Spotlight Artist: Donna Crump
This month’s spotlight artist is Good Dance Since 1984’s Founder and Artistic Director, Donna Crump
Donna Crump also known as “The Donna” is an award-winning choreographer and native New Orleanian who has been studying dance for 25 years. After studying classical ballet intensively with Ballet Hysell, under the direction of Diane Carney and the late Harvey Hysell, she studied dance at The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts for four years where she then graduated. In 2002, she went to Brooklyn, New York where she studied dance at Long Island University for two years. Following New York, she studied over 760 hours of massage therapy and postural alignment and became a licensed massage therapist as well as a certified pure barre instructor.
In 2005, Donna danced as a Honeybee for the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets for three years and later went on to study with Brazil’s premiere dance company Grupo Corpo. She has performed with the
Newcomb Dance Company, The John/Allen Project in New Orleans and Harare, Zimbabwe, The First Physical Theatre in Grahamstown, South Africa, The Mud Honey Dance Collective, and Tsunami Dance Company. She completed her studies at Tulane University receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance.
Donna received the NAACP-ACT SO award for dance and was nominated for Best Student Choreographer by the American College Dance Festival and has also won a Big Easy Classical Arts Award with Tsunami Dance. She has also worked with directors Spike Lee, the late Mathew Dickens, and Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson of Complexions Contemporary Dance Company. Some of her credits include “Old Boy” and “Warzone:3D”. The Donna founded Good Dance Since 1984, in February of 2012 and is currently working with the company to provide dance education as well as local, national