About Me
Roberta Escamilla Garrison was born in San Francisco. At age 5 she began studying at the San Francisco Ballet under the tutelage of Harold Christiansen.Moving to New York in '66, she intensely lived the great season of ferment which animated Manhattan in the Sixties and Seventies. The wife of the well known Jazz musician, Jimmy Garrison, she breathed the electrifying atmosphere of the New York Jazz scene and the limitless climate of the postmodern generation of American choreographers who gathered at the legendary Judson Church.After having studied with Merce Cunningham, Dan Wagoner, Mel Wong, Karen Levy, Emmy Devine and Thelma Hill, she made her debut dancing with Marilyn Woods' "Celebration Group" in a multi-media performance in the windows, lobby, revolving doors, and the plaza of the Seagrams Building on Park Avenue. Further, she studied, danced, and collaborated with Elaine Summers and Viola Farber; two prestigious dancer-choreographers who respectively come from the Judson Church and the Cunningham Company. With these choreographers Garrison took part in performances and happenings in theatres, lofts, museums and the streets of New York.Her choreographic activities began in '73 when she performed with pianist Dave Burrell and bassist Jimmy Garrison in various New York City schools in a program sponsored by the City Cultural Council. Her sensibility to the musical language of Jazz brought her to the discovery of an original approach to choreography through improvisation. Her continued research created the possibility to realize various collaborative performances with esteemed musicians such as Dewey Redman, David Murray and Henry Threadgill (reeds), Joe Chambers (drums and piano), Amina Claudine Myers (piano and voice), Fred Hopkins (bass) and Butch Morris (trumpet).In 1979 she came to Italy to perform in the festivals "New Dance" organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna and "La Musica e' Una Donna Meravigliosa" in Rome, Naples, and Roseto degli Abruzzi. On this occasion she worked with saxophonist Maurizio Giammarco and vocalist Jay Clayton. This same trio became a sextet with the addition of another vocalist Sheila Jordan, bassist Harvey Swartz, and a second dancer Joseph Fontano which was performed at the Experimental Intermedia Foundation during New York City's dance week in the Spring of 1980.Settling in Italy she intensified her rapport with Jazz. Collaborating with vocalist Maggie Nicols and pianist Irene Schweitzer, she created a trio that debuted in Genova, then Bologna and Torino, which went on to perform in Verona, Paris, London and Zurich. In 1981 at the Accademia Filarmonica of Rome, once again with M. Giammarco and Maggie Nicols plus 2 bassists Giovanni Tommaso and Marcello Melis she presented an evening's work entitled "Everyday Company" This became the name of her dance company that she founded thereafter.In 1982 at the Teatro Orione in Rome, in collaboration with pianist Antonello Salis, she presented and performed with the new "Everyday Company" her pieces "One Woman" and "Running". As a result of these performances, she was recognized by the Italian Cultural Ministry and awarded her first grant which she continues to receive annually.Since then the Everyday Company has been invited to participate in Dance Festivals in both Italy and abroad. She has also taken part in various Jazz Festivals such as "Jazz Oh Cara" (Bari 1981) as a soloist with pianist Rita Marcotulli's group. She was commissioned to create an evening's work "Dig In" for the company and a five piece band (A. Salis, S. Satta, G. Tommaso, T. Tracana. Ettore Fioravanti) by the twin festivals of Vignola "Jazz In'it" and Berchidda "Time In Jazz". She also performed in a trio with Antonello Salis and Sandro Satta at the "Europa Jazz Festival" in Noci and still another trio with Giovanni Tommaso and Massimo Urbani at the Rocella Ionica Festival.She has collaborated with many musicians to create works for herself and her Company. Antonello Salis, Sandro Satta, Riccardo Lai, and Joy Garrison ("Senza Sosta", "Songs", "Looking Home"); Joy Garrison, Mauro Battista (The Bottom Line"); Rita Marcotulli, Maria Pia De Vito, Furio di Castri ("Looking Home", "Love Medicine"); Roberto Gatto, Danilo Rea, Maria Pia De Vito, Enzo Pietropaoli, Matthew Garrison, Arto Tuncboyacyan ("Love Medicine", "Passing Through"); Mario Crispi, Simone Haggiag ("Around The World"); Nicola Alesini, Mauro Tiberi, Oscar Bonelli ("Punti di Vista"); Andrea Polinelli, Luca Spagnoletti ("Quiet Fire"). She also choreographed "Slow Blues to Freedom" with 12 classic recordings of Blues in Jazz as well as a duet "Dearly Beloved" for herself and actor Carl Hancock Rux to a recorded solo of Matthew Garrison.Another important aspect of Garrison's work is her teaching. Through seminars, stages and master classes held all over Italy and her daily classes in Rome she has introduced her interpretation of the Cunningham technique combined with post modern research and raised new generations of Italian dancers. In her adopted city of Rome she taught for seven years at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza as guest artist, both technique and composition at the highest professional level (Corso di Perfezionamento). For two years she was guest teacher for the scholarship students at the Centro Internazionale di Danza and in 1988 she founded the dance department at the international high school St. Stephen's School which with the collaboration of Alice Drudi has become a recognized credited course. She continues to teach courses at the Centro Danza Mimma Testa and the contemporary dance space Duncan3.0.At the beginning of 1990 the Everyday Company joined forces with Aurelio Gatti's Mimo Danza Alternativa and founded MDA Produzioni Danza. In the following years choreographers Nicoletta Giavotto, Roberta Pace, Michael McNeill, Marianna Troisi, Fabrizio Monteverdi and Sandra Fusciarelli came under the umbrella of MDA with the idea of creating a common center for artistic research and the realization of choreographic productions. In her own productions Garrison has collaborated with various choreographers: Ian Sutton, Ande Peck, Alice Drudi, Simonetta Alessandri, Luisa Lazzaro, Benedetta Capanna, Roberta Gelpi, and Rozenne Corbel.After years of intense and prolific choreographic work with her company, after a continued exploration of the dialogue between dance and Jazz, after many collaborations with great musicians, nurtured and inspired by these together with her highly original improvisations, Garrison has realized a mature and recognizable personal and artistic style.
