Steven Melendez and Wendy Perron on Joining Hands: The Judson Dance Theater Legacy through the Lens of New York Theatre Ballet

Join "Dance Talk” ® with Joanne Carey and special guests Stevn Melendez and Wendy Perron.

In this episode of "Dance Talk” ® , host Joanne Carey engages with Steven Melendez, the artistic director of New York Theatre Ballet, and Wendy Perron, a dance historian and former editor of Dance Magazine. They discuss the significance of Judson Dance Theater, its impact on modern dance, and how its philosophies resonate with contemporary dance practices.

The conversation explores the challenges of restaging historical works, the importance of audience engagement, and the political context of dance as a form of protest and expression.

The episode culminates in a preview of an upcoming performance that aims to bridge the past and present of dance April 23-26.

The Judson Dance Theater was a pioneering experimental dance collective that operated in New York City from 1962 to 1964. They performed at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, known for its social and artistic activism. Judson Dance Theater is widely recognized as a key force in the development of postmodern dance and its avant-garde approach influenced subsequent generations of choreographers. 

Steven Melendez was born in New York City in 1986 and started his ballet training with the LIFT Program at Ballet School New York at the age of 7. He has danced as a Soloist dancer with Ballet Concierto in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a Principal dancer with The Vanemuine Theater Ballet Company in Tartu, Estonia, and for over 15 years with New York Theatre Ballet. He was a national and international guest artist and teacher and has worked across Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Steven co-choreographed his first large-scale work, Song Before Spring, for New York Theatre Ballet which was named a Dance Europe critic's choice “Best Premiere” of 2016. Steven is currently a member of the alumni advisory committee on diversity and inclusion for School of American Ballet and served as the Hiland Artistic Director for National Dance Institute New Mexico. Steven was named as the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet in April of 2022

Wendy Perron is a dancer/choreographer turned writer/editor/scholar. She trained in modern dance and ballet and earned a BA from Bennington College and an MA from SUNY Empire State College. She danced with the Trisha Brown Company in the 1970s and choreographed more than 40 works for her own group, which received commissions from Lincoln Center Festival, the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Danspace Project. Perron has taught at Bennington, Princeton, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and the Conservatory at SUNY Purchase. In the early 1990s she served as associate director of Jacob’s Pillow. She was the editor in chief of Dance Magazine from 2004 to 2013, and has also written for the New York Times, the Village Voice, vanityfair.com, and journals in Europe and China. An authority on Judson Dance Theater and postmodern dance, Perron has lectured across the country and in Russia and China. In 2011 she was the first dance artist to be inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Hall of Fame. Her second book, The Grand Union: Accidental Anarchists of Downtown Dance, 1970-1975, met with acclaim when it was published in 2020. She has recently performed with Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks in downtown venues. Her new online series, “Unsung Heroes of Dance History,” presents research on dance artists outside the “canon.” She has been on the Juilliard faculty since 2019.

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