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Kathryn Posin (born March 23, 1943) is an American choreographer known for her musical and sculptural fusing of ballet and modern dance genres. In addition to choreographing, she has also taught technique and composition at several American universities. Her most recent season with The Kathryn Posin Dance Company commissioned by 92nd Street Y in February 2016 received an award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and an Arts Works Grant from the NEA in 2017.
Born in Butte, Montana. Posin went to the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and received her BA in Dance at Bennington College (1965) and her MA in Interdisciplinary and World Dance at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2004). She studied composition with Louis Horst, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cunningham and Hanya Holm. She has made ballets for Netherlands Dance Theater 1 and 2 (1980), the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey 2 (1981 & 82), five ballets for the Milwaukee Ballet from 1991-2016, On a Fulbright Fellowship she staged her Stepping Stones and Scheherazade for the Bulgarian National Ballet. She was the first international choreographer to make a work for Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, in 1981. In 2000 she created the Joffrey/New School BFA and was named founding chair.
The Kathryn Posin Dance Company founded 1973, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship 1979, a Jerome Robbins Award 1969, The Doris Humphrey Fellowship 1979, and a Bennington College Choreographer's Grant 1981 .The company was also awarded 14 NEA Fellowships and Company Grants from 1974 to 1987, Kathryn was awarded two Jewish Studies Grants from the Gallatin School of New York University in 2010 & 2011.
In theater Posin has choreographed the hit rock musical, Salvation (1975) and The Cherry Orchard directed by Andrei Șerban at Lincoln Center (2002), The Boys from Syracuse at American Repertory Theater (2002).
Posin is currently Professor of World Dance and Choreography at the Gallatin School at NYU. The next scheduled performance of the Kathryn Posin Dance company will be in 2018 at New York Live Arts.
Alvin Ailey Jr., was an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Ailey School as havens for nurturing black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. His work fused theater, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that continues to spread global awareness of black life in America. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world.
Renee Robinson is a retired American dancer from Washington, D.C., who performed as a Principal Dancer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She began her dance training in classical ballet at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. She also attended the School of American Ballet, the Dance Theatre of Harlem and The Ailey School. Robinson was a member of the Alvin Ailey II before becoming a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1981.
The Minnesota Ballet is a ballet company and school located in Duluth, Minnesota. Founded in 1965 by Donna Harkins and Jan Gibson as the Duluth Civic Ballet, the company has since expanded into a touring company with seventeen professional artists. From 1992–2007 the Artistic Executive Director of the Minnesota Ballet was Allen Fields, who retired to become Artistic Director Emirtus. Fields acquired rights to works by master choreographers like Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, and George Balanchine. He was succeeded by Robert Gardner. In 2019, Minnesota Ballet welcomed a new Artistic Director, Karl von Rabenau, to lead the company. The Minnesota Ballet is entering its 54th season in 2019/20.
Judith Ann Jamison is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.
Tina Ramirez is a Puerto Rican/Mexican-American dancer and choreographer, best known as the Founder and Artistic Director (1970–2009) of Ballet Hispanico, the premier Latino dance organization in the United States.
Desmond Richardson is an American dancer, co-founder, and co-artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He has mastered a wide range of dance forms including hip hop, classical, modern, classical ballet, and contemporary ballet.
Marie Anne Chiment has created sets and costumes for hundreds of productions across the United States for opera, theatre and dance. Chiment’s sets and costumes have been used on the stages of Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Kennedy Center, Wolftrap Opera and Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre. She has designed national tours of Grease and Carousel, as well as the GLAMA award winning world premiere of Patience & Sarah for the Lincoln Center Festival.
Robert Garland is a former Principal Dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and their first official Resident Choreographer, creating dances for the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company and their School Ensemble. He has also choreographed for the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet, and the Oakland Ballet among many others.
The Harkness Ballet (1964–1975) was a New York ballet company named after its founder Rebekah Harkness. Harkness inherited her husband's fortune in Standard Oil holdings, and was a dance lover. Harkness funded Joffrey Ballet, but when they refused to rename the company in her honour, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffrey dancers for her new company. Joffrey Ballet later moved to Chicago, and continues to function.
Ballet Hispánico is an American dance company based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded by the Puerto Rican/Mexican-American dancer and choreographer Tina Ramirez in 1970 and presents dances reflecting the experience of Hispanic and Latino Americans. It describes itself as "the foremost dance representative of Hispanic culture in the United States."
The Oklahoma City Ballet is a professional dance company and school located in Oklahoma City. The company began under the artistic direction of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov in the Science and Arts Foundation building on the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds,
Christine Dakin is an American dancer, teacher and director, a foremost exponent of the Martha Graham repertory and technique.
Camille A. Brown is a dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has congruently choreographed commissioned pieces for dance companies, Broadway shows, and universities. Brown started her career as a dancer in Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Brown has choreographed major Broadway shows such as Choir Boy, Once on This Island and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! that aired on NBC. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA, among others.
Lorenzo Harris is a dancer, choreographer, artistic director and professor of hip-hop dance. Harris formed the first and longest running hip-hop dance touring company, Rennie Harris Puremovement in 1992. In 2007, he conceived another touring company, RHAW or Rennie Harris Awe-Inspiring Works.
The Houston Metropolitan Dance Company (HMDC) is a Houston-based dance troupe that has showcased the work of emerging and established contemporary and jazz choreographers from all over the world since 1995. Helmed by founder and Executive Director Michelle Smith and Artistic Director Marlana Doyle, the company is the sister organization to the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, which opened the doors to a newly renovated facility in July 2013. Houston's second-largest dance training space, the center offers a large number of dance classes in multiple disciplines to students of all experience levels, ages 3 and up, and is home to HMDC and the Houston Met Too youth training company.
Elisa Monte is an American artistic director, choreographer, and dancer who founded Elisa Monte Dance in New York City. Monte's first choreographic work, Treading (1979), defined her as an important innovator and contributor to contemporary dance. Her signature style, recognized as "daring, intense, and passionate, is classical and highly athletic."
Masazumi Chaya is a Japanese American dancer, choreographer and the associate artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT).
Stephanie Dabney is an African American dancer who performed as a prima ballerina with Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1979 through 1994. Dabney is best known for her performances in John Taras' The Firebird, which she performed all over the world, as well as at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Jacqueline Green is an American ballet dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. She is noted for her elegant and commanding presence on stage as well as her unusually rapid ascent in being recognized as a great and powerful dancer.