User:Robertmoseskin

Robert Moses

Robert Moses began his dancing career his senior year of high school graduated with a B.A. in dance from California State University Long Beach and has been a member of ODC/SAN FRANCISCO, TWYLA THARP DANCE, and AMERICAN BALLET THEATER.

Since founding Robert Moses' Kin in 1995 in San Francisco, choreographer Robert Moses has created numerous works of varying styles and genres for his highly praised dance company. His work explores topics ranging from oral traditions in African American culture (Word of Mouth, 2002), the life, times, and work of author James Baldwin (Biography of Baldwin, 2003), and the dark side of contemporary urban culture (Cause, 2004), to the nuanced complexities of parentage and identity (The Cinderella Principle, 2010), and the simple joys of the expressive power of pure movement (Toward September, 2009). Moses has worked collaboratively with numerous artists and organizations, among them Julia Adam, Margaret Jenkins, Sara Shelton Mann, Joanna Haigood, SoVoSo, Marcus Shelby, Keith Terry, Frank Boehm, Will Power, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, Bill Morrison, Ann Galjour, David Worm, Kid Beyond and Youth Speaks. Since 2008 Moses has composed original scores for several of his dances.

In addition to his work with Robert Moses’ Kin, Moses has choreographed for San Francisco Opera (La Forza del Destino, 2005), Philadanco, Cincinnati Ballet, Eco Arts, Transitions Dance Company of the Laban Center in London, African Cultural Exchange (UK), Bare Bones (UK), Oakland Ballet, Moving People Dance, and Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company, among others. He has choreographed for film, theater and opera, with major productions for the Lorraine Hansberry Theater, New Conservatory Theater, Los Angeles Prime Moves Festival (L.A.C.E.), and Olympic Arts Festival.

Robert Moses has received significant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and San Francisco Foundation, among others. The company is the recipient of three Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, the Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award, the SF Weekly Black Box Award for Choreography, and the SF Bay Guardian Goldie Award in Dance. RMK has performed at many nationally esteemed venues such as the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Fall for Dance/City Center, Bates Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival and Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century. The company performs its annual home season at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Since 2005 Moses has been Artist-in-Residence and Artistic Director of the Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford University, where he has been on the dance faculty since 1995. A highly regarded master teacher and educator, he has taught on campuses and at festivals throughout the United States, including Bates Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival, Goucher College, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, University of Texas, and University of Nevada. Moses has been a returning guest artist at the Northwest Dance Project and a mentor with Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME). He conducts movement and performance workshops internationally, most recently for artists of African descent with State of Emergency Limited in the United Kingdom.

Artistic Director Robert Moses founded his company in 1995 in order to explore his own personal movement vocabulary and choreographic style and create dances that speak to our times. Since that time, the company has premiered more than 80 works primarily by Moses, the vast majority of them for Bay Area audiences in annual home seasons. Ranging from neoclassical ballet to postmodern movement theatre, the company’s work has earned a host of awards, including four Bay Area Isadora Duncan Awards (IZZIES), the most recent ones for Best Individual Performance of Doscongio by Moses in 2007 and for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for The Soft Sweet Smell of Firm Warm Things by Moses and the company in 2004. Robert Moses’ Kin has also been awarded a Bay Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery Award in Dance (Goldie); a Wattis Residency at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; a Gerbode Choreographer’s Fellowship; a San Francisco Weekly Black Box Award for Choreography; and a prestigious California Dancemaker Grant from the James Irvine Foundation. The company’s collaboration with Youth Speaks in 2005 was supported by a Rockefeller Foundation MAP grant, and the company has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Robert Moses’ Kin premiered The President’s Daughter, which was underwritten with the help of a generous grant from the National Dance Project/New England Foundation for the Arts; other recent seasons have featured work by guest choreographers, supported by grants from The Princess Grace Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. Other support for the company’s programming and operations has come from the San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Foundation, LEF Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Jamison Foundation, California Arts Council, and other institutional funders and individual donors.

