“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

Mission

Misnomer's mission is to realize the creative vision of Artistic Director Chris Elam through the creation, research, teaching and presentation of original dance and movement-based art, the development of new tools and methods for audience engagement, and the exploration and implementation of innovative development models for the arts community.

History

Founded in 1998 by Artistic Director and choreographer Chris Elam, MISNOMER DANCE THEATER 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.

Misnomer has performed, done research, and created new work in Cuba, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Holland, Ukraine, France, and Turkey, as well as throughout the United States. Based in New York City, the Company has performed locally at Dance Theater Workshop, the Skirball Center, Symphony Space, Danspace Project, PS 122, Joyce Soho, and at the River-to-River Festival.

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 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. The Company has received commissions and fellowships from The Yard, Summer Stages Dance, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The American Music Center, 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. Musical collaborators who have set scores to dances by Misnomer include Andy Teirstein, Scott Killian, Mike Vargas, Jesse Manno, the Talujon Percussion Ensemble, and Evan Ziporyn.

Chris Elam, (Artistic Director and Choreographer)

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

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 has served as guest choreographer at eight universities. Chris is often asked to lecture, most recently at Brown University's speaker series, as a social entrepreneur in the arts. He graduated in public policy, focused on federal involvement in the arts, and computer science.

Mr. Elam’s study of traditional dances informs the technical and conceptual complexity of his contemporary choreography. In 1999 Chris spent seven months with a Topeng dance master in Indonesia, training and performing in temple ceremonies. Misnomer accompanied him to Brazil in 2001 to perform and teach. The following year, Chris taught for six months at the Conservatory in Turkey; and in 2004 he spent three months in Havana choreographing on DanzAbierta, a national dance company of Cuba. In 2005 he 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.

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

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


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.
 

Board of Directors

Advisory Board

Staff