Bronx Choreographer Arthur Aviles Will Perform and Be Celebrated This Fall

Arthur Avilés, the award-winning, Bronx-based dancer/choreographer and co-founder of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance will perform in two events and will be celebrated by NYU's Hemispheric Institute. Avilés formed BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance in 1998 and his dance company, Arthur Avilés Typical Theater (AATT) in 1996. His dance company kicks off the series of events with a performance at the Bronx's New York Botanical Garden in August and September, followed by Avilés recreating a Ted Shawn solo for Denishawn in September/October while the Hemispheric Institute's celebration of his work in the archive taking place in September, October and culminating with performances of his works in November.

Arthur Avilés is an internationally renowned gay New York-Rican dancer/choreographer. His work utilizes aspects of theater and dance, often taking the structure of stories from existing classics and reconfiguring them in order to express the felt, actual, and fantastical lives of queer Latinx in the city. Avilés was born in 1963 in Jamaica, Queens, and raised in Long Island and the Bronx. After graduating from Bard College, Avilés joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and toured internationally with the company from 1987 to 1995. In 1998, alongside Charles Rice-González, he co-founded The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. BAAD! is a performance space that blazed a path for professional art and dance in the Bronx and has garnered local and national attention for its work. Avilés has received numerous awards and honors, including an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from his alma mater, Bard College, as well as a Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) award, and multiple New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards. In 2003, The New York Times' Anna Kisselgoff called him "one of the great modern dancers of the last 15 years."

For more information visit the NYBG website:
https://www.nybg.org/event/kusama/kusama-cosmic-nature-programs/contemporary-dance-series/