Tere O’Connor
Long Run
About Tere O'Connor
Tere O’Connor has been making dances for 35 years, creating more than 40 works for his company, and touring extensively nationally and internationally. His choreography finds its logic outside the realm of “translation,” operating in a sub-linguistic area of expression. He views dance as a system with its own properties; an abstract documentary form that doesn’t search to depict. The lenses of western culture, spoken language or dance history, often used to “interpret” dance, are subsumed into layers of the work and decentralized. In addition to a great love of movement and a deep commitment to choreographic craft and design, more philosophical urges animate the work. He has created numerous commissioned works for other dance companies including the Lyon Opera Ballet, White Oak Dance Project, and a solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov entitled Indoor Man, among others. O’Connor received a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, is a 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellow, and a 1999 Guggenheim Fellow. In 2014 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Arts International’s DNA Project, and Creative Capital. He has been honored with three New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards: one for Heaven Up North in 1988, another in 1999 for Sustained Achievement, and the third for Frozen Mommy (2005). His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, MAP Fund, National Dance Project and many others. A much sought after teacher, O’Connor has taught at universities and festivals worldwide. He is currently a Center For Advanced Studies Professor in Dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. He splits his time between New York and Illinois.