Teacher/choreographer/performer Peter DiMuro works with Barbara Joseph in ADF community outreach program, 1999. Photo: Bruce R. Feeley
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American Dance Festival
Since its founding in 1934, the mission of the
American Dance Festival has been to encourage and support the
creation of modern dance by both established and emerging
choreographers; to provide a sound scientific/aesthetic base for
professional education and training of young dancers, and a forum
for improved dance education; to preserve our modern dance heritage
by presenting classic works and by archival activities; to build
national and international audiences for modern dance; and to
enhance public understanding and appreciation of the art form and
its cultural and historical significance. ADF's wide range of
programs currently include dance performances, educational programs
and classes, archival preservation, community outreach, and media
projects. New choreographic works are supported both by commission
and professional performance. The nationally renowned festival has
been the scene of over 500 premieres since 1934. Since its move to
Durham, North Carolina in 1978, ADF has had an ongoing
collaboration with Duke University, but it is not solely a
university project. In the words of Terry Sanford, former governor
and now president of Duke, "a North Carolina project." Its mission
is provide for the cultural enrichment of the entire state.
Although ADF is most visible during its annual
six-and-a-half-week festival of performances, classes, workshops,
humanities panels, archival exhibits, it has a year-round presence
in Durham, sponsoring an extensive array of regional, national, and
international programming. Performances by professional dance
companies, from the most established to the most experimental, are
ADF's centerpiece, presenting works by Martha Graham, José
Limón, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, and others.
ADF is also America's most prestigious training site for young
modern dancers. ADF's six-week school for students has grown to 450
from all over the world. More than 60 classes are offered each day,
and the faculty of 50 teachers is the most accomplished and
professional in the world. The first faculty chair in dance, the
Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Chair for Distinguished
Teaching, was established in 1991.
In 1984, on ADF's 50th anniversary,
Newsweek magazine reported that, due in part of ADF's influence, modern
dance is no long strictly an American phenomenon. ADF has chosen to
champion the international aspect of modern dance, has imported
many foreign troupes to perform, and has brought 13 choreographers
from locations worldwide to study. The 1984 season featured ADF's
First International Modern Dance Festival; that same year, ADF
teachers helped establish the first modern dance program in the
People's Republic of China.
Other ADF projects include "mini-ADFs," established
in Japan, Korea, Utah, and Russia, that offer classes, workshops,
and dance performances by world-renowned dance companies and
faculty; community outreach activities aimed at taking dance into
the communities; and "Dancing for the Camera," which provides a
survey of current trends and practices in video dance. And under
the direction of ADF's Philosopher in Residence, Dr. Gerald E.
Myers, the intellectual dimensions and ramifications of modern
dance are being explored and arts/humanities connections are being
developed. The first Dance Critics Conference was established in
1970 for the purpose of advancing the study and criticism of modern
dance. In addition, ADF's archives date back to the 1930s and
represent an important historical repository of materials
chronicling the history and development of modern dance.
The project is documented with an eight-page report,
ten 8 x 10 photographs with accompanying descriptions (1996-1999),
press clippings (1978-1999), a press kit (1999), a 65th anniversary
publication entitled
Reflections on the Home of an Art
Form, booklets entitled
A Decade of Dance (1958),
The Aesthetic and Cultural Significance of Modern Dance (1984),
The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance (1998),
African-American Genius in Modern Dance (1993),
The First 15 (1992),
Dancing Across Cultures (1995), season brochures (1997-1999), season reports (1994-1999),
playbills (1996-1999), school catalogs (1997-2000), and videotape
produced in 1995 entitled "ADF - Generations."
Originally submitted by: Jesse Helms, Senator.
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The Local Legacies project provides a "snapshot" of American Culture as it was expressed in spring of 2000. Consequently, it is not being updated with new or revised information with the exception of "Related Website" links.
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