David Rousseve / REALITY
ABOUT
David Roussève (choreographer, writer, director and performer) is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a 2004 Guggenheim Fellow. In 1989 he created REALITY, a multi-racial dance/theater company that grew to become one of the most important voices in contemporary American dance. REALITY has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, and South America, and was commissioned three times by the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. In 2001, for REALITY Roussève created his first solo evening in over ten years, The Ten Year Chat, which toured throughout the US and United Kingdom. In 2005 he created the dance-for-camera Bittersweet for REALITY. Bittersweet was screened at the U.S.’s preeminent dance-film festivals: New York’s Dance on Camera (where it had a sold-out screening at Lincoln Center) and L.A.’s Dance Camera West. In 2008 the choreographer will premiere Saudade: a full-evening dance/theater work juxtaposing Portuguese fado music, world dance, postmodern dance, stories of southern African Americans, and projected video imagery. The work explores ‘bittersweetness’ as a single moment when the greatest of joy and agony are experienced together.
Roussève’s commissions include works for the Houston Ballet (performed to a live playing of Copland’s Appalachian Springs, the Atlanta Ballet (performed with the 100 member Morehouse College Glee Club), Ririe Woodbury, two pieces for Ballet Hispanico (one in collaboration with Salsa great Eddie Palmieri), two works for Pittsburgh’s Dance Alloy (one in collaboration with Sweet Honey in the Rock’s Ysaye Barnwell), and two works for Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater.
His most recent commissions include the ‘05 premieres Walking on Clouds (for two Cleveland companies: Dancing Wheels- comprised of differently-abled performers- and Cleveland Contemporary -comprised of African American performers); and Jumping The Broom, for Giselle Mason’s No Boundaries Project, juxtaposing the ban on slave marriage with the contemporary ban on gay marriage. In ‘06 he premiered a full-length work created in collaboration with Ilkhom Theater company of Tashkent, Uzbekistan (where Roussève spent two months in 2006). Disappearances is based in part on the visual art of Usto Mimin and chronicles the now-gone Uzbek tradition of ‘bocha’ (often called ‘dancing’ or ‘geisha’) boys.
In addition to Bittersweet, the choreographer’s work for film and video include Pull Your Head to the Moon… tales of Creole Women (created in collaboration with director Ayoka Chenzira, commissioned by PBS’ Alive TV and aired nationally), the documentary Brothermen (by director Demetria Royals and aired nationally on PBS), and the choreography for Positive: Life With HIV (five hour-long segments aired on PBS).
As a writer Roussève recently wrote the book for the Billy Strayhorn/Luther Henderson Musical Rose Colored Glasses (commissioned by LA’s Center Theater Group in 2004 and presented by CTG as a staged reading with full music), and the full-length screenplay version of his dance/theater work Urban Scenes/Creole Dreams (created through the Sundance Institute’s prestigious Feature Film Development Labs, where Roussève was twice a fellow). His writing was also published in Bantam Press’ Rants and Raves from Today’s Top Performance Artists, and Rutledge Press’ Envisioning dance on Film.
In addition to the Guggenheim, his awards include “First Place, Choreography” at the IMZ Int’l Dance Film Festival, a New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award, an L.A. Horton Award, a Creative Capitol Fellowship, a County of Los Angeles (COLA) Fellowship, two Irvine Fellowships in Dance, a California Arts Council Fellowship, the CalArts/Alpert Award in Dance, seven consecutive fellowships from the NEA, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.
In 1996 David Roussève joined UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Department, a dynamic fusion of dance and cultural studies. Currently he is Full Professor of Choreography and former Department Chair.