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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,
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 2 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 The Society of Stage
Directors and Choreographers (SSDC) formerly on the
Executive Board, Dramatist Guild, and ASCAP.
Contact Dianne
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