Remy Charlip

Remy Charlip
CHOREOGRAPHER

As a little boy, Remy Charlip wanted to be a clown, a farmer, an artist, and a violinist. He has become all of these - an entertainer, a sower of imaginative seeds, an artist of great talent whose themes of love and death, sharing, sacrifice and healing have made him a beloved artist and writer of children's books.

An author and illustrator of 27 picture books for children, Remy Charlip is a man of many talents. His acclaimed books consist of innovative narratives, word games, puns and simple reading exercises. He works in a variety of mediums, including pencil, ink, watercolor, collage, and photography. Most of all, his books are colorful, engaging and playfull!

Remy Charlip's most recent publications include Arm in Arm and Hooray For Me; each has been reissued by Tricycle Press in Berkeley, California. These titles join Charlip's other available books including Fortunately, I Love You and Handtalk, a book using sign language.

Charlip was fortunate, at the beginning of his career, to collaborate with such authors as Margaret Wise Brown and Ruth Krauss, and editors William R. Scott and Alvin Trasselt. Later, he collaborated with Vera B. Williams, Jane Yolen, Betty Miles, Lilian Moore, Sandol Stoddard, and Jerry Joyner.

A longtime advocate of taking the book beyond the printed page, Remy Charlip has adapted his book Harlequin as a musical extravaganza for 650 school children at Stern Grove in San Francisco. He has acted as artistic advisor and workshop leader to artist/teachers in the schools for the San Francisco Arts Education Project; through that project, a book was produced entitled Ideas for Teaching Art to Children. Charlip has taught at the University of California, Harvard University and Sarah Lawrence College. At Sarah Lawrence, where he headed the Children's Theater and Literature Department, he originated a ground-breaking course called "Workshop in Making Things Up." An outreach program based on this class continues to this day.

Remy Charlip has won many awards and honors, including a Boston Globe/Horn Book award as well as citations from the School Library Journal, Kirkus Choice, American Library Association, New York Public Library and New York Academy of Sciences. Three years in a row one of Charlip's books was chosen by The New York Times as one of the "10 Best Illustrated Books of the Year." Arm in Arm was chosen as the best book of the year at the Bologna Book Fair in Italy, and a library in Greenville, Delaware was named in his honor. His books have been honored in the United States, Italy, France and Russia. In April, 1997 the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. devoted an evening in his honor. That event, "A Celebration of Remy Charlip," included his slide show, video performance and talk, "Books Into Theater - Theater Into Books," as well as a solo performance of his dance: "Seven Short Songs."

Remy Charlip is truly a man of many talents. He is also a dancer, choreographer, playwright, stage director, set and costume designer, singer, songwriter, lecturer, and teacher. Charlip's diverse career includes performing with John Cage and Merce Cunningham for 11 years, dancing and designing costumes for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, co-founding, directing and acting in the Paper Bag Players, participating in the original Living Theater, and directing the National Theater of the Deaf.

Charlip has directed the musicals of the Rev. Al Carmines at Judson Church in New York, and has toured with his own company, The International All-Star Dance Company. Charlip has also created works for the Oakland Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Company, The Joffrey Ballet, Welsh Dance Theater, Amsterdam Theater School, Sydney's Ballet, Lou Harrison's Gamelan Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet among others.

Remy Charlip was the first choreographer to receive a three year grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Japan / U.S. Commission on the Arts awarded him a six-month residence in Kyoto, Japan. He was also the first artist-in-residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Over the years, Remy has won two Obie Awards as well as three Isadora Duncan Awards for producing, performing and design. His revolutionary dance notation, "Air Mail Dances," a series of drawings sent through the mail, have been performed by soloists and companies all over the world. A production of Arm in Arm was recently performed at Eastern Michigan University; and currently, Remy is writing a movie script based on his book, Harlequin.

Remy Charlip currently lives in San Francisco, California, where he was just made a "Laureate" by the San Francisco Public Library.