EDUCATION

2000 B.A., Dance; California State University, Long Beach, CA Thesis: African American Modern Dance 1982 Associate Degree, Dance; Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA

ACADEMIC TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1995 to present Artist in Residence, Dance Division and Committee on Black Performing Arts, Drama Department, Stanford University. Courses taught include: 1) Jazz 1I, Jazz 11I African American Roots of Modern Dance, African American Roots of Jazz Dance. All courses taught with a lecture component. 2) Methodologies for Staging Reconstruction and Creation of Dance 1998 Lecturer, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA Courses taught include: Jazz III 1995 Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, CA Courses taught include: Jazz, Modern, Ballet

• Developed Fall into Dance, a series of master classes taught by Bay Area African American artists and choreographers of note; the program culminated in a dance performance featuring Dimensions Dance Theater and Robert Henry Johnson. • Spearheaded Elements and Traditions in Hip-Hop: An Extravaganza, a dance program that included artists from the Bay Area and brought together groups of different ages and cultures that share the commonality of hip-hop dance performance.

Residencies

• Goucher College, September 2003, Artist-in-Residence • Columbia College Dance Center, Chicago, July 2003, Artist-in-Residence • Dance Xchange, Birmingham, UK, March 2003, Artist-in-Residence • Bates College, August 2002, Artist-in-Residence • ODC/San Francisco Theater, Artist-in-Residence, June – Sept., 1998 • University of Nevada at Reno, November 1998 and May 1999 • University of Texas, Austin, Spring, 1997, Guest Artist/Lecturer • Duke/Wattis, Artist-in-Residence, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 1998 • San Francisco Arts in Education Foundation, Artist-in-Residence, Fall, 1997 • DeAnza College 1997, 1998 and 1999 Guest Artist • Mills College, Jan.-May 1998, Guest Artist • University of California, Berkeley, Artist-in-Residence, Spring,1997 • • University of California, Davis, 1996, Lecturer • University of California, Berkeley January-June 1994, Instructor

Master Classes and Lectures

• Commonwealth Club of California, “Freedom of Expression: Modern Dance in the Era of Bush and Rove” (2005) • San Francisco Main Public Library, Arts Lecture Series (2004 & 2005) • Laban Centre, London, UK (2002) • Ohlone College (2002) • California State University, Long Beach (1998) • Orange Coast College (1998) • University of Texas, Houston (1997) • St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA (1996 & 1991)

PROFESSIONAL HONORS, AWARDS, AND GRANTS

• • San Francisco Arts Commission – Cultural Equity Initiative grant; top award amount and one of only three grantees; awarded for Robert Moses’ Kin administration (2005) • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation - awarded for Robert Moses’ Kin administration (2005) • Zellerbach Family/Wallace Alexander Gerbode/Hewlett Foundations - awarded for development of new work (2005) • Princess Grace Award – administering award for choreographer Alex Ketley (2005) • Choreographers’ Institute invitee to national award program (2005) • New England Foundation for the Arts - National Dance Project Production Grant (2004) • National Endowment for the Arts; three-time grantee and funded as first time applicant (2002 - 2004); awarded for development of new work • Alpert Awards in Arts nominee; nominated four consecutive years for annual fellowship (2002-2005) • James Irvine Foundation - Irvine Dance: Creation to Performance award; two-time grantee (2001, 2004) • Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME) mentor/grantee - (2004) • Proclamation from the Honorable Willie E. Brown, Mayor of San Francisco of “Robert Moses Day” (2003) • Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award (2001) • Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Choreography Award - (inaugural year – 2000) • San Francisco Arts Commission – Organization Project Grant; two-time grantee (2000 and 2004) • San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artists Commission - (1995) • California Arts Council; twice awarded multi-year grants (1999-2002), plus Visibility Award (2002) • San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund – Grants for the Arts (2001-present) • Zellerbach Family Foundation – (annual grantee since 2000) • Bernard Osher Foundation (2003 and 2004) • Fleishhacker Foundation; (2003) • San Francisco Foundation; three-time grantee (2002; 2004-2005) • Isadora Duncan Dance Awards; three-time winner (2004) - Outstanding Achievement in Choreography; (2001) – Company Performances; (1999) - Best Ensemble Performance • Orange Coast College Alumni Hall of Fame (2000) • SF Weekly Black Box Award for Choreography (1998) • SF Bay Guardian Goldie Award in Dance (1998) • National Arts Marketing Project participant (2002)

RESEARCH/SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY

Choreographic Works

2005 The President’s Daughter. Premiered at Jewish Community Center of San Francisco; funded by NEA, NEFA/National Dance Project Production and Irvine Dance: Creation to Performance ; Darren Johnston, composer; Wanda Krakit, scenic design Running time: 35 min.

