Parsons Dance Seeks Male and Female Dancers, Auditions Held 5/27

Parsons Dance, praised around the world for its virtuosity, exceptional theatricality, athleticism, energy and accessibility, seeks a male dancer and a female dancer. Auditions will be held on Thursday, May 27, 2010 from 1-6pm at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, 248 West 60th Street, NYC. Appointments are required for the audition and dancers must bring headshots and resumes. To reserve an appointment, email info@parsonsdance.org.

The company seeks a male dancer and a female dancer with strong contemporary dance 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 and dancers receive year-round medical and dental benefits.

ABOUT PARSONS DANCE
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 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. The New York Timescalled 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."

David Parsons (Artistic Director/Founder) has enjoyed a remarkable career as a performer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer of dance. Mr. Parsons was born in Chicago and raised in Kansas City. He 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 is a recipient of the 2000 Dance Magazine Award, as well as the 2001 American Choreography Award, for his work as a co-producer of AEROS, a production featuring the Romanian Gymnastic Federation that was featured on Bravo. Mr. Parsons has created more than 70 works for Parsons Dance. He has received commissions over the years from The American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, the Spoleto Festival and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, to name a few. His work has been performed by Paris Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Nederlands Danse Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Hubbard Street Dance and BatSheva Dance Company of Israel, among many others. In June 2007, Mr. Parsons was honored to be the very first contemporary choreographer ever to stage work at the centuries-old Arena di Verona, in Verona Italy, where he choreographed Verdi's Aida. The Arena is one of Italy's most respected operatic venues. 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 in New York, at NYU's Skirball Center for the Arts.

Parsons Dance receives support from Cowles Charitable Trust; Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund of the New York Community Trust; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation; The New York State Council on the Arts; Nina W. Werblow Charitable Trust; Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; and the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

For more information, visit www.parsonsdance.org.

Need more Dance Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...