Parsons Dance Seeks Male and Female Dancers

Parsons Dance, praised around the world for its virtuosity, exceptional theatricality, athleticism, energy and accessibility, seeks male and female dancers. Auditions will be held on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 12pm at New York City Center, Studio 5, 130 W. 56th Street, NYC. Appointments are required for the audition and dancers must bring headshots and resumes. To reserve an appointment, email info@parsonsdance.org. Questions are welcome by phone at 212-869-9275.

The company seeks men and women with strong modern and ballet technique, partnering skill and a passion for dance. Candidates should be willing to push their minds and bodies to their absolute potential and beyond. Parsons Dance tours extensively nationally and internationally.

Parsons Dance creates American works of extraordinary artistry that are engaging and uplifting to audiences throughout the world. It is the goal of Parsons Dance to make contemporary dance accessible to the widest possible audiences. In addition to choreography and performance, Parsons Dance positively impacts children, students, and communities through student performances, lecture-demonstrations, master classes, post-show discussions and more. Parsons Dance has a company of eleven full-time dancers and maintains a repertory of more than 70 works choreographed by David Parsons, twenty of which feature originally commissioned scores by leading composers and musicians, including Dave Matthews, Michael Gordon and Milton Nascimento. Parsons Dance has collaborated with many other leading artists, including Julie Taymor, William Ivey Long, Annie Leibovitz, Donna Karan and Alex Katz (to name a few). The New York Times called David Parsons "one of the great movers of modern dance." New York Magazine referred to him as "one of modern dance's great living dance-makers."

ABOUT PARSONS DANCE
Parsons Dance is committed to building new audiences for contemporary dance by creating American works of extraordinary artistry that are engaging and uplifting to audiences throughout the world. The company tours regionally, nationally and internationally. Since 1985, Parsons Dance has toured an average of 32 weeks per year, to a total more than 235 cities, 30 countries, six continents and millions of audience members. Many others have seen Parsons Dance on PBS, Bravo, A&E Network, and the Discovery Channel. Millions watched Parsons Dance perform live in Times Square as part of the internationally broadcast, 24-hour Millennium New Year's Eve celebration. In New York City, Parsons Dance has been featured at The Joyce Theater, City Center, New Victory Theater, Central Park Summerstage, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The World Trade Center. For more information, visit parsonsdance.org.

Artistic Director David Parsons founded Parsons Dance in 1987 with lighting designer Howell Binkley. Since then, he has created more than 70 works for the company, through commissions from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Spoleto Festival, and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, among others. His works have also been performed by BatSheva Dance Company of Israel, English National Ballet, Feld Ballets/NY, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theatre, and Paris Opera Ballet, among many others. He choreographed and directed the dance elements for Times Square 2000, the 24-hour festivities in Times Square celebrating the turn of the Millennium, viewed live on television by billions of people all over the globe.

Mr. Parsons enjoys a remarkable career as a performer, choreographer, teacher, director, and producer of dance. He has toured and taught with his company on six continents. In September 2007, he directed and choreographed Gotham Chamber Opera's production of María de Buenos Aires, which made its world premiere at a sold-out engagement at NYU's Skirball Center for the Arts in New York City. In the July 27, 2007 issue of The New York Times, Jennifer Dunning called him "one of the great movers of modern dance." In June 2007, Mr. Parsons was the first contemporary choreographer to stage work at the centuries-old Arena di Verona, where he choreographed Verdi's Aida. He is a recipient of the 2000 Dance Magazine Award, as well as the 2001 American Choreography Award, for his work with AEROS, a production featuring the Romanian Gymnastic Federation broadcast on the Bravo Channel. From 1978-1987, Mr. Parsons was a leading dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, where Mr. Taylor created many roles for him in works such as Arden Court, Last Look, and Roses. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Berlin Opera, MOMIX, the New York City Ballet, and the White Oak Dance Project. As a director and choreographer, he has collaborated with such artists as John Corrigliano; Earth, Wind and Fire; East Village Opera Company; Morton Gould; Donna Karan; Alex Katz; William Ivy Long; Santo Loquasto; Dave Matthews; Milton Nascimento; Robert Rauschenberg; Steely Dan; and Billy Taylor. Film: Fool's Fire, directed by Julie Taymor; American Playhouse; and Rita Blitt's documentary Caught in Paint. Television: Bravo broadcast of Aeros; PBS production of Remember Me, a world premiere production by Parsons Dance and the East Village Opera Company; Parsons Dance repertory production in Denmark; the hit Italian reality television show "Amici;" PBS production of Billy Taylor music with Parsons Dance' and RAI television dance celebration of Pisa, Italy. Commercial work: Audi, Mecedes, Chevrolet, Alfa Romeo, Lion pajamas, and Flair magazine. Fashion: Missoni, Trusardi, Ermenegildo Zegna, Roberto Cavalli.

Born in Chicago and raised in Kansas City, Mr. Parsons received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Kansas City and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He is a recipient of the Howard Gilman fellowship at the Jacksonville University MFA program. Mr. Parsons has cultivated an educational partnership with Marymount Manhattan College, which hosts the annual Parsons Dance Summer Intensive. Education outreach, workshops, lecture and demonstration events, and Master Class venues include Juilliard, Columbia Business School and UCLA.

The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Friars Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, the New York Community Trust, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, Nina W. Werblow Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation.

For more information, visit www.parsonsdance.org.

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