American Dance Festival
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| Industry | Modern dance |
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| Founded | 1948 |
| Headquarters | Durham, North Carolina |
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Area served
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Research Triangle |
| Website | www.americandancefestival.org |
The American Dance Festival (ADF) under the direction of Dean Leah Cox hosts its main summer dance courses including Six Week School, Three-Week School for pre-professional dancers, and The Professional Dancers Workshop. It also hosts a six-week summer festival of modern dance performances, currently held at Duke University and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina. Several site-specific performances have also taken place outdoors at Duke Gardens and the NC Art Museum in Raleigh, NC.
The precursor to today’s American Dance Festival began in 1934 as the Bennington Festival, a summer program at Bennington College where modern dance pioneers Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman came together to teach dance technique and perform new works. For one year, in 1939, Bennington moved the program to Mills College in Oakland, California, but it was back in Vermont by 1940. It ceased to exist after the summer of 1942.
In 1948, a program based on the Bennington model was established at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut and called the New York University – Connecticut College School of Dance / American Dance Festival. In 1969, newly appointed director Charles Reinhart shortened the name to, simply, the American Dance Festival. After 30 years at the Connecticut College campus, the festival moved, in 1978, to the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Since its founding in 1934, The American Dance Festival has been the home to over six hundred and forty premieres, more than three hundred and forty commissions, and over fifty reconstructions by artists such as Martha Graham, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Pilobolus, Meredith Monk, Martha Clarke, and many more.
Charles Reinhert was the director of the American Dance Festival from 1969-2011. In January of 2012 Jodee Nimerichter was appointed director after having been a co-director with Charles from 2007-2011, and Associate Director from 2003-2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/arts/dance/american-dance-festival-charles-reinhart-tribute-review.html
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