Emily Johnson rehearses The Thank-you Bar

In January 2009, MANCC Choreographic Fellow Emily Johnson conducted research on home, origin and displacement as she explored the seeds of a new project titled The Thank-you Bar. Working with students, a storyteller, and animal behaviorists, Emily expanded on audience perception, language, Nativeness, and building/maintaining urban and natural structures, all of which were interrelated themes that drove the development of the piece. During the summer of 2009 she returned to MANCC for her second residency to further hone the work and share the work in progress at the MANCC National Forum. The work went on to premiere in October 2009 at Out North in Anchorage Alaska. For a full description of The Thank-you Bar residencies along with photos, video and an audio podcast please see: mancc.org/artists/emily-johnson

The Thank-you Bar has toured extensively to a variety of venues including Bunnell St. Gallery (Homer, AK), The New Genre Festival (Tulsa, OK), The TBA Festival (Portland, OR), The Dance Center at Columbia College (Chicago, IL), Northrop Auditorium (Minneapolis, MN), ODC Theater (San Francisco, CA), DiverseWorks! (Houston, TX), Vermont Performance Lab: Progressive Performance Festival (Guilford, VT) and returned to Tallahassee, FL in March 2011 for nine performances as part of the Southeast American College Dance Festival. As the initial US tour winds down, The Thank-you Bar will have its New York premiere at New York Live Arts Nov 9th - 12th, 2011.

Johnson returned to MANCC in 2011 and will be in residence again in 2012 to develop a new performance/installation, Niicugni (Listen), centered on movement, story, and sound housed within a light/sound installation of hand-made, functional fish-skin lanterns. Additional information about Johnson’s Niicugni residencies may be found at: mancc.org/artists/emily-johnson