Birthday:
July 21
- Photos
- About
Do you want this account to represent:
individual human (me)
If you are representing an organization, what is the name of the organization:
Spectrum Dance Theater
If you are representing an organization, what kind of organization?
Company
First Name (Required: even if you are representing an organization you must use your name)
Donald
Last Name (Family Name)
Byrd
About Me (human/individual)/interests, work..short bio/ THis is the most important. It is the only way to know that you are not a SPAMBOT!Be generous!
is the Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater, Seattle’s premier contemporary dance company. He is probably best know for his reworking of the Christmas classic, The Nutcracker, into The Harlem Nutcracker, which received critical acclaim and toured nationally for 5 years. His evening length explorations into jazz music and contemporary dance, JazzTrain with Max Roach, Geri Allen and Vernon Reid as well as In A Different Light: Duke Ellington, to the lesser know works of The Maestro, also received national attention and toured extensively. In addition, he has work with the remarkable contemporary theater artists, Anna Deavere Smith (House Arrest at the Mark Taper Forum) and with Peter Sellars on four productions (Kurt Weil’s The Seven Deadly Sins, John Adams’ I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, two stagings of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Stravinsky's Threni at Dutch National Opera). His other work in opera includes, choreographing San Francisco Opera's production of Aida, and directed and choreographing Carmina Burana for New York City Opera. He has created works for many major modern dance repertory companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Phoenix Dance in Leeds, England; and for classical companies including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Concordanse (Paris), Aterballetto in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and MaggioDanza di Firenze (Florence) to name a few. He has appeared before the House of Representatives, Appropriations Committee, to advocate for the NEA and was for three years a fellow at The Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard. He was a 2006 Tony nominee for his choreography for the Broadway musical The Color Purple.
