Biographies: Mark Dendy

Obie award winning choreographer, writer, dancer, actor, Mark Dendy is from Weaverville, NC and received his BFA in Dance from the North Carolina School of the Arts, continuing his studies at the American Dance Festival (ADF) as a scholarship student. He has performed with Pooh Kaye, Ruby Shang, Pearl Lang and the Martha Graham Ensemble under the direction of Yuriko before founding Mark Dendy Dance and Theater in 1983. His exploration of text, gesture and gender began when he worked with Jane Comfort and Company in 1990.

His company, Mark Dendy Dance and Theater, has toured internationally and performed annually in New York at such venues as The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Performance Space 122, The Dance Center at the Y, Symphony Space and Dance Theater Workshop, as well as regular appearances at the American Dance Festival. He has created over 50 choreographic works to date. He has work in the repertoire of eighteen companies and nine soloists worldwide. His 1997 New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) was for his "wicked alchemy of character and performance and personal theater of brilliant dancing and corrosive satire."

In 2000, his company performs at DanceCleveland, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and Florida Summer Dance Festival, to name a few. Recent highlights include a commission for his company at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Dendy created a new Swan Lake at Theater Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany in winter 1999 and returns to make Cinderella in 2000. His sold out smash hit, Dreams Analysis, premiered at The Joyce Theatre in NYC for the Altogether Different Festival, then opened at Dance Theatre Workshop in NYC for a sold out four-week run.

Dendy is the recipient of five National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships. He received The National Society of Arts and Letters Sustained Achievement Award in 1990 and the American Dance Festival Scripps/Humphrey/Weidman/Limon Fellowship for Choreography in 1995. Other awards include the Jerome Foundation, The Harkness Foundation, North Carolina Arts Commission, Massachusetts Arts Council, The Choo San Goh Foundation, Phillip Morris, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with funds from NYSCA. In 1977, he received the Tennessee Governor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts for the premiere of his Chewing, Playing, Walking, Crying on Tennessee Dance Theatre.

Mark Dendy choreographed The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa, which opened at the Manhattan Theater Club in January 2000.