David Dorfman (choreographer)
Encyclopedia
- For the actor, see David DorfmanDavid DorfmanDavid Dorfman is an American teen actor. His most notable role was as Aidan Keller in the 2002 horror film remake The Ring, and its 2005 sequel The Ring Two. He has also appeared in the 2000 film Panic as Sammy. Some people may remember him as the character "Charles Wallace Murry" in the film...
, and for the screenwriter, see David S. Dorfman
David Dorfman (born 1956) is a dancer, choreographer, musician, activist and teacher. A native of Chicago, IL, he received his bachelor of science in business administration degree in 1977 from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
. In 1981, he received his MFA in dance from Connecticut College
Connecticut College
Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college located in New London, Connecticut.The college was founded in 1911, as Connecticut College for Women, in response to Wesleyan University closing its doors to women...
in New London, CT, where he is regularly the chairperson of the department of dance, having joined the faculty in 2004. In 1985 he founded his company David Dorfman Dance, one of the nation's leading modern dance companies. He received a Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 2005 to continue his research and choreography in the topics of power and powerlessness, including activism, dissidence and underground movements. He has also been awarded four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, three New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
fellowships, an American Choreographer’s Award, the first Paul Taylor Fellowship from The Yard, and a 1996 New York Dance & Performance Award (“Bessie
Bessie Awards
The New York Dance and Performance Awards, informally known as the Bessie Awards in honor of Bessie Schonberg, are awarded annually for innovative achievement in dance and related performances, particularly so-called "downtown" performances...
”).
His choreography has been produced in New York City at venues ranging from Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
and the BAM
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
Next Wave Festival to The Kitchen, The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project
Danspace Project
Danspace Project was founded in 1974 to provide a performance venue for contemporary dance. Its performances are held in St. Mark's Church in the East Village area of the Manhattan borough of New York City.-History and mission:...
/St. Mark’s Church, P.S. 122 and Dancing in the Streets. His work has been commissioned widely in the U.S. and in Europe, most recently by Bedlam Dance Company (London), d9 Dance Collective (Seattle), and the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia for the musical Green Violin, for which he won a 2003 Barrymore Award for best choreography.
In addition to his work in dance, Dorfman also performs with the New London based hip hop band Above/Below, playing baritone saxophone
Baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
. Dorfman was the recipient of a 2010 Whalie Award (southeastern CT music awards) for the best hip hop/rap group for his work with the band as well as a 2011 Whalie for Album of the Year for the release <
Works
- Prophets of Funk - Dance to the Music, using the music of Sly and the Family Stone
- Disavowal, which examines the life and legacy of abolitionist and (in)famous "race traitor" John BrownJohn Brown (abolitionist)John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
- underground, inspired by a documentary on the WeathermenWeatherman (organization)Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
- Older Testaments, to music by composer/trumpeter Frank London of The KlezmaticsThe KlezmaticsThe Klezmatics are a Grammy Award-winning American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins...
- Lightbulb Theory and Impending Joy
- See Level, the company's first evening-length work
- To Lie Tenderly and Subverse
- A Cure for Gravity, set to music by popular composer and recording artist Joe JacksonJoe Jackson (musician)Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...