MISNOMER DANCE THEATER is a repertory company that was founded by Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer, Chris Elam. The company creates contemporary dances about human relationships that are informed by cross-cultural and international perspectives. Elam approaches dance both as a choreographer and ethnographer, which informs the technical and conceptual complexity of his choreography.

Elam and his company have performed, choreographed, and researched in the USA, Cuba, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Holland, Ukraine, France, and Turkey. NYC productions include The Skirball Center, Symphony Space, Danspace Project, PS 122, DTW, Joyce Soho, and the River-to-River Festival. Misnomer was named one of the top ten dance performances for 2006 by The New York Times and as one of the "25 to Watch" for 2007 by Dance Magazine.

Misnomer was awarded a year-long residencies from both The Joyce Theater and the Skirball Center. Residencies also have been received from the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, ORT, Dragon's Egg, New York University, Union Street Dance, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. They have received commissions and fellowships from The Yard, Summer Stages Dance, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The American Music Center, The New York State Council for the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Bates Dance Festival, the Portland Center for New Dance Development, and DanzAbierta in Cuba.

Misnomer continues to partner with institutions locally and abroad in educational outreach. Past engagements include Brown University, Hofstra University, Harvard University, Summer Stages, and the State Conservatory for the Arts in Turkey.

Misnomer's unique aesthetic and extensive online work has lead to collaborations and projects with Bjork, Apple Computers, Business Week, and Danish Dance Theater. Renowned composers Andy Teirstein, Scott Killian, Mike Vargas, Jesse Manno, the Talujon Percussion Ensemble, and Evan Ziporyn have set scores to Misnomer's dances.

Chris Elam, (Artistic Director and Choreographer) graduated from Brown University and received his MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch. He has been on faculty at Brown University and The State Conservatory for the Arts in Turkey, and a guest choreographer at 8 universities. Elam is often booked to lecture, most recently at Brown University's speaker series, as a social entrepreneur in the arts. Elam’s study of traditional dances informs the technical and conceptual complexity of his contemporary choreography.

In 1999 Elam spent 7 months with a Topeng dance master in Indonesia, training and performing in temple ceremonies. In 2001 he brought Misnomer to perform and teach in Brazil. In 2002 he spent 6 months on faculty in Turkey. In 2004 he spent 3 months in Havana choreographing on DanzAbierta, a national dance company of Cuba. In 2005 Elam performed in Ireland on a European Cultural City Commission, which led to a commission in Holland in 2006 with the interactive technology group Blue Noise Dept. Elam hasn’t stopped choreographing for more than a 6-month period in 17 years. He graduated in public policy, focused on federal involvement in the arts, and computer science.

“A true original, … one of the most individualistic of modern dance voices today.”
Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

“Wonderfully strange and unpredictable choreography.”
Brian Seibert, The New Yorker

“Christopher Elam’s Misnomer Dance Theater hit town with a force I haven’t seen since the early days of Mark Morris...Fusion doesn’t begin to describe what’s going on here; Elam is annealing his influences, creating a taut, intense movement language.”
Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice

 

“Chris Elam has fashioned a distinctive, engagingly bizarre choreographic style.  His skill and clarity of vision delight the soul.” 
–  Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

 

Misnomer Dance Theater finds tenderness, humor, and absurdity in peoples’ efforts to relate to one another. Whether between adolescent sisters, estranged lovers, business partners, or animalistic creatures, Artistic Director Chris Elam invents characters that work hard to form meaningful exchanges, sometimes producing poignant and awkward tenderness, at other moments yielding fiercely dismal misunderstandings. 

Elam uses physical illusions as a tool to investigate personal and group transformation. An arm sprouts out of an ear, a person becomes an ostrich, five dancers appear to share a single head and dance a maudlin jig. Assertive contact partnering in which dancers climb upon each other to form improbable human architectures serves to fuse performers into unusual entities.

