As such, the work is a coming together of gay, straight, Black, White, young and old. It is the "offstage" process of watching diverse people come together and work intimately with those they might otherwise simply be afraid of, combined with the "on-stage" communication with the audience that is the most fulfilling and powerful aspect of my work."
David Rousseve is a choreographer, writer, director and performer who makes evening length dance/theatre pieces which combine original non-linear narrative, engaged, propulsive movement and bursts of bold, poetic visual imagery. Creating work primarily for REALITY, his racially and sexually diverse troupe of seven performers, Rousseve draws upon what he calls the "accessibility and grit" of both traditional and pop African-American culture and his "downtown" sensibility. Just as he conjures his movement vocabulary from modern, classical, hip-hop and release techniques, so he weaves - and transforms - diverse audiences and the relation between movement, image and text. For Rousseve, the point of making work is to take himself, his dancers, and his audience, to places they might not, otherwise, be able to go.
Born 1959, Houston, Texas
1981 B.A., Magna Cum Laude, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
1996 Yello'-Tailed Dogs, for the Atlanta Ballet,
performed with Morehouse College Glee Club. With original "house" music by David Rousseve.
1995 The Whispers of Angels,
(evening length), for REALITY, Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music
1994 Pop Dreams,
(evening length), for REALITY, Serious Fun Festival, Lincoln Center
1993 Dry Each Other's Tears in the Stillness of the Night,
for Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater, Denver
1992 Urban Scenes/Creole Dreams,
(evening length), for REALITY, Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music
1992 Film: Pull Your Head to the Moon...stories of Creole Women,
collaboration with director Ayoka Chenzira
1991 Tellin' You My Dreams From a Cloud Sailin' by,
(evening length), performed in two acts in two theaters on the same evening. For REALITY, NYC, P.S. 122 and Danspace Projects.
1991 Had Me Somebody But I Lost Her Very Young,
(evening length, site specific) For REALITY, Los Angeles, Bradbury Building
1991-97 National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships
1994-5 Rockefeller Foundation, Commissioning Grant
1996-7 Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund
1992 IMZ Int'l Dance Film Festival, Frankfurt, First Place, Screen Choreography
1991 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
