Trisha Brown Dance Company Announces New Executive Director Kirstin Kapustik

The Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC) has announced that Kirstin Kapustik has been appointed as the company's new Executive Director. Kirstin will succeed Barbara Dufty, who has served in this position for the past 15 years and will be stepping down on July 1, 2023.

Kirstin has a long history as a performing arts leader and is highly experienced in strategic planning, fundraising, event management and program development.  Most recently, she served as the Executive Director for six years at The House Foundation for the Arts, Inc, a nonprofit that produces the work of multi-disciplinary artist Meredith Monk.  Prior to that role, she was Managing Director of Chez Bushwick, Inc., Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation in Brooklyn.  She has also previously held positions at Danspace Project, The Watermill Center, Whitney Museum of Art, and the Center for Performance Research.  Kirstin holds an MFA in Dance from Florida State University and an MBA from Penn State University.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kirstin as our new Executive Director,” said TBDC Board President Jeanne Linnes.  “This is an exciting time for the company, and we know that Kirstin's leadership skills, expertise in arts' management and passion for dance will continue to keep Brown's work alive with integrity and spirit.  Barbara Dufty has been an invaluable leader who has steadfastly been dedicated to the preservation and presentation of Trisha's trailblazing oeuvre and who has successfully secured the placement of the Archives.  She leaves the company in a strong position for the future.”

This year, the Trisha Brown Dance Company presented its first commissioned work after years of solely presenting the works of Trisha Brown. Under Kirstin's leadership, TBDC will continue to engage with new artistic voices that have a connection to Trisha's work while also reaffirming the company's primary mission of preserving her legacy.  

Kirstin Kapustik said, “I am honored to be leading the company in its new chapter, building on Trisha Brown's profound body of work and deepening her influence on the future of modern dance.”

Established in 1970, the Trisha Brown Company (TBDC) is a post-modern dance company dedicated to the performance and preservation of the work of Trisha Brown and projects related to her legacy. TBDC presents Brown's dances in a variety of spaces, indoors and out, proscenium and alternative; develops, deepens, and expands the Company's educational initiatives; uses the Company's archive as a living organism to be used to better understand Brown's work and dance in general; and most recently, engages with contemporary artistic voices.

Trisha Brown stands apart as one of the most prominent female choreographers, as well as one of the leading dance makers of the past century. In a career spanning six decades, Brown created more than 100 artistic works that challenged and changed the way we define dance. Brown developed her own dance vocabulary, combining pedestrian movement and gesture with intricate, athletic technique. She defied convention -- and gravity -- by choreographing works that sent dancers soaring across SoHo rooftops or literally walking down the side of a building, becoming an early proponent of site-specific work before bringing an equally experimental outlook to works for the stage.