Bebe Miller

"The Making Room" Instigator, Choreographer

Collaboration being fundamental to her working process, Bebe Miller has worked with composers, artists, writers, filmmakers, designers and dramaturgs alongside the dancers who share her studio practice. Her vision of dance and performance resides in her faith in the moving body as a record of thought, experience and beauty. Her aesthetic relies on the interplay of a work’s idea, its physicality, and the contributions of company members to fashion its singular voice. She has received four New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation and many others. She received one of the first Doris Duke Artists Awards in 2012. Miller is a United States Artists Ford Fellow, has received a New York Live Arts’ David White Award, and was a 2015 Movement Research Honoree. A Distinguished Professor in Dance at The Ohio State University’s College of Arts and Humanities from 2000–2016, Miller received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Ursinus College in 2009.

Seeking to expand the language of dance, Bebe Miller Company’s work encompasses choreography, writing, film, video and digital media. Committed to keeping dance available to a wide spectrum of people and to further the conversation about the role of arts and creativity in our culture, BMC is dedicated to providing access to the creative process and expression to diverse communities. Bebe Miller Company was formed in 1985; since then, Miller has created more than 50 dance works for the company that have been performed in nearly 400 engagements worldwide. BMC has been commissioned and presented by leading venues including 651 ARTS, BAM Next Wave, DTW, Jacob's Pillow, Joyce Theater, PICA, REDCAT, Walker Art Center and Wexner Center for the Arts. The company’s newest project, Vault, is a series of artist-driven national convenings, meant to share innovative methodologies for documenting, archiving and sharing the dance-making process. Activities with artists, presenters, curators, archivists, scholars and technologists range from peer-to-peer and intergenerational mentoring, informal “campfire” talks, formal presentations on recent practices, and resource-sharing. Gatherings have been held in New York City and Seattle, and plans are afoot for convenings at Jacob’s Pillow and in the Columbus area in 2018.