About Buglisi-Foreman Dance Company

About the Company

Company History and Mission Statement

Technical excellence and unparalleled dramatic power describes the consummate artists of Buglisi Dance Theatre. The theatrical appeal of the 30 diverse repertory works and their dramatic intensity have won Buglisi Dance Theatre invitations nationally and internationally to such prestigious venues as the 69th Season of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Vail International Dance Festival the Joyce Theater, the New Victory Theater, Kravis Performing Arts Center, American College Dance Festival at Arizona State University, the State Theater for the Melbourne International Festival, Australia; the Chautauqua Festival, Interlochen Arts Festival, Italy's San Marino Stage Festival, St. Germain en Laye, France; Teatro Nuovo, Milan; Montreal, Bombay, Edinburgh, and the International Dance Week in Prague. The Company's first New York Season was presented to critical acclaim in 1994 with the world premiere of the full evening dance/play, Runes of the Heart. Anna Kisselgoff wrote, "…the best of the Martha Graham Dance Company… [they] project the movement with such passionate conviction that the experience became an ecstatic séance."

They offer us images that take kinetic root in us, that unfurl our imaginations and live on and work in us so that we are helped to see the world freshly… We are taken to the doorway of a great journey, a transformative journey, from concealment to illumination, from fear to beauty. In the Company of these artists, the paths of prayer, art and healing come together.
Diana de Vegh, Board of Directors

BUGLISI DANCE THEATRE and Threshold Dance Projects, Inc. defines a new dynamic lyricism through its deeply physical repertory which is richly diverse, accessible, and vibrant. BDT draws both distinguished performers and passionate young artists into its realm of dramatic theatrical dance. Artistic excellence and world-class production values have won the Company invitations nationally to such prestigious venues as the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Kennedy Center; in NYC to The Joyce Theater, the New Victory Theater; and internationally to the Melbourne Festival, Australia, Italy, France, Canada, India, Scotland, and the Czech Republic. Following its New York 2005 season at The Joyce Theater, the Company toured to South Florida with performances and outreach at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the Alexander Dreyfoos School for the Arts, the New World School of the Arts, and to Israel for the Rishon LeZion International Spring Festival.

Jacqulyn Buglisi, Donlin Foreman, Terese Capucilli and Christine Dakin founded BDT in 1994 . This distinguished quartet danced together as principal artists with Martha Graham for two decades. Now, BDT broadens the great legacy of contemporary dance through its own creative voice. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center has filmed and archived a majority of the Company repertory. The Juilliard Theater's Emerging Modern Masters Series in 2000 featured BFD, and the American Dance Guild Award for Artistic Excellence was presented to the Company in 2003.

Committed to connecting the global community the Company has a long history of multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural collaborations with artists of the highest caliber. Its new work s programs Keepers of the Spirit and Bridging Boundaries/Common Bonds have featured the innovative composers Tan Dun, Lisa DeSpain, Daniel Binelli, Andrew Waggoner, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Libby Larsen. Live music by acclaimed musicians include pianist Brian Zeger, cellists Maya Beiser and Crispin Campbell, and Caroline Stinson, percussionist Glen Velez, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Catfish Corner blues band, and the Binelli/Ferman Duo.

Fundamental to the Company's mission are educational residencies and work shops, which allow us to share our creative process with universities, high schools, and theaters across America, including the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College and a residency at Hamilton College, presented by the Mohawk Valley Dance Partnership. Artistic Director Jacqulyn Buglisi serves on the faculties of NYC's greatest arts and educational institutions: the Alvin Ailey School and Fordham University, the Juilliard Dance Division, and the Martha Graham Dance Center. Through all of its programs and performances, this Company continues to build the legacy of American culture, striving to nurture within the community a personal commitment to dance as a lifelong process of discovery.

The young company Buglisi Dance Theatre renews the Graham technique in all its full-bodied glory…Everything is here: those potent torsos, contracting, releasing, spiraling; legs, arms and heads alert to every surge of emotion. They have inherited her theatrical mastery of lighting, costumes and stage space, her way of making us feel that each dance is an encounter with destiny.
Margo Jefferson, The New York Times

In recognition of their creative process and the quality of the choreographic work they have contributed to the field of dance, BDT has been granted the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Arnhold Foundation, Howard Bayne Fund, and Altria Group Inc. with recent grants from the Shubert Foundation, Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, American Music Center , DCA and the Choo-San Goh and H. Robert Magee Foundation. Buglisi/Foreman's choreography has been presented by the Martha Graham Dance Company at City Center, La Scala Ballet in Milan, American Repertory Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, the Juilliard Theatre at Lincoln Center, and at Rockefeller Center and Madison Square Garden by the Ice Theatre of NY. Strongly committed to connecting the global community through dance, the Company has established Bridging Boundaries/Common Bonds, a transcultural project with the mission of marrying the beauty and diversity of world cultures. The themes and music of the Silk Road and collaboration with Chinese artists have inspired Artistic Director Jacqulyn Buglisi and choreographer Donlin Foreman to create a new dance featuring China's virtuosic dancer Dou Dou Huang of the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble and the score of Academy Award winner Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Concerto.

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The founding members appear in interviews with Clara Luna Production's feature documentary entitled Courage, "capturing the journey and works of creative expression," and Scully/The World Great Performers Series for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center has filmed, for its archives, over thirty-five works from the Company's repertory during residencies at SUNY Purchase (1996, 1998) and in performance at the New Victory Theater 2001 and the Joyce Theater 2002-2007.

MISSION STATEMENT
Threshold Dance Projects, Inc., and Buglisi Dance Theatre, will be recognized globally as a flag bearer of American Contemporary Dance through the innovative choreography of its founding directors, performance excellence, worldwide collaborations, touring, and educational outreach.

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