Joanna Meccia
Choreographer | Director
Upcoming
See Chicago Dance
2024 Dance for Camera Cohort
Spring-Fall 2024
I have been selected for See Chicago Dance’s Dance for Camera Mentorship Program, and am creating a new dance film to come later this year!
Artist Statement
I am dedicated to creating moving physical metaphors that portray the
complex, beautiful, and intangible experiences we share as humans.
It’s like…
Movement and choreographic concepts, for me, arise from a visceral place. They bypass verbal communication and embody a state that can only be felt. My hope is that by distilling these poignant feelings and bringing them to life through dance, audiences will witness their own deeply-felt experiences reflected in the movement and it will be inexplicably familiar to them.
Analogous Movement
My rehearsal process is highly collaborative and informed by the dancing bodies in the space. Choreography ranges from highly athletic phrases to nuanced partnering to pedestrian gestures, all emphasizing the honest connection between performers. I often incorporate the use of props or visual media and found sound to further develop or enhance a choreographic concept. I find all of these avenues converge in a powerful way to portray the complex experiences that make us human.
Past Work
Kindreds
April 2023
Kindreds is inspired by the power, nuance, and beauty of the relationship between kindred spirits. Despite time passing or long-distance, these relationships remain evergreen. In addition to the choreography for this piece, I created a custom sound score, combining two pieces of music, manipulating their tempo, and playing portions of each song in reverse. Together, the music and movement represent the ever changing environments that test these kindred relationships and proves their merit.
Performance: Kimberly Galloway, Sarah O’Keeffe, Heather Zimny
Imaginary Futures
September 2022
Imaginary Futures was created during my 2022 3for3 Creative Residency at Dovetail Studios. The dance explores how we, in the present moment, contemplate, dream of, and prepare for the future unknown. The piece blends live performance, custom set pieces, and projected film of the dancers recreating choreography among abstract sculptures and outdoor locations, achieving a sense of magical realism and a connection beyond time and space.
Performance: Colleen Bass, Kimberly Galloway, Lauren Reed, and Heather Zimny
Cosmic Dust (Film)
2021
Cosmic Dust features original music by Mooncess and is inspired by a love triangle, exploring themes of duplicity, betrayal, and altered perspectives, as one dancer grapples with the enigmatic truth of her relationship.
Direction, Choreography, Editing: Joanna Meccia
Videography: Irfan Qurashi
Performance: Kimberly Galloway, Ryan Galloway,
and Lauren Reed
Music: “Cosmic Dust” by Mooncess
Cosmic Dust
September 2021
Cosmic Dust choreography, concept, and props were adapted for the stage for Simanitkos Dance Chicago's "Choreo Kick Off.”
Performance: Kimberly Galloway, Ryan Galloway,
and Lauren Reed
Music: “Cosmic Dust” by Mooncess
Streetlight Epiphany (Film)
2021
Reveling in a feeling of freedom and catharsis, a woman walking through her neighborhood at night treats the streetlight as her spotlight and takes a moment to dance in the rain.
Direction, Choreography, Performance, & Editing: Joanna Meccia Videography: Nick Meccia
An Idyll (Film)
2020
An Idyll is a surreal exploration of daydreaming amidst the mundane or even devastating circumstances of our reality. This film premiered in Virtual New Dances 2020, a partnership between Thodos Dance Chicago and DanceWorks Chicago and was created in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rehearsals for this project were virtual and almost all footage was captured by the dancers on their phones.
Concept & Direction: Joanna Meccia
Performance: Ingrid Ferdinand, Abby Hare, Kara Hunsinger, Meredith Johnson, Moscelyne ParkeHarrison, Kara Roseborough
Videography: Joanna Meccia and dancers
Video Studies (Film)
2020
These are a trio of video studies created in collaboration with my husband, photographer and visual artist Nick Meccia. I approached NIck with several film concepts, and together we directed these studies. I improvised the movement, he improvised the videography, and I finalized the concepts through editing.
Direction: Joanna and Nick Meccia
Choreography, Performance, & Editing: Joanna Meccia
Videography: Nick Meccia
Las Samillas
December 2019
Las Samillas was set on Trifecta Dance Collective in 2019, and recorded at the Celebration of Dance performance during the 2020 Trifecta Dance Festival.
Created by request from DePaul USA and premiered at the World's Big Sleepout 2019 event, this dance is inspired by a DePaul USA resident who bravely and generously shared his lived experience with homelessness.
Photos by Jorge Sigler
Mosaic
June 2019
This piece was choreographed for Trifecta Dance Collective in collaboration with theater company Erasing the Distance. The choreography and concept were developed in collaboration with Carrie Patterson, Krissie Odegard Geye, and Heather Bodie.
Mosaic fuses dance and monologue to tell the story of one woman’s experience with anxiety and depression, and the beauty of finding peace and confidence through the journey toward a meaningful existence.
Photo by Jorge Sigler
Dance Across Chicago
Summer 2018
Dance Across Chicago was a series of public art performances in Chicago that happened in two places–at once!–under the direction of Joanna Meccia & Colleen Bass.
Blending live dance, live music, and technology, DAC was a simultaneous dance performance in two separate locations, connected via live stream. DAC featured outdoor performances in 12 Chicago neighborhoods and in two public high schools. Supported by grants from Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and Activate! Chicago.
Performance: Colleen Bass, Lauren Reed, Rebecca Robertstad, and Joanna Meccia
Rain Falls Everywhere
October 2017
Rain Falls Everywhere explores the universality of grief and loss, and the support found in community. The piece is inspired by my brief time immersed in a small village community along the Amazon River, where the powerful, unrelenting Amazon rains reminded me of the midwestern thunderstorms I grew up with. I realized, rain falls EVERYWHERE. In the city, in the jungle, on the rich and the poor. Rain does not discriminate. Grief is like that, too. It is these experiences, which we cannot escape or control, that remind us of our humanity.
The custom sound score includes found sound recordings of conversations with my 4-year old niece and rainfall.
Performance: Colleen Bass, Kimberly Galloway, Joanna Meccia, Michelle Modrzejewski, and Lauren Reed
Disco-rd
February 2017
Disco-rd is about the journey of stepping out of the comparison, competition, and striving of the rat race and responding to the call of something deeper.
Performance: Colleen Bass, Felicity Lyon, and Carrie Patterson Muntz