 

Drawing from his extensive training in both traditional Balinese and Modern Dance, Elam establishes the human body as a site for cultural exchange. This is achieved by creating wildly kinetic movement that integrates the tense and sculptural quick-action style of Balinese dance with his own broken-flow modern movement.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lorraine Padden

California Division of Advancement, Senior Development Officer
Lorraine Padden recently moved to Laguna Beach from San Francisco, CA where she ran the Northern California fund raising effort for Brown University’s current $1.4 billion Campaign for Academic Enrichment, securing gifts from $10,000 to $2.5 million from alumni throughout the greater Bay Area.  Lorraine also led annual fund campaigns and secured major gifts for the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, working from executive MBA offices in San Francisco.  Lorraine holds two degrees in art history from Brown University and Williams College.  She received awards from the Ford Foundation, Rotary International and a Jacob K. Javits Humanities Fellowship to support her graduate studies.  Lorraine also trained and performed as a classical ballet dancer with companies and individuals including Christine Hennessey and Festival Ballet of RI, Boston Ballet and Peter Anastos at Garden State Ballet.  Her repertory includes works by Petipa, Dolin, Ashton, Balanchine and she worked personally with Agnes DeMille and Arthur Michell.  Lorraine served as an Arts Administration Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts (Presenting & Commissioning Program) examining the effectiveness of Endowment supported regranting programs that served national and local arts agencies and presenters.  Lorraine served as Audience Development Manager for San Francisco Ballet for 5 years, designing family dance programs, pre and post-performance discussions and special symposia with Company members and guest artists.   At Arena Stage in Washington DC, she produced audience engagement panel discussions and public programs in conjunction with the world premiere of "House Arrest" by acclaimed theatre artist Anna Deavere Smith.  In Columbus Ohio Lorraine produced a conference for the National Performance Network, convening non-mainstream performing arts presenters with potential touring artists.  She secured institutional grants and private funding from a consortium of state, local agencies and individuals to present 50 Ohio artists in 6 showcase performances.

Adam Huttler

Fractured Atlas, ED
Adam Forest Huttler is the founder and executive director of Fractured Atlas, the nation's largest arts service organization. He has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.B.A. from New York University. Since forming Fractured Atlas in 1998, he has grown the organization from a one-man-band housed in an East Harlem studio apartment to a broad-based national service organization with an annual budget of $4.2 million.  Prior to forming Fractured Atlas, Adam had professional experience as an actor, theatre director, playwright, and musician.  A persistent and vocal advocate for the arts in Washington, DC and Albany, NY, Adam can frequently be found testifying at hearings or otherwise badgering elected officials about the need to support a robust infrastructure for arts and culture.  Adam is also the founder of Gemini SBS, a boutique consulting firm that provides custom software development and IT consulting to non-profit organizations and government agencies.  His clients at Gemini SBS include the US Department of Education, New York University, the Academy for Educational Development, and the government of Romania.  Gemini SBS has been recognized as the industry leader in making web-based applications accessible to people with disabilities by the Office of Special Education Programs at the US Department of Education.

Jerry Blake

Sundance Channel, General Council and Senior Vice President
Jerome Blake joined Sundance Channel in 2005 as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, where he oversees all legal and business affairs matters for the network. In addition, Jerome is a member of the board of directors of the not-for-profit Anti-Violence Project, a New York City-based organization that provides hotline counseling and other services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV+ survivors of violence. Before joining Sundance Channel, Jerome was Senior Counsel at Rainbow Media Holdings, where he represented networks including IFC, Bravo, AMC and WE: Women's Entertainment and IFC's theatrical film acquisition, production and distribution businesses. Prior to joining Rainbow Media Holdings, Jerome was an Entertainment Associate at Epstein, Levinsohn, Bodine, Hurwitz & Weinstein, LLP, where he counseled clients in the world of independent film. Before that, Jerome was a Tax Associate at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison. Jerome holds a law degree from Stanford University, a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from New York University. In 2007, Jerome was selected by Columbia Journalism School to serve on a task force charged with reviving the school's alumni association.

Chris Elam

Misnomer Dance Theater, AD

ADVISORY BOARD

Sean Curran

Sean Curran Dance, AD

Peter Clare

Angel Investor

Sasha Dees

Independent International Producer and Programmer

David Dorfman

David Dorfman Dance, AD

Daniel Feinstein

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Director of Development & Marketing

Joy Kellman

Independent Choreographer

Martha Myers

Dean Emeritus of the American Dance Festival