Aaron Mattocks is a Pennsylvania native, Sarah Lawrence College alumnus, two-time New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award nominee for Outstanding Performer (2013, 2016), and was named one of 2016’s best performers by Dance Magazine. He was the director of programming at the Joyce Theater (2018–22), commissioning new works from Ayodele Casel, Dormeshia, Camille A. Brown, Ron K. Brown, Kate Wallich/Perfume Genius, LaTasha Barnes, Indigenous Enterprise, and many others. Prior to his work at The Joyce, he was the former executive director of Big Dance Theater, producing director for Pam Tanowitz, company and general manager for the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has independently produced projects, premieres, and tours for Faye Driscoll, Beth Gill, and Steven Reker.
His work as a performer with choreographer Annie-B Parson in live performance, film, and music from 2009–17 included projects with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, Jonathan Demme, David Byrne, David Lang, and the Martha Graham Dance Company, among others. He toured internationally with Ms. Parson and Paul Lazar/Big Dance Theater from 2009–17 and nationally with Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko/Phantom Limb Company from 2011–18, for which he also served as Rehearsal Director under choreographer Ryan Heffington.
He also created roles in premieres by Ursula Eagly, Doug Elkins, David Gordon, John Heginbotham, Jodi Melnick, Stephen Petronio, Steven Reker, Christopher Williams, and Kathy Westwater; appeared as a guest artist with Yoshiko Chuma, Faye Driscoll, John Kelly, Dean Moss, David Parker, Karen Sherman, and in the Bessie Award-winning immersive production Then She Fell; and has performed in projects by 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Joanna Furnans, Shaun Irons/Lauren Petty, Courtney Krantz, Abigail Levine, and Amanda Villalobos.
He has successfully produced artists and engagements with many of the nation’s leading presenting organizations, including the Walker Art Center, the Wexner Center, the ICA Boston, Fusebox Festival, CounterCurrent Festival, Mass MoCA, Mass Live Arts, FringeArts Philadelphia, American Dance Festival, and Fisher Center at Bard.
He has served as a reviewer, nominator, or panelist for the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) National Dance Project (3-year term, 2019–21); NEFA’s Center Stage Cultural Diplomacy Exchange; MAP Fund; Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Program; Guggenheim Fellowship; and Gibney Dance Center’s Dance in Process Residency, and has been an invited speaker for symposiums at Dance NYC, Dance USA, Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), Gibney Dance, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Movement Research.
Mattocks serves as an advisor and creative strategist for diverse movement-based artists and organizations at critical stages of growth, transition, and opportunity. He joined the Fisher Center’s leadership team in January 2023.
