The collection contains the papers of Mark Dendy, generated through his individual work as a performer and choreographer as well as his work as Artistic Director of both Mark Dendy Dance and Theater and Dendy Dancetheater. It contains printed, photographic, and audio-visual materials that document his performances, press appearances, and public relations activities. The collection also holds materials related to Dendy's creative projects in dance and theater, including scripts, rehearsal schedules, casting notes, and costume and set designs. There are a number of notebooks and handwritten notes on loose paper pertaining to creative projects, choreography, his dance companies, and his personal life. A small amount of correspondence and financial documentation is also contained in the collection.
Materials in the collection include paper-based records, notebooks, newspaper clippings and photocopies, magazines, programs, flyers, press kits, and large-scale posters. Other formats include photographs, negatives, 35 mm slides, DVDs, and VHS, U-matic, Betacam, Betacam-SP, and DVCPRO tapes.
Mark Dendy (b. 1961) is a New York-based choreographer, writer, dancer, and actor. His career spans experimental dance theater, grand scale site specific work, pure movement dance pieces, opera, improvisation, Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theater. Dendy also founded and served as Artistic Director of two dance companies: Mark Dendy Dance and Theater and Dendy Dancetheater. His work often responds to societal issues, examining diverse themes such as fame, gender, religion, heritage, violence, politics, the media, and values in society.
Dendy was born in Weaverville, North Carolina on May 29, 1961. He received his BFA in Dance from the North Carolina School of the Arts and spent four summers as a scholarship student at the American Dance Festival. In 1983 he founded Mark Dendy Dance and Theater (1983-2000), serving as Artistic Director and choreographing numerous works. His company toured internationally and performed at venues such as the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Performance Space 122, the Harkness Dance Center at the 92nd Street Y, SummerStage, La MaMa E.T.C., Symphony Space, the Kennedy Center, and Dance Theater Workshop, as well as at the American Dance Festival and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Dendy has also been commissioned for new work by modern and ballet companies worldwide, most notably by Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Dendy has performed with the companies of Pooh Kaye, Ruby Shang, Pearl Lang, and the Martha Graham Ensemble. He was also a guest artist with Jane Comfort and Company from 1990 to 1994 and again from 2010 to 2011, performing the role of Amanda Wingfield in Faith Healing, Comfort's dance-theater deconstruction of Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Dendy also appeared in Franchesca Page, a 1997 film directed by Kelley Sane.
From 2000 to 2008, Dendy pursued a career in musical theater, working as a choreographer for Broadway productions of Taboo by Boy George (2004) and The Pirate Queen (2006) as well as off-Broadway productions, including Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (2006) and Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (2000). Dendy also choreographed for Julie Taymor's production of The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera (2004), a national tour of Pippin (2006), and the Radio City Rockettes production, Carnivale (2002).
In 2008, Dendy formed a new dance company, Dendy Dancetheater. Between 2008 and 2010 he choreographed five site-specific works, including Golden Belt, performed at the American Dance Festival in 2009. He continued to maintain a link to theater, choreographing the New York City Opera's 2012 production of Telemann's Orpheus, directed by Rebecca Taichman.
Dendy has taught at institutions such as the American Dance Festival, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Juilliard, New York University, Cal Arts, Bates Summer Dance Festival, University of North Carolina Asheville, Duke University, University of Washington, Oklahoma University, and Texas Women's University.
Dendy is the recipient of five NEA Fellowships and has received support from the Jerome Foundation, Harkness Foundation, North Carolina Arts Commission, Massachusetts Arts Council, Choo San Goh Foundation, Phillip Morris, and the New York State Council on the Arts. He received the National Society of Arts and Letters Sustained Achievement Award in 1990, the American Dance Festival Scripps/Humphrey/Weideman/Limon Fellowship for Choreography in 1995, the Tennessee Governor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts in 1997, the New York Dance and Performance Award (The "Bessie") for Sustained Achievement in 1997, and the Alpert Award in the Arts as well as the Joe A. Callaway Award in 2000. He also received an OBIE Award in 2000 for his choreography for The Wild Party.
