Dianne McIntyre

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Acclaimed dance artist, Dianne McIntyre is known for her work in modern dance, as well as in theatre – Broadway, London and regional theater. Her work appears in the feature film, Beloved and the award-winning HBO movie Miss Evers’ Boys for which McIntyre received an Emmy nomination. Other choreography for television includes Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf.

Originally from Cleveland, after studying dance with Elaine Gibbs (Redmond) and Virginia Dryansky, she went on to receive a BFA from the prestigious Department of Dance of The Ohio State University. Her mentors there were Helen Alkire, Vickie Blaine, James Payton, and Lucy Venable. At OSU she was also inspired by guest artists Viola Farber, Anna Sokolow, Judith Dunn, and musician Bill Dixon. She appeared in choreography of Lynn Dally and Senta Driver.

Ms. McIntyre moved to New York City in 1970 and founded her dance/music ensemble Sounds in Motion in 1972. From that year until now McIntyre has collaborated with legendary musicians such as Olu Dara, Butch Morris, Lester Bowie, Max Roach, Hannibal, Don Pullen, Hamiet Bluiett, Cecil Taylor, Ahmed Abdullah and countless others. McIntyre and company have toured throughout the U.S. and Europe appearing in concert halls, universities, community settings and all major dance venues such as the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacobs Pillow, Walker Arts Center, New York City Center. Some of the company’s signature pieces: Take-Off from a Forced Landing, Smoke and Clouds, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mississippi Talks-Ohio Walks, Deep South Suite. Sounds in Motion operated a dance school and performance space in Harlem nurturing many artists, some of whom have become leaders in the performing arts world.

In 1988 McIntyre closed the company to have more time to explore new areas of creative expression. Some of her signature dance works since then have been A Brand New People on the Planet with Olu Dara, Love Poems to God with Hannibal and Invincible Flower with Lester Bowie and his Brass Fantasy. Another monumental work is McIntyre’s 1991 recreation of dance pioneer, Helen Tamiris’ 1937 epic How Long Brethren? This project has garnered renewed recognition for that choreographer’s contributions to American art.

Dianne McIntyre has co-created, directed and choreographed theatre/dance pieces In Living Color: a Gullah Story and Blues Rooms for Theatre of the First Amendment and I Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change for TFA, Cleveland Play House and Baltimore’s CenterStage. Her choreodrama Open the Door, Virginia!, music by Olu Dara, premiered at TFA in 2005.

Notable among the more than 30 plays she has choreographed are Mule Bone and August Wilson’s King Hedley II on Broadway plus the original Spell #7 by Ntozake Shange, The Great MacDaddy, Miss Evers’ Boys, Polk County (Zora Neale Hurston) and several productions of Crowns written/directed by Regina Taylor. McIntyre directed Crowns at Cleveland Play House in 2004.

For dance Ms. McIntyre has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Repertory Ensemble, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company as well as college dance groups. She has been artist-in-residence in many universities over the past 30 years and has also taught at American Dance Festival and Jacobs Pillow. McIntyre has received numerous commissions and grants to support her work including the National Endowment for the Arts Three-Year Choreographers Fellowship (one of three nationwide) and the National Dance Residency Award through Pew Charitable Trust and National Choreography Grant through New England Foundation for the Arts (both, one of ten nationally). Other awards include 3 Bessie Awards (New York Dance and Performance Award), AUDELCO Award (NY Black Theatre), AUDELCO Pioneer Award, Helen Hayes Award (DC theatre) and three Helen Hayes nominations, Thelma Hill Award and Woodie Award both for lifetime achievement, and numerous other awards of recognition.

She has served on numerous arts funding panels including those of the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, at times as Chair of the panels.

Dianne McIntyre is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) formerly on the Executive Board, Dramatist Guild, and ASCAP.