Since its founding in 1985, David Dorfman Dance has been celebrated for its exuberant, gorgeous and “delightfully oddball” style, and its unique collaborations with contemporary composers and visual artists. The company has garnered an impressive list of critical honors, including seven New York Dance & Performance Awards (Bessie’s) for its dancers and artistic collaborators. Over its twenty year history, the company has performed extensively in New York City, where it is based, as well as across the country, North and South America, Great Britain and Europe.

Premiering in Fall 2008, David Dorfman Dance’s newest project is inspired by the life and legacy of abolitionist and (in)famous “race traitor” John Brown, Disavowal is a critical examination by choreographer David Dorfman of how conditions of white supremacy, racism, violence, alienation, and calls for solidarity reap hope and fear, courage and pain, pride and dispossession.  Through dance-theater, Dorfman will ask: was John Brown a prophet?  A terrorist?  A hero?  A lunatic?  Disavowal will probe the struggles of living a life and vision wrought by the paradoxical forces of nihilism and conviction –– where the possession by one worldview and the dispossession of another can lead to violence to the body and to the soul. Rendered for a 10 member company, Disavowal will unfold in two parts “John Brown” and “John Brown’s Body.”

underground is Dorfman's current touring work that premiered at the American Dance Festival the summer of 2006. Using the 1960s as a starting point, underground explores the principles of political activism, in particular the activities of the Weather Underground and asks the questions: when can activism become terrorism, or vice versa, and is condoned or endorsed killing/destruction ever justified? With music by Jonathan Bepler, co--direction and dramaturgy by Alex Timbers, video design by Jacob Pinholster, lighting design by Jane Cox and scenic design by Cameron Anderson, underground received its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival in November 2006.

Other acclaimed works include Older Testaments, set to a commissioned score by composer/trumpeter Frank London of The Klezmatics, and approaching some calm, a duet for Dorfman and his dancer/wife Lisa Race, set to Guy Klucevsek's live accordion playing, Lightbulb Theory and Impending Joy, set to commissioned scores by electronic composer Chris Peck and pianist Michael Wall, respectively; See Level, the company’s first evening-length work; To Lie Tenderly and Subverse, both performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2000 Next Wave Festival; and A Cure for Gravity, set to music by popular composer and recording artist Joe Jackson.

Community-based projects also play an important role in the life of David Dorfman Dance. Members of the company rehearse with groups selected in the communities to which the company tours. Together with the volunteer performers, the company presents a finished work at the end of the residency on a program with other repertory. These community-based projects continue to advance David Dorfman’s goal to “get the whole world dancing.”