Jacqulyn Buglisi is an American choreographer, artistic director, dancer, educator, and founder or co-founder of multiple dance institutions. Buglisi, with Terese Capucilli, Christine Dakin and Donlin Foreman, founded Buglisi Dance Theatre in 1993/94 (formerly BuglisiForeman Dance).
Choreography
Buglisi's ballets are highly visual and imaginative dances that draw from literature, history, and heroic archetypes as primary sources. Buglisi's ballets are rooted in strong physical technique. Her repertoire of more than eighty works has been presented at venues across the United States including:
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Joyce Theater
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Lincoln Center
Society for the Performing Arts, Wortham Theater Center, Cullen Theater, Houston
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
Spring to Dance Festival, St. Louis
SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center – Concert Hall
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts – Sosnoff Theater
University of Arizona – Centennial Hall
Internationally, her works have appeared at the Melbourne International Festival, State Theater; during International Dance Week in Prague; Sadler Wells London, Rovereto Festival Italy and in the Czech Republic, Japan, Italy, France and Israel.
Lynn Garafola of Dance Magazine wrote, "Buglisi is a rarity in today's world, a woman who delights in the many splendid forms of female being. Probably no woman, other than Graham, has plumbed such emotional depths choreographically" and for Buglisi's www.UndertheButtonwoodTree.com, commissioned by LMCC, Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times wrote, "Cecil B. DeMille would have been proud."
Buglisi collaborated with Venezuelan environmental painter and filmmaker Jacobo Borges to create her trilogy, Rain (score by Glen Velez), Sand (music by Philip Glass), and Blue Cathedral (music by Jennifer Higdon. Other collaborations include composer Jack Mehler.
The Table of Silence Project 9/11
The project was created by Buglisi and Italian artist Rosella Vasta. Performances of this project have occurred annually at the Lincoln Center on September 11 since its debut in 2011. It is a public tribute and ritual performances honoring peace and tolerance. Live streaming reaches 223 countries/territories and all 50 states of America. Other Table of Silence Site-specific commemorations were presented at the Pan Am 103 Remembrance Wall during the company's NYSCA residency at Syracuse University; in Perugia and Assisi, Italy; and UC Santa Barbara on May 23, 2016, to mark the anniversary of a mass-shooting near the campus.
Her company's repertoire is archived for public viewing at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library.
Dancer
During her 30-year association with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Buglisi danced as a principal artist for 12 years, performing the classic roles such as the Three Mary's (El Penitente), Andromache (Cortege of Eagles), the Warrior (Seraphic Dialogue), the Lament (Acts of Light), the Girl in Yellow (Diversion of Angels), Leader of the Night Journey Chorus and Jocasta (Night Journey), Creusa (Cave of the Heart), The Spectator (Every Soul is a Circus) and in Tangled Night created for her by Martha Graham. She danced in Graham's honor on the nationally televised CBS Presentation of the Kennedy Center Honors and is featured in the PBS film, An Evening of Dance and Conversation with Martha Graham.
Coached by Jane Sherman, Buglisi performed the solos of Ruth St. Denis at Jacob's Pillow and internationally, some of which include Lyon Biennale De La Dancse, on film in Trailblazers of American Modern Dance, and the film, The Spirit of Denishawn.
Educator
Buglisi has been commissioned by The Juilliard School's Emerging Modern Master's Series, Ailey/Fordham University B.F.A. Program, the University of Richmond, California State University/Long Beach, George Mason University, Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Interlochen Center for the Arts, the State Ballet College of Oslo, Oklahoma Arts Institute, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Boston Conservatory of Music, Randolph-Macon College and National Dance Institute, among others.
In 1970, Buglisi founded the first school of contemporary dance for the community of Spoleto, Italy, and was the Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has taught for the Dance Aspen Festival from 1990 to 1995, the Julio Bocca Center in Argentina, the Victoria College in Melbourne in 1999, and the Chautauqua Institution and Festival from 1995 to 2005.