Biography:
Carrie Ahern : Since 2005, choreographer Carrie has used the medium of the body to investigate spaces of taboo. She has a reputation for extensive research combined with an ability to make viewers deeply uncomfortable and comfortable simultaneously. She is always searching for performative forms to engage her audiences more deeply.

Sex Status 2.0 (2018) is the beginning of a multi year project using Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 feminist masterpiece The Second Sex as a lens to view different facets of a women's experience today. Ahern is looking at women in their quotidian and erotic lives and the porousness between. 

For her multi year project about modern death (2011-2016) Ahern learned to hunt, butcher and slaughter animals to learn more about the animals we consume and worked as a hospice volunteer. Public projects stemming from that research include: ​Borrowed Prey​ -​the two part performance, Part I performed in a butcher shop; ​The Art of Burial -​ the fantasy burial experience performed throughout the US which she also developed into a TED Talk; ​Swaddling​ ​-the interactive installation swaddling adults; ​Composing Decay​-​the workshop taking participants through the process of their own body’s decay; and ​Pig to Human anatomy comparison—​ the hands on workshop with a butcher, butchering a pig and comparing the parts to human anatomy. ​http://borrowedprey.nationbuilder.com/

Ahern spent 2014-2017 developing work around currency, value and alternative economies with catalyst and producer Andrea Haenggi, co-producer Rob Neuwirth for 1067 PacificPeople in Crown Heights, BK. She created “gestures” or mini-performances for ​Pop-Up Gesture Store (​ 2014-2016) -a store that sells experiences not objects and accepts as payment only an experience in return—including ​As American as Apple Pie, Composing Decay, Swaddling, Xenia Redux, Free Beach, OBJECT FLESH, and Government Avatar. ​Pickpocket Dance Party ​(2015) was created in collaboration with Andrea Haenggi; ​Holiday Revol​t ​(2014) ​and ​Ur-Love Letter (​ 2015) video projects in collaboration with catalyst Andrea Haenggi and others, available to view online. In 2017 she was part of the ​EPA- Environmental Performance Agency ​(2017) collective with artists Ellie Irons, Christopher Kennedy, Catherine Grau and Andrea Haenggi. Her “weedy scores” were exhibited at the Schuylkill Center, Philadelphia (Sept 2017) and Transformer Gallery, DC (May/June 2018) ​https://1067pacificpeople.nyc/

Other projects include ​SeNSATE ​(2009)--3 hour, multi-floored performance installation;-​Covers ​(2009) -a durational window performance open to Lexington Ave passerby, collaboration with crochet sculptress Olek; and two evening length commissions from Danspace Project -​The Unity of Skin ​(2008) and ​Red (2006) ​www.carrieahern.com

Ahern is a 2018 BAC/ Brooklyn Arts Fund grantee. She was a resident artist for Project: Space Available, Seattle in 2011, 2011 NYFA BUILD grant recipient, recipient of an LMCC Swing Space grant in 2009/10, BAX space grant artist in 2007/08, 2007 recipient of a Fractured Atlas’ Creative Development Grant. Danspace Project commissioned Ahern's evening length works '​The Unity of Skin' (​ 2008) and '​Red' (2006). ​'Red' ​was also commissioned in 2005 for the Guggenheim Works and Process Series. Ahern was an invited artist for the interdisciplinary ​Resonance​ project (2012) and received two commissions from Alwan for the Arts; ​Turath​ ​(2012) for ADC with composer Amir-El Saffar; ​Fashion in Performance (2011) with fashion designer Hana Sadiq and band New Prosthetics. Two solo commissions: From Bessie award winning dancer Carolyn Hall (2003) and actor/director Jeffrey Frace (2013)

Ahern has taught as a Guest Artist at University of Washington/Seattle, University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, NYU, ​Ponderosa​ outside Berlin, School for Film and Television. She has taught dance in the NYC public schools and currently teaches pilates, yoga, yoga mythology and meditation.

Contact

Artistic Director Carrie Ahern

carrie@carrieahern.com