Formerly, he was Artistic Director of Donald Byrd/The Group, a critically acclaimed modern con-temporary dance company, founded in Los Angeles and later based in New York City, that toured both nationally and internationally. His career has been long and complex, and his choreographic and theatrical interests are broad. The New York Times describes him as “a choreographer with multiple personalities…an unabashed eclectic.” It continues, “[y]et he does more than hop like a magpie from style to style, taking any subject matter and imagery he finds along the way that strikes his fancy. His unruliness is accompanied by a love of order.” In the same article it states, “Mr. Byrd has repeatedly alluded to George Balanchine in his works. Balanchine was an unparalleled master of form. Yet he could also present haunting visions of chaos. Mr. Byrd, like him, is preoccupied with harmony and disruption.”
To this point, Donald Byrd is equally at home creating cool, abstract pure dance works – such as his work LOVE (2012), set to the complete cello suites of Benjamin Britten, and Euclidean Space (2011), set to the music of virtuoso sound designer and influential electronic music artist Amon Tobin – as he is creating theatrical, narrative-driven pieces like the ‘carny’ Petrushka and storefront Miraculous Mandarin, his revisionist versions of iconic early 20th century ballets. Yet he is also known for creating lovely valentines to 19th-Century classical repertory, including The Harlem Nutcracker (1996) and The Sleeping Beauty Notebook (2005), as well as imaginative choreographic tributes to jazz legends and composers including In A Different Light (2000) set to the lesser known piece of Duke Ellington, Burlesque (2002) created to early recordings of Louis Armstrong, and Jazz Train (1998) to commissioned scores by Vernon Reid, Geri Allen, and the great Max Roach. These works, along with The Harlem Nutcracker with its score by Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn and David Berger, were critical and audience successes and toured extensively.
Mr. Byrd has frequently been referred to as a “citizen artist,” a descriptive that perfectly aligns with an important component of Spectrum Dance Theater’s mission and Mr. Byrd’s personal beliefs – “dance as an art form and as a social/civic instrument.”
Early projects that were the beginnings of his citizen artist work at Spectrum are Interrupted Narratives/WAR (2007), a critique on the War in Iraq, and The Theater of Needless Talents (2008), a memorial to the artist victims of the Holocaust. Mr. Byrd’s early repertoire also includes three evening-length works that sought, through dance, to stimulate dialogue around a post-9/11, globalized America: A Chekhovian Resolution (2008), a personal, diary-like reflection on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; Farewell: A Fantastical Contemplation on America’s Relationship with China (2008), inspired by the novel Beijing Coma from Ma Jian and the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square; and The Mother of Us All (2010) a dense, collage-like abstract meditation on contemporary Africa.
As testament to his commitment to Art as a Credible Partner of Social Justice, for recent Spectrum Seasons (2015-2022), he conceived, programmed, choreographed, and directed: #RACEish – An Exploration of America’s 240 Years of (failed) Race Relations; America – Identity, Race, Culture?; Bringing It Home – Dancing Towards A More Just and Equitable America; WOKE???, Land of the Shucks (an online, virtual, production presented in a gaming setting that focused on the impact of a global climate disaster on surviving humans in a distant future); and The INSIDIOUS Trilogy (a trio of works that considers Jim Crow and its lasting legacy).
He continues to demonstrate this by creating dance/theater that is meant to question, to create awareness, to activate, and to move audiences and citizens into action around the persistent social issues that plague contemporary American society and the world: racism and white supremacy, climate change and the climate gap, gender equality, gender identity biases, xenophobia, and police brutality.
Throughout the 40+ years of his choreographic career, Mr. Byrd has created numerous works for his companies as well as works for many leading classical and contemporary companies. This list includes Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, The Joffrey Ballet, The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), Dance Theater of Harlem, and many others. He has worked extensively in theater and opera, both in America and abroad, including Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Atlanta Opera, The Israeli Opera, The Dutch National Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, The New York Public Theater, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Intiman Theatre, and Center Stage (Baltimore).
His many awards and prizes include a Doris Duke Artist Award, an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts, The James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award from Artist Trust, a Masters of Choreography Award from The Kennedy Center, a Dance/USA HONOR AWARD, the Mayor’s Arts Award for his sustained contributions to the City of Seattle, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) Gordon Davidson Award for Lifetime Achievement and Distinguished Service in the National Not-for-Profit Theatre. He has been named a Fellow at The American Academy of Jerusalem and a James Baldwin Fellow of United States Artists. Mr. Byrd was recently honored as the 2022 Laureate of The Rainier Club, which highlights a “creative artist of distinction who helps shape culture and captures and embraces the human spirit side of their field...whose works [have] some serious purpose.”
A high point of Mr. Byrd’s career was a solo museum exhibition Donald Byrd: The America That Is To Be, at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle in 2019. It was the culmination of his 2016 James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award, which was funded by the Raynier Institute & Foundation through the Frye Art Museum | Artist Trust Consortium. The award supports and advances the creative work of outstanding artists living and working in Washington State
