The Alchemist’s Veil: Interview with Performer Maureen Fleming
“The Alchemist’s Veil” is a new experimental dance performance created and performed by Maureen Fleming. Scheduled to debut at New York’s LaMaMa Theatre in October of 2025, “The Alchemist’s Veil” combines surreal movement and poetry with mesmerizing visuals — and all of these components are directly inspired by the paintings of American artist Georgia O’Keeffe. The show is, according to the official press release, “a glorious assertion of femininity.”
Maureen Fleming is proud to premiere this show (which she personally created, choreographed, and performs) to coincide with her 70th birthday; this year also aligns with the 35th anniversary of her La MaMa debut back in 1989. Maureen Fleming is renowned for her originality and ability to fuse visual art with movement theater. A car accident in childhood left Maureen with a spinal deformity and — instead of slowing her down — this condition left her with unique movement abilities that she shares with the world through her performances. To date, Maureen’s performative art has graced stages all over the world including Ireland, South Korea, Latvia, Columbia, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, and more.
Maureen recently discussed her career, this new show, and more via an exclusive interview.
Meagan Meehan (MM): How did you get interested in dance and how did experimental and interpretative dance capture your imagination?
Maureen Fleming (MF): I do not remember when dance was not a part of my life. Dance is my oxygen. I found my way to experimental and interpretative dance through a search for what is universal about the journey of the soul. This most likely comes from having four uncles in the Catholic priesthood and my sixteen years of Catholic education. The true meaning of Catholic is universal.
MM: As a child you were injured in a car accident. How did that experience influence your creative endeavors?
MF: A traumatic childhood event unexpectedly initiated me into dance. In that moment of abrupt rupture, shards of glass formed a prism through which my life journey unfolded. My father was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, and I was born on a military base near Yokohama, Japan. At the age of 15 months, my mother was driving and a man on a bicycle stopped quickly in front of the car. Flying from the back seat, I went through the windshield, causing me to lose the disc between my fourth and fifth vertebrae, an injury that doctors have said could have kept me in a wheelchair. But through an intuitive sense in subsequent years, I began creating dances that emerged out of slow, sinuous movements. The twisting and untwisting of joints increased blood flow, which perhaps became a method of gradual regeneration allowing my body to retain its childlike and idiosyncratic flexibility. This became my choreography.
MM: How did you come up with the idea and title for “The Alchemist’s Veil”?
MF: Alchemy, transformation and transcendence have always been core elements of my practice and psyche. We are sometimes given brief glimpses of realities beyond the everyday through all forms of art. These moments of “lifting the veil” are both ecstatic and sublime and what I hope to convey to audiences through my performances. The idea for “The Alchemist’s Veil” came from an accident that I suffered during a dance rehearsal in 2019. One of the dancers tripped and fell directly in front of the dancer that was running with me on his back, holding my feet like stirrups. When he fell on the dancer that had also fallen, I flew forward like a cannon and landed on my eye socket. A full house was arriving in one hour. With over twenty artists depending on me, I had to go on. So I put red makeup over my bleeding eye and matched the design on the other eye and performed. That experience made me question: what is the unbreakable essence inside each of us that the art of dance seeks to reveal? That is what led to the initial idea for “The Alchemist’s Veil”. Then, as I began to research the life of Georgia O’ Keeffe, I saw many parallels in her ability to transform her challenges into creative work. Georgia experienced the loss of her eyesight, every painter’s nightmare. She then turned to creating sculpture.
MM: What is it about the art of Georgia O’Keefe that so appeals to you?
MF: I connect with O’Keeffe’s work on many levels. Of course, I am especially drawn to her many paintings of flowers that allow the viewer, through form, scale, and color, to experience a transformation of reality in the experience of seeing, really seeing a flower. However, I also am moved by her personal struggles and artistic journey and her ability to draw strength through her art. There is a Celtic story of the Selkie where a seal transforms into a woman and is captured by a fisherman who hides her skin and marries her. However, after many years, she finds her skin and returns to the sea. I feel this is a story that relates to O’Keeffe’s journey as a woman and artist. In her life, she was able to reclaim her artistic skin through a bold move to the southwest after experiencing mental turmoil through her relationship with Alfred Stieglitz. Yet she remained committed to him until his death.
MM: How long did it take to come up with all of the components for this show?
