As chronicled by Jennifer Dunning in the New York Times, Kelly moved to New York after high school to study ballet and perform with the Original Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet Company, an all-male travestie troupe. He eventually left dance and enrolled in the Parsons School of Design, while delving deeper into the details of drag performance, which he pursued as a highly intricate choreography.

As a choreographer and director he has received two Bessie awards, for an extended body of work in 1986 and for Find My Way Home in 1988. In addition he has won two Obie awards, the American Choreographer Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the first Oscar Rubenhausen Fellowship (through the Greenwall Foundation), three fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and five consecutive Choreographer Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also the recipient of a 2001 CalArts/Alpert Award in Dance.

KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
John Kelly
P.O. Box 1322
New York, NY 10276-1322
212-924-2417 (phone/fax)
info@johnkellyco.org
jkellyco@att.net
www.johnkellyco.org

HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
John Kelly

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
The following video documents are available for viewing at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library:

Akin: True But Dour (1992) was documented by Character Generators at the 8 March 1992 performance. The videotape is housed in the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library.

Benefit 1991 (1991)—compilation video including an Aria from La sonnambula sung by John Kelly; videotaped in performance at Performance Space122, New York, 31 January; three 3/4 in. videocassettes (141 min.); call number MGZIC 9-4730.

Danspace benefit (1988)—compilation including excerpts created and performed by John Kelly; videotaped at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, New York, 15 October as part of the Danspace Video Archival Project; two 3/4 in. cassettes (70 min.); call number MGZIC 9-2351.

Divine Promiscue (1992)—documented at On the Boards, Seattle, Washington, at the 15 October 1992 performance; two 3/4 in cassettes (70 min); call number MGZIC 9-4444.

Deaths and Entrances (1998)—Richard Move and Janet Stapleton present Marta at Mother; compilation video including excerpts of Café Bluebeard-Hof; choreographed by John Kelly; videotaped in performance at Mother, New York, 4 November; VHS (87 min.); call number MGZIA 4-3301.

Eviva il cotello and Boy, boy, giant, boy (1985)—compilation video including choreographic excerpts by John Kelly;videotaped at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, New York, on 14-17 February as part of the Danspace Video Archival Project; two 3/4 in. cassettes (46 min);call number MGZIC 9-2382.

Maybe it's Cold Outside (1991)—documented by Character Generators at The Kitchen, New York, at the 24 February 1991 performance; two 3/4 in cassettes (73 min); call number MGZIC 9-4441.

Ode to a cube: John Kelly in concert (1988)—compilation video including excerpts of songs and performance art; videotaped in performance at La Mama E.T.C., New York, 11 November; one ž in. videocassette (46 min.); call number MGZIC 9-4443.

Wired: A Benefit for Performance Space 122 (1989)—compilation video including an excerpt of A way with words written and performed by John Kelly; videotaped in performance at Performance Space 122, New York, 4 February; two 3/4 in. (105 min.); call number MGZIC 9-4574.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
At the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library:

Kelly, John, photographs. Paula Court, photographer (1995)—one folder of photographic prints including photograph of John Kelly's Pass the Blutwurst, Bitte; b&w; 26 x 20 cm. or smaller; call number MGZEA (Kelly, John, photographs)

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

PRODUCTION MATERIALS
(scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
John Kelly holds all production materials.

ORAL HISTORY:
An oral history is held at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library, but it is not available to researchers without permission from Kelly:

Interview with John Kelly (1994-95)—sound recording; interviewed by Susan Kraft at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; two sound cassettes (3 hr.) + 1 transcript (85 leaves); call number MGZMT 3-1845 (transcript); call number MGZTC 3-1845 (cassette).

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

IMMEDIATE NEEDS
(archival assistance? storage? other?):
None identified.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
Excerpts from Kelly's official biography as of June 2003:

"[Kelly's] solo and ensemble performance works have been performed at venues as diverse as the Pyramid Club, Carnegie Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, most of downtown's performance venues, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. He has acted in films and directed opera in both the U.S. and Europe…

"He has studied ballet and danced with American Ballet Theatre, visual art at Parsons School of Design, Decroux corporeal mime at the Theâtre d'Ange Fou in Paris, trapeze and tite-wire with the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, and voice at the Academia Musicale Ottorino Respighi in Assisi, Italy. He has performed three solo vocal recitals at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, and was a featured vocalist performing John Cage's Aria With Fontana Mix with the San Francisco Symphony's Cultural Maverick Series. Paved Paradise, his homage to Joni Mitchell, was the opening act for Natalie Merchantšs recent OPHELIA tour. Next spring he will make a CD recording in Dublin, to be produced by Hal Willner.

"As a Director of opera he directed a critically acclaimed production of Matthew Lockešs Baroque Masque Cupid and Death at Opera at the Academy in 1993. In 1998 he directed The Name on the Tip of the Tongue, a chamber opera for the Glej Theatre of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Moondrunk, a collaboration with the Houston-based chamber group Da Camera, premiered at the New Victory Theatre, New York City, as part of Lincoln Centeršs 1999 Great Performers: New Visions series.

"In 2001 he collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning David Del Tredici (as lyricist, director, and performer) on Brother, which had a three-week workshop residency at Yale Rep, and premiered in New York at Performance Space 122. Sections from the work were performed as part of the Great Day In New York music series, at Merkin Hall, and Alice Tully Hall (live broadcast on WNYC). Four of the songs were recorded for Del Tredicišs Secret Music cd for CRI recordings.

"He created the role of Bartell D'Arcy in the Broadway production of James Joycešs The Dead, which ran at New Yorkšs Belasco Theatre, and went on to reprise the role at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. During 2001-02 he toured internationally in the role of the Narrator (in a cast which included Merce Cunningham and the voice of Jasper Johns) in John Cagešs 1982 radio play Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Eric Satie: An Alphabet...

"John Kelly, a visual autobiography with an introduction by Philip Yenawine, was published in September of 2001 by the 2wice Arts Foundation, in association with Aperture. He is currently at work on another book, Rare Chemistry, which is a photography book comprised of the fruits of his twenty-year collaboration (as model and muse) for the photographer John Dugdale.

"Kelly is a member of the Board Of Directors of The Corporation of Yaddo."

LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
(title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):
Kelly has made more than twenty-five performance pieces and concert stagings, including six works dealing most explicitly with AIDS:

Down in the Mouth (1990)

Maybe It's Cold Outside (1991)

Divine Promiscue (1992)

Akin: True But Dour (1992)

Constant Stranger (1995)

Brother (2001)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Dunning, Jennifer. 1993. "Dancing on a High Wire of Inspired Lunacy." New York Times (7 November).
• Gruen, John. 1992. Dance Magazine (February):60-62, illus.
• Jowitt, Deborah. 1995. "When Words Count: One Tablespoon Text to a Quarter Cup Dance? Is There a Recipe?" [review of John Kelly's Constant Stranger]. Village Voice (31 October): 93.
• Sandla, Robert. 1992. "Reviews...New York City: John Kelly." 15 Feb. Dance Magazine (8 March).
• Zimmer, Elizabeth. 1985. Dance Magazine (August): 66, 72.