The four US companies participating in this season’s DanceMotion USA are:
Jazz Tap Ensemble, based in Los Angeles, California, will tour in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Rennie Harris PureMovement, a hip-hop dance company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will tour in Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories
Seán Curran Company, a contemporary dance company based in New York, New York, will tour in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Turkmenistan
Trey McIntyre Project, a contemporary dance troupe based in Boise, Idaho, will tour in China, South Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam
About the Companies
Jazz Tap Ensemble is dedicated to two great American traditions—tap dancing and jazz music. Hailed as leaders in the renaissance of tap, the Ensemble brings together its extraordinary dancers and musicians in a spirited repertory of virtuosity, wit, and great musicality inspired by a vision of excellence, innovation, collaboration, and a deep respect for the masters.
Under the Artistic Direction of Lynn Dally, JTE is honored to have worked with tap masters and legends including the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmy Slyde, Coles & Atkins, Dianne Walker, Brenda Bufalino, Savion Glover, and its beloved mentor, Gregory Hines. Based in Los Angeles, Jazz Tap Ensemble has appeared in major concert halls nationally and internationally over the past 30 years including the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, London's Riverside Theatre, Paris' Theatre de la Ville, Salzburg International Jazz Festival, Lyon's Maison de la Danse, as well as at Jacob's Pillow, Spoleto USA, and in numerous seasons at New York’s Joyce Theater. Highlights include extensive touring in Southeast Asia and Latin America under the aegis of USIA "Arts America" program, Gregory Hines' Evening of Tap at Carnegie Hall, Dancing in the Streets at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Madrid's Festival en Danza, and Lyon's 4th Biennale, An American Story. Television and film credits include JTE Live in Concert, JTE with Honi Coles, and Christian Blackwood's award winning film, Tapdancin'.
Website: http://www.jazztapensemble.org
Founded in 1992 by North Philadelphia native Rennie Harris, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM) was conceived with the vision of sharing an appreciation for diversity and is dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, lecturedemonstrations, dance residencies, mentoring programs, and public performances.
Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM) continues to flourish as international hip-hop dance theater ambassadors. The company’s goal is to provide audiences with a sincere view of the essence and spirit of hip-hop, rather than the commercially exploited stereotypes most often presented by the media. Harris founded RHPM with the belief that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a new generation, with the unique ability to express universal themes that extend beyond racial, religious, and economic boundaries. RHPM works to deconstruct popular perception of this medium—honoring its history, exploring its ideas, and furthering its contributions to the surrounding community.
In 2007, RHPM and Harris were named Artist of the Year by Pennsylvania’s First Lady, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell and received one of 50 prestigious United States Artists Fellowships. RHPM was also honored that year with one of Philadelphia’s ten “Rocky Awards” for its performances at the Kimmel Center celebrating the company’s 15th Anniversary. Rennie Harris Puremovement has performed in the US at major venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as internationally at Italy’s Spoleto Dance Festival, the Holland Dance Festival, and the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, Finland. In 2010, Rennie Harris received an honorary doctorate from Bates College (ME) and became a Guggenheim Fellow. The company will mark its 20th anniversary in 2012.
Website: http://www.rhpm.org
“When I see something good that reminds me what dancing can be at its most basic, I’m faint with pleasure,” hailed Deborah Jowitt in New York's Village Voice after seeing the Seán Curran Company in performance. Pleasing audiences is exactly what the Company has been doing since it burst onto the dance scene in 1997. Known for his wit, intelligence, ingenuity and uncanny physical humor, Seán Curran successfully blends a myriad of influences into a purely original style. Since its formation, the Seán Curran Company has been commissioned for new works and presented by The Joyce Theater, The New Victory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Symphony Space, the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project, Central Park Summerstage, and Celebrate Brooklyn.
With the 1999 National Dance Project commission by the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the company achieved national prominence, and has since been recognized for its artistic excellence with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Arts International’s Fund for US Artists, the Harkness Foundations for Dance, the Greenwall Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Jerome Foundation, and the Altria Group, Inc. The Seán Curran Company’s most recent works include Mission of Virgil, commissioned in 2008 by the Guggenheim Museum and inspired by composer Charles Wuorinen’s work of the same name, and Left Exit—an examination of spirituality, faith, and religion which premiered in fall 2010 at the University of Notre Dame.
