Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Nancy Duncan - Season 16, Episode 172

Nancy J. Duncan has had an eclectic career spanning over 50 years
of experience in the performing arts as a dancer, educator,
producing director, manager, and arts management
consultant.

Nancy’s dance training started under Nevorah Adams in South
Dakota and it was through Nevorah’s hosting of a summer dance
residency taught by Loyce Houlton and two of her dancers, Frances
Machala and David Voss, that her passion for dancing fully
ignited. Under the tutelage of Houlton and her beautiful,
diversely
skilled dancers and many guest artists at the Contemporary Dance
Playhouse in Minneapolis, later renamed Minnesota Dance Theater,
Nancy developed her skills as a dance teacher and
performer.

Upon moving to New York City in 1981, Nancy began forming her own
artistic vision and mission greatly inspired by Loyce Houlton’s
vision. Working in partnership with composer Scott Killian and
dancer Jackie Goodrich, and in consultation with Lawrence Rhodes,
esteemed dancer, teacher and Chair of the New York University
Tisch School for the Arts Dance department, Nancy conceived and
founded CoDanceCo (collaborative dance company).

Nancy and her team established CoDanceCo as a production company
devoted to nurturing the creative development of dance artists
and providing audience access to outstanding dance artistry that
reflected the creativity and eclecticism of contemporary dance.
CoDanceCo was designed as a highly flexible organizational model
that could adapt to the ever-changing world of dance creators,
performers, collaborators, educators, presenters, and
audiences.

From 1982-1991 Duncan commissioned and presented works created by
28 choreographers, 14 composers, and 50 dancers. Choreographers
commissioned over the years include Eiko & Koma, Ralph Lemon,
Susan Marshall, Bebe Miller, Mark Morris, Charles Moulton, Ohad
Naharin, Doug Varone, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, among others.
Duncan’s work through CoDanceCo garnered Duncan a 1991 New York
Dance and Performance Award Citation (aka Bessie).

Highlights from 1991-2003 include serving as the artistic
director for London Contemporary Dance Theatre; producer of a
four-week British dance festival in New York City, project
management for Arts International, and Community Outreach
Programs Director for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance
Project production PastForward, touring both nationally and
internationally.

From 1996-2003, under the umbrella of CoDanceCo, Duncan managed
to keep producing projects to support dance artists and their
audiences through her membership in the New York State
DanceForce. The projects were accomplished in partnership with NY
state artists, presenters, and educators. In 2003 Duncan
relocated to Long Island and established a new home base for her
work through CoDanceCo. During this time Duncan also served as a
member of the Suffolk County Citizens Arts Advisory Board, became
a founding member of the Patchogue Arts Council, served on the
Board of the Patchogue Theater, among other opportunities.

In 2006, Duncan was introduced to Pierre Dulaine’s
arts-in-education, social-emotional in-school residency program
titled “Dancing Classrooms.” Working in partnership with Dulaine,
Duncan secured a two-year grant from the Dana Foundation to have
CoDanceCo become the licensed national network affiliate site on
Long Island. Pierre and his staff trained Duncan and a team of
teaching artists in the Dancing Classrooms syllabus and the
company launched its first in-school residencies in the winter of
2008. Since the founding of Dancing
Classrooms on Long Island, CoDanceCo’s teaching artists have
touched the lives of over 30,000 youth, adults, educators and
families with the transformative power of Dancing Classrooms. For
youth and adults alike, the program creates meaningful social
connections, inspires respect for diversity, and instills
self-confidence all through the joy of social dance.