MAUREEN FLEMING (Artistic Director/Choreographer/ Performance Artist) was born in Japan, the daughter of an American Navy Lieutenant. At the age of two she was in a serious car accident with her mother. The effects of the experience, both physical and emotional, have formed a thread through Fleming's life and influenced, if not driven, her devotion to the study of physical movement. In her multi-media performances, Fleming invents surreal movement poetry with the discipline of a classicist and the imagination of an iconoclast and explores through metaphorical images our never-ending search for what is universal about the journey of the soul.

COMPANY: Exploring images that ask what is universal about being human, Maureen Fleming Company is an internationally acclaimed performance ensemble known for its unique voice and surreal movement poetry. With her fine ensemble of designers and co-performers, Fleming's work pushes the boundaries of its expressive potential, challenging the definition of performance art in contemporary society. Creating innovative visual theater that is both captivating and challenging, the work transcends cultural boundaries and speaks to diverse audiences. Under Fleming's direction, the company includes a core of collaborative artists: enigmatic visual and light designer Christopher Odo; celebrated dance photographer Lois Greenfield; Lortel Award-winning sound designer Brett Jarvis; video artist Jeff Bush, co-creator of the NYC television series 'Eye on Dance'; and pianist Peter Phillips, former member of the Philip Glass Ensemble. This returning core of artists collaborated in the creation of Fleming's evening-length works 'After Eros' and 'Decay of the Angel'. The Company has performed these works to the highest critical acclaim in venues spanning five continents ranging from state of the art theaters with 1600 seats to a church built in 1000 A.D.

After extensive study in Japan with Kazuo Ohno, co-founder of Butoh, a minimalist movement developed in post war Japan, Ms. Fleming went on to perform with his son Yoshito Ohno and to tour internationally with performance artist and choreographer Min Tanaka. Fleming continued her training in the United States as a scholarship student under the Cecchetti master Margaret Craske. In 1984 she became an artist-in-residence at La MaMa ETC in New York, and since 1994 has conducted workshops at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Young Audiences New York, Trinity-La MaMa, and The Juilliard School.

Connecting cultures and art forms, Fleming is renowned for her singular form of visual theatre. Her solo and group works have received international acclaim in such venues as Japan's 1990 Butoh Festival, Italy's 1995 Spoleto and 1993 Milan Oltre Festivals, Venezuela's 1994 Encuentro International, Mexico's 1995 Jose Limon Dance Festival, Iceland's 1996 Reykjavik Arts Festival, France's 1996 International Mime Festival in Perigueux and Maison des Cultures in Paris, Germany's 1997 Tollwood Festival and Oldenburg Internationale Ballett-Tage '99, Russia's Mimolet 97, Colombia's Contemporanea International Festival 1998, 1999 ,2001, and 2003, Manizales International Festival 2003 and 2005, Korea's Seoul Performing Arts Festival 2003, Brazil's FILO 2005 and Mercado Cultural 2002 and 2005 , LaMaMa E.T.C.(with Yoshito Ohno) 1991, the Pittsburgh Dance Council 1992 and 1996, the 1994 Bates Dance Festival, the 1995 San Francisco Butoh Festival (with Akira Kasai), the 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Project 1996, the Kitchen 1998, The Cleveland Museum of Art 1998, The Virginia Museum of Fine Art 1999, Symphony Space 2003, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2003, 2004, 2005, the Flynn Center for the Arts 2004, and Boston's Majestic Theater 2002, 2004.

She has been awarded fellowships from the National Performance Network Creation Fund 1996 (After Eros), 2002 (Decay of the Angel), 2005 (At the Hawk's Well), National Endowment for the Arts (1993-1995, 2001, 2004), New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project (1997-1999), Rockefeller MAP Fund (1997, 1998), Arts International (1993- 2003), Performing Americas Project (2003), Meet the Composer Choreographer Project (1992), Mid-Atlantic Touring Grant (1990, 1992, 1994), New York Foundation for the Arts (1980) in Choreography and Performance Art (1990, 1997), Greenwall Foundation (1998, 2004), the Asian Cultural Council (1990, 2004), NEA Japan US Friendship Commission (2001), Japan Foundation Performing Arts Japan (2002, 2004). She is a recent recipient of a Fulbright Commission in Colombia (2005) and Korea (2006).

Fleming's evening length works 'After Eros' and 'Decay of the Angel' included collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), composer Philip Glass and photographer Lois Greenfield.

{The Archetype}
One of the principles which underlies my work is the creation of the 'archetype'. An archetype is a universal symbol that embodies a pattern of life experience. For example, in Sphere, the universal symbol of a circle forms and deconstructs. The image bespeaks a reality beyond the pairs of opposites such as birth and death or pain and ecstasy and contains them in the same moment. The image encompassing both music and light creates a state which allows the observer to reflect on their lives and watch the image like a dream.

The following press photos are available for presenters' promotional materials. Click on the photo for a larger image. Please contact Flemingny@aol.com for access to high-resolution photos.

1. Decay of the Angel photo by Lois Greenfield	2. Sphere photo by Lois Greenfield	3. Flower Revolution photo by Lois Greenfield
4. Flower Revolution photo by Lois Greenfield	5. Mother and Child photo by Lois Greenfield	6. Axis Mundi photo by Philip Trager
7. Eros photo by Maje Waldo	8. Flower photo by J. B. Huynh	9. Womb Mandala photo by Lois Greenfield
10. Sphere photo by Edin Velez	11. Birth Song photo by Maje Waldo	12. After Eros photo by Ellen Crane
13. Flower photo by Lois Greenfield	14. Flower photo by Lois Greenfield	15. Flower photo by Lois Greenfield
16. The Immortal Rose photo by Lois Greenfield	17. The Immortal Rose photo by Lois Greenfield	18. The Immortal Rose photo by Lois Greenfield
	19. Dialogue of Self and Soul photo by Lois Greenfield