ABOUT THE YOGGS

Taryn Griggs and Chris Yon create original dance works that are deadpan slapstick, understated melodrama, autobiographical science fiction, cubist vaudeville, asymmetrically consonant explorations of magic and virtuosity in everyday movement.  They met at the Bessie Schönberg Artist Residency at The Yard in 2002 and have been working together ever since. They were participants in the dance communities of New York City, Minneapolis, and Iowa City, before moving to North Carolina.  Chris and Taryn’s choreographies have been presented across the US, Canada, Ireland, and France. In New York, in addition to the presentation of their work at La MaMa, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, The Kitchen, and Danspace Project, they appeared together in the work of David Neumann, Yoshiko Chuma, Karinne Keithley Syers, and Sara Rudner.  During their years in the Twin Cities, they were both McKnight Fellows, co-curators for Choreographer’s Evening at the Walker Art Center, and their work was presented as part of the Walker’s Momentum Dance Series at The Southern, Red Eye Theater’s Isolated Acts, Jaime Carrera’s Outlet Performance Festival, and 9x22 at the Bryant Lake Bowl. Since moving to North Carolina, their work has been commissioned by the North Carolina Dance Festival (NCDF), American Dance Festival (ADF), and they have been developed a platform for new work and collaborations through Interstitial: A site specific dance during the changeovers between art exhibits in museum and gallery spaces. Their most recent project: Yoggs Family Newsletter (2014-present) has been workshopped at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (WS,NC) as part of their Interstitial series, The Southern Theater (MPLS) part of the Candy Box Festival, Goodyear Arts Center (CLT) as part of the North Carolina Dance Festival, at the Modes of Capture Symposium (Limerick, IE) and in  La MaMa Moves Festival (NYC).  It received generous residency support through the second annual Trillium Arts North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship ahead of its full premiere at the Nasher Art Museum co-presented by the American Dance Festival, September 2024.  Griggs and Yon live in Boone, NC and teach at Appalachian State University. They share their creative practice with their daughter Bea, the coolest of the Yoggs.