Guest Hoyt Posted October 31, 2002 Share Posted October 31, 2002 Not sure whether it has been officially announced but it appears that Donald Byrd has accepted the post of artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle. It will be interesting to see how this company develops under his leadership... perhaps, away from Spectrum's more jazz dance focus. Link to comment
liebs Posted October 31, 2002 Share Posted October 31, 2002 Wow, this is news. I think Byrd is a good choreographer but never thought of his work as jazz dance. He is also a very smart guy and a good fundraiser. Valuable qualities in an AD. Congratulations to Donald and to Spectrum. Link to comment
dirac Posted November 6, 2002 Share Posted November 6, 2002 Announcement of Byrd's appointment, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical/94...304_tf206.shtml Link to comment
Alexandra Posted November 6, 2002 Share Posted November 6, 2002 Thanks for that, and for Hoyt's and liebs' posts as well. I'm confused, though. Does this mean there is no more Donald Byrd company? I thought that was one of the more successful dance troupes around. Or will the Byrd company merge with Spectrum? I don't think of him as a jazz dance choreographer either. But categories don't mean very much these days Link to comment
liebs Posted November 7, 2002 Share Posted November 7, 2002 Alexandra, Byrd closed his company early in the summer after struggling for years to get out of the debt that his "Harlem Nutcracker" ran up. Link to comment
Guest shelly Posted November 7, 2002 Share Posted November 7, 2002 I saw the exciting news about Donald Byrd coming to Seattle yesterday in the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/arts...35_dance05.html Donald Byrd is a very impressive person with incredible knowledge of dance and a great vision. Seattle's lucky to be gaining such an asset for its dance community. Didn't know you would have heard the news before our local papers, though. I am a Spectrum fan and couldn't agree more that categories don't mean much. Spectrum has performed several pieces that I would not classify as jazz, including works by Trey McIntyre and Dwight Rhoden, as well as others. Spectrum performs this weekend at the Kirkland Performance Center. I wonder what kind of work the company will perform with Donald Byrd at the helm. Link to comment
Alexandra Posted November 7, 2002 Share Posted November 7, 2002 Welcome, Shelly Thanks for the info, Liebs -- I missed that one! I skip the financial reports sometimes. I think of the Harlem Nutcracker as being successful, because it came here so often! Link to comment
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