Vanessa Anspaugh
Space Grant 2010/2011

Vanessa Anspaugh, is a choreographer/performance based artist. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA amongst an eclectic family of artists, affected by the vast urban landscape and Pacific Ocean. The numerous paradigms of paradox existing in Los Angeles in the 80’s and 90’s made vibrant and stark impressions on her as a meandering child of this particular time and place. In 2001, she relocated to New York where she based herself for the better part of the last two decades. As a performer, Anspaugh has worked for Sara Shelton Mann, Taylor Mac, Faye Driscoll, Aretha Aoki, Juliette Mapp, Robbinschilds, and devynn emory. She was deeply influenced by her one year with MGM GRAND (Modern Garage Movement) collaborating with Jmy Leary and Biba Bell with whom she toured the western coast. In 2017, she was a Bessie nominee for Most Outstanding Production (The End of Men) as well as a NEFA NDP (National Dance Project) 2020 grant finalist (Aggression Confession).

Her work has been commissioned and presented by The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project, DTW, The Sculpture Center, The Kitchen, The Rubin Museum, The River to River Festival, and The Hessel Museum along with other national & international venues. She has had a number of creative residencies supported by Brooklyn Arts Exchange, CPR, Abrons Art Center, DTW, Kaatsbaan Center for the Arts, Bard Fisher Center, Colby College, The Bates Dance Festival, Bowdoin College, Studio 303, School for Contemporary Dance and APE Gallery among others. In 2013, beloved dance champion Sam Miller invited her to join the first cohort of the LMCC Extended Life Artist Grantee & Residency program where she worked closely with mentor Jennifer Monson. Her work has been written about in multiple periodicals such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art Forum, The Brooklyn Rail, The Movement Research Journal, and academic journals, such as a piece on The End of Men by academic Mirium Felton-Dansky in the May 2020 issue of Theatre Survey. Anspaugh has moved about as a visiting teaching artist with time at Bowdoin, Colby and Bates Colleges in Maine and at Smith College in Massachusetts. Anspaugh has received funding for her work through organizations such as The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Doris Duke Foundation, The Kindling Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts, and Dance NYC among others.

Over the last year, Anspaugh has made four new works, all under the subject of deaths that come too soon; Funerals for the Ocean, Early Mournings, Late Mournings and now mourning after mornings which premiers at New York Live Arts November 10-12. Collaborators for this work are: Anna Azrieli, Rebecca Serrell, maura nguyễn donohue, Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone, Jo Warren, C Anthony-Green, Umechi Born, and Pia, along with composer Leslie Alison, lighting designer Kathy Couch, and dramaturgical support by Mike Mikos.

Collaborators on each of the other pieces include: Asher Woodworth, Molly McBride, Meredith Bove, Sonya Marx, Syd Schwartz, Maya Laliberte, Chloe London, Erin Kouwe, El Walton, Kati Payne, Nadia Granados, Caitlin Scholl, Allie James, Kristen Stake, Meghan Fredrick, Isa Pereira-Tosado, Isabella Kemp, Tegan Mara, Quinn Coolidge, Mara Kelly & Dramaturg Mike Mikos.

Website: https://www.vanessaanspaugh.com/