Website: http://www.seancurrancompany.com
In July 2005, Trey McIntyre Project burst onto the national dance scene as a summer touring company. Trey McIntyre Project’s “fresh and forward-thinking choreography” (Washington Post) was an immediate sensation with both critics and audiences alike. Galvanized by overwhelming critical success during the summer tours, and an insatiable demand for national and international touring, Trey McIntyre Project launched as a full-time, year-round company in 2008–09. The company embarked on a 25-city tour across the US and abroad from its new home in Boise, ID, with commissions from three of America’s esteemed presenting organizations, and institutional support from such organizations as The MAP Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and National Dance Project.
During its second year, 2009–10, Trey McIntyre Project toured to more than 25 cities across the US creating and performing the works of Trey McIntyre with debuts in cities such as Austin, Houston, Boston, and Seattle. The company garnered special attention from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and received an Engaging Dance Audiences grant from Dance/USA for its cutting edge engagement methods which they employ in communities across the US. The company’s third year is turning out to be another sustainable success. The year began with Trey McIntyre’s creation of Arrantza celebrating Basque Culture and its premiere at the pentennial Jaialdi Festival in Boise, ID. At Jacob’s Pillow, Trey McIntyre Project’s fourth appearance there in six years, the company garnered a rave review from New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay. In early 2011, McIntyre will engage in another highly-anticipated collaboration with Preservation Hall Jazz Band to create a distinctive new work complementing the original 2008 work, Ma Maison.
Together, Preservation Hall and TMP will premiere the work February 5, 2011 in New Orleans and continue touring together in select venues around the world.
Website: http://www.treymcintyreproject.com
Read the full DanceMotion USA press release
Read the Department of State press release
Read the Wall Street Journal's related coverage of DanceMotion USA
Jazz Tap Ensemble, based in Los Angeles, California, will tour in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Rennie Harris PureMovement, a hip-hop dance company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will tour in Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories
Seán Curran Company, a contemporary dance company based in New York, New York, will tour in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Turkmenistan
Trey McIntyre Project, a contemporary dance troupe based in Boise, Idaho, will tour in China, South Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam
About the Companies
Jazz Tap Ensemble is dedicated to two great American traditions—tap dancing and jazz music. Hailed as leaders in the renaissance of tap, the Ensemble brings together its extraordinary dancers and musicians in a spirited repertory of virtuosity, wit, and great musicality inspired by a vision of excellence, innovation, collaboration, and a deep respect for the masters.
Under the Artistic Direction of Lynn Dally, JTE is honored to have worked with tap masters and legends including the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmy Slyde, Coles & Atkins, Dianne Walker, Brenda Bufalino, Savion Glover, and its beloved mentor, Gregory Hines. Based in Los Angeles, Jazz Tap Ensemble has appeared in major concert halls nationally and internationally over the past 30 years including the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, London's Riverside Theatre, Paris' Theatre de la Ville, Salzburg International Jazz Festival, Lyon's Maison de la Danse, as well as at Jacob's Pillow, Spoleto USA, and in numerous seasons at New York’s Joyce Theater. Highlights include extensive touring in Southeast Asia and Latin America under the aegis of USIA "Arts America" program, Gregory Hines' Evening of Tap at Carnegie Hall, Dancing in the Streets at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Madrid's Festival en Danza, and Lyon's 4th Biennale, An American Story. Television and film credits include JTE Live in Concert, JTE with Honi Coles, and Christian Blackwood's award winning film, Tapdancin'.
Website: http://www.jazztapensemble.org
Founded in 1992 by North Philadelphia native Rennie Harris, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM) was conceived with the vision of sharing an appreciation for diversity and is dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, lecturedemonstrations, dance residencies, mentoring programs, and public performances.
Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM) continues to flourish as international hip-hop dance theater ambassadors. The company’s goal is to provide audiences with a sincere view of the essence and spirit of hip-hop, rather than the commercially exploited stereotypes most often presented by the media. Harris founded RHPM with the belief that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a new generation, with the unique ability to express universal themes that extend beyond racial, religious, and economic boundaries. RHPM works to deconstruct popular perception of this medium—honoring its history, exploring its ideas, and furthering its contributions to the surrounding community.
In 2007, RHPM and Harris were named Artist of the Year by Pennsylvania’s First Lady, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell and received one of 50 prestigious United States Artists Fellowships. RHPM was also honored that year with one of Philadelphia’s ten “Rocky Awards” for its performances at the Kimmel Center celebrating the company’s 15th Anniversary. Rennie Harris Puremovement has performed in the US at major venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as internationally at Italy’s Spoleto Dance Festival, the Holland Dance Festival, and the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, Finland. In 2010, Rennie Harris received an honorary doctorate from Bates College (ME) and became a Guggenheim Fellow. The company will mark its 20th anniversary in 2012.
Website: http://www.rhpm.org
“When I see something good that reminds me what dancing can be at its most basic, I’m faint with pleasure,” hailed Deborah Jowitt in New York's Village Voice after seeing the Seán Curran Company in performance. Pleasing audiences is exactly what the Company has been doing since it burst onto the dance scene in 1997. Known for his wit, intelligence, ingenuity and uncanny physical humor, Seán Curran successfully blends a myriad of influences into a purely original style. Since its formation, the Seán Curran Company has been commissioned for new works and presented by The Joyce Theater, The New Victory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Symphony Space, the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project, Central Park Summerstage, and Celebrate Brooklyn.
With the 1999 National Dance Project commission by the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the company achieved national prominence, and has since been recognized for its artistic excellence with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Arts International’s Fund for US Artists, the Harkness Foundations for Dance, the Greenwall Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Jerome Foundation, and the Altria Group, Inc. The Seán Curran Company’s most recent works include Mission of Virgil, commissioned in 2008 by the Guggenheim Museum and inspired by composer Charles Wuorinen’s work of the same name, and Left Exit—an examination of spirituality, faith, and religion which premiered in fall 2010 at the University of Notre Dame.
Website: http://www.seancurrancompany.com
In July 2005, Trey McIntyre Project burst onto the national dance scene as a summer touring company. Trey McIntyre Project’s “fresh and forward-thinking choreography” (Washington Post) was an immediate sensation with both critics and audiences alike. Galvanized by overwhelming critical success during the summer tours, and an insatiable demand for national and international touring, Trey McIntyre Project launched as a full-time, year-round company in 2008–09. The company embarked on a 25-city tour across the US and abroad from its new home in Boise, ID, with commissions from three of America’s esteemed presenting organizations, and institutional support from such organizations as The MAP Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and National Dance Project.
During its second year, 2009–10, Trey McIntyre Project toured to more than 25 cities across the US creating and performing the works of Trey McIntyre with debuts in cities such as Austin, Houston, Boston, and Seattle. The company garnered special attention from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and received an Engaging Dance Audiences grant from Dance/USA for its cutting edge engagement methods which they employ in communities across the US. The company’s third year is turning out to be another sustainable success. The year began with Trey McIntyre’s creation of Arrantza celebrating Basque Culture and its premiere at the pentennial Jaialdi Festival in Boise, ID. At Jacob’s Pillow, Trey McIntyre Project’s fourth appearance there in six years, the company garnered a rave review from New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay. In early 2011, McIntyre will engage in another highly-anticipated collaboration with Preservation Hall Jazz Band to create a distinctive new work complementing the original 2008 work, Ma Maison.
Together, Preservation Hall and TMP will premiere the work February 5, 2011 in New Orleans and continue touring together in select venues around the world.
Website: http://www.treymcintyreproject.com
Read the full DanceMotion USA press release
Read the Department of State press release
Read the Wall Street Journal's related coverage of DanceMotion USA
RHPM and Rennie Harris had an awesome experience with the Cairo hip hop dance community at Fiber Studios! There were sixty dancers and all the dancers were amazing. It took an hour to put together an entire show using all sixty dancers.
ReplyDelete- Rodney Hill
Thank you BAM for the awesome experience. I'll keep you updated on the rest of the tour.