Artistic Director's Bio

Hailed by Ms. Magazine’s end of the century issue as “a choreographer making great leaps forward into the 21st century” Donna Uchizono is the Artistic Director of Donna Uchizono Company, a New York-based company established in 1990. Since her choreographic debut in 1988, Uchizono rapidly emerged from the “downtown scene” as a choreographer known for her spicy movement, wit and rich invention.

In addition to being a Guggenheim Fellow and a “Bessie” award winner, Uchizono has been recognized by many awards, most recently with a 2005 Alpert Award in Dance. Uchizono’s work has been supported by the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the National Dance Project, the National Endowment for the Arts, three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, the New York State Council on the Arts, Creative Capital Foundation, Altria Group, Inc., the Jerome Foundation, the Dance Magazine Seed Grant, the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Arts International, Metropolitan Life Foundation/ADF Commission, the National Performance Network, the Suitcase Fund, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Greenwall Foundation, Meet the Composer, and the Bossak Heilbron Charitable Foundation.

Uchizono’s work is characterized by its numerous collaborative projects including quietly goes a giant jane, made in collaboration with Visual Artist David Hammons, Composers "Butch" Morris and James Lo, and Lighting Designer Stan Pressner. Uchizono recently created a new work for Mikhail Baryshnikov, commissioned by the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation. Her project Low, a collaboration with Composer Guy Yarden, received a “Bessie” (New York Dance and Performance Award) for both Uchizono and Yarden. Uchizono’s interest in original and live music for performance is evidenced by her collaborations with composers and her former role as co-director and -curator of “Bread to the Bone”, a live music/dance series at The Knitting Factory in New York. Uchizono was the choreographer for Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home for the Trinity Repertory Company and the Long Wharf Theater. She was commissioned by COBAI, a coalition of independent choreographers and dancers in Argentina, to create a piece for COBAI and Donna Uchizono Company in collaboration with the musicians of the Tobas Indians, the indigenous people of Argentina.

Since 1980 she has regularly taught workshops and classes in the U.S., Europe, and South America. She has participated in festivals and teaching institutions in Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Portugal, Belgium, Slovenia, Argentina and Romania. In the U.S., Uchizono has been a guest choreographer at various universities and colleges, including Temple University, Barnard College, Bryn Mawr, Sarah Lawrence College, Weslyan University, California Institute of the Arts, UCLA, and the University of Minnesota, and currently teaches at Long Island University. Uchizono is a member of the Artist Advisory Board at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, where she was a founding member and Chair from 1990-1995, setting up a forum for artists to discuss issues.

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