Context

By: Madeline Inda Valdez & Anh

Neil Greenberg

Born in 1959 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

He started to dance at a very young age and for him, it wasn't easy since around those times, men weren't really dancers. He went to New York from Minnesota in 1976. He started to create his own pieces of dance in 1976 as well as dancing with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1979-1986. In 1986 he created his own company called "Dance by Neil Greenberg" in collaboration with the Foundation For Contemporary Arts. (Greenberg)

Neil Greenberg created his most famous dance, "NOT-ABOUT- AIDS-DANCE". The dancers who danced this piece originally were Ellen Barnaby, Christopher Batenhorst, Neil Greenberg, Justine Lynch, and Jo McKendry. He was inspired to make the dance since his brother and one of his friends died from this very aggressive virus. He himself has also been diagnosed with HIV and felt inspired to tell a story that they are still able to live a normal life and that they shouldn't be looked at differently just because of HIV. 

Neil Greenberg is a very important artist who has done a lot for the dance community. He's a male dancer and encourages boys and men to dance and continue dancing since their representation is very small. As stated previously, he suffers from HIV and had a brother and friends who had HIV but sadly didn't make it through. Luckily he did, he received new medication and when he got into a healthy position, he knew he had to change the negative stigma around HIV and Dancers with HIV. 

Neil Greenburg is a big name in the dance industry, so big that he won a Bessie Award, which is an award for individual artists who represent the city of New York and that is a very big deal! Neil has done work for Ricochet Dance Company of London which is a very prestigious dance school in London. Neil Greenberg said "Being gay in the dance world is more accepted and you can be who you are. Because of that, people who are [HIV] positive can come out and share that also..." (Wendy Perron). I thought this was very inspiring because as a male dancer, having HIV, and being part of the LGBTQ+, he has received some backlash but the fact that he is still moving forward and inspiring others who want to follow in his footsteps.

Works Cited:

Perron, W. (2021, November 23). Living with AIDS: 6 dancers share their stories. WENDY PERRON. https://wendyperron.com/living-with-aids-6-dancers-share-their-stories/

Artist’s statement. NEIL GREENBERG. (n.d.). https://www.neilgreenberg.org/about.html#workslist

Not-about-AIDS-dance (1994). NEIL GREENBERG. (n.d.-b). https://www.neilgreenberg.org/naad.html#:~:text=N%2DA%2DA%2DD%20is%20an%20’immortality%20project,one%20of%20the%20most%20horrifying%E2%80%A6

FCA: Artists for artists. Foundation for Contemporary Arts. (n.d.). https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/