Liam Clancy

office: Galbraith Hall 322
email: lclancy@ucsd.edu

Biography

I received my BA in sociology with a minor in dance from Rhode Island College in 1995 where I performed in repertory works by Elizabeth Streb, Douglas Dunn, Gus Solomons Jr, Dorothy Jungels, and Doris Humphrey. Shortly after graduation I moved to New York City to dance with Elizabeth Streb’s Ringside Company and participated in the PopAction Tour performing at venues that included the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, The Wexner Arts Center in Columbus Ohio and the Joyce Theater in New York City, and in England at the Greenwich Borough Hall and Oxford Playhouse. In 1998 I began creating my own hybrid performance style that was deeply influenced by what I was seeing at PS 122 in downtown New York City. (I had a friend who became the Technical Director of the downstairs space in 1995). The work tended to be solo and autobiographical but also included everything from formal dance to old-fashioned story telling and many things in-between. Sometime in 2003 I started playing with elements of vaudeville, circus and improvisation which are direct results of studying with, albeit briefly, Jennifer Miller of Circus AMOK and more intensely with Dan Froot at UCLA. Over the last year I’ve been dancing/talking/singing/making noises/standing still/leaving the building and returning (or not) and going to lunch with a group of friends here in San Diego. We improvise once a week together in addition to Monday night Contact Improv jams. Without exaggeration, the greatest single influence on my work has been Dan Froot’s solo pieces and his duets with David Dorfman. Other influences include, Bill T. Jones, Spalding Gray, Charlie Chaplin and clowns of all stripes. My work has been presented in Rhode Island, New York and California. In October of 2006 with the support of Jeremy Gaucher of Culture’s Edge and Adam Cook (owner of bluefoot bar/lounge) I launched 4×4, a monthly performance series held on a 4-foot by 4-foot stage in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood. Most of my training in theater comes from the doing of it; nonetheless I’ve studied, in fits and starts, at Rhode Island College, the University of London and in an Upper Westside basement in New York City. In 2005 I joined the faculty at UC San Diego in the department of Theatre and Dance and was able to help develop and implement an MFA program in dance/theatre.