I AM KAREN FINLEY

In this one-woman tour de force, Hunter, in a pristine white wedding dress, dances in a mid-town Manhattan store front window as she transforms herself into a landscape of junk food.

 

Inspired by the great performance artist, Karen Finley, and by the junk food of her youth, Hunter subverts the now unappealing salt, sugar, and fat-laden foods that fill grocery store shelves, and give them new life as a medium for body sculpting. A twisted mix of satire, tragedy, loss and comedy, I AM KAREN FINLEY always entertains. Hunter revels in and dances through a child-like fantasy world where food is liberated beyond one's wildest imagination. Only Hunter can effectively use ketchup and cheese spread as fabulous body moisturizers and shampoos. 

 

Since she began showing her work in the early 1980's, Hunter has consistently developed as a choreographer and performer. She has performed at such venerable venues as what is known now as The Construction Company, DTW, The Kitchen, PS 122, Movement Research, Dixon Place, and beyond, as well as several sites in Providence, RI, where she now resides. Providence, home to Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, is overflowing with creative and innovative visual and performing artists, yet Hunter is well-known there as an independent and fearless performer who defies simple categorization. Her first serious review in DANCE MAGAZINE in September, 1983, defined the rest of her career well: "Her choreography is full of quirky gestures repeated again and again with different timing, in different directions, and in different order. The movements are culled from sports, street dancing, numerous other styles of dance, and the deepest recesses of Hunter's imagination. …all make you feel as if you've crossed into a time zone where motion follows laws you've never learned and may never understand." 

 

Her performance schedule comes at some cost to her, as she is a severe agoraphobic who finds traveling beyond her home area code nearly impossible. In fact, after first developing the disability as a teenager, she found leaving her home state of Michigan the greatest challenge she had ever faced. She was successful only with the 20th effort to do so. As a form of self-therapy and in a desire to share her story with others, she began to talk and dance, telling the tales of her eccentric Midwestern family and revealing to audiences the bizarre workings of her own mind. "I was teaching dance at Hamilton College when I booked Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane for our annual Guest Artist series," Hunter said. "When Bill began to talk while he and Arnie hurled each other around the stage, a light went off! Until then, I never knew that talking was permissible while dancing."

 

In Providence, Hunter founded JUMP! - a young people's dance company that mentors and produces the work of its young choreographers/dancers. In April, 2007, DANCE MAGAZINE cited Hunter as one of a handful of dance educators around the country dedicated to teaching the choreographic arts. "I love creating my solo works and then heading off in the late afternoon to then teach and guide young people," said Hunter. "My life offers a wonderful duality—being completely attuned to my own thoughts and desires and then being responsible for the artistic life of my young dancers."