About
Dianne McIntyre
Dianne McIntyre, dancer/choreographer/curator/director/teacher and dance-driven dramatist has offered her daring explorations to performing arts arenas for over five decades. Mentors from her native Cleveland are Elaine Gibbs Redmond and Virginia Dryansky; university mentors Vera Blaine and Helen Alkire; New York dance mentors Gus Solomons jr and Louise Roberts; theatre mentors Douglas Turner Ward, Woodie King, Jr. and Dr. Richard Davis. McIntyre’s bold and nuanced choreography is seen in concert dance, theatre, film, opera and TV. Her early choreography for concert could be called ground-breaking, partly because of its uncategorizable aesthetic – and it remains so. As a mentor McIntyre has also helped other choreographers break new ground. Known for her extensive collaboration with the live music by cutting edge music innovators, she has been called “an uncommonly fluent speaker in jazz” by The New York Times.
History reveals McIntyre as a prolific artist with, so far, 150 dance works for her companies and others, 4 Broadway plays, 4 Off-Broadway productions, a London West End musical, over 40 regional theatre productions, 3 operas, 5 feature films, 5 television productions and 5 full-length dance-driven dramas. She has also developed movement for recording artists. Some of Dianne McIntyre’s awards include a John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Dance Magazine Award, a Martha Hill Lifetime Achievement Award, a Doris Duke Artist Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Dance/USA Honor Award, three Bessies (New York Dance and Performance Award), a Master of African American Choreography medal from the Kennedy Center, two New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project grants, two AUDELCO awards, two Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees and more.
SOUNDS IN MOTION
In 1972 in New York, Dianne McIntyre founded her first company, Sounds in Motion, and soon after, the Sounds in Motion School in Harlem. McIntyre’s ensemble of dancers and musicians performed extensively in New York and throughout the country for over twenty years in major venues such as The Joyce Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Kennedy Center. Internationally, Sounds in Motion toured abroad in Europe as well and in numerous national performance venues and universities including many HBCU institutions as well as in various neighborhoods in New York’s five boroughs. Highlighted works: Life’s Force (1979), Take-Off From a Forced Landing (1984), based on her mother’s stories as an aviator; and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1986), based on the Zora Neale Hurston novel. Sounds in Motion in Harlem in the 1970s and 80s was a space not just for dancers and musicians, but became a center for what McIntyre calls, “the culture crowd,” where many artists, scholars, activists gathered to help forward the movement of creative consciousness. The studio was the rehearsal space for the company, and the space where McIntyre, Bernadine Jennings and Mickey Davidson taught classes. It also became a theatre where McIntyre curated/presented Studio Works by developing and established artists. Here, she became a mentor to many, some of whom became prominent dancers, choreographers, educators and founders of their own companies.
CHOREOGRAPHY & TEACHING
McIntyre’s work has been commissioned by leading dance organizations including Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco!, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Dancing Wheels, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, New York Live Arts, American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow. She has taught and set work for over forty educational institutions, spending a year’s residency at Virginia State University (1989) and Spelman College (2016). From 1976-78 McIntyre served as an Affiliate Artist visiting Talladega College during that period to perform and teach throughout communities in Alabama. She has also taught at American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow where she, along with Risa Steinberg, helped develop the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship.
INDEPENDENT CHOREOGRAPHY CAREER & FEATURED WORKS
After sixteen years, McIntyre closed her company to embark on an independent choreography career and has since conceived, choreographed and directed countless projects. In 1991 after extensive research, she recreated dance pioneer Helen Tamiris’ epic 1937 work How Long, Brethren? Among numerous theatre productions are two by August Wilson: King Hedley II in 2001, and to critical acclaim, she choreographed Lincoln Center Theater/Broadway’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in 2009. She was the choreographer for several productions throughout the country for renown actor/playwright Regina Taylor’s Crowns. Inspired to create work derived from real life narratives and accompanied with in-depth research, McIntyre has conceptualized and directed her own “dance-driven dramas” that have appeared in both dance and theatre venues. Notable works are Just Yesterday (2010), Open the Door, Virginia!1950s Virginia civil rights (2006), Front Porch Lies and Other Conversations (2007), Daughter of a Buffalo Soldier (2005), and I Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change-A Ballroom Drama based on her father’s life stories (1996).
Her work appears in the 2022 opera Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage and Ricky Ian Gordon for Lincoln Center Theater and broadcast on PBS. In 2002 she choreographed Treemonisha at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
McIntyre’s work has also been featured on the large and small screens. Her work appeared in feature films, Beloved (Harpo/Disney), Fun Size (Paramount), and Hal King (Independent film). She choreographed HBO’s award-winning film, Miss Evers’ Boys, for which she received an Emmy nomination. In addition, she was the choreographer for PBS television features for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf and Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper.
