Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred and twenty-five dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed two Broadway shows, written two books and received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, seventeen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America Presidents’ Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts and numerous grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1965, Ms. Tharp began the dance company Twyla Tharp Dance. In 1998, Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre where Ms. Tharp created more than a dozen works. Since that time, Ms. Tharp has choreographed dances for many companies including: The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance and The Martha Graham Dance Company.

In 2002, Ms. Tharp and Billy Joel’s award-winning dance musical MOVIN’ OUT premiered on Broadway and a national tour began in January 2004. The recipient of a 2003 Tony Award for MOVIN’ OUT, Ms. Tharp was also honored with the 2003 Astaire Award; the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater; and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. Ms. Tharp co-directed the television special BARYSHNIKOV BY THARP, which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Director’s Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement.  Ms. Tharp continues to create works and lecture around the world.

After growing up in Depression-era America in and around Washington, D.C., Paul began his dance training in earnest with scholarships at Juilliard School of Music Dance Department and Connecticut College School of Dance, and soon was studying with Martha Graham and Antony Tudor at the Martha Graham School and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School.
Taylor established his own dance company in 1954, when one of his earliest works, Three Epitaphs, focused attention on him as an original dance creator, and even while he was a soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1955 to 1962, continued to present his own works in concerts in both the United States and Europe. In 1959, Paul Taylor took a break from his own and Graham's companies to dance with the New York City Ballet as guest artist in George Balanchine's Episodes.

Paul Taylor has choreographed more than 90 dances for his own company, which, in its long and distinguished 38-year history, has performed in more than 300 cities in the United States and has made 39 overseas tours to 54 different nations. Taylor's masterpieces, which are known for their wit, warmth, musicality, and excitement, are now also in the repertories of the Royal Danish Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, The Houston Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ballet Rembert, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and many regional American dance companies.

Antony Tudor (1908-1987), born in England, was a dancer, choreographer and teacher known as the “king of psychological dance-drama.”  He began his training in 1928 and danced in many of his early ballets.  He started Dance Theatre in 1937, moving to the United States in 1938 to dance and choreograph for the new ballet company, Ballet Theatre (now known as American Ballet Theatre).  A versatile artist, Tudor choreographed a number of musicals in London and then on Broadway.  In 1950 he became the director of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and the Met School.  He left American Ballet Theatre to work with the New York City Ballet and stayed from 1951 to 1952.  Later he was on the faculty of Juilliard, where he choreographed many ballets for this students. In 1974, Tudor rejoined American Ballet Theatre as Associate Director.  Tudor was given the Carina Ari Gold Medal in 1973 and the Dance Magazine Award in 1974.  In 1986, he was presented with the Kennedy Center Honors by President Ronald Regan.

James Sewell’s ballets have been performed by more than a dozen companies in the United States and Taiwan. Special projects and commissions have included choreography for the SAB Summer Workshop and a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to create a work for the Feld Ballet. As a dancer, Mr. Sewell was a lead dancer with Feld Ballets/NY for six years and has performed as a guest artist with many companies, including the New York City Ballet and Denishawn. In 1981, George Balanchine created a role on him for the Dance in America television production of L'enfant et les Sortileges. Mr. Sewell also serves on Dance/USA's board of trustees. James Sewell is the Artistic Director of James Sewell Ballet of Minneapolis, MN.

Alexandre Proia was born in France and is a graduate of the School of Paris Opera Ballet. He was a member of the Boston Ballet from 1981-83 and was a featured dancer with the New York City Ballet from 1984-95, where he danced the Company's extensive repertoire, including George Balanchine's Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Jewels, The Four Temperaments, Peter Martins Poulenc Sonata, Fearful Symmetries, Ecstatic Orange and Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of A Faun, Ives Song and In Memory of... Since retiring from New York City Ballet in 1995, Mr. Proia has worked as an independent performer, teacher and choreographer. For twenty years Mr. Proia has explored various artistic directions. Choreography credits include: New York City Ballet, Paris Opera and The Stars of Paris Opera Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Symphony Space (NY) Skidmore College, Adelphi University, American Repertory Ballet, Two river Theatre Company, Proia Dance Theatre at SomArts Cultural Center in San Francisco (first workshop performance November 23, 2003) and three time Council of the Arts of New York Grant recipient for choreography. Television and film credits include: The Nutcracker, The Cosby Show, Eye On Dance, Mighty Aphrodite (Woody Allen) and several independent films.

Patrick was born and raised in Potomac, Maryland where he started his dance training at Art Linkletter Totten Studios in Cabin John Shopping Center between the ages of three and five, depending on who you talk to. He continued studying tap and jazz with Russell Jay at The Dance Company in Fairfax, Va. and ballet with Bernard Spriggs at D.C. City Ballet and Mary Day and Alistair Munro at The Washington School of Ballet. In 1983 Patrick moved to New York City to study at the School of American Ballet. After a year at SAB Patrick briefly joined the Kansas City Ballet.

