News

2008 was a busy and fulfilling year for Duhon Dance and for Theresa. The most exciting development of the year was when Theresa received an iLAB mini residency along with collaborator biologist Colin Grubel. Together they explored similarities and differences between their fields, worked with cormorants, and developed material in rehearsals with Duhon Dance dancers Sophie DeVore, Cristina Jesurun, Joy Magyawe, Uta Takemura, and Lutin Tanner, as well as various guests. Read more about the residency and see photos.

Another highlight of 2008 was Theresa's guest artist appearance May 19-24 at Sugar Space (a dance studio run by Brittany Reese Dew) in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she taught daily modern technique classes and set several pieces from the Duhon Dance repertory on local dancers, culminating with a performance at the end of the week.

During the course of the year, Theresa created two commissioned works, one for Middle Collegiate Church (a duet she performed with Maya Seidel) and one individual commission, a ballet pas de deux. Additionally, Duhon Dance created and presented two brand-new pieces. One was "Trois Mouvements Perpetuels," an energetic trio to music of the same name by Francis Poulenc, performed by Sophie DeVore, Hae Young Oh, and Theresa at the Dancenow RAW Festival in April. The other was "Jamaica: from the Days of King to Today's Queens," specifically created for the Dance Jamaica! series of dance concerts in Jamaica, Queens. Duhon Dance was one of three companies chosen to perform as part of the series, each receiving one Saturday in October for a site-specific, outdoor performance on the lawn of the new Jamaica Performing Arts Center. Theresa's piece incorporated text by local historical figure Rufus King and was performed by Duhon Dance members Sophie DeVore, Cristina Jesurun, and Lutin Tanner, as well as Theresa, and special guest performer Lynn Brown.

To close out the year, Naoko Matsumoto performed "Donde Voy," a solo Theresa choreographed for her in 2002, and Theresa joined Naoko in a structured improv performance at Isabella House, where Naoko teaches hula dance.

As we move forward into 2009, Duhon Dance will continue to both explore new work and revisit old pieces. Our next scheduled performance will be Saturday, May 2, in Green Space Blooms, an annual curated concert of Queens choreographers at Green Space in LIC, Queens. There we will show "A Sense of Small," a series of solos performed to various poems and other excerpted text read live, which was choreographed in 2004.

Stay tuned for news of other upcoming performances and events!

History of Duhon Dance

Theresa Duhon dabbled in choreography from age 15 on and was trained in choreography at NYU and elsewhere, but her main focus was always on performance. Then, in 2002, after several years of choreographing solely combinations for teaching in her modern dance technique classes at Dance Forum NY, she decided to start focusing more on concert choreography. She began with a pair of solos: one for Naoko Matsumoto and one for Yutaka Kizawa. These solos were performed by Naoko and Yutaka, as well as by Theresa herself, in various venues in NYC: Naoko and Yutaka's self-produced "This is Us" at Dance Forum NY, Hatch showcase at Jennifer Muller/The Works Studio, Red Shoes series at One Arm Red, ACAT showing, "Moments of Silence" (produced by Lisa Allin) at Pop Sustainability, and a Ravenswood Senior Center show.

Also in 2002, Theresa received her first commission to choreograph for Middle Collegiate Church, in collaboration with Brittany Reese and Kari Hoaas. Theresa assisted Brittany for several years at the church but now works alone there. She has been commissioned to create over a dozen pieces to date, working with children and adults from the congregation, as well as with professional dancers.

In February of 2004, Theresa had her first full-evening concert, A Sampling for a Small Space, presented by chashama's TIXE theater, on 42^nd Street. The pieces that made up this concert were also shown individually at various showcases and events before and after the concert.

Theresa's second full-evening concert was self-presented, at the New Dance Group Arts Center in NYC, October 12-14, 2007. The single full-evening piece, of Sand and Sea, with a cast of 15 dancers, focused on the beautiful variety of life found at the beach, with an underlying theme of man's destructive impact on this environment.

In 2008, in addition to choreographing a variety of new pieces, Theresa received an iLAB mini residency with collaborator biologist Colin Grubel, continuing her efforts to combine her interest in the sciences and the natural environment with an exploration of her creative voice as a choreographer.