Construction Company Theatre/Dance Associates, also known as Dance Under Construction, is a non-profit dance and art group in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. It was found in 1972 by Sally Bowden, Barbara Gardner, and Carolyn Lord. [1] [2]
Choreographers who have worked with Construction Company include Carolyn Lord, Marjorie Gamso, Sally Silvers, Bryan Hayes, Scott Caywood, Sally Gross, Christopher Caines, Rachel Cohen, Beth Leonard, Rebekah Windmiller, Mei-Yin Ng, Elke Rindfleisch, Ariane Anthony, Jeff Bauer and Tomoko Aoki.
A separate initiative "Music Under Construction" was launched in 1993 and has premiered numerous works in chamber settings often together with new choreography. [3] Composers active in this initiative include Faye-Ellen Silverman, Wendy Griffiths, Thomas Addison, David Tcimpidis, Chris Woltman, Nathaniel Drake, and Carolyn Lord. Performers who have also curated concerts of new music include Theresa Salomon, Marc Peloquin and Kathryn Woodard.
Since 2008 The Construction Company has partnered with University Settlement on the Lower East Side as its primary performance venue.
Organization website, www.theconstructioncompany.org
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Capezio is the trade name of Capezio Ballet Makers Inc., an American manufacturer of dance shoes, apparel and accessories.
Paul Taylor Dance Company is a modern dance company, formed by dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor (1930—2018). The modern dance company is based in New York, New York and was founded in 1954.
Judith Ann Jamison is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Sean Lavery was a former principal dancer, balletmaster, and assistant to the balletmaster in chief at New York City Ballet. He was a répétiteur for the George Balanchine Trust and a former faculty member at the School of American Ballet.
Colin Connor is a Canadian–British dancer, choreographer, and educator, based in the United States. With over forty commissions that span the worlds of contemporary dance, ballet and flamenco. Works draws from a large range of influences – musical, literary, social, and scientific – all used to bring attention back to the communicative power of the human body. He frequently, collaborates with artists of other disciplines, including composers, artists, and designers. As a choreographer, teacher and dancer, Connor is currently influencing the next generation of contemporary dancers and dance makers. Dancers who have trained with Connor have gone on to Mark Morris Dance Group, Scapino Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, The Limon Dance Company and others.
New York City Center is a performing arts center at 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Developed by the Shriners between 1922 and 1924 as a Masonic house of worship, it has operated as a performing arts complex owned by the government of New York City. City Center is a performing home for several major dance companies as well as the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), and it hosts the Encores! musical theater series and the Fall for Dance Festival annually.
The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded by Martha Graham in 1926, is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company. The company is critically acclaimed in the artistic world and has been recognized as "one of the great dance companies of the world" by the New York Times and as "one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe" by the Washington Post.
Stuart Hodes was an American dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, dance administrator and author. He was Martha Graham's partner, danced on Broadway, in TV, film, in recitals, and with his own troupe. His choreography has appeared on the Boston Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Harkness Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and other troupes. He taught at the Martha Graham School, Neighborhood Playhouse, NYC High School of Performing Arts, headed dance at NYU School of the Arts and Borough of Manhattan Community College. He was Dance Associate for the NY State Council on the Arts, dance panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, president of the National Association of Schools of Dance, and a member of the First American Dance Study Team to China in 1980, returning in 1992 to teach the Guangzhou modern dance troupe.
Muna Tseng is a Chinese-American dancer, choreographer, author and lecturer. She has lived in New York since 1978 and in 1984 founded Muna Tseng Dance Projects in New York City. She created over 40 dance productions and performed in over 30 cities and festivals in 15 countries. Since 1990 she has been the director and executrix of her late brother Tseng Kwong Chi's photography archive. She has served for several years on the 'Current Practice' subcommittee for the annual Bessie Awards, also known as the New York Dance and Performance Awards.
Paul Boos is an American dancer, ballet master, archivist, and répétiteur. He danced with New York City Ballet from 1977 until 1990 before becoming a guest teacher for the Royal Danish Ballet. In addition to teaching internationally, he is part of a select group of répétiteurs sanctioned by the Balanchine Trust to set the ballets of George Balanchine. Having previously served as Project Associate since 2016, in 2021, Boos was appointed to Director of the Video Archives for the George Balanchine Foundation.
Aesha Ash is an American ballet dancer and teacher. She danced numerous leading roles as a member of New York City Ballet's corps de ballet and as a soloist with Béjart Ballet and Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company. Following her retirement from performing, she founded The Swan Dreams Project in 2011 to dispel stereotypes about Black women in ballet. In 2020, she became the first African American female faculty member at the School of American Ballet.
The Lord & Taylor Building is an 11-story commercial building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that formerly served as Lord & Taylor's flagship department store in the city. Designed by Starrett & van Vleck in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, it is at 424–434 Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets.
Tracy Inman is an American dancer, choreographer, and educator who performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He is currently the co-director of The Ailey School and a choreographer & consultant for the television series Pose.
Melanie Person is an American dancer, choreographer, and educator who began her career at 14 as a "baby ballerina" with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She is currently the co-director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Ailey School, with Tracy Inman.
Troy Powell also known as Troy O'Neil Powell is an American dancer, choreographer, educator, and director. He is a former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and former artistic director of AAADT's second company, Ailey 2. Powell was fired in July 2020 after an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the Ailey School concluded that he had engaged in "inappropriate communications" with students who were interested in joining the Ailey 2.
Karen Brown is an American ballerina, educator, répétiteur, ballet mistress, and director. She is noted for her long career as a principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and as the first African-American woman to lead a ballet company.
Genevieve Mary Oswald was an American dance scholar and archivist, founder and curator of the New York Public Library's dance archive.
Judy Elizabeth Tyrus is a classical ballet dancer who danced as a principal with the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) from 1977 to 1999. She was the curator and an archivist for DTH for over eleven years. She founded ChromaDiverse, Inc., a non-profit company supporting arts, culture and theatre causes in May 2019.
Claire Helen Haywood was an American ballet dancer and teacher, called a “grand dame of Black dance in Washington”. With Doris W. Jones, she cofounded the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet in 1941 to give African American students the opportunity to study classical ballet. She also cofounded the Capitol Ballet Company and became its artistic director.