Motion State Arts presents
JENNA RIEGEL
VARVARA
November 7, 2026 . 7:30pm
wilbury theatre group . providence, RI
Choreographer/Performer: Jenna Riegel
Varvara is a virtuosic solo dance performance inspired by the radical work of Russian Constructivist artist Varvara Stepanova.
Through theatricality, video, and humor, Riegel explores brokenness, reinvention, and the search for purpose. Drawing from Stepanova’s Constructivist ideas, Riegel uses movement to question the body’s role in performance—what happens when we treat it like a machine versus letting it move freely in all its unruly, expressive chaos?
Varvara is both a response to Alexander Rodchenko’s photograph “Performing Furniture” (1922), which features his artistic collaborator and life partner Varvara Stepanova, and to Stepanova’s body of creative work. A prominent Russian Constructivist artist, Stepanova’s endeavors include textiles, visual poetry, costumes, and set designs. Konstantin Rudnitsky, a Soviet theater critic of their time, wrote, “The human body was perceived as a machine: man had to learn to control that machine. It was the theatre’s function to demonstrate the fine tuning of the human ‘mechanisms’.”
Motion State Arts is thrilled to present the only Rhode Island performance of this piece.
and come take class WITH JENNA RIEGEL!
Wilbury Theatre Group, 475 Valley St, Providence
$20/class. Space limited, advance registration encouraged.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, TIME TBA
Title coming soon!
Description coming soon!
ARTIST BIO
Jenna Riegel, originally from Fairfield, Iowa, is a dance artist and educator. Jenna holds an M.F.A. in Dance Performance form the University of Iowa and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Maharishi International University. During her eleven-year performing career in NYC, Jenna toured and performed nationally and internationally as a company member of David Dorfman Dance, Alexandra Beller/Dances, Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Company and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. She also danced with Daara Dance (choreographer Michel Kouakou), Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Shaneeka Harrell, Tania Isaac Dance and johannes weiland. Jenna taught classes in contemporary technique in New York City at Gina Gibney Dance Center, New York Live Arts, Mark Morris Dance Center, and 100 Grand Dance.
She has been on facutly in the dance departments of Barnard College, The Juilliard School and Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition, she has taught master classes at The Joffrey Ballet School, Columbia College, NYU, The New Schoool, Ohio State University, SUNY Purchase, Bard College Connecticut College and Williams College. Jenna has also been on faculty at the American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival and is currently an Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance at Amherst College.
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