New York artist Jana Haimsohn has presented her stories, poetry, text, characters, dance, rhythms, and music, (composed and improvised), performing solo and collaborating with Jazz greats Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Mal Waldron, Don Pullen, and others. Her work has been shown in the U.S., Canada and Europe, at various art, music, dance, theater, literary and performance venues, including among others, the Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), The Louisiana Museum (Denmark), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and Festival d’Automne (Paris).
She has received grants/fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (Visual Arts Performance, Choreography, and Jazz Study), New York Foundation for the Arts (Music Composition and Performance Art/Multi-Disciplinary Work), Foundation for Contemporary Art Performance (Performance), Creative Artists Public Service (Music Composition and Mixed Media), Beard’s Funds (Music and Performance), and Christophe de Menil (Performance Art).
Jana is currently at work writing, drawing, dancing and making film/video projects. Her writings address personal and social justice issues. Jana teaches performance/dance/voice/improvisation workshops for adults and youth, and gives lecture demos.
“Jana Haimsohn is an innovator in sound and movement. She was trained in classical ballet and modern dance but feeling limited by traditional forms of movement Jana has allowed the evolvement of her own form, making for a diverse range of energy and motion which is expressed as pure force in expanded energy. Her voice, like her movement, extends the boundaries of classical training and is unlimited even by the structure of language. The sound production created by the artist includes non-language sounds and chant-like pulsating rhythms. Her vocal range consists of a blend of harmonic overtones and high pitch sounds, creating a spectrum of profoundly “progressive” musical art and yet inspiring in the listener the most “primitive” instincts. When she is accompanied by other instruments she may weave in and out of the sounds in a very rhythmic way or compliment the existing musical force by creating another layer of sound shaping the fabric of her very unique art.”
- Evie Fannin of The Foundation of Art Performances and Projects Inc.
