Wendy Perron

Wendy danced with the Trisha Brown Company in the 1970s and has performed with many other NYC choreographers. Her own group, the Wendy Perron Dance Company, appeared at the Lincoln Center Festival, the Joyce, Danspace Project and other venues. The documentary Retracing Steps: American Dance Since Postmodernism profiles Perron along with choreographers like Bill T. Jones and Stephen Petronio. She has taught at Bennington, SUNY Purchase, and Princeton and has lectured on contemporary dance across the country. She has served as associate director of Jacob's Pillow, artistic adviser to the Fall for Dance Festival, and adjudicator for Youth America Grand Prix. In addition to being editor in chief of Dance Magazine from 2004 to 2013, she has written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, and publications in Europe and China. In 2011 she was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame, and she was honored by Dancewave in 2014. Currently Wendy teaches dance history at Juilliard and a graduate seminar at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her new book, The Grand Union: Accidental Anarchists of Downtown Dance, 1970–1976, is about a legendary improvisation group. Her first book, Through the Eyes of a Dancer, contains essays, memoirs, and reviews spanning 40 years. (Headshot by Da Ping Luo for Juilliard.)