1) Company/Community Performance Collaborations

2) Corporate Outreach Projects

Corporate outreach can play an important part in the company's presence in a community.  The company will work closely with a presenter to develop the most appropriate residency activities for its local corporate community.  As an example, in Durham, North Carolina, under the auspices of the American Dance Festival, the company offered specially-designed movement workshops and movement-based stress reduction workshops to the doctors, nurses, and administrators of Duke University Medical Center, and to the employees of Glaxo Wellcome Corporation, a giant pharmaceuticals company in Research Triangle Park (and a follow-up lec/dem at the company's annual family picnic), IBM, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, and SAS Institute.  Corporate employees and their families are also encouraged to participate in the company's community performance projects.  (See above.)

3) Master Classes

Classes for Dancers: Classes are available for dance students at a variety of levels.
Classes for Athletes: David Dorfman has constructed a special class and technique for teaching athletes.  It demonstrates how the movement in dance--while strengthening and stretching an athlete's body--will also aid in reducing stress and risk of injury.  Both factors will add to the longevity of an athlete's career and, at the same time, improve the quality of movement on the playing field.

4) Workshops

Students will study choreography as social and personal commentary.  Working in class on both solo and group projects, students will be encouraged to find compositional means for exploring areas about which they are passionate.  Selections of David Dorfman's repertory works will be taught as aids in broadening individual performing range.  Exposure to these dances will provide a common basis for the study and discussion of different aspects of the choreographic process.

5) Lecture demonstrations

Lecture Demonstrations are available for groups such as Rotary, Kiwanis, senior homes, and local athletic teams.  These events can be held in a local gymnasium.  It is also possible to structure a short program that can take place as part of a local athletic event, for instance at half-time of a football or basketball game.  The Lecture Demonstration focuses on the interrelationship between dance and athletic movement. Excerpts from repertory are performed--assuming the site allows--to demonstrate these points.

The company also has a Lecture Demonstration appropriate for dance departments or dance-knowledgeable audiences.  This program analyzes David Dorfman's choreography, how he makes and assembles his work, and where the movement comes from.  The company performs excerpts from the repertory.  

6) Post=performance audience question & answer sessions  

David Dorfman Dance enjoys post-performance discussions with audience members.  These exchanges provide a sense of completion to the evening and act as excellent tools for furthering audience development.  

7) Community outreach programs  

The Athletes Project, The Family Project, and No Roles Barred are designed specifically to connect non-dancers with professionals.  The projects are flexible to include such diverse groups as at-risk teens, school children, senior citizens, and differently-abled persons, to name just a few.

Please examine the enclosed “Study Guide”, designed by Mary DiSanto-Rose of Skidmore College, for educational outreach within the Saratoga County (NY) Public Schools in January 1999. 

8) Open rehearsals  

All company rehearsals are open to the presenter's invited guests.    

As examples of the many possibilities for residency activities, listed below is a schedule of activities from a Burlington, Vermont residency and selected activities from other locations:  

  • David Dorfman and a second company member lead an intensive two-hour course for Vermont choreographers.

  • Four members of the company lead a special 90-minute master class at the Pine Ridge School in Williston for students with learning disabilities.

  • David Dorfman and two company members lead a 90-minute participatory workshop with students from the Burlington High School Vocational-Technical Center Performing Arts Program.

  • Four company members lead 100 children grades 2-4 through movement and creative exercises.

  • David Dorfman and two company members hold a discussion/movement workshop for bankers, loan officers, and secretaries of the Bank of Vermont, a sponsor of the residency.

  • David Dorfman addresses business and community leaders and major Flynn Theatre supporters about his work and contemporary dance at a luncheon attended by 60 people.

  • Full company travels to rural Brewster Pierce Elementary School to present a Lecture/Demonstration and to talk to disadvantaged, rural Vermont students about dance.

  • In Lincoln, Nebraska, David Dorfman and company member Lisa Race teach movement workshops for the University of Nebraska women's softball and gymnastics teams.

  • In Helena, Montana, David Dorfman speaks to the Rotary Club about his life as a dancer, former athlete, and former business administration major.

  • In Chicago, following a series of movement workshops for inner-city youngsters, company presents a preview performance at Niketown in downtown Chicago.

  • In St. Louis, master classes are offered for dance majors at Washington University, David Dorfman's alma mater.

  • In Raleigh, North Carolina, David Dorfman leads a movement workshop for twenty teachers from greater Wake County.  Representing a variety of disciplines (Math, Biology, Physical Education, as well as Dance) and levels (K-12), the teachers investigate the process of turning everyday gestures and motions into potent choreographed movements.