BANDEROLE
Trio for outdoors with poem
Music: Max Richter (Sleep, “Dream 1,” “Cumulonimbus,” “Dream 2”)
Length: 35 minutes
Premiere: August 15, 2021, The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home, Lenox, Massachusetts
Original cast: Ian Spencer Bell, Vanessa Knouse, Joshua Tuason
Photo: Nicholas Kahn
DUET
“Precision, geometry, intimacy, and vulnerability” The Dance Enthusiast
Trio with poems
Length: 25 minutes
Premiere: October 14, 2019, CounterPulse, San Francisco, California
Original Cast: Ian Spencer Bell, Gary Champi, Joshua Tuason
Photo: Molly Hamill
MARROW
“imaginative and compelling” Oberon’s Grove
Solo with poems
Length: 25 minutes
Premiere: March 17, 2016, The Center, New York City
Dancer: Ian Spencer Bell
Photo: Kyle Froman
Kahn & Selesnick photos
Poems and process on Dante’s Old South Radio Show
Interview and poem in Gulf Coast
HOLLER
“[Bell] danced both outside the poems looking in at them and within their poetic and musical infrastructures.” Michael J. Kramer, Culture Rover
Solo with poem
Length: 10 minutes
Premiere: March 11, 2015, Poetry Foundation, Chicago, Illinois
Dancer: Ian Spencer Bell
Photo: Eric Brown
GEOGRPAHY SOLOS
“At a time when so much of contemporary dance looks—and sounds—alike, Ian’s solo performance was like a breath of fresh air.” Oberon’s Grove
“A dancer of gentle but defined precision.” The New York Times
Six solos with poems
Length: 20 minutes
Premiere: September 1, 2013, Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York
Dancer: Ian Spencer Bell
Photo: Kyle Froman
WALLKILL
Quartet with poem
Length: 25 minutes
Premiere: November 1, 2013, Doris Duke Theater, Jacob’s Pillow (Creative Development Residency), Becket, Massachusetts
Original Cast: Ian Spencer Bell, Mairéad Filgate, Jenna Liberati, Justin Rivera (understudy), Joshua Tuason
Lighting: Nicholas Houfek
Photo: Eric Brown
SOCKET
“Mr. Bell’s choreography hewed with remarkable fidelity to the shape of the Massiaen’s isolated gestures, the volatile dynamics and densities of the score. And it did so while arranging the stuff of rehearsal—stretching, situps, self-fanning, ponytail adjustment—into sophisticated patterns.” The New York Times
“a poetic experience which is devoid of pretense” Oberon’s Grove
Quintet with music of Olivier Messiaen, “Quartet for the End of Time”
Length: 47 minutes
Premiere: May 30, 2012, City Center Studios, New York City
Original Cast: Ian Spencer Bell, Nathaniel Darst, Mara Driscoll, Jenna Liberati, Joshua Tuason
Lighting: Nicholas Houfek
Photo: Kyle Froman
TWO-MINUTE SONGS
Quintet with music of The Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Camille Saint-Saëns, Joni Mitchell, Felix Mendelssohn, Roy Orbison, J. S. Bach
Length: 16 minutes
Premiere: June 10, 2011, Merce Cunningham Studio, New York City
Original Cast: Ian Spencer Bell, Fiona Brown, Nathaniel Darst, Jenna Liberati, Joshua Tuason
Lighting: Nicholas Houfek
Photo: Taylor Crichton
SPLIT
Quartet to the sound of keys dropping, for Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art”
Length: 12 minutes
Premiere: May 13, 2010, West End Theater, New York City
Original Cast: Ian Spencer Bell, Fiona Brown, Jenna Liberati, Joshua Tuason
Lighting: Nicholas Houfek
Photo: Kyle Froman