Donald Byrd News

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has announced that the Breakout Award will be awarded to Jon Rua. The SDCF Awards, which will feature the presentation of the Breakout Award along with the previously announced Gordon Davidson Award and Zelda  Fichandler Award, will be hosted by Anne Kauffman virtually on Monday January 24, 2022 at 8pm ET. 

Ringing in a hopeful 2022, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, will kick off a full year of live performance and art. Through performances, screenings, and exhibitions, REDCAT will once again welcome in-person audiences—as well as online audiences around the world—from January through June 2022. 

The evening, at the fabulous Avalon Hollywood, which used to be where they filmed The Hollywood Palace back in the day, filled with pizazz, fabulous old Hollywood theatre decor, gorgeous people on and off stage, awards and honors given in appreciation, former honoree recipients in attendance, and spectacular, titillating and awe-inspiring, boundary-pushing performances

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional stage directors and choreographers throughout the United States, announced the results of its 2021 Executive Board election at its Annual Membership Meeting on November 15, 2021. 

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has announced the recipient and three finalists for its annual Zelda Fichandler Award. The Fichandler Award recognizes directors and choreographers who have demonstrated great accomplishment to date with singular creativity and deep investment in a particular community or region.

Violeta Angelova, former principal dancer of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and Matthew Prescott, a former member of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and who has danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, will appear as guest artists in the Ballet Arts of Jackson’s production of The Nutcracker on December 10, 11, and 12, 2021 at the Carl Perkins Civic Center in Jackson, Tennessee.

Visual artist Samantha Holmes, known for her large-scale metal and stone works and public art projects and dancer-choreographer Colleen Thomas join forces for a free public event featuring RESTLESS, a dance performance on and around the newly-relocated sculpture MUNDILLO (LITTLE WORLD) in a celebration of women and their work.

GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter JD Souther brings an intimate concert experience to Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 8 p.m.

The Bard Music Festival continues its intensive exploration of “Nadia Boulanger and Her World” through the prism of her life and career. 

PEAK Performances at Montclair State University today announced its 2021-2022 season, presenting a slate of gripping new works on film via the organization’s PEAK Plus streaming platform, free of charge, and then welcoming audiences back into the Alexander Kasser Theater for a robust lineup of exhilarating on-stage premieres.

The Bard Music Festival returns for its 31st season this August, with a rare and intensive two-week exploration of “Nadia Boulanger and Her World.” In twelve themed concert programs, performed live with limited in-person audiences, Bard examines Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), the pioneering Parisian pedagogue, composer, conductor, pianist, organist and indomitable personality who shaped more than a generation of American musicians.

This particular version, which appeared on Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, was recorded in October 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, NJ, and features Davis on trumpet, Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

Beginning in November with Handel’s Julius Caesar in Egypt, in its first staging by the company, the season continues with the return of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Rossini’s beloved Barber of Seville, and the Southeastern premiere of the Grammy award-winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, in a new production by Carl W. Knobloch Jr. General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun.

Ballet Hispánico, the nation's renowned Latinx dance organization recognized last year as one of America's Cultural Treasures, announces the appointment of Linda Celeste Sims as its new Rehearsal Director. Sims returns to the Company after beginning her dance journey as a student and Company dancer at Ballet Hispánico. She steps into the new role following a 24-year accomplished career at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in addition to recent remote teaching positions at Marymount College, Ailey Extension, as well as Ballet Hispánico.

Marie-Joëlle Tremblay, General Manager, and the entire board of directors of BJM-Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal have announced the appointment of Alexandra Damiani as the company's new Artistic Director. 

The Ailey organization is furthering the pioneering vision of its founder by “bringing dance back to the people” and lifting spirits through Ailey All Access, a series of online offerings including streaming of free performance broadcasts, Ailey Extension dance and fitness classes, and more.

When I moved to Seattle in middle school, I never would have guessed that one of the city’s leading professional theatres would become an artistic home. In today’s blog post, I’ll be highlighting The 5th Avenue Theatre, a regional theatre that not only produces inspiring productions but has shaped the artistic journeys of myself and many other young people.

PNB’s all-digital season continues with Rep 4, a varied and enjoyable triple bill that streams from April 1st to April 5th 2021. Digital ticket holders can watch as many times as they like until the link expires.

Pacific Northwest Ballet has announced a new upcoming production as part of its digital stage. The digital dance stage offers new avenues of creativity for choreographers, dancers, and filmmakers.

NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY has announced The Bridge Virtual Dance Institute of boundary-breaking dance experiences Free One-Hour Company Class on Zoom Open to All Dancers at an Intermediate to Advanced Level March 15-19, 2021.