The Duke Dance Program welcomes award-winning choreographer Dianne McIntyre to campus for a development residency February 21-25, 2022. This year, Ms. McIntyre celebrates 50 years of dance making, and during her residency in the Dance Program, the venerable choreographer will be joined by her company dancers and musicians for rehearsals to develop new work titled Speaking in the Same Key. Ms. McIntyre’s work draws on collaborations between dance, live music, poetry and text. This is a unique opportunity to connect with inspiring artists at the ground level of the creation of new work.
While on campus, she will be in rehearsals with her company on Speaking in the Same Key, as well as working with Dance students in several courses.
Ms. McIntyre will also take part in an artist talk at 3:00pm on February 24, 2022, at the Rubenstein Arts Center’s Ruby Lounge, where she will join Dance Chair Andrea Woods Valdés in conversation. The event is open to campus and the public, and Duke COVID protocols are in effect. Masks and social distancing are required. Registration is not required. For non-Duke guests, please email ae.woodsv@duke.edu for a parking pass by February 23.
Guests can also join remotely via Zoom:
Meeting ID: 926 9420 3368
Passcode: Duke
"What good fortune it is for me to be in a residency at Duke University in the Dance Program! I am delighted! For decades this University has been the support of major artists—as performers, thinkers, innovators, inspirers. One of these stellar artists is a person I have admired from a distance and from closer-up, Andrea Woods Valdés. As Chair of Dance, she is our host. I am grateful to be in her company and in the company of the others artists and staff in the Dance Program, and in the company of the students. I get such rewards as a teacher of dance—in feeling the energy and enthusiasm of the students, in pushing them to go further and in learning more about myself by being with them. Because of all of that, I feel The Ruby is the absolutely perfect space for development of my work 'Speaking the Same Key.'"
~ Dianne McIntyre
About the Artist:
Dianne McIntyre is regarded as an artistic pioneer, with an impressive choreography career spanning nearly five decades in dance, theatre, television and film. The recipient of a 2020 Doris Duke United States Artists Fellowship, the 2019 Dance/USA Honor, a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, as well as a 2007 John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, her individualistic movement style reflects her affinity for cultural histories, personal narratives and the boldness, nuances, discipline and freedom in music and poetic text. Examples of such are in the dance-driven dramas she creates about real people from conducted interviews with people, most notably I Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change and Open the Door, Virginia! Since 1972 Ms. McIntyre has choreographed across genres and disciplines, including for scores of concert dances, four Broadway shows, thirty regional theatre productions, a London West End musical, two feature films (including Beloved), three television productions (including Miss Evers' Boys), stage movement for multiple recording artists and five original full-length dance dramas. This includes choreography for the new opera INTIMATE APPAREL, currently running at Lincoln Center Theater. She has been commissioned by Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philidanco, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, GroundWorks Dance Theater, Dancing Wheels, as well as forty-plus university ensembles and major dance festivals. Her awards and nominations include three Bessie Awards, two AUDELCO’s, one Helen Hayes award and four nominations, an Emmy Nomination, Master of African American Choreography Medal from The Kennedy Center and many more. Dianne McIntyre is also the co-director of the Hicks Choreography Fellows Program at Jacob's Pillow.
About the Project:
SPEAKING IN THE SAME KEY is a full-length movement, sound and language-based work choreographed and directed by Dianne McIntyre. The piece includes poetry by Ntozake Shange, and live music composed and arranged for the production. The work explores dance and music “speaking” to one another. The company of dancers and musicians brings theatrical expression to every move, every note, every word.
About the Residency:
Dianne McIntyre has been a passionate ambassador of dance in America for over half a century! Along each step of the journey, Ms. McIntyre has used her artistic voice and influence to illuminate the beauty, resilience, and the truth of Black people and their history. She is connected to a rich legacy of African American pioneers and trailblazers in the arts (across disciplines; from dance to music, poetry, and theater). Ms. McIntyre is a national treasure, and the creation of this new production is a landmark moment in the artistic field for it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Dianne McIntyre’s revolutionary company, Sounds In Motion. Duke University is proud to support the development of SPEAKING IN THE SAME KEY and delighted to have Ms. McIntyre and her artists on campus to engage with our community. Her upcoming residency will be one of the very first engagements opportunities the dance community has with this exciting new work! The presentation and tour of SPEAKING IN THE SAME KEY is projected for the 2022-2023 season and hopes to be a resounding and celebratory moment for the arts in America. We are delighted to engage with this piece, and collaborate in the conversation of Ms. McIntyre’s indelible impact through community, educational, and the arts.
Dance Program
