In 2012 Danspace Project presented two historic Platforms, Parallels and Judson Now. In 2013 we continue to explore artistic constellations and lineages. What web of connections do new generations of artists trace? Who are their influences? This season we ask each artist to share a significant artistic influence.

Joanna Kotze: My first artistic influence was my sister…she would come home from ballet class and teach me everything she had learned. I was six. Movement is my most significant influence: movement of the body, movement through space. I have always loved to move but fully investigating movement while working with Wally Cardona and also understanding my body in a deeper way through Klein Technique with Barbara Mahler has made me fascinated with what the body can do. Architecture and the way the body is seen within that structure inspires me as well; the design of space, design of the body and the design of the body in space. I am also influenced by what I am reading, music I’m listening to and art that I am seeing (especially my husband’s!). During this process I was reading Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces, Yi-Fu Tuan’s Space and Place, and Anselm Berrigan’s Notes from Irrelevance. Challenges influence me because they are a puzzle that needs to be solved. New York City is one of those challenges that I feel pushes my creativity. And certainly, my dancers are a huge influence and inspiration – their extremely capable bodies, inquisitive minds, and generous spirit.

Netta Yerushalmy, Stuart Singer, and Joanna Kotze. Photo: Ian Douglas.

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Joanna Kotze’s IT HAPPENED IT HAD HAPPENED IT IS HAPPENING IT WILL HAPPEN runs May 30-June 1, 2013 at Danspace Project.