Discover DDD rep through the decades
Aroundtown, 2017
Aroundtown is a kinetic poem that examines the varied, unique and sometimes divided notions of LOVE- it's meaning, purpose, and platform. With original music, text, and visuals, the work explores commitment, community, and intimacy in times of violence and strife. DDD's trademark empathy, sly humor, and virtuosic physicality are harnessed to examine LOVE as both sociopolitical and intimate weather systems.
World Premiere: Bates Dance Festival, July 2017
New York Premiere: Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, November 2017
Originating Cast: David Dorfman, Jasmine Hearn, Jordan Lloyd, Nik Owens, Kendra Portier, Lisa Race, Simon Thomas-Train, Aya Wilson
Music Director: Sam Crawford
DDD House Band: Sam Crawford, Liz de Lise, Zeb Gould, Jeff Hudgins
Dramaturg: Anne Davison
Costume Designer: Ásta Hostetter (Bates Dance Festival World Premiere)
Costume Designer: Oana Botez (BAM New York Premiere)
Video Designer: Shawn Hove
Production Manager: Sarah Lurie
Lighting Designer: Tuce Yasak
Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Come, and Back Again, 2013
Come, and Back Again is an evening length elegiac exploration of the virtuosity of daily life, vulnerability, and mortality. Driven by the charged poetry and unapologetic, raw ferocity of indie, punk, and folk rock music including venerated artists such as Atlanta, GA band “Smoke” and Patti Smith, the godmother of punk, five dancers and five musicians embark on a kinetic anthem of reckless personal abandon - taking on time, and how memory influences and manages our slippery, elastic existence. This work lives in the physical and metaphoric spaces where hope changes everything, shows us the beauty in our personal messes, and the resilience in the human spirit. Through movement, performance, and design, Come, and Back Again draws people together: musicians, dancers, artists, audience and to teach us all a bit about our humanity.
Originating Cast: Raja Feather Kelly, Kendra Portier, Karl Rogers, Whitney Tucker and David Dorfman with special guests Lisa Race and Samson Race Dorfman.
Sound Designer/Musical Director: Sam Crawford
Street/Installation Artist and Sculptor: Jonah Emerson Bell
Media Designer: Shawn Hove
Costume Designer: Kristi Wood
Lighting Designer Seth Reiser
Photo by Adam Campos
Prophets of Funk, 2011
Prophets of Funk is an evening that celebrates Sly and the Family Stone’s groundbreaking, visceral, powerful music, and the struggles and celebration of everyday people. Dorfman and Sly and the Family Stone find common purpose in the prophetic possibilities of music and dance that invite everyday people to find ardor in the muck and mess—the funk—of life. Prophets of Funk seeks to lift up the spirit of Sly: insisting that in the face of this funk, there are still hopes and aspirations that reside in all of us.
Originating Cast: Kyle Abraham, Meghan Bowden, David Dorfman, Luke Gutgsell, Renuka Hines, Raja Feather Kelly, Kendra Portier, Jenna Riegel, Karl Rogers, and Whitney Lynn Tucker.
Dramaturg: Alex Timbers
Media Designer: Jacob Pinholster
“Prophets of Funk lands as a celebration of an era–but one that doesn’t overlook its complexities.”_Dance Pulp
Photo by Vince Scarano
Disavowal, 2008
Disavowal, inspired by the life and legend of radical abolitionist and (in)famous "race traitor" John Brown, is a flight of movement imagination on the stakes of racial identity, commitment, and the possibility of freedom and choice under conditions of white supremacy. Disavowal probes the fight versus flight relationship between militancy, civility, and conviction, asking: What price are we willing to pay for our deepest commitments? What are we willing to die for and to live for?
New York Premiere: Danspace Project, 2009
Disavowal was created in consultation with, and based on a concept by David Kyuman Kim.
Originating cast: Kyle Abraham, David Dorfman, Patrick Ferreri, Renuka Hines, Tania Isaac, Molly Poerstel, Jenna Riegel, Karl Rogers, and Whitney Lynn Tucker.
Original music composed by Mike Vargas, with a song by Alison Wonderland
Sound Design: Jane Shaw
Toupie Design: Henri Ogier and constructed by Joshua Friedman
Lighting Design: Joe Levasseur
Media Design: Jacob Pinholster
Costume Design: Liz Prince
Photo by Vince Scarano
underground, 2006
Using the 1960s as a starting point, underground explores the principles of political activism, in particular the activities of the Weather Underground and asks the questions: when can activism become terrorism, or vice versa, and is condoned or endorsed killing/destruction ever justified?
World Premiere: American Dance Festival, 2006
New York Premiere: Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, November 2006.
older testaments, 2005
Older Testaments explores the never ending struggle in the Middle East as fodder for a spirited, vulnerable and at times humorous trip through “volumes” of time to underscore displacement and a search for peace.
approaching Some calm counting laughter, 2005
World Premiere: The Joyce Theater, New York City, January 1995
Restaged in 2005
Companion Duets featuring David Dorfman and Lisa Race.
Original scores by Amy Denio and Ben Neill
Costume Designer: Kasia Walicka Maimone
Impending Joy, 2004
Originating cast: Jennifer Nugent, Heather McArdle, Joseph Poulsen, and Paul Matteson.
