Jacalyn’s choreographic ouvre spanned 20 years. She graduated George Washington University with a degree in Modern Dance Education in the late 1970s, study under Prof Maida Withers. Jac began choreographing as a member of the Philadlephia Old City Arts dance community, while performing with Group Motion Dance Company and the Woo World Players.
After moving to Berlin in 1978 to start Tanztheater Tryptikon with Ric Schachtebec and Tonio Guerra, she became a founding co-director of tanzfabrik berlin in 1979. During 17 years at tanzfabrik, she choreographed evening-length and shorter works that helped catapult the young institution into the European and international spotlight. The first ten years of tanzfabrik are now in focus in Berlin, after extensive research by MimeCentrum Berlin in collaboration with the International Theater Institute, Free University in Berlin, Akademie der Künste, and a large grant from the German Dance Heritage initiative in 2017/18. Along with works by other contemporary choreographers, most of her early productions can be viewed in their entirety here, at the ITI/MimeZentrum digital archives. Also available: archival descriptions of all works. Posters, reviews, documentation and choreographic notebooks are now part of the tanzfabrik archives at the Akademie der Kuenste Darstellende Kunst Archives.
In lieu of music, Jacalyn often used of experimental literature by writers including Kurt Schwitters Schwitters Ursonate, Raymond Federman Projekt X (with Bob Rutman’s Steel Cello Ensemble), Ernst Jandl ‘ERNST ERNST’, Adrej Bely, and Gertrude Stein.
Her choreographic signature, pitting dance to and against literature, led to the creation of a new genre at the time, ‘Text/Tanz’, one that would go on to define tanzfabrik and inspire future generations over the next several decades. Whether spoken by moving actors or sung by dancers, with playback or projected on large backdrops, her innovative approach to melding genres set her apart from the post modern trends of the times.
Her last work for tanzfabrik (1999), Space for Cage, was an evening-length work using John Cage prepared piano works played live by Darryl Rosenberg who also read Cage texts. Later performance venues included the Guggenheim Berlin.
After tanzfabrik, Jacalyn formed JC&CO–Moving Wor(l)ds Dance Company, only performing site-specific works throughout Berlin, including Stanzas In Meditation, text by Gertrude Stein, with composer and musician Bardo Henning.
Over the course of twenty years of dance-making, her choreographies toured extensively throughout Europe and the US, including Vienna Festwochen, Kunstmuseum Zurich (Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk), St Mark’s Church NY, University of Austin, Holland Festival, Gullbankien Lisbon, Bauhaus Museum Berlin, Bauhaus Kolln, Haus am Waldsee Berlin, Villa Massimo Rome, Seven Stages Atlanta, ‘Berlin-in.. festivals Brussels and Oslo, Literatur Haus Basel, Martin Groupius Bau Berlin (Raoul Hausmann retrospective), NYU at Stonybrook and NYU at Buffalo, Literaturhaus Berlin. Jacalyn was commissioned to make works for Berliner Festwochen and Komische Oper at the Kloster Ruine Berlin, for Coredance Atlanta (Williams Last Night) and others.
Jacalyn also curated workshops and performances like Open Mike Alive for young dancers & poets in conjunction with the Literatur Werkstatt Berlin.
Jacalyn ended her career as a choreographer in 1994 with the publication of her first book.
Credits and thanks for the memories: Photos by Udo Hesse, Peter Adamik, screen grab. Graphic design for all tanzfabrik posters, cards and programs by aNNa Stein.
Jacalyn has written both fiction and nonfiction books, articles, short stories and poetry. Her poetry can be found online on various sites. Her books are translated into German, only available in German.
WAS SAGT DAS LINKE KNIE ZUM RECHTEN (What does the left knee say to the right knee) was her first book. 1999, eichborn.de, translated by Gertraude Kruger. In this post-modern tale, two cuckoos are trapped in an old clock in a village pub where they tell the sad story of a young girl’s rape. It was met with critical acclaim. “These are simple stories, if you will, simple stories from a small village in Brandenburg that time has passed by, but stories that tell us more about the world and life than many a celebrate Berlin novel; stories about guilt and love, a collective rape and incest, about a father’s love and misguided village gossip, and the more or les successful escapes out of the village as seen by a clock that ticks in 1996 the same as it would tick in 1976 or 1956.” Gerrit Bartels, TAZ
ALMAS TANZ (Alma’s Dance) 2003, eichborn.de, translation Gertraude Kruger. An aging and ambitious former Prima Ballerina from East Germany creates an exotic past in order to make herself more interesting in the hothouse world of professional ballet. She falls in love with Jim, a struggling American modern dance choreographer. The fragility of their trust and respect mirrors the equally fragile professional worlds they live in. “East and West, Ballet and Off-Scene meet in Almas Tanz. Fiction mixes with true stories from the 90s in Berlin. With humor and fine sense of language, Carley takes us into Berlin’s dance-theater world: from the diroctor of the opera, the ballet master, dance students who cry every time the execute a grand plié, to mean spirited dancers who are willing to take the ship down with them. But above all, Almas Tanz is a love story about two broken and confuse artistic personalities who grow closer without noticing it themselves.” Michaela Schlagenwert, Berliner Zeitung. “Amusing and highly ironic at once, it is, at times, even a tragic Pas de Deux, that Carley has her characters dance. A true reading pleasure, and not just for ballet fans.” ft, Kultur news.de “Aviva-Tip: Written with ease, entertaining and worth the read!” H. Meier, AVIVA-BERLIN.de
