Performance Artist, Dancer, Choreographer
Trained extensively in classical ballet at the Joffrey Ballet School and Ballet
Center of Brooklyn, Sigman discovered traditional modern dance forms at Princeton
University, where she earned a Certificate in Theater and Dance in 1989. Eventually
pursuing graduate studies at Princeton in analytic philosophy, Sigman became increasingly
interested in linking her continuing work in dance and performance with the philosophical
questions she was exploring. Upon completion of her Ph.D. in 1998, she wanted to give
people a more visceral experience of thought than the printed word allowed, and formed
jill sigman/thinkdance as a vehicle for that intellectual and performative dialogue with
audiences.
The work of jill sigman/thinkdance grows out of Sigman's own history in classical ballet
and modern dance, the visual arts, and academic philosophy, and her idiosyncratic style
of performance now exists at the intersection of dance, theater and visual installation.
Sigman has been described by the The New York Times as a choreographer of "prodigious
imagination and intelligence" and "a fearless performer who does not hesitate to expose
the painful truths within us all". Also described by The Village Voice as "rivetingÑan
elf with the rebelliousness of the 60s avant-garde, the piscine fluidity of a Tharp dancer,
and the charisma and athleticism of today's virtuosos," SigmanÕs own performance has often
been at the center of her work, and she has created and performed four solo shows. The work
of jill sigman/thinkdance now involves a constellation of collaborators and performers, which
varies in size from 3-14 depending on the project. Sigman's current group work is an extension
of her own solo investigations and her work with dancers is an effort to transfer to them
the movement experiences, improvisational skills, and performance qualities she develops
while working alone in the studio.
As a dancer, Sigman has performed with Ze'eva Cohen Chamber Projects and collaborated with
Cohen on the three-woman show Negotiations. As a teacher, she has been a member of the dance
faculty at Princeton University, a Guest Artist in dance composition at Barnard College, a
movement tutor at the Imaginary Academy in Groznjan, Croatia, a faculty mentor at the
National Dance Project's 2006 Portland Dance Lab, a frequent guest teacher in Belgium, and
an adjunct professor of aesthetics at Brooklyn College. Sigman has guest edited the Movement
Research Performance Journal and has published on dance in the Journal of Philosophical
Research and Midwest Studies in Philosophy.