Trisha Brown Dance Company

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Trisha Brown's Biography

The Trisha Brown Dance Company has presented the work of its legendary artistic director for more than 35 years. Founded in 1970 when Trisha Brown branched out from the experimental Judson Dance Theater to work with her own group of dancers, TBDC offered its first performances at alternative sites in Manhattan’s SoHo. Today, the Company is regularly seen in the landmark opera houses of New York, Paris, London, and many other theaters around the world. The repertory has grown from solos and small group pieces to include major evening-length works and collaborations between Ms. Brown and major visual artists.

In 1998, TBDC co-produced Ms. Brown’s first opera, Montiverdi’s Orfeo, in partnership with Belgium’s national opera house, La Monnaie. The opera toured to several major European sites, received its New York premiere in 1999, and was revived at La Monnaie in May 2002. The Company also participated in a production of Luci Mie Traditrici, composed by Salvatore Sciarrino, seen at La Monnaie and the Lincoln Center Festival 2001. TBDC joined forces with Lincoln Center again in December 2002 to present Winterreise, featuring Company dancers and Simon Keenlyside singing the Franz Schubert song-cycle.

The Company of nine dancers performs in New York and tours worldwide each year. Every theater offers the chance to introduce Trisha Brown’s work to local audiences in tailored packages that can include master classes, lectures, and informal demonstrations that enhance the Company performances, and outreach programs that help performing arts centers form links with community groups. Classes for elementary and secondary school students offer a hands-on experience of Ms. Brown’s process, de-mystifying the world of post-modern art.
In 2001, the Trisha Brown Dance Company completed construction of a new 16,000-sq. ft. dance facility on West 55 Street. With its four studios, dressing rooms, conference-reception area, and office facilities, the space is a state-of-the-art Manhattan home for dance that is used not only by TBDC, but also by many other arts organizations that participate in the company’s FoundSPACE project. This project makes studio space available on a subsidized hourly basis to other non-profit performance groups and, by doing so, provides a home base for groups that would otherwise have no facility of their own.

The new space also provides a home for TBDC’s Education and Outreach Program, providing aspiring dancers and young professionals with training in post-modern dance. The Apprentice program has made advanced study possible, and TBDC now recruits many of its performers through the program. The Trisha Brown Studio offers classes in technique, repertory, and improvisation, as well as workshops with world-renowned guest artists. The Outreach program fosters the preservation of TBDC’s repertory through restaging projects with Lyon Opera Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet along with universities including Belgium’s professional training program P.A.R.T.S., London Contemporary Dance School, Mills College, and New York University.Belgium's professional training program P.A.R.T.S.

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