ROYSTON MALDOOM: COMMUNITY DANCE—Jeder kann tanzen 2010, Herschel. Translation: Nadine Püschel. Responding to a demand for a methods handbook on Royston Maldoom’s pedagogy, Everyone can Dance, is both pragmatic and thought-provoking. “Whoever wants to learn why ‘discipline’ is not a bad word, and how one can make people receptive to learn and work hard until they feel the dancer in themselves—what pleasures can arise—can follow this book step-by-step.” Wiebke Hüster, Deutschland Radio Kultur. “It was clever of maldoom to put the writing into Carley’s hands. Through her the book becomes an overall guidebook for realizing community dance projects. Maldoom is quoted time and again as the ‘spiritual pioneer’ yet Carley was able to uncouple his methods from his personality…This guidebook is a decisive, successful beginning for documentation in the Community Dance movement.” Edith Wolf Perez, tanz.at
TANZ UM DEIN LEBEN: Mein Arbeit, meine Geshichte—Royston Maldoom (Dance for your Life: My Work, My story) by Royston Maldoom & Jacalyn Carley. 2011, S.Fischer. Translation Nora Lachmann. Royston’s autobiography retells a moving and deeply influential life spent in the Community Dance world. Royston’s pioneering work changed the face of dance and the potential of the arts in Germany, if much of Europe. He has impacted lives on every rung of the social ladder, from Ethiopia to Germany, as no other choreographer. Spiegel Bestseller for 23 weeks. “The choreographer Royston Maldoom’s philosophy about the transformative power of the dance, that every person has huge potential, is a philosophy that has proved itself 100 times over in practice …This autobiography presents his learning curve and traveling years, the most important projects of this headstrong Brit, and an exemplary instance of how close life and art are. Zestful story telling is combined with reflections about dance, politics and education.” Sandra Luzina, Tagesspiegel. “Royston Maldoom is not a guru. In this book we get to know a pragmatist, a passionate optimist with a heightened sensibility for the beauty of each and every individual.” Carsten Heuck, Foyer 3sat
Jacalyn Carley was On-site Director for Sarah Lawrence College’s Summer Arts in Berlin , a study abroad program offering credits in Creative Writing, Visual Arts & Architecture, and German Language from 2011 - 2020. She is currently teaching Dance and Community; Looking at Utopias in the 20th Century for Bard College Berlin.
She also teaches workshops, hands-on, for dance teachers and students interested in Community Dance.
She has a background rich in leadership and education, teaching, and mentoring. (Full pdf.)
Jacalyn has taught and lectured on the topic, “From Revolutionaries to Cultural Missionaries: German Modern Dance history from 1900—2019”, focusing on the utopian and political aspects of German dance, including aesthestics.
From 2001—2011, she taught ‘Creative Writing as a Research Method’ for Lexia Study Abroad in Berlin.
In 2006 she received a fellowship for Ledig International Writers House in NY. In 2005, she was selected to attend University of Iowa Writers Workshop summer program.
As cofounder and director of tanzfabrik berlin, she taught numerous weekly Modern Dance classes as well as workshops in composition and improvisation for all levels from 1978-1986. During this time, she also mentored numerous young choreographers and directed student performances. Jacalyn was a popular teacher at various Berliner Volkshochschulen, and often gave workshops while on tour. During this time she was twice awarded a travel and furthering-education fellowship from the Berlin Ministry for the Arts.
As initiator and director of “Tanz in Berlin - Ein Symposium”, 1993, she led a 3-day international conference engaging all dance centers in Europe to discuss Berlin’s unique position after the fall of the Wall.
In 1996-97, she curated and mentored performance projects at LiteraturWerkstatt Berlin, Dance-meets-Literature, in which young poets were paired with young choreographers.
Jacalyn Carley left Philadelphia on a one-way ticket to Berlin in the late ‘70s. With a suitcase filled with leotards and a passion to dance (and not enough money for a return flight), she seemed destined to become the Ur-expat. As cofounder of tanzfabrik, Jacalyn was instrumental in bringing US influences to modern dance in Germany. Her choreographies were signature works for blending dance with literature, exploring the works of Gertrude Stein, Ernst Jandl, Ray Federman and Kurt Schwitters. Her choreographies toured Europe and the US extensively for over 15 years, including commissions/support by the Berliner Festspiel, Berlin Ministry of Arts, Komische Oper, Several Dancers Core Atlanta, Goethe Institute.
With the publication of “Was sagt das linke Knie zum rechten?” (eichborn.de) in 2001, Jacalyn launched a second career as an author. Her publications now include four books, including co-authorship of the Spiegel bestseller, "Tanz um dein Leben"—Dance for your Life, the Autobiography of Royston Maldoom with S.Fischer. She has also published essays, short fiction, and poetry.
Jacalyn teaches Dance and Community Building for Bard College Berlin in the spring of 2023. The course explores the role of European utopias in forming Community Dance as we now know it, and is co-taught with Prof Ingo Reulecke (HZT).
A complete list of her choreographies. A very short professional biography. A link to what she’s doing now.