MF: I have been quoted to say that it takes 10 years to make a dance. This work is no different. In fact, there are pieces in “The Alchemist’s Veil” that I have been working on since 2007. However, as I began to deeply research the life and work of Georgia O’ Keeffe, I began a journey, crystallizing mystical femininity across generations. This was a profound inspiration in my creative process.
MM: What is your favorite part of the show and why?
MF: Perhaps my favorite part of “The Alchemist’s Veil” is the ending piece, “The Immortal Rose”. For me, this work is an ecstatic look at the moment of death. The loss of the fear of Death is one of my life goals.
MM: What memorable feedback have you gotten about this performance so far?
MF: A workshop of “The Alchemist’s Veil” was staged in upstate New York last summer — in a dairy barn that we transformed into a performing space. In fact, Georgia O’ Keeffe created many of her works in a barn she called “The Shanty” near Lake George where Alfred Stieglitz’s family had a home. Choreographer Stephen Petronio came to see it and said that he could watch me fall forever. I took that as a positive. He also said that he didn’t “need a story.” And that helped me to structure the piece to be a series of images without a narrative.
MM: How did you initially start working with LaMaMa back in 1989 and how have you maintained that partnership for all of these years?
MF: My first performance with La MaMa, directed by La MaMa’s founder Ellen Stewart, was choreographed by iconic Japanese Butō artist Min Tanaka. We performed in the ruins in Delphi, Greece. This experience opened an important door for me. I went to Japan in the early 1980s to study with the masters of Japanese Butō, an avant-garde movement co-founded by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. As an initiate within the inner circles of this revolutionary movement, for a 20-year period, I traveled between NYC and Japan, where I was honored with intense training from the masters. During this time, I stood under waterfalls in November, fasted eight days alone in the mountains, and had many experiences that broke the armor around the body and allowed for profound communion with Japanese people. In 1990, I was the only “gaijin” (Japanese slang for foreigner) invited to perform in a Butō Festival in Tokyo, that took place in a firehouse, organized by Akiko Motofuji, the wife of Tatsumi Hijikata. Subsequently, I created Eros with Kazuo Ohno’s son, Yoshito Ohno, which premiered in 1991 at La MaMa E.T.C. in NYC and was commissioned by Ellen Stewart. Over the years, I have premiered seven works at La MaMa.
MM: How did the experimental dance/theater scene in 1989 differ from the present day?
MF: Living expenses and a loft on the Lower East Side were not at the premium that they are today. When I moved into my 1200 sq ft loft in 1981, the rent was $450.00. Ellen Stewart had given me the keys to the ground floor on 1st Street to conduct workshops and rehearsals. In addition to my loft, I could choreograph and teach at any time with the great resources of musicians and dancers in NYC. The creative freedom that comes with the resources of space and time is unparalleled to what is possible in NYC today.
MM: You have had your work performed internationally, so how do different audiences in different countries react to experimental dance?
MF: My work has toured five continents and it is difficult to describe a typical reaction. In Africa, the audience discussed and commented on the work as it was performed. In Japan, I will never forget performing in a Butō Festival in Tokyo, organized by the wife of Tatsumi Hijikata in a Japanese firehouse. I heard Japanese women shouting my name during the bow as tears fell on both sides of the stage. I was in Japan on an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship and stayed with the Ohnos, which reminded me of living inside of a surreal painting. Taking my work across the pond has always been fulfilling and wonderful.
MM: You turned 70 this year — happy birthday! How have you seen the artistic dance scene (especially in New York City) evolve since you broke into it?
MF: I feel like I am still breaking into the artistic dance scene in New York City. That is one of the beauties of NYC, there is so much dance here, we are all still trying to break in.
MM: What has been the highlight of your career so far?
MF: Working with David Henry Hwang and Philip Glass on After Eros in 1996. The work was created by staging a series of “Encounters” in NYC at spaces including the Orensanz Foundation on Orchard Street and the La MaMa rehearsal studios. There is nothing more fulfilling than working with artists that I admire.
MM: What are your ultimate goals for the future and is there anything else that you would like to mention?
MF: I am looking forward to completing my first book of ‘choreography for photography’ titled simply: Maureen Fleming. This book will be out in the Spring. A free “Conversation with Maureen Fleming” will take place at Tompkins Square Library on October 22, 2024 at 6:00 PM, including narratives from this book.
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Performances begin October 17 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa. Tickets are available at www.lamama.org. To learn more, visit: www.MaureenFleming.com