ASZURE BARTON

Canadian-American ASZURE BARTON is a choreographer, director, and innovator who started tap dancing at the age of three and has been creating dances since her days as a student at Canada’s National Ballet School. Since then, her works have been performed on stages throughout the world, including the Palais Garnier, Mariinsky Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Alicia Alonso Grand Theater, Studio 54, Lincoln Center, and Sadler’s Wells, as well as in museums and exhibits. She has choreographed for theater, film, and opera, including Broadway, notably for the production of The Threepenny Opera, with Cyndi Lauper and Alan Cumming. In the early 2000s, she founded Aszure Barton & Artists in order to create an autonomous, interdisciplinary, and collaborative platform for process-centered creation, resulting in choreography that the US National Endowment for the Arts has equated to “watching the physical unfurling of the human psyche.” Over 30+ years of making dances, Aszure Barton has worked with celebrated artists and companies including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jessica Chastain, Volker Bertelmann (aka Hauschka), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Bayerisches Staatsballett, English National Ballet, Teatro alla Scala, Nederlands Dans Theater, Sydney Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, Martha Graham Dance Company, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Limon Dance Company, among many others. She recently premiered a new work (Mere Mortals) at San Francisco Ballet in collaboration with British electronic music producer/DJ Floating Points and mixed media artists Hamill Industries — the first evening-length work created by a female choreographer in SFB’s history, curated by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. Having just completed her first of three years, she is delighted to be the current Resident Artist at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Her latest artistic venture is a creative partnership with acclaimed composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire; the two premiered their first new work titled A a | a B : B E N D at Kampnagel’s International Summer Festival in 2023. Meant to challenge what we think we know about the meeting of dance and music, Tanz Magazine's Falk Schraiber sensed it's "refusal of categorization" and called it "a collaborative work that also draws its appeal from the fact that two artists who are completely secure in their field playfully unsettle each other." Aszure Barton continues to be an innovator of form, having contributed to an evolution of highly specialized dance and theater companies worldwide. Over the years, she has received accolades including a Bessie Award for her work BUSK. She was the first Martha Duffy Resident Artist at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and is a grateful recipient of the prestigious Canadian Arts & Letters Award, joining the likes of Oscar Peterson, Karen Kain, and Margaret Atwood. She is also an official ambassador of contemporary dance in Canada.

BOB FOSSE AND GWEN VERDON

BOB FOSSE is one of the most internationally recognized figures in the history of the performing arts for his groundbreaking, genre-defining work as a director, choreographer, performer, and writer across various mediums on both stage and screen. In 1973, he became the first director in history to win the Oscar, Tony, and Emmy awards in a single year for his spectacular triumphs with Cabaret on film, Pippin on Broadway, and “Liza with a Z” on television. Though he got his start as a performer, Mr. Fosse’s career as a creative force on Broadway began in 1954 when he served as choreographer for the Original Broadway production of The Pajama Game, earning him the first of his nine Tony Awards. He went on to choreograph Damn Yankees, Bells Are Ringing, New Girl In Town, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and direct and choreograph Redhead, Little Me, Sweet Charity (which he also conceived), Pippin, Liza, Chicago (for which he also co-wrote the book), Dancin’, Big Deal (for which he also wrote the book), and the 1986 revival of Sweet Charity. On film, he served as director and choreographer for Sweet Charity, Cabaret, All That Jazz (also co-screenwriter), and Star 80 (also co-screenwriter), earning him an Academy Award and two additional nominations for Best Director, as well as a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. All That Jazz also won the Palme d’Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. His additional film credits include choreography for The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, and The Little Prince. Born in Chicago, Mr. Fosse began dancing at age nine and made his first professional appearance at thirteen with his childhood friend Charles Grass under the name “The Riff Brothers.” After serving with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Islands during World War II, he reignited his career as a dancer, performing alongside Mary Ann Niles in Call Me Mister, Make Mine Manhattan, and Dance Me a Song. He also appeared in the MGM films Give a Girl a Break; The Affairs of Dobie Gillis; and Kiss Me, Kate. His last performing engagements were with New York City Center, dancing the title role in their revival of Pal Joey and dancing the role of The Serpent in The Little Prince on screen. Bob Fosse passed away in 1987, on the Opening Night of the National Tour of Sweet Charity. Mr. Fosse’s work constantly finds new life in productions like the long running Broadway revival of Chicago (1996), Fosse (1999), and the Broadway revival of Dancin’ (2023), as well as in the Emmy Award-winning FX series “Fosse/Verdon” (2019), and the trio of dances Sweet Gwen Suite (2021). The Verdon Fosse Legacy®, founded by his daughter, Nicole Fosse, ensures Mr. Fosse’s enduring legacy will continue to help shape the entertainment landscape for years to come. 

GWEN VERDON is “widely regarded as the best dancer ever to brighten the Broadway Stage” (The New York Times). Her early career was marked by her close working relationship with Jack Cole, for whom she worked as both a performer and assistant choreographer. Her most enduring professional partnership, however, was with the man she would marry, Bob Fosse. Together, Ms. Verdon and Mr. Fosse ran up a string of iconic theatrical successes not rivaled by a director/choreographer and star before or since. After she earned her first of four Tony Awards in her breakout role as Claudine in Can-Can, her collaboration with Mr. Fosse began. She starred in Damn Yankees (Tony Award), New Girl in Town (Tony Award), Redhead (Tony Award), Sweet Charity (Tony nomination) and Chicago (Tony nomination). Her work in feature films includes roles in On the Riviera, David & Bathsheba, Mississippi Gambler, Damn Yankees, Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return, The Cotton Club, Nadine, Marvin’s Room, Alice, Bruno, and Walking Across Egypt. Early in her career, she helped stage Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend” in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She served as Artistic Advisor for Steam Heat, the Emmy Award-winning documentary about Mr. Fosse. She also appeared on the television programs “Mash,” “Fame,” “Trapper John,” “M.D.,” “Webster,” “Magnum, P.I.,” “The Equalizer,” “Dream On,” “Dear John,” “Homicide,” and “Legs.” Her work in the concert dance world spanned decades and continents, including Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance, the Beijing Ballet School in China, the Houston Ballet Company, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Counted among the hundreds of partners with whom she danced throughout the course of her career were Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolph Nureyev. Among her many accolades, Ms. Verdon won a Grammy Award for Redhead and received a National Endowment for the Arts & Humanities Award.

MATTHEW RUSHING

MATTHEW RUSHING was born in Los Angeles, California. He was a scholarship student at The Ailey School, became a member of Ailey II and in 1992 became a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. During his career he has performed for Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. During his time with the Company, he has choreographed four ballets: Acceptance In Surrender (2005), a collaboration with Hope Boykin and Abdur-Rahim Jackson; Uptown (2009), a tribute to the Harlem Renaissance; ODETTA (2014), a celebration of “the queen of American folk music”; and Testament (2020), a tribute to Alvin Ailey’s Revelations created in collaboration with Clifton Brown and Yusha-Marie Sorzano. Mr. Rushing became Rehearsal Director in 2010, was appointed Associate Artistic Director in January 2020, and  during the 65th anniversary season for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is interim Artistic Director.