Dance Theater Workshop, colloquially known as DTW, was a New York City performance space and service organization for dance companies that operated from 1965 to 2011. DTW merged with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company to form New York Live Arts, which continues in operation as of 2023 [update] .
Located as 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, DTW was founded in 1965 by Jeff Duncan, Art Bauman and Jack Moore as a choreographers' collective.
In the fall of 1965, the Dance Theater Workshop produced a series of Monday evening concerts at the East 74th Street Theater, an Off-Broadway theater at 334 East 74th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. [1] [2] In 1966, it hosted a subscription series devoted to modern and ethnic dance. [3] [4]
From 1975-2003, DTW was led by David R. White, Executive Director and Producer. Under White's leadership, DTW became one of the most influential contemporary performing arts centers and artist incubators in the United States and abroad, responsible for identifying and nurturing some of the most important dance and other performing artists of our time, including: Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Susan Marshall, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Irwin, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, Donald Byrd and John Jasperse, among many others.
In 2002 DTW opened its new Doris Duke Performance Center, which contains the 192-seat Bessie Schönberg Theatre. [5]
In 2011, DTW merged with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company to become New York Live Arts [6] The move came out of a need for greater financial stability for both organizations, and a permanent home for the dance company, which had sought one for many years. [5]
More than 200 concerts and exhibits by some 70 contemporary dance, theater, music, visual and video artists were sponsored annually by Dance Theater Workshop. DTW presented notable artists including: Mark Morris, David Gordon, Bill T. Jones, Laura Dean, Susan Marshall, Ron Brown, Donald Byrd, H.T. Chen, David Dorfman, Doug Elkins, Molissa Fenley, Whoopi Goldberg, Lawrence Goldhuber, Margaret Fisher, Janie Geiser, Bill Irwin, LadyGourd Sangoma, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Michael Moschen, David Parsons, Lenny Pickett, Merián Soto, Pepón Osorio, Paul Zaloom and hundreds of others.
The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. As the organization undergoes a multi-year renovation it is currently sited at a satellite loft space in the West Village located at 163B Bank Street, where exhibitions and performances are regularly held. It was founded in Greenwich Village in 1971 by Steina and Woody Vasulka, who were frustrated at the lack of an outlet for video art. The space takes its name from the original location, the kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center which was the only available place for the artists to screen their video pieces. Although first intended as a location for the exhibition of video art, The Kitchen soon expanded its mission to include other forms of art and performance. In 1974, The Kitchen relocated to a building at the corner of Wooster and Broome Streets in SoHo, and incorporated as a not-for-profit arts organization. In 1987 it moved to its current location.
The American Dance Festival (ADF) under the direction of Executive Director Jodee Nimerichter hosts its main summer dance courses including Summer Dance Intensive, Pre-Professional Dance Intensive, and the Dance Professional Workshops. It also hosts a six-week summer festival of modern dance performances, currently held at Duke University and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina. Several site-specific performances have also taken place outdoors at Duke Gardens and the NC Art Museum in Raleigh, NC.
William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones, is an American choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The company's home in Manhattan. Jones is Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, whose activities encompass an annual presenting season together with allied education programming and services for artists. Independently of New York Live Arts and his dance company, Jones has choreographed for major performing arts ensembles, contributed to Broadway and other theatrical productions, and collaborated on projects with a range of fellow artists. Jones has been called "one of the most notable, recognized modern-dance choreographers and directors of our time."
Arthur Avilés is an American Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer of Puerto Rican descent. Avilés was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Long Island and the Bronx. He graduated from Bard College, a liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. After graduating from Bard, he became a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and toured internationally with the company for eight years 1987 to 1995.
The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, performance, music composition and visual design. The Bessie Awards were established in 1983.
The Joyce Theatre Foundation is a leading presenter of dance in New York City and nationally. It is runs, in part, from the Joyce Theater, a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The Joyce occupies the Elgin Theater, a former movie house that opened in 1941 and was gut-renovated and reconfigured in 1981–82.
Parsons Dance is a contemporary dance company founded in 1985 by choreographer David Parsons and lighting designer Howell Binkley that tours nationally and internationally and includes an annual season in New York City, its base.
Robert Wierzel is an American lighting designer.
Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of California.
Arnie Zane was an American photographer, choreographer, and dancer. He is best known as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is an American dance company based out of New York City. Founded in 1983 by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, the company made its debut performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the world premiere of Intuitive Momentum with lauded drummer Max Roach. The company has since drawn international acclaim, performing in more than 200 cities in 30 countries.
Ain Gordon is an American playwright, theatrical director and actor based in New York City. His work frequently deals with the interstices of history, focusing on people and events which are often overlooked or marginalized in history. His style combines elements of traditional playwrighting with aspects of performance art.
New York Live Arts is a movement-focused arts organization in New York City that serves as the home of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The building was formerly the home of Dance Theatre Workshop, with which the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company merged 2011 to form New York Live Arts.Its activities encompass commissioning, producing, and presenting works of dance, performance and music, together with allied education programming and services for artists. Live Arts is located in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood. Its building features a 184-seat theater, rehearsal studios and offices.
Big Dance Theater is a New York City-based dance theater company. It is led by Artistic Director Annie-B Parson, who founded Big Dance Theater in 1991 with Molly Hickok and Paul Lazar. Big Dance Theater has created over 20 dance/theater works and won 18 awards over the years. They have been commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The National Theater of Paris, The Japan Society, and The Walker Art Center, and have performed in venues such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, Classic Stage Company, Japan Society, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Chocolate Factory, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Walker Art Center, Yerba Buena, On the Boards, New York Live Arts, UCLA Live, The Spoleto Festival USA, and at festivals in Europe and Brazil.
Janet Lilly is an American modern dancer and choreographer. She was a principal dancer for Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane's company from 1983 to 1991. She currently serves as the Director of the UNCG College of Visual and Performing Arts, School of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From 2012 to 2014 she was the president of the Board of Directors of Iyengar Yoga National United States Association.
Helen Louise Thorington was an American radio artist, composer, performer and writer. She was also the founder of New Radio and Performing Arts (1981), a nonprofit organization based in New York City; the founder and executive producer of New American Radio (1987-1998); and the founder and co-director of Turbulence.org (1996–2016).
Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, also referred to as BAAD!, is a New York performing and visual art workshop space and performance venue located in The Bronx. The Academy is home to the Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre and The Bronx Dance Coalition.
Gabri Christa is a Dutch performance artist, choreographer, professor, film-maker and writer. She is an associate professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College and also the Director for the Movement Lab there.
The East 74th Street Theater, sometimes spelled as the East 74th Street Theatre, was an Off-Broadway theater at 334 East 74th Street in Manhattan in New York City in the United States.
Still/Here is a performance piece premiered in 1994 by American choreographer, dancer, and director Bill T. Jones. The piece was first performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music, with music by Kenneth Frazelle and Vernon Reid, and multimedia elements by Gretchen Bender. Jones utilized Survival Workshops in the development of this piece, drawing inspiration from those who have lived with a life-threatening illness. Still/Here uses a number of different mediums throughout the performance to capture the emotions of having a terminal illness, such as images, music, spoken text, videos, as well as dance.
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