Artistic
Collaboration

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At Juilliard, we transcend the conventional model of artists as autonomous experts who solely refine their own art form through dogged and traditional practice. From the dancer who becomes a composer’s muse to the actor who finds the music in her lines thanks to a cellist’s soulful backing melody, Juilliard students find opportunities every day to form imaginative and creative partnerships across disciplines, divisions, and passions.

Lifting the Veil on the Creative Process

Since its inception in 2015, the Juilliard First Look program has celebrated student creativity that crosses divisional lines, from the very budding of an idea to the culmination of months or even years of dedication. At each session, student works-in-process are presented to the Juilliard and wider New York City communities, demonstrating the alchemy that occurs between creators and performers with diverse talents. This video sheds light on the innovative program.

dancer preparing for First Look

First Look | Celebrating New Work at Juilliard

Nathalie Joachim: The Well-Rounded Musician

Nathalie Joachim (BM '05, flute) is the co-founder of urban art pop band Flutronix and member of the four-time Grammy Award-winning Eighth Blackbird. As a flutist, composer, performer, and more, Nathalie credits her interdisciplinary foundation at Juilliard as the root of the kaleidoscopic musical career she has built.

Video feature on Juilliard alumna and flutist Nathalie Joachim

Nathalie Joachim | Life After Juilliard

Bringing Baroque Into the 21st Century

Juilliard’s Historical Performance and Dance Divisions collaborated on Terpsichore, a program bringing to life the little-known movement element of orchestra concerts. Combining Juilliard’s period-instrument ensemble Juilliard415 with both Baroque and modern dancers and original choreography, director Robert Mealy melded diverse visual and auditory expressions of the subtle language of Baroque music.

Video feature about the Terpsichore artistic collaboration between Juilliard Historical Performance and Dance divisions

Terpsichore | Historical Performance & Dance Collaboration

You Play; I’ll Dance

For close to a decade, third-year students in the Music and Dance Divisions have joined forces for the Choreographers and Composers class (fondly referred to as ChoreoComp), a semester-long interdisciplinary undertaking of fully produced pieces in which dancers design a performance over a composer’s original music and present the works in a public performance. Tyler Cunningham (BM ’19, percussion) first learned of this collaborative and integrative program during his first-year orientation and couldn’t wait to take part. Read more about Choreographers and Composers 2016.

Juilliard Snapshot video feature on artistic collaboration with music student Tyler Cunningham

Tyler Cunningham on Collaboration

Center for Innovation in the Arts

Since 1993, Juilliard’s Center for Innovation in the Arts has been providing students from all divisions the chance to use technology in the creation and performance of innovative new works. Through these interactions, the Center’s director and faculty member Ed Bilous (MM ’80, DMA ’84, composition) sees a new kind of artist being formed – one who is more expansive and isn’t limited to the confines of his or her discipline. 

Ed Bilous

Ed Bilous on Technology and Collaboration

Students Getting Their Act Together

Even though Juilliard provides multiple opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, that doesn’t stop our ambitious, tenacious, and vibrant students from doing their own thing – and that’s just the way we like it. Every year, several student-initiated, interdepartmental productions are born, such as Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music spearheaded by fourth-year actor Claire Karpen, and a stage version of A Clockwork Orange led by fourth-year actor Alex Sharp, who went on to win a Tony Award the very next year.

Jeffery Duffy: Moving With Confidence

Jeffery Duffy (BFA ’15, dance) is a company member at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, where he’s been able to draw incredible strength from the training he received at Juilliard. When working with visiting artists, such as comedians/actors from Chicago’s improvisational comedy bastion The Second City, Jeffery has confidence in his abilities thanks to his exposure to the myriad artists he encountered here.

Juilliard dance alum Jeffery Duffy talks about how the training has shaped his professional dance career.

Dancer Jeffery Duffy | Life After Juilliard