Donald Byrd, Artistic Director
Donald Byrd became Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle in December 2002. Prior to this, Mr. Byrd was the Artistic Director of DONALD BYRD/THE GROUP, a critically acclaimed and highly regarded contemporary dance company based in New York that toured extensively, both nationally and internationally. Founded in Los Angeles in 1978, the company was based there until Mr. Byrd’s move to New York City in 1983, where it continued to operate until its closure in June 2002.
Prior to the company’s inception, Mr. Byrd studied at Tufts and Yale Universities, The Cambridge School of Ballet, the London School of Contemporary Dance, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and with Mia Slavenska. He danced with Twyla Tharp, Karole Armitage, and Gus Solomons Jr. among others. Since 1976, Donald Byrd has created over eighty works for his former company and for Spectrum Dance Theater, as well as for many major modern dance repertory companies including The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), Cleo Parker Robinson, and Dallas Black Dance Theater; and for classical companies including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Concordanse (Paris), MaggioDanza diFirenze, and Oregon Ballet Theater, to name a few.
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. Other works of note created for Donald Byrd/The Group include Prodigal (a commentary on George Balanchine’s The Prodigal Son), The Minstrel Show (Bessie winner 1992), Drastic Cuts, Bristle, Life Situations: Daydreams on Giselle, The Beast, and his evening length explorations into jazz music and contemporary dance, JazzTrain and In A Different Light: Duke Ellington.
Donald Byrd has also choreographed for numerous stage productions including work at INTIMAN, Seattle Children’s Theater, Center Stage in Baltimore, the New York Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera, as well as collaborations with the contemporary theater artist Anna Deavere Smith Peter Sellars, and the jazz great Max Roach. Among his most production for Spectrum are Bhangra Fever, A Cruel New World, and Fado, Hip-hop& The Blues an evening of dances to music of the African Diaspora, Living in East Podunk for Koresh Dance Company (Philadelphia) and Longing for The Cincinnati Ballet. Mr. Byrd has served on the faculty of the California Institute for the Arts and has taught at Wesleyan University, the School of Visual Arts, Harvard Summer Dance Center, California State University Long Beach and the University of California at Santa Cruz, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance Theater Workshop in New York. He was for three years a fellow at The Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard. He was appointed to the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs (Seattle Arts Commission) in July 2003.
Recent projects include choreography to Motown classic hits for The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, a work based on the paintings of Jacob Lawrence for Dayton Contemporary Dance, and the Tony nominated musical,
The Color Purple.
