JACQULYN BUGLISI (Artistic Director, Buglisi Dance Theatre(). In her four-decade long career as a choreographer, artistic director, dancer, and master teacher, Jacqulyn Buglisi has made an indelible impact on the field of contemporary dance. Renowned for highly visual, imagistic dances that use literature, history, and heroic archetypes as a primary source, Buglisi's ballets are sweeping, passionate, and always rooted in a very strong physical technique.

Buglisi is a prolific choreographer, creating more than 100 ballets archived in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. An alumna of the famed High School of Performing Arts, she began her dance training with the Russian Swaboda sisters and in the Mary Wigman Technique with founder/ director Jan Veen of the Boston Conservatory before meeting Martha Graham in 1964. During her 35-year association with the Martha Graham Dance Company, she performed as a principal dancer for 12 years, had her work Sospiri premiered at City Center, and was featured in the CBS presentation of the Kennedy Center Honors and the film An Evening of Dance and Conversation with Martha Graham. She was co-founder of Italy's first contemporary dance company, Teatro Danza Contemporanea di Roma and founded the first school of modern dance for the community of Spoleto in 1972. Buglisi is commissioned and presented by major companies and festivals around the world including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival; The Kennedy Center; the Kravis Center; The New York Flamenco Festival, Madrid; the Spoleto Festival; The State Theater; Melbourne International Festival; Prague International Dance Festival; Vail International Dance Festival; the Shanghai Dance Ensemble; Martha Graham Dance Company; The Richmond Ballet; and North Carolina Dance Theatre; the Mahaffey Theater; Ailey II; The Juilliard School; and George Mason University. Buglisi Dance Theatre collaborates with Dance/NYC and the September Concert in presenting 120 dancers in The Table of Silence Project 9/11 at Lincoln Center, a site-specific tribute that was viewed worldwide via live stream.

Buglisi's honors include the American Dance Guild Award, the Fiorello LaGuardia Award for Excellence in Dance, NEA choreographer fellowships, and Altria's Women Choreographer Initiative Award. She is Chair of the Modern Department at The Ailey School, served on the faculty of the Juilliard School, and conducts annual workshops at The Martha Graham School, Steps on Broadway, and Peridance Capezio Center. Buglisi served on Dance/USA's Board of Trustees as Chair, Artistic Director's Council 2010-2013. The Table of Silence Project 9/11 will be presented for the third time at Lincoln Center on September 11, 2013.
buglisidance.org // youtube.com/buglisidance

Photo © Jack Mitchell