2015 restaging cast: Kendra Portier, Christina Jane Robson, Karl Rogers, Bryan Strimpel
World Premiere: The Duke on 42nd St., New York City, March 2004
Original comissioned score composed and performed: Chris Peck
Costume Designer: Naoko Nagata
Lighting Designer: Josh Epstein
"Dorfman's very individual choreography is full of entrancing contrasts, and, lord, what dancing!" -Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice.
Lightbulb Theory, 2004
Originating cast: Paul Matteson, Heather McArdle, Jennifer Nugent, and Joseph Poulsen.
World Premiere: The Duke on 42nd Street, New York City, March 2004
Original commissioned score composed and performed: Michael Wall
Costume Designer: Heather McArdle in collaboration with Adele Twig
Lighting Designer: Josh Epstein
“Lightbulb Theory, set to a haunting piano score by Michael Wall, took on nothing less than life and death.” -Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times.
see level, 2003
World Premiere: The Kitchen, New York City, February 2003
Originating cast: Abby Crain, David Dorfman, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Nugent, and Joseph Poulsen.
Original commissioned score by Chris Peck
Costume Designer: Naoko Nagata
Lighting Designer: Blu
Visual Design: Samuel Topiary
to lie tenderly, 2000
World Premiere: American Dance Festival, Durham NC, November 2000
Originating cast: David Dorfman, Jeanine Durning, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Nugent, and Joseph Poulsen.
Original commissioned score by Amy Denio
Costume Designer: Naoko Nagata
Set Design: Paul Clay
Lighting Designer: Jane Cox
“Dorfman seems to have taken the energy of the music, allowed it to resonate internally, then thrust it out as gyrating pyrotechnics. The result is an arresting work that engages the audience from start to finish.” -Alice Kaderlan-Halsey, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
subverse, 1999
World Premiere: American Dance Festival, Durham NC, July 1999
NYC Premiere: The Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2000
Originating cast: David Dorfman, Jeanine Durning, Curt Haworth, Paul Matteson Jennifer Nugent, Lisa Race, and Tom Thayer.
Original commissioned score by Hahn Rowe
Sound Design: David Schnirman
Costume Designer: Naoko Nagata
Set and Video Design: Paul Clay
Lighting Design: Jane Cox
“Subverse was a marvel. ... In larger ensemble movements, the dance had kinetic magic, fluid to the bone yet highly aerobic. It made me want to get up and dance, too." - Molly Glentzer, Houston Chronicle
A cure for gravity, 1997
World Premiere: Carver Community Cultural Center, San Antonio TX, November 1997
Originating cast: David Dorfman, Jeanine Durning, Curt Haworth, Hetty King, Lisa Race, and Tom Thayer.
Music by Joe Jackson
Costume Designer: Liz Prince
Set Design: Andy Benavides
Lighting Design: Chloë Z. Brown
"…a handsome, boisterous and poignant celebration of the music of Joe Jackson" - Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
gone right back, 1997
Gone Right Back is a meditation on forward motion or lack of - the willingness of a person or group to move or “be moved”. Live, original music, moving musicians and text/lyrics features prominently in this lively romp.
sleep story, 1987
Sleep Story is about the different levels of getting knocked down and popping back up. Historical and personal losses, with sleep as metaphor for death, form the essence of a spoken story interrupted periodically by physical force.
“…haunting, poetic and jarring”_The Chicago Tribune
Middleman’s Rally, 1986
Middleman's Rally, inspired by the hand gestures of the Chicago “Merc” Exchange, this early solo maps the creators trajectory from business to dance and its yes’s/no’s, stops and go’s. The original eclectic score ranges from agricultural sounds to soulful saxophone processional.
“…his movement was both dazzling and disquieting.” _The New York Times
Click here to read the full review in The New York Times
DDD outreach projects
familiar movements (the family project)
Premiere: The Flynn Theatre, Burlington VT, January 1996 / 7 company members joined by 15-20 local family members, 35 minutes / Original commissioned score by Robert Een / Visuals by Elka Krajewska. Lighting by Philip W. Sandström.
"Purists might cringe at the notion of art born of excited amateurism and no small amount of therapeutic getting-it-off-the-chest, but Dorfman makes it boil as theatrical entertainment...the astute timing, the oddity of some moments, the pockets of thoughtfulness give everything the warmth of life." - Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
no roles barred (arts in action project)
Premiere: Boulder Theater, Boulder CO, July 1999 / 7 company members joined by 15-20 local community members. 30 minutes / Music compiled by Hahn Rowe. Lighting by Chloë Z. Brown.
“No Roles Barred became an impressively artful and soulful construction based on rich material, showing with interwoven text and movement how the performers cope with their repertoire of roles and grope for authenticity transcending confining labels.” -Daniel Gesmer, Daily Camera (Denver, CO)
out of season (the athletes project)
Premiere: The Flynn Theatre, Burlington VT, January 1993 / 7 company dancers joined by 15-25 local amateur athletes, 23 minutes / Original music by Peter Zummo / Lighting by Philip W. Sandström.
"Dorfman's idea was to get us to think about athletes in unstereotypical ways as well as for athletes to think of themselves in arenas other than the ones used for sport; he succeeds mightily. And with great humor." - Janice Berman, New York Newsday
"[Dorfman]'s on to something mythic here, something important to American life; the fact that he's lured two dozen athletes onto the stage creates significant cultural exchange." - Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice
"On a personal level, I was deeply moved by the experience. It was intense, painful and wonderful." - Diane Butler, participating athlete, writing in The Charlotte (Vt.) News
