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.