SAN FRANCISCO: Dudley Brooks

Artistic Director Dudley Brooks is a choreographer, composer, and stage director.  He has choreographed over 30 works for Run For Your Life!.  His dances have been called "refreshing", "pure invention", "a true delight", "a highlight of the program", and "really silly".  His comic, eccentric, and inventive choreography, and his workshops in Physical Comedy, have had audiences rolling in the aisles, from San Francisco to Göteborg, Sweden ‑‑ a long way to roll!  He has choreographed for ballet, modern dance, opera, musical theater, and circus companies, and for schools, colleges, and music academies.  He has served on the faculty and Board of Directors of the SF Circus School and on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee.  He composes both Western contemporary classical music and Balinese/Western fusion.

Run For Your Life!...it’s a dance company! has delighted audiences of all ages and backgrounds at dance festivals, circus, vaudeville, and variety festivals, and puppet festivals.

Describe some of your achievements over the course of the last five years:

Dudley Brooks was nominated for Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (Izzies) in Ensemble Performance and in Musical Composition.  RFYL! was nominated for an Izzie in Set Design, was a finalist in the Voice of Dance Online Video Contest, and was Company in Residence at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard.

What do you hope to gain from the experience of participating in this festival?

Like all too many choreographers, I seldom have time to see the work of my fellow artists.  A festival is a great place to do so.  And this festival will be an especially wonderful opportunity to see companies from overseas, to get a sense of the artistic scene and currents in other countries, and to network for the possibility of future collaborations.  For our company, since we love to bring enjoyment to as many people as possible, it will also be a great chance to expand our audience.

Works that Dudley Will Be Bringing to the Festival

Title:  A Short Solo

Number of performers:  2 (one not seen)

Brief Description of the Work:  A “humanette” ballerina (two people creating a three-foot-tall puppet character) combines impeccable ballet technique with slapstick humor, to a selection from Les Sylphides.