“Fusion doesn’t begin to describe what’s going on here; Elam is annealing his influences, creating a taut, intense movement language.” – Zimmer, The Village Voice
ABOUT MISNOMER
Founded in 1998 by Artistic Director and CEO Chris Elam, Misnomer has been hailed as one of the most original and dynamic modern dance companies in the performing arts today. Whether moving people through art or building transformative platforms for engagement, we create experimental, unexpected, and powerful ways for artists and audiences to create and find meaning together.
Misnomer’s works have been recognized as “one of the top ten dance performances” of the year by The New York Times and have earned the company a position as one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. Misnomer has performed in over 350 theaters in fourteen countries, and has presented nine NYC seasons with support from frequent residencies, most notably at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC’s Skirball Center, and The Joyce Theater Foundation. The company has conducted large-scale, cross-medium collaborations, ranging from choreographing for Bjork’s “Wanderlust” video to creating an 8,000 square foot labyrinth with the Danish Dance Theatre.
OUR MISSION
Misnomer’s work includes the creation, research and presentation of original dance and the development of boundary-crossing innovations in audience engagement to bring people closer to the arts.
COMPANY AESTHETIC
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 Chris’ own broken-flow modern movement.
DANCE PERFORMANCE PROGRAMS
Misnomer commissions and produces hundreds of live dance performances across the United States through our flash mob dance programs. Through this service we create paid dance opportunities for thousands of dancers, choreographers, actors and other performers. Many of these productions are outdoors and site-specific, raising awareness and appreciation for the public through the dance artform. For more information about Misnomer’s live flash mob programs, visit BookAFlashMob.com.
ARTIST DEVELOPMENT AND AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS
An innovator in connecting people with the arts, Misnomer has created GoSeeDo.org, an arts program, web platform and community to give audiences ways to directly interact with artists and their art. GoSeeDo.org (formerly known as AEP) has received wide recognition and support in the business, technology, and arts communities. These efforts both complement and advance the company’s core artistic vision, which is, broadly, to engage its dancers and audiences in the experience and understanding of human interaction and intimacy. We hope you will enjoy exploring Misnomer’s Portfolio and discovering some of the many artists and arts organizations at GoSeeDo.org.
LEAD SUPPORTERS
Misnomer has been selected to take part in a groundbreaking new arts initiative, “Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence” created by the Nonprofit Finance Fund and funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Misnomer is by far the youngest of the ten organizations (including Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Cunningham Dance Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, and The Wooster Group) to receive this funding for innovative projects that address challenges facing the arts. Misnomer has also received essential support from: the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and Dance/USA’s Emerging Dance Audiences initiative.