COLLABORATION
Throughout her career, McIntyre has collaborated with numerous celebrated music artists including, Olu Dara, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Sharon Freeman, Butch Morris, Amina Claudine Myers, Cecil Taylor, Don Pullen, Lester Bowie, Kysia Bostic, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Hannibal Lokumbe, Ahmed Abdullah, Rod Williams, Sweet Honey in the Rock, George Caldwell, Hank Johnson, Gwendolyn Nelson-Fleming and Babafumi Akunyun. McIntyre acknowledges the influence of directors and playwrights with whom she has worked: Bartlett Sher, Marion McClinton, Regina Taylor, Des McAnuff, Jonathan Demme, Douglas Turner Ward, August Wilson, OyamO, Ntozake Shange, Avery Brooks, Rita Dove, Joe Sargent, Rick Davis, Woodie King, Jr., Irene Lewis, Oz Scott and Ricardo Khan.
Cecil Taylor Unit with Sounds in Motion dancers
Dianne McIntyre with Max Roach
IN THE SAME TONGUE
Dianne McIntyre’s concert dance work, In the Same Tongue, premiered in 2023 at Walker Art Center/Minneapolis, MN with live music composed by Diedre Murray and featuring the poetry of Ntozake Shange.
SUPPORTERS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Two fervent supporters of McIntyre’s work are Mikki Shepard and Sali Ann Kriegsman. She also acknowledges the brilliant contributions of the dancers, musicians, other artists she works with and her family.
Photo credits-1. Dianne McIntyre in white: Ian Douglas 2. Eleone Dance Theatre (waiting for response from the company) 3. American Dance Festival: Ben McKeown 4. University of Michigan: Kirk Donaldson 5. University of Minnesota: Stengel 6. In the Same Tongue: Kameron Herndon/Walker Art Center
RECENT AWARDS
- 2023 – Martha Hill Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2022 – Dance Magazine Award
- 2020 United States Artists Doris Duke Fellowship
- 2020 New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project Grant
-
2016 Doris Duke Award
RECENT CHOREOGRAPHY
- 2024 – “In Tune” – Premiere: American Dance Festival
Music recorded: Mary Lou Williams, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln - 2023 – “In the Same Tongue” Premiere: Walker Art Center
Music live – Diedre Murray - 2022 – “Intimate Apparel” – Lincoln Center Theater and HBO
Lynn Nottage, Story/Libretto and Ricky Ian Gordon, Music
HONORS
McIntyre has received numerous honors for her work. Fellowships include the John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the National Dance Residency Award, National Endowment for the Arts Three-Year Choreography Fellowship, Creative Workforce Fellowship, National Dance Project Award, and many other grants, commissions and fellowships from NEA and New York State Council for the Arts. Her awards and nominations include three Bessie Awards (1989, 1997, 2006), two AUDELCO’s, one Helen Hayes award, four Helen Hayes nominations, one Emmy nomination, Master of African American Choreography Medal from The Kennedy Center, American Dance Festival Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beineke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, Distinguished Alumni Award from The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, Ohio Dance Pioneer Award, Cleveland Arts Prize, and Thelma Hill and Woodie Lifetime Achievement Awards. She has also received Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees from SUNY Purchase and Cleveland State University.
BACKGROUND
Born in Cleveland, McIntyre studied dance with Elaine Gibbs and Virginia Dryansky and received her BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University, under the tutelage of Helen Alkire, Vera Blaine, James Payton, and Lucy Venable. Upon moving to New York City in 1970, McIntyre performed with Gus Solomon’s Dance Company for two years. She also became a mentee of Louise Roberts, who was the Director of The Clark Center for the Performing Arts, where young McIntyre was given free space to rehearse her early dances. Roberts produced McIntyre’s first dance performance in New York and helped McIntyre launch her vision to establish her own dance company. In 1972 Dianne McIntyre founded Sounds in Motion, in Harlem and soon after the Sounds in Motion School. McIntyre’s ensemble of dancers and musicians performed extensively in New York and throughout the country for over twenty years in major venues such as The Joyce Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Kennedy Center. Internationally, Sounds in Motion toured abroad in Europe as well. Highlighted performances: Life’s Force (1979), Take-Off From a Forced Landing (1984), based on her mother’s stories as an aviator; and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1986), based on the Zora Neale Hurston novel. Sounds in Motion in Harlem in the 70’s and 80’s was a space not just for dancers and musicians, but became a center for what McIntyre calls, “the culture crowd,” where many artists, scholars, activists would gather to forward the movement of Black consciousness. Here, McIntyre became a mentor to many promising artists, some of whom are now prominent dancers, choreographers, educators and founders of their own companies.
MENTORS
Dianne McIntyre’s mentors include Elaine Gibbs Redmond, Gus Solomons jr, Louise Roberts, Rick Davis and the dance faculty of the Ohio State University.