My dad likes to remind me that I was intolerable in junior high. Whenever I hear him talk about his daughter, the dancer, he finds a way to tell this story: “We always knew Peanut”—that’s me—”was going to be a dancer. When she was in seventh grade, she would come home from school and just […]
Monica Bill Barnes has made a name for herself by creating whimsical, heartfelt, humorous shows for her company. Recently, she took a step back from the director’s chair to tackle a very different kind of project: choreographing Greta Gerwig’s new Little Women, due for theatrical release December 25. Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Reconstruction Era novel, […]
Monica Bill Barnes is one of the funniest choreographers working today. And though the style of physical humor she’s crafted with her frequent collaborator Anna Bass could elicit laughs even in dead silence, the pair’s antics are often supplemented with—or juxtaposed against—music choices that feel both unexpected and yet somehow perfectly fitting. It turns out […]
If you’ve been following our “In The Studio” series you know that most of our episodes take place in just that—a studio. But at a dress rehearsal for Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s latest project Happy Hour, I found myself in what looked like an episode of “The Office” on a day of shooting an […]
When it feels like everything’s already been done, Monica Bill Barnes still pushes boundaries. Her hit collaboration with “This American Life” host Ira Glass mixed dance with radio-style storytelling, and her Happy Hour series embraced the idea of an office-party-meets-karaoke-meets-dance experience. And although plenty of choreographers are setting site-specific work in museums these days, Barnes […]
I was doing jumping jacks in front of a sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this morning when a security guard’s face caught my eye. He was grinning from cheek to cheek. And his smile reminded me, Oh right, this isn’t normal. Instead, it was Monica Bill Barnes‘ latest experiment: The Museum Workout. For […]
Go behind the scenes at our April 2016 cover shoot with choreographer Monica Bill Barnes!
In sequined dresses and tennis shoes, Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass march up to the statue of Perseus with the Head of Medusa, and start doing jumping jacks to the sounds of ’70s music. From there, they lead a small cohort through a French Renaissance gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then to […]
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