The Force of Destiny. Commissioned choreography for presentation at San Francisco Opera: Ron Daniels, director.

Woman Spelled Like This. Commissioned by African Cultural Exchange (ACE) in Birmingham, UK. Premiered in October, 2005 in Birmingham, UK.

2004 Cause. Collaboration with Youth Speaks. Premiered at Youth Speaks Living Word Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; funded by NEA, Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production Fund, Irvine Foundation and Columbia Foundation . Jonathan Norton, composer; Marc Bamuthi-Joseph, dramaturg. Running time: 1 hour 15 min.

other gods. Commission from Goucher College. Premiered at Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Georg Pelecis, composer. Running time: 27 min.

2003 Biography of Baldwin. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco; funded by NEA and Zellerbach Family Foundation . Featuring sound excerpts from a 1961 discussion between James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Emile Capouya, and Alfred Kazin. Running time: 16 min. 43 sec.

The Soft Sweet Smell of Firm Warm Things. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Jonathan Norton and Daniel Denis, composers. Running time: 21 min.

Misconsumption. Commissioned and performed by Bare Bones Dance Company, Birmingham, UK. Running time: 9 min.

2002 Word of Mouth. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco; funded by Gerbode/Hewlett Emerging Choreographers Award and James Irvine Foundation . Austin Forbord, media designer; James Jhung, scenic design; Mario Alonzo, costume designer. Running time: 75 min.

2001 Dirt Roads and Back Doors. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco; funded Zellerbach Family Foundation . Running time: 20 minutes

3 Quartets for 4 and the Second is Two. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Running time: 10 minutes

Unión Fraternal. Premiered at Paramount Theatre; a collaboration with Oakland Ballet and composer John Santos funded in part through the Creative Work Fund . Also performed by Cincinnati Ballet in 2002. Running time: 20 minutes

Babble. Premiered on Transitions Dance Company, UK. Running time: 15 minutes

2000 Lone. Created as Artist-in-Residence at ODC/San Francisco and premiered at ODC Theater, San Francisco. Running time: 60 min.

Untitled Solo #7: Solo for Two People in Half the Time. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Running time: 3 minutes

Lucifer’s Prance. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Running time: 18 minutes

Blood in Time. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco Running time: 8 minutes

Untitled Collaboration 2000, collaboration with Sara Shelton Mann and Robert Henry Johnson. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Bruce “Mui” Ghent, Kelly Takunda Orphan, and Marcus Shelby, composers. Running time: 18 min.

1999 Ethel May Marshall: Four Solos for Her Son, a collaboration with Margaret Jenkins, Sara Shelton Mann, Alonzo King, and K.T. Nelson. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 22 min.

Mischief. Commissioned by Lawrence Pech Dance Company ($3,000) and premiered at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. Running time: 15 min.

Buffalo Avenue and Laugh to Keep From Crying. Created as Duke/Wattis Artist-in-Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 22 min. (Buffalo) 12 min. (Laugh)

Homer G and the Rhapsodies, choreography for a contemporary play. Commissioned by Lorraine Hansberry Theater, San Francisco.

Live Bait. Commissioned by and premiered at California State University, Long Beach. Running time: 14 min.

1998 Doscongio. Commissioned by Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company; premiered at Brady Street Dance Center, San Francisco. Running time: 10 minutes

Glass (The Fables, Part One). Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 18 min.

Humm. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 15 minutes

The Cullings. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Marcus Shelby, composer. Running time: 15 minutes

Spellbound: Section One. Premiered at Brady Street Dance Center, San Francisco. Running time: 7 min.

Can’t ta Can’t. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 4 min.

Portraits of Pink in Blue. Commissioned by American Composers Forum; collaboration with Alexis Ulrich. Premiered at ODC/San Francisco. Running time: 12 min.

1997 This State of Annihilation. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Running time: 10 minutes

Mother May I. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 12 minutes

Black Frank. Co-produced by and premiered at Edge Festival, San Francisco. Running time: 10 minutes

These Women. Premiered at Bay Area Dance Series, San Francisco. Running time: 15 minutes

1996

The Supplicant. Premiered at Brady Street Dance Center, San Francisco. Running time: 10 minutes

Shard. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 5 minutes

The Sweet Dark Land. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Funded by Zellerbach Family Foundation. Running time: 15 minutes

Our World (a cappella musical). Premiered at A Cappella Summit, Marin Center.

Homer G and the Rhapsodies (play). Premiered at Lorraine Hansberry Theater, San Francisco.

1995

Any Space Between Shadows. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco; funded by San Francisco Arts Commission ($12,000). Running time: 75 min.

Never Solo. Premiered at Men Dancing, Theater Artaud, San Francisco. Running time: 7 minutes

Sanctuary. Premiered at Theater Artaud, San Francisco as part of Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century. Running time: 7 min. 20 sec.

Crossfire. Commissioned by Savage Jazz Dance Company. Premiered at Laney College. Running time: 12 min.

To My Heart. Premiered at L.A.C.E. Theater, Los Angeles. Running time: 7 min.

Golden Ring Awards (Asian American Performing Arts Awards show) Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

1994 Untitled Solo for Black Woman. Premiered at Summerfest Dance Festival, San Francisco. Running time: 10-14 min.

Occupied Time. Premiered at Summerfest Dance Festival, San Francisco. Running time: 6 min. 30 sec.

God is Lonely (film short). Premiered at New Performance Gallery, San Francisco.

Wedge. Premiered at Dancers’ Group Bread and Butter Series, San Francisco. Running time: 15 min.

1993 Blue Guerilla. Premiered at Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century, San Francisco. Running time: 17 minutes

1992 Caprice. Premiered at Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Running time: 7 min. 10 sec.

1984 In Defense of My Grandmother for My Sister’s Salvation. Premiered at Olympic Arts Festival, Los Angeles. Running time: 8 min.

Presentations

Season 2004 to present Home season at Kanbar Hall, San Francisco Jewish Community Center 2002-2003, 2000 Home season at Cowell Theater, San Francisco 2001 Home season at Gershwin Theater, University of San Francisco 1995, 1998-1999 Home season at Theater Artaud, San Francisco 1997 Home season at Edge Festival, San Francisco

Touring 2004, 2002 Jacob’s Pillow, Lee, MA 2004 Dance Works, San Jose State University 2003 Dance Center, Columbia College Chicago 2003 Dance Umbrella, Austin, TX 2002 Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, ME 2000 Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder, CO (opened the Festival) 1998 Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century Festival, San Diego, CA 1998 Other Visions, 24th Street Theater, Sacramento, CA 1998 University of Nevada, Reno 1998 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA 1998 Strub Theater, Loyola Marymount University 1997 University of Texas, Houston 1997 Bay Area Dance Showcase, Fairfield, CA 1997 SF Jazz Festival/TransAmerica’s Noontime Performance Series 1997 SF Opera Gala Re-Opening Weekend 1996 Big Dance/Dance Umbrella, Austin, TX 1996 Prime Moves V, Los Angeles, CA

Local Performances 2005 Trolley Dances 2005 Youth Speaks Living Word Festival 2005 Oakland Dance Festival, Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts 2005, 1995 Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century Festival, Theater Artaud 2004 Youth Speaks Living Word Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 2004 Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble Season, SomArts Cultural Center 2001 Summerfest Dance Festival 1998 Brady Street Dance Center – shared program with Donna Sternberg & Dancers 1998 Stanford University – shared program with Dimensions Dance Theater and Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company 1998 Dance Mosaic, Palo Alto 1996 Bay Area Dance Series/First Annual Pas de Siécle 1996 African and African American Performing Arts Coalition Gala Benefit 1996 Summer Choreography Project, Brady Street Dance Center 1995 Origin of Hip-Hop 1993-1995, 1997 Summerfest Dance Festival