Choreography
Perhaps because I am an actor myself, I have a facility for helping actors activate their physical instruments. I like to make a movement language that weaves in and out of the fabric of words and music to illuminate character and dramatize how everything is in flux. I’ve served as choreographer at the Guthrie Theatre, Juilliard, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, New York City Opera, American Music Theatre Festival, Living Room Theatre, Circle in the Square, Hubbard Hall, films starring Harvey Keitel, and on Broadway for Sunday In The Park With George.
Adam And Evie
Circle in the Square
We looked for the ancient Greek dithyramb in our contemporary bodies to tell the Tantalus story through gesture and rhythm.
Frank, Frank
New Georges
The Tone Ladies dance through Frank’s fantasies as the embodiment of wordly success while sending a mixed message of Woman as temptress, property, and burden—a 1950s world view.
Sunday In The Park With George
Original Broadway Production
In “Color and Light” Dot sits at her powdering table dreaming about not only going to the follies but dancing in them. Finding the right gestures placed at the right moment, joined to the right words, and not always meant to be performed perfectly, epitomizes character.
Choreography featured in the book Putting it Together, soon to be an HBO special.
Photos by Martha Swope
“Zinn has the keen ability to pinpoint hidden emotions of both fictional and real characters. She treats dramatic subjects with color and shading, energy and velocity.”
Guys and Dolls
The Guthrie Theater, directed by Garland Wright
One of the very best American musicals because there is a reason for every song and every dance. Working with Garland again was a pleasure as we crafted our vision of America with Damon Runyon’s stories, Jo Swerling & Abe Burrows’ book and Frank Loesser’s music. Pictured below “The Crapshooter’s Ballet” and “Take Back Your Mink.”
Photos by Jo Giannetti
“A special note should be made about Randolyn Zinn’s choreography. It’s vibrant, energetic stuff, with an edge that seems to come from a slightly asymmetrical rhythm. Above all, the dancing is fast - and it’s highly detailed, with lots of two and three-dancer vignettes blended into the larger choreographic ensemble. Clearly, it’s some of the most effective choreography to be presented at the Guthrie.”
L’Histoire du Soldat
Lincoln Center Institute, Directed by Jonathan Furst
Music by Igor Stravinsky with members of the New York Philharmonic
Stravinsky’s music was a joy and a challenge to choreograph. While this music is counted in 9s and 5s, often switching time signatures mid-stream, it is always danceable. Mark Blum and I rehearsed scenes between the Princess and the Soldier in different ways, playing around until we found what felt real and unexpected. This was facilitated since I also danced the role of the Princess, so our energies merged. I made the decision that my Princess had been asleep for most of her life and only the Soldier’s violin music (a waltz, a tango and a ragtime) could awaken her to life’s possibilities.
As You Like It
The Guthrie Theater
directed by Liviu Ciulei
Liviu’s Shakespeare productions completely illuminated the text. A master of the big vision supported by small, human moments of pathos, pain and joy, it was an honor to work with him for the second time.
These Two At A Distance
An untenable relationship moving through duets and solos explores character definitions and incongruities, set to music by George Gershwin and Dave Brubeck. Made with an Affiliate Artist fellowship, performed at Dance Theatre Workshop.
Finding Graceland
Harvey Keitel’s rendition of “Suspicious MInds” is not as much an imitation as an evocation of Elvis wherein emotional connection and choreography meet in the imagination of a great actor. Produced by Largo Entertainment.
The Tempest
In collaboration with director Liviu Ciulei at the Guthrie Theatre. Pictured is the Nymphs and Reapers dance during the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda.
“In this Tempest, the evening’s magic tricks by Randolyn Zinn are splendidly created.”
Antarctica
A full-length dance-theatre poem featuring The Woman and Man in Summer Clothes, the Vulgar Trio and Three Virgins. Characters pursue each other through scenes entitled Mapping out the Ice, The Suitcase Series and the Torso Ballet—a Praxiteles movement frieze—until the ice melts and chaos gives way to an uneasy finale. Produced by Dance Theatre Workshop
“Zinn’s ANTARCTICA is…mythic and personal at the same time.”
Music-Hall Sidelights
From Colette’s story, adapted by Jack Heifner, directed by Garland Wright, and produced by Lion Theatre Company on Theatre Row in NYC. Starring Kathy Bates as Colette.
CHAPTER NINE
After Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary, with music by Chopin
I performed this solo first at Washington Square Church in NYC, then at Lincoln Center Institute, and on tour in Louisiana during an Affiliate Artists fellowship where I danced on concrete floors, in church basements, outdoors in a rainstorm, and in the lunchroom of a chemical factory where everyone was obliged to wear a hardhat for safety, including me in my lacy Victorian costume. That juxtaposition yielded lesson in surrealism that I came to appreciate in retrospect.