Maria Hassabi is an artist and choreographer currently based in New York. Her performances and installations have been presented worldwide in theaters, museums, galleries, and public spaces. Over the years, Hassabi has developed a distinct choreographic practice involved with the relation between the body and the image, defined by sculptural physicality, and concerned with extended duration. Her highly formalist works explore tensions between the human subject and the artistic object, the spectacular and the everyday, and between bystander and viewer.
Early life
Hassabi was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1973, and spent her early years living in both Nicosia and Dubai. At age 16, she moved to Los Angeles, where she began studying dance. Hassabi received her BFA in performance and choreography in 1994 at the California Institute of the Arts. While at CalArts, she was in close dialogue with a community of visual artists, which informed her own artistic practice. After graduating, Hassabi moved to New York, where she studied at the Merce Cunningham Studios from 1994 through 1996. She also studied release techniques and the Alexander Technique between 1994 and 2003.
Early work: (2000–2007)
Hassabi’s early works, Dead Is Dead (2004) and Still Smoking (2006), looked outwards to capture the rhythm and energy of New York and that of her artistic community, as well as the downtown worlds of music and fashion. Dead Is Dead was her first major work in New York, presented in the old Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), which later became New York Live Arts. It was produced through many artistic collaborations, including with visual artist Dash Snow, who painted graffiti on the back walls of the theater. Still Smoking, which premiered at The Kitchen, also became a portrait of the grit and seduction of the downtown scene, exploring the tensions between the city’s excess and its beauty, its inhabitants’ alienation, and the search for community.
Later work: (2007–present)
In the late 2000s, Hassabi moved away from her preoccupation with the city to develop a more minimal and formalist vocabulary. Beginning with Gloria (2007), these later works address ways in which dance relates to the image and acquires sculptural presence through her explorations of near glacial slowness or stillness. In recent years, Hassabi has presented work outside the theater, increasingly in public spaces, museums, and galleries, forging new modes of attention and reception. Hassabi often calls these works “live installations,” including Intermission (2013), which was presented on the bleachers of a gymnasium at the 55th Venice Biennale; PLASTIC (2015–2016), shown at the Hammer Museum; and STAGING (2017), which premiered at Walker Art Center and was later performed at documenta 14. Her live installations are notable for their lack of a dramaturgical arch, for their extended duration, and for the ongoing presence of dancers within exhibition spaces. The duration of these installation-like pieces are often determined by the hours of operation of the respective institutions.
Awards and Recognition
In 2016, Hassabi received an award for Outstanding Production from the New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies) for PLASTIC (2015–2016). She has also been awarded the Herb Alpert Award (2015), the President’s Award for Performing Arts from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2012), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011), and a Grants to Artists Award from Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2009).
“My works in general are characterized by their slowness, even though slow per se has never been my concern. I’m interested in creating a space where the viewer is given plenty of time to see and be, a space where even the smallest details of motion can become visible. In order to do so, I pare down my material and slow its rhythm.” —Maria Hassabi