Upon returning to New York in 1984 Patrick joined ABTII under the directorship of Richard Englund and Jeremy Blanton. In 1985 Patrick joined the Joffrey Ballet where he danced until 1989 in works by Gerald Arpino, Jiri Kylian, Laura Dean, Mark Morris, James Kudelka, Mark Haim, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Pilobolus, Frederick Ashton, Vaslav Nijinsky, Leonid Massine, William Forsythe and the great Paul Taylor. In 1989 Patrick joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company where he danced until 2005. Patrick was featured in five PBS Great Performances between 1988 and 2004 and the 1998 Academy Award nominated documentary Dancemaker. In 2001 Patrick was the recipient of the New York Performance Award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement with The Paul Taylor Dance Company. Patrick has staged his own work as well as the work of Paul Taylor on companies through out the United States. Patrick founded his own company CorbinDances and Patrick Corbin Dancers in 2003 and continues to present his own work in New York City.

David Anderson performed in the 1960's as a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. He was featured with that company in the first televised production of the Nutcracker with Cynthia Gregory. In New York City he was a member of the American Ballet Theatre, a soloist at Radio City Music Hall and in the original production of Applause, starring Lauren Bacall. He collaborated as choreographer and dancer with Walter Terry, historian and dance critic, in Jubilant My Feet, a program on dance and religion; and directed his own company, davidandersondance. His work as a free lance teacher has taken him to Amsterdam Montpellier, Munich, Seoul and Stockholm.

David has served as choreographer-in-residence for the Montgomery Ballet and then as artistic director for the 1995-96 season. In 2000, David choreographed Fall from Earth, a ballet commemorating Holocaust survivors and victims, for the Alabama Contemporary Dance Company.David has received numerous honors, including choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Alabama State Council on the Arts and awards for choreography at Panoply in 1999 and 2002. In addition to his work in dance, David is a trained Pilates instructor.

David Parsons, Artistic Director and Founder of Parsons' Dance Company, has enjoyed a remarkable career as a performer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer of dance. Mr. Parsons was born in Chicago and raised in Kansas City. He was a leading dancer with The Paul Taylor Dance Company, where Mr. Taylor created many roles for him in works such as ARDEN COURT, LAST LOOK and ROSES. He is a recipient of the 2000 Dance Magazine Award, as well as the 2001 American Choreography Award, a production featuring the Romanian Gymnastic Federation that was featured on Bravo.

Mr. Parsons has created more than 70 works for Parsons Dance. He has recevied commissions over the years from The American Ballet, AlvinAiley American Dnace Theater, the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, the Spoleto Festival and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, to name a few. His work has been performed by Paris Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet,Nederlands Danse Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Hubbard Street Dance and BatSheva Dance Company of Israel, among many others. In the July 27, 2007 edition of the New York Times, Jennifer Dunning called David Parsons "one of the great movers of modern dance."

David Grenke is a tenured professor of Dance and Choreography at UC Davis. He is the founder of Thingssezlsee'um Dance/Theater and a former principal dancer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. He has also danced for Dennis Wayne's Dancers and the Joffery Concert Dancers, and he was a founding member of the Armitage Ballet. His choreography has been presented in New York at Lincoln Center, Dance Theater Workshop's Fresh Track Series, The Guggenheim Museum's Works and Process Series, The Dia Center for the Arts, Pace University and Riverside Church. Outside New York, his works have been performed at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The American Dance Festival, and on tours of Russia, Poland, Denmark, Taiwan and Argentina. Support for these tours has come from the U.S. Embassy, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Harkness Foundation.

Mr. Grenke is a recipient of ADF's 1998 Doris Duke Award for new work, the 1997 Scripps/ADF Humphrey-Weidman-Limon Fellow for Choreography, and the Nora Kaye Award for dance. He participated in the American Dance Festival's 1997 International Choreographers Commissioning Program, where he was in residence creating new work on ADF dancers.

For the Paul Taylor Company, his choreography inspired the hit FUNNY PAPERS, where his work is represented in the first movement, which was filmed for PBS' "Dance in America" special, the Wrecker's Ball.

Val Caniparoli's versatility has made him one of the most sought after American choreographers in the United States and abroad. Caniparoli has created a body of work that is rooted in classicism but influenced by all forms of movement: modern dance, ethnic dance, social dancing, and even ice-skating. He has contributed to the repertoires of more than thirty-five dance companies, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Royal Winnepeg Ballet, Ballet West (Resident Choreographer 1993-97), Washington Ballet, Israel Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, State Theatre Ballet of South Africa and Tulsa Ballet, where he has been resident choreographer since 2001. Caniparoli is most closely associated with San Francisco Ballet, his artistic home for over thirty years. He began his career under the artistic directorship of Lew Christensen, and in the 1980s was appointed resident choreographer of San Francisco Ballet. He continues to choreograph for the company under Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson.

Gregory Dawson began his studies in Chicago at Ruth Page School of Ballet and Haitian dance with Katherine Dunham in Illinois and with Evelyn Schuert and Alonzo King in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Dawson left for New York in 1982 to study and peform with Dance Thetare of Harlem. From 1983-1986 he danced with Theatre Ballet Canadien, then returned to the Bay Area to perform with Oakland Ballet, Berkeley Ballet Theater, Sacramento Ballet, the San Francisco Opera Ballet and Alonzo King's Lines Ballet. For the past four years, Gregory has choreographed and taught for Alonzo King's Lines Contemporary Ballet and Dominican BFA program. He recently won the Western Region of the American College Dance Festival, and took SOLID SOIL BENEATH OUR FEET to New York for the National Conference. He has also choreographed and taught the San Francisco School of The Arts and Lines Ballet School.

about the company

history

biographies

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