Erin Ellen Kelly

Erin Ellen Kelly
MFA Fellow

Erin Ellen Kelly is a body based artist that creates performances and ephemeral collages for on-site presentation, the stage, installations, photographs and video. Her aim is for the body and its dance to explore nuanced relationships to environments and society.

Biography

Through a process based approach Kelly questions what constitutes a sense of belonging, with the aim for the body and its dance to explore subtle and nuanced relationships to environments and society.

Kelly choreographs for on-site presentation, the stage, installations, video and photographs and presents in locations as varied as gardens, galleries, warehouses, gutted stores, boats, theaters, in windows and by the side of the road. She is driven by the intelligence of the body, its movements, its actions, and functional, ritual, and metaphorical relationships to locations and environments; where research intersects with physical experience. Her work has been influenced by various collaborations with artists and musicians that include: Mariam Ghani, Christian Holstad, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Qasim Naqiv, Bisan Toron, Jaleel Bunton and Shahzad Ismaily.

Working with the belief in dance’s ability to affect embodied intelligence, the space it exists in, as well the audience; Kelly is interested in the relationships between the tangible and intangible within natural, liminal and constructed environments. Her practice has been enhanced by Artist Residencies with support including the Camargo Foundation Movement Research, LMCC at Governors’ Island as well as a CSA farming apprenticeship at Thanksgiving Farm.

Kelly was a national level 9 competitive gymnast, attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and New York University and trained various movement modalities with Ko Murobushi, Yomiko Yoshioka, Diego Pinion being some of her most resonant teachers. In addition to her training in dance Kelly has certification from Thai Massage School Of Chiang Mai, Reiki level 1 & 2, and Soaring Crane Qi Gong Teaching Certification granted by Professor Chen. In her early 20’s, she began performing at happenings and events at clubs, raves, and rock and roll shows. She has danced in the performances of Atsushi Takenouchi, Takuya Muramatsu of Dairakudakan, Jeremy Scott and Ryan Heffington and was a member of the multi-media collective RansomCorp. Her work has been presented in various contexts at numerous festivals institutions, and museums nationally and internationally.

Kelly is currently pursuing her MFA at Bennington.