The Estate Project

NAME: Curran, Seán

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
15 July 1961, Boston

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Seán Curran in Am I Dead Yet? (1989), performed 13 April 2000 as a part of UCLA's Artist Alphabets series, a co-production of UCLA Performing Arts and the Department of World Arts and Cultures.
©Bill Short, courtesy UCLA Performing Arts' Artists-in-Residence Program

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IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
An Irish step dancer as a child, Seán Curran is known as an extraordinary contemporary dancer and noted choreographer. He won a Bessie for his dancing role in Secret Pastures (1985), choreographed by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. In 1994, having dance for ten years in the Jones/Zane company, he forged out on his own, financing his new dance company with earnings from his four years as a New York City cast member of the Off-Broadway show Stomp. He has made several solos, notably Am I Dead Yet? (1989)—for which the movement was inspired by the "little dance" Demian Acquavella performed in his hospital bed as he lay dying of AIDS. The piece tells the stories of three different kinds of deaths: that of a fourteen-year-old who dies in a scuba-diving accident; of Arnie Zane; and of Curran's grandfather. Curran has recently been concentrating on group works, including Six Laments (1999), in which the act of grieving is investigated from half a dozen different perspectives. Six Laments is a collaboration with the portrait artist Kieran McGonnell and the composer Seamus Egan. Curran's recently choreographed works investigate both public and personal expressions of the vast array of emotional states that define human experiences—from exuberant joy and formalized structures to introspective reflection and chaotic motion.

KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
Seán Curran
21 First Avenue, #18
New York, NY 10003
212-254-5018
seancurranco@aol.com

Laura Colby
Elsie Management
132 Prospect Place, #2R
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718-638-9862
718-638-0241 (fax)
laurac@elsieman.org

HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
(name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
Seán Curran and members of his dance company.

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
The following pertinent videotapes are in Seán Curran's personal collection:

Am I Dead Yet? (1989)— videotaped in performance by Peter Richards on 25 April 1997 at St. Mark's Church in New York City; collection of Seán Curran.

Six Laments (1999)— videotaped in performance August 1999 during the work's premiere run at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts; collection of Seán Curran; the tape is also archived at Jacob's Pillow.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
Photos in Curran's possession, and the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library keeps a photo file for "Curran, Seán," call number MGZEA.

MOVEMENT NOTATION
(location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
None identified.

PRODUCTION MATERIALS
(scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
These materials are in Curran's possession.

ORAL HISTORY:
None identified.

PERSONAL PAPERS
(location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
Curran maintains his own personal papers. The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library maintains a clippings file for "Curran, Seán," call number MGZR.

IMMEDIATE NEEDS
(archival assistance? storage? other?):
Search for executor.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
None identified.

LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
(title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):

Am I Dead Yet? (1989)

Six Laments (1999)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Jowitt, Deborah. 1997. "Worlds of Difference." Village Voice (13 May): 95.
The New Yorker. 1997. "Dance" [listings]. 28 April and 5 May.
Temin, Christine. 1995. "Intriguing Solo Work from Seán Curran." Boston Globe (7 July).

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