― The Artist
About
Christian Swenson
Christian Swenson
Performer, teacher, and creator of Human Jazz
Christian Swenson has an extensive background in dance, mime, voice, and improvisation. He is known for his pioneering work in what he calls “Human Jazz” – a global fusion of dance, drama, and music for body and voice.
In 1977 he received a BA in Theater from the University of New Hampshire and moved to Seattle to work with the Bill Evans Dance Company. Further training has included work with Tony Montanaro, Diane Schenker, Ruth Zapora, Korean shaman Hi-ah Park, and the late Pakistani master-singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He has performed with Bill Irwin, The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and The Jay Clayton/Jim Knapp Collective, and in Europe with Jim Nollman of Interspecies Communication Inc.
For over four decades he has been performing creations for the body and voice, searching for a more global aesthetic. Since 1980 he has been a touring artist visiting communities and schools in the Northwest and beyond, performing and teaching throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Nepal. Christian released his first compact disc, “Off-Road Vocals”, in 2000.
As a guest artist he has appeared as The Monster in The Minnesota Opera’s production of “Frankenstein”, at New York’s “Serious Fun at Lincoln Center” and “The New York Improvisation Festival”, with The Flying Karamazov Brothers’ “New Old Time Chautauqua” and the 2002 “Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour”. He has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Sandy Bradley’s Potluck”, performed at the 2005 American College Dance Festival in Buffalo, NY and at the 1998 “Body & Soul Northwest” Conference. For two years he was a Vocalist with the Integrated Music Program at two Seattle hospitals and is a founding member of the improvisational ensemble “Molten Vocals”.
He officially retired in 2020 and returned to performing in 2025. He is currently working on a memoir/how-to book about Human Jazz.
Christian has received Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington State Arts Commission, and Artist Trust of Washington. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Abigail. They have two grown children.
Artist Statement
My work in the theater is concerned with the autonomous actor, the natural world, and the dynamic interplay between the self and the Other. Since 1980 I have been creating and performing solo works for body and voice, our original instruments. The work is unique in its cross-cultural synthesis of theater, dance, and music and its willingness to unbridle the imagination. I create shows where freedom is more important than conflict, and within which continual transformations can take place.
I can be myself simply speaking to the audience; then a character speaking or singing in tongues, and dancing; then an animal watching the audience; and then just a person at play with energy.
Creating, shaping, reacting, transforming until the separation between real and imagined evaporates – the artform as a lifeform. I have been developing new modes through improvisation, as the compositional forms for theater, dance, and music have grown separate from each other and feel too domesticated. I wish to play my bodyvoice as Jimi Hendrix played his guitar.
In our culture, improvisation in theater and dance has had a controversial history, although this is not true of American music. I am seeking a common ground between the aliveness of improvised music and that of the wilderness. As separate art forms, theater, dance, and music have been widely explored in this culture. However, as a simultaneous act, there has been little development beyond the styles of musical theater and folk idioms. My work attempts to fuse these by exploring the terrain between speaking and singing, acting and dancing, human and animal, sacred and secular.
I am finding delight to be an essential force for uniting imaginations in this vast array of forms. The spirit of this practice is re-creation and participation in the wilderness of the imagination. I believe the French dramatist Jean Genet, who said, “Imitation is love.” So with an open heart and mind as a springboard, I freely imitate other species and cultures as well as entities from imaginary realms. By simply “playing” the bodyvoice in this way, the work is both disarming and inspiring, allowing the audience to sense greater possibilities for interplay between the self and the world.
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Washington State Arts Commission
- Artist Trust of Washington
- Bill Evans Dance Company Seattle
- Tony Montanaro Mime & physical theater
- Diane Schenker Movement
- Ruth Zapora Improvisation
- Hi-ah Park Korean shaman
- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Pakistani master-singer
- Seattle University Theater program faculty
- Off-Road Vocals CD release, 2000
- Founding member, Molten Vocals Improvisational ensemble
- Integrated Music Program Vocalist, two Seattle hospitals
- The Monster — Minnesota Opera's Frankenstein
- Serious Fun at Lincoln Center New York
- New York Improvisation Festival
- Flying Karamazov Brothers' New Old Time Chautauqua
- Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour 2002
- NPR Sandy Bradley's Potluck National Public Radio
- American College Dance Festival Buffalo, NY — 2005
- Body & Soul Northwest Conference 1998
- BA in Theater, University of New Hampshire 1977