik Arts Festival, France’s 1996 International Mime Festival in Perigueux and Maison des Cultures in Paris, Germany’s 1997 Tollwood Festival and Oldenburg Internationale Ballett-Tage ‘99, Russia’s Mimolet 97, Colombia’s Contemporanea International Festival 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003, Manizales International Festival 2003, 2005, 2012, S. Korea’s Seoul Performing Arts Festival 2004, Brazil’s FILO 2005, 2014 and Mercado Cultural 2002, 2005, 2009, La Ma Ma E.T.C. 1991 (with Yoshito Ohno), 2004, 2013, 2018 (with the Irish Arts Center), the Pittsburgh Dance Council 1992 and 1996, the 1994 Bates Dance Festival, the 1995 San Francisco Butoh Festival (with Akira Kasai), the 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Project 1996, the Kitchen 1998, University of Cincinnati CCM-Dance 2002, 2009, Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theatre 2000, 2002, 2009, The Cleveland Museum of Art 1998, 2009, 2011, The Virginia Museum of Fine Art 1999, Symphony Space 2003, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2018, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts 2004, 2007, Jacob’s Pillow Festival 2008, Boston’s Majestic Theater 2002, 2004, I.C.A. 2007, 2017 the 2006 Fall for Dance Festival at NY City Center, Performing Americas Tour 2012 to Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay, the O’ Shaughnessy Women of Substance Series 2015 and 2019 and Irish Arts Center and La MaMa E.T.C. co-presentation 2018 in NYC, among others.
Maureen Fleming was born in Japan. After extensive study in Japan with Kazuo Ohno, co-founder of buto, an avant-garde movement developed in post war Japan, Ms. Fleming went on to perform with his son Yoshito Ohno and to tour internationally with performance artist and choreographer Min Tanaka. Fleming continued her training in the United States as a scholarship student under the Cecchetti master Margaret Craske. In 1984 she became an artist-in-residence at La MaMa ETC in New York and has conducted residencies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, The Irish World Academy, NUI Galway, Brown University, RISD, The Seoul Institute of the Arts and The Juilliard School.
Fleming’s Dances From Home Installation involving choreography for photography was commissioned by La MaMa founder Ellen Stewart and presented at La Galleria in NYC in 2009 and by the Project Space Gallery at S.U.N.Y. in 2010. O Black Madonna Installation was presented at La Galleria in conjunction with the NY premiere of ‘B. Madonna’ at La MaMa in N.Y.C. in 2013. Following the La MaMa NYC world premiere in 2013, The O’Shaughnessy presented the Midwest premiere of ‘B. Madonna’ and 'O Black Madonna' Installation as a 2015 Women of Substance Event, followed by the CRASHarts Boston premiere in 2017 at the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Riga Performance Art Festival 2019.
She has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts/C.A.P.S. (1980) in Choreography and Performance Art (1990, 1997), Rockefeller M.A.P. Fund (1997,1998), N.E.F.A National Dance Project Production and Tour Grant (1998, 2000), Instituto Sacatar Artist Residency (2004), (2016), National Performance Network Creation Fund 1996, (After Eros), 2002 (Decay of the Angel), 2005 (Waters of Immortality), NPN Community Fund (2009, 2011), Greenwall Foundation (1998, 2004), Japan US Friendship Commission (2001) and Fulbright Commissions in Colombia (2005), S. Korea (2006, 2007), Ireland (2016 - 2017) and Latvia (2019), and Guggenheim Fellowship (2021). Fleming’s evening length works After Eros (1996), Decay of the Angel (2004) Waters of Immortality (2007), B. Madonna (2013) and Wildflowers, A Feminine Genesis (2018-2019) included collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang and composers Guy Klucevsek, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Philip Glass.
Christopher Odo (Designer, Performer) an eclectic artist, has worked as a designer, dancer, and videographer with Maureen Fleming Company from 1993 to the present in the US, Japan, South Korea, Europe and South America. Designs, performances and exhibitions include New York City Center Fall for Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Festival, Italy’s Spoleto and Milan Oltre Festivals, Mexico’s Jose Limon Dance Festival, Iceland’s Reykjavik Arts Festival, France’s International Mime Festival in Perigueux, Germany’s Tollwood Festival and Oldenburg Internationale Ballett-Tage ’99, Russia’s Mimolet 97, Colombia’s Contemporanea International Festival 98, 99, 2001, 2003, Korea’s Seoul International Performing Arts Festival 2003, the Pittsburgh Dance Council, the San Francisco Butoh Festival, The Cleveland Museum of Art 1998 and VIVA! Festival 2009, 2011, The Virginia Museum of Fine Art, La MaMa in NYC, 2004, 2013, 2018 (co-presented with the Irish Arts Center) the Emerson Majestic Theater 2002 and 2004 and the Institute for Contemporary Art 2007, 2017 in Boston. A National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar and a recipient of a Fulbright Commission, his videography has been presented in La MaMa’s La Galleria 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, the Hartwick College Foreman Gallery and the SUNY Project Space Gallery 2010 and the National Performance Network Performing Americas Tour 2012 in Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay among others. Before joining Maureen Fleming Company, he performed with buto artist, Min Tanaka in the ruins of Delphi in Ellen Stewart’s Oedipus, danced with Solaris/Lakota 1981 to 1985, a cross-cultural project with western dance theatre artists and Native American artists in a tour of the USA, Africa, France and Sweden. He also performed the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Public Theater and Lincoln Center Institute in New York City and was a dancer and martial artist in the original Tony award winning production of M. Butterfly 1988 to 1991 on Broadway and the National Tour directed by John Dexter. With M. Butterfly, he has performed in major venues nationally including the Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles; the Eugene O’Neill in New York; the National Theater in Washington DC; the Geary Theater in San Francisco; the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami; and the Colonial Theater in Boston.
Bruce Brubaker (Pianist) In live performances from the Hollywood Bowl to New York’s Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, from Hong Kong to France’s International Festival at La Roque d'Anthéron, and in recordings for ECM, InFiné, Bedroom Community, and Arabesque — Bruce Brubaker is the new musician, visionary virtuoso, artistic provocateur. Named “Young Musician of the Year” by Musical America, Bruce Brubaker performs Mozart with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and plays Philip Glass’s piano music around the world. Profiled on NBC’s Today show, Brubaker has performed with Meredith Monk, Nico Muhly, Lorraine Hunt, and John Cage. Brubaker is featured on Nico Muhly’s album Drones and Meredith Monk's Piano Songs. Brubaker performs frequently with Maureen Fleming in the U.S., as well as South America, and Asia.
Colm Mac Con Iomaire (Composer/Violinist) is a Multi instrumentalist Composer from Dublin. He is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Irish band The Frames. For the last 25 years they’ve toured internationally and to sold out venues all across the world. Colm released his first solo instrumental record The Hare's Corner in 2008 to critical acclaim. The follow up album this April, And Now The Weather, was an Irish top Ten. He toured the record in USA, Australia and Europe. His music draws on a wide range of styles and influences ranging from classical to traditional, though his music has a unique sound all of it’s own. Colm writes for feature film, contemporary dance, animation, television and theatre. Colm tours as a composer with a full band and also a solo artist. His music for the animated short film, Late Afternoon, was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award.
Brett Jarvis (Sound Designer) Brett has been working in Professional and Corporate Theatre for twenty years. His career has spanned theatre, dance, opera, orchestras, installations, consultation, show control integration, and video design. Recent theatrical credits include: Bullet for Adolf (New World Stages, Written and Directed by Woody Harrelson), The Train Driver (Signature Theatre), and Baby Universe (Drama Desk Nomination 2011) The Burnt Part Boys (New York Stage and Film), The Glass Menagerie (Guild Hall), The Slug Bearers of Kayroll Island (Vineyard Theatre), Speech and Debate (Roundabout Theatre Company), Revolution (Joyce Theatre), Kiki and Herb—Alive on Broadway!, Two Trains Running (2007 Audelco Award Nomination), Landscape of the Body and The Trip to Bountiful (Signature Theatre), and The Best of Both Worlds (American Repertory Theatre). Other selected works include People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons), Bill Irwin’s Mr. Fox: A Rumination, The Regard Evening, and Harlequin Studies (Signature Theatre), Avenue Q (Lucille Lortel Award 2003), The Karaoke Show, Eli’s Comin’, Swimming with Watermelons and Brutal Imagination (Lucille Lortel Nomination 2002), Music Theatre Group’s Running Man, Mark Dendy’s Dream Analysis, and the long running hit The Donkey Show. Selected Design/ Consultation clients include: Experience The Ride LLC, The City of New York, David Monn LLC, David Blaine, VICE, CESA Entertainment, Thom Browne, Villa Eugenie, Senovva, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Samsung, the Juilliard School of Drama, and Fordham University. Mr. Jarvis is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Maureen Fleming Company (PDF) 
Choreography: The Immortal Rose
Photo: Lois Greenfield