Mark Dendy
MARK DENDY After leaving the dance stage in 2000 to pursue a career in musical theater, Obie and Bessie award winning Artistic Director and performer is back with his new company, Dendy Dancetheater. In the summer of 2008, the company debuted on the concert stage with the world premiere of: Preliminary Study for Depth: The Upper Half of High and Low for the 75th anniversary of the American Dance Festival. Recent and upcoming projects include the world premiere of two site-specific works Would you please restate your answer in the form of the question? and Golden Belt at the 2009 American Dance Festival. They followed with a New York premiere of Preliminary Study for Depth: The upper half of high and low at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. This past summer he was artist in residency and on faculty at Bates College Dance Festival. His work will be seen in Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera House 2009-10 Season. The revival of Afternoon of the Faunes was performed at New York City Center's 2009 Fall for Dance Festival. Upcoming 2010 events and performances: A site specific dance installation at the North Carolina Museum of Art and a world premiere at ADF, along with Creative Residencies at ADF, Jacob's Pillow and The Yard. Before 2000 Dendy was the Artistic Director of Mark Dendy Dance and Theater (1983-2000) performing at festivals internationally and in NYC at The Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center, PS 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Jacob's Pillow and regular appearances and commissions at The American Dance Festival. The company performed throughout the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, England, France and Korea. He choreographed the Evolution Dances for an Emmy award winning Tales of The Human Dawn episode of the PBS series Smithsonian World. In 1999 he wrote, choreographed, directed and performed in Dream Analysis which opened at the Joyce Theater to rave reviews and reopened later that year at Dance Theater Workshop for a sold out 5 week run. The following year he followed up with I'm going to my room to be cool now and I don't want to be disturbed at The Joyce, touring nationally and at the American Dance Festival before pursuing a career in musical theater. In 2000 Dendy was a recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts and an OBIE for The Wild Party, in addition to numerous NEA, NYSCA and Jerome Foundation grants, and a NY Dance and Performance Award, "The Bessie", for sustained career achievement. He is also the recipient of the American Society of Arts and Letters Award for outstanding sustained achievement and the American Dance Festival's Scripps Humphrey Weidman Limon Award for the creation of new work. Broadway credits include: Taboo and The Pirate Queen and Off-Broadway: Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Nominated for Outer Critic Circle, Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival). Drama League Awards for Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (Drama Desk Nomination). Miracle Brothers (Tina Landau, The Vineyard Theater). Other credits include: Camille Claudel (Goodspeed Opera). Numerous workshops including Sweet Charity, When You Wish for Disney, Radio City Rockettes in CARNIVALE (Graciela Danielle) at Radio City Music Hall. National Tour: Pippin (Goodspeed Musicals). The Metropolitan Opera: The Magic Flute (Julie Taymor). His teaching and residency credits include the The American Dance Festival, North Carolina School for the Arts, CalArts, Juilliard, NYU, Harvard Summer Dance, Connecticut College, University of Washington, Oklahoma University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, The Bates Summer Dance Festival, Texas Women's University among others. Numerous dance companies have commissioned Dendy, including Art Bridgeman/Myrna Packard, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Charleston Ballet, Ballet Dortmund, Washington Ballet, Concert Dance Company of Boston, Dance Kaleidoscope of Indianapolis, and Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis. Dendy danced in the companies of Pooh Kaye, Ruby Shang, Pearl Lang, with The Martha Graham Ensemble and as a collaborating guest artist with Jane Comfort starring in Deportment and the off-Broadway production of Faith Healing, a deconstruction of William's The Glass Menagerie at Classic Stage Company. Mr. Dendy received a BFA in modern dance from The North Carolina School of the Arts and studied for three summers at the American Dance Festival. Bio as of May, 2011. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: