Ryan Mason

Contact 

email & phone: rm@ryanmason.org  +491737235548

website: https://www.tharbedragons.org/ 

vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user39344543

ig: @dark_rocks_flying | @thrbdrgns

Choreographic Work

My work as an artist is activated by a curiosity in the interaction of materials  (time, space, and matter) and how I can frame these materials to reveal something new. I am exploring the relationship between the conceptual and aesthetic and how these notions exist simultaneously within an artistic work to form a singularity rather than a representation. While my main area of focus has been the human being and the dancing body, it has always been in relation to another element(s). This relationship is the key to my understanding of choreography as a framing of the liminal space/place between the subject and the object - a verbing of the virtual and the actual, the sensual and intellectual, the familiar and the uncanny. Through this, I strive to offer a space for the spectator to build and experience their own meaning of the work.

Video links of Choreographic Works

Photos of Choreographic Works

Bloom - Premiered 12.22 at UniArts Helsinki. 

photo credits - Jussi Ulkuniemi

Performance

My development as a performer can be seen as a journey from more conventional theater to more experimental dance creations. I come from a family with a history of musical theatre production. I began performing at age 12, when I spent a year on the road with the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun performing alongside my mother, Cathy Rigby McCoy. While still a teenager, I was cast in national tours of Jesus Christ Superstar and Peter Pan. While this experience was invaluable to me as a performer, I grew more interested in dance and theatre as sites of provocation. After receiving my BFA in Dance and Choreography from CalArts, I joined José Limón Dance Company. Embodying this historic work gave me a deeper appreciation for dance traditions. From there, I immersed myself into the physical theater of Johannes Wieland at the Staatstheater Kassel. Through his work, I discovered new theatrical possibilities inherent in movement, character, text, and voice. I also had the opportunity to work with several internationally recognized guest choreographers, who broadened my perspective on choreography and production.  

This foundation continues to inform my own dancemaking.

Staatstheater Kassel - selected performance photos

Teaching

My teaching practice both mirrors and inspires my choreographic process. I design classes to explore current movement and conceptual interests, from time to states of consciousness to animal movement. For example, I might work with students to investigate perceptions of time through gesture, or give them a series of conditions to respond to, such as “you are passively tango dancing with your own ghost while your face is melting off your skull and gravity slowly reverses itself.”

I define movement broadly to include breath, vocal, and speech patterns as areas of exploration, so students may be asked to find connections between manipulated breath patterns and body movements.

I approach teaching with the assumption that students’ movements explorations are intentional and serendipitous—that allowing for chance presents students with movement pathways and possibilities they would not find with additional constraints.

I have been guest faculty/choreographer at institutions including SEAD, Anton Bruckneruniversität, Iwanson, Hubbard Street Pro, NYU Tisch, and Springboard Danse Montreal.