Ursula Eagly makes bizarre performances full of darkness, humor, and other contradictions.
Ursula’s work has been commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop, Dance New Amsterdam, and the Howl Fesitval. It has also been presented by The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Chocolate Factory, Dance New Amsterdam (A.I.R. Splice), Dance Theater Workshop (main stage, Studio Series, Fresh Tracks), Danspace Project (DraftWork), Movement Research at the Judson Church, the New Museum, The Old American Can Factory, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, P.S. 122 (Avantgardearamathon, Howl Festival, Schoolhouse Roxx), and Ur. Nationally, her work has been presented by DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas and The Gilded Pony Festival in Troy, New York. She was a 2008-2009 Dance New Amsterdam Artist-in-Residence and has received two individual artist grants from the Queens Council on the Arts and space grants from Topaz Arts and Ur, your neighborhood dance palace.
Ursula is also dedicated to her work as a performer. Since 2006, she has collaborated with choreographer Kathy Westwater, delving into a process-oriented somatic investigation of the pelvis. Also since 2006, she has been a core performer in Yoshiko Chuma’s A Page Out of Order series, a project with which she’s toured throughout Albania, Macedonia, Japan, and Romania, collaborating with incredible local musicians and performers. They’ve performed on proscenium stages like Japan Society in New York and the National Theater of Albania in Tirana; on a long, narrow red carpet at Lincoln Center Out of Doors; in living rooms in Japan; and, for two seven-hour-long endurance performances, at Issue Project Room’s indoor/outdoor space on Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Ursula is also dancing in Christopher Williams’ current project Hen’s Teeth and this summer will perform the role of her namesake, Saint Ursula, in Christopher’s Ursula and the 11,ooo Virgins.
Ursula writes about performance, most recently contributing to Artforum and Critical Correspondence. She edited the catalogue for Juliette Mapp’s Back to New York City curatorial platform at Danspace Project in March 2010.
Ursula is an active member of the New York performance community. She has taught at Dance New Amsterdam as part of the Guest Artist Series. From 2003 to 2009, she supported artists through her work as Danspace Project’s Development Coordinator. Previously, she edited Arts International’s magazine (ai) performance for the planet.
Ursula grew up in Indiana and graduated from Princeton in 1999 with the Francis LeMoyne Page Theater Award for Excellence in Dance and the Class of 1955 Grant for her senior thesis in dance. She also studied at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam.
photograph by Rai Shizuno