choreographic works by /
Ellie Goudie-Averill
Moonlight in Madison (2024):
​
Choreographed and performed by Ellie Goudie-Averill, this piece is part lecture on early ballet history, part casual ballet vaudeville act. Vaudeville acts were often judged by how well they would play in Midwestern towns (i.e. if they would scandalize the audience). Music: Moonlight in Vermont, played by Marian McPartland (1953)
​
other astonishments (2023):
​
other astonishments was created for the Mount Holyoke and Amherst College Fall Faculty Concert and performed in November 2023 at the Kirby Theater. Choreography by Ellie Goudie-Averill in collaboration with the performers, taking inspiration from the tone of Eileen Myles’ poems in snowflake/different streets, and with the idea of holding drama and dailiness simultaneously, balancing difficulty and fun, and finding the poetics within our embodied material.
​
Body As Scene (2020):
​
Body As Scene was inspired by Life in a Box is a Pretty Life by poet Dawn Lundy Martin and was created during the Fall 2020 semester with Connecticut College dance students. The piece was performed outdoors on campus at Tempel Green and at the college Arboretum following COVID safety protocols. Music was played live by ConnCollege graduate Asa Peters and filmed by Tori Lawerence. Watch the film HERE.
​
Come over soon, people (2019):
​
Come over soon, people was created with and for NYC-based dancers Charles Gowin, Mykel Nairne, and Edward Rice. The piece was created using text-based scores and methods, taking direct inspiration from poet Alice Notley's early book Margaret and Dusty. The dance seeks to both utilize and interrogate the classically trained body, asking: In what ways does classical technique colonize the body? Can we seek to be casual in a body that has been colonized by ballet or other highly routinized forms?
​
I awoke then... (2019):
​
Taking inspiration for Alice Notley's seminal book The Descent of Alette, this contemporary ballet was created for dancers at Connecticut College for the Fall 2019 concert. The music, A Thing is a Hole in a Thing it is Not (iii), is composed by Andrew Greenwald, and performed by ENSEMBLE PAMPLEMOUSSE & ENSEMBLE ADAPTER.
​
"[A] beautifully dramatic jewel box for our students to so directly engage with, and be challenged by, and for our audiences to be memorized by."
-Professor David Dorfman (ConnCollege)
​
​
Untitled Dance for Eleven (2017):
​
Premiered at the Lied Center of Kansas, Lawrence. This piece was created for dance students in the University Dance Company at KU during the Fall 2017 semester. The piece was set to Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood, which was played live by the KU Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Mike Compitello. Hand dyed costumes were created by Susan Rendall.
Forth (2014):
​
Premiered as a trio at Group Motion’s Spiel Uhr series, which featured the work of company dancers, at the Community Education Center in Philadelphia. The piece was later restaged on Dancers In Company, University of Iowa’s touring ensemble and performed on tour and in their home concert at Space Place Theater in Iowa City, IA (2015).
Forth is a work exploring vast landscapes, horizons, and the way that wide open spaces affect the body. The piece features original music by Jonathan Canon, which was played live at the piece’s premiere.
American Nostalgia (2012):
​
I think I no you from some Knowhere, the work's group section, premiered at Temple University's Conwell Theater (Philadelphia, PA). The full work, which also included two duets, was presented as a part of Go Together, a Philly Fringe performance with Pamela Vail at the Community Education Center in Philadelphia, PA (2012). The two duets were then performed at Movement Research at the Judson Church, New York City (2013).
American Nostalgia explores a sense of nostalgia for the recent past and the ways in which culture is recycled and repeated, and featured music played live by the Temple University Percussion Ensemble.
“Goudie-Averill’s work… included moments of humor and wit and virtuosity… The live percussion and sense of community in the large group section of “American Nostalgia” ended the evening with a picture of the chaotic, dynamic machine that is humanity.”
- Kirsten Kaschock, thINKingDANCE.net
108 Hours of This (2011):
​
Premiered at RoofTop Dances in Brooklyn (NY) and later performed at the "Grab Bag Mini-Festival" at the the <fidget space>, Philly Fringe, Philadelphia, PA.
This trio was commissioned by the RoofTop Dances curatorial team and was developed with dancers Beau Hancock and Marie Brown. Inspiration was taken from CA Conrad’s (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals, specifically one in which he listened to Chet Baker on loop for a solid week. The work, which features music by Chet Baker and Donald Byrd, deals with notions of majesty, sexuality, and the age old question of chicken or egg.