Russell Dumas (choreographer)

Russell Dumas
Born	1946 Brisbane, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Known for	Dance and choreography
Movement	Modern Dance, Postmodern Dance and ballet

Russell Dumas (born 17 October 1946) is an Australian dancer, choreographer and writer.

Russell Dumas was born in Brisbane, and studied both classical and modern dance. He first began stage performance with J.C. Williamson and later danced internationally with the London Festival Ballet, Ballet Rambert, Nederlands Dans Theater, the Royal Ballet, Culberg Ballet, Strider Dance Company, Trisha Brown and Twyla Tharp.

In 1976 Dumas founded the Dance Exchange in Sydney with Nanette Hassall, Eva Karczag and David Hinkfuss. He continues to serve as artistic director. His choreography is often performed without lighting, costumes or music and is described as postmodern. In 1985 he founded the Dancelink program to give Australian artists access to seminal dance practices from the USA, Asia and Europe. Dumas is also known for critical analysis and writing.

Brisbane-born Russell Dumas trained in a number of dance styles in Australia and overseas including classical ballet, and the Graham and Cunningham techniques. He began his performing career in musical comedy with the J.C Williamson organisation and later danced with a wide variety of English and European companies including the London Festival Ballet, Ballet Rambert, Nederlands Dans Theater, the Royal Ballet, Culberg Ballet, Strider and in the US with Trisha Brown and Twyla Tharp.

In 1976 Dumas founded the Sydney-based company Dance Exchange with Nanette Hassall, which he continues to direct. In 1985 he established the Dancelink program, bringing many dance teachers and artists to Australia. His interests have encompassed not only choreography, performance and film but critical analysis and writing as well. [Text from Australian National Library.]

Russell Dumas, one of Australia's most respected and influential choreographers

Russell Dumas founded Dance Exchange in 1976. His choreography, presented under the company‟s name ever since, constitutes one of the most distinctive and original bodies of Australian dance work. Dance Exchange represents, uniquely, the legacy of American modern and post-modern (as opposed to European contemporary) dance in Australia. Dumas's dance style has been described a "sensuous, non-decorative, pedestrian classicism‟ (Larousse Dictionnaire de la Danse 1999). With its deceptive simplicity, this aesthetic, present in all Dumas's choreographies, requires a prolonged and rigorous work with dancers. Each dance and each performance grows out of this work. The dancing, free of narrative, psychological or other theatrical overtones is a testament to kinaesthetic intelligence and an ode to the simple, always surprising, sometimes humorous beauty of human bodies-in-action. Awards include the Jury Prize for International Video Dance Festival, Sete, 1990 for Approaching Sleipner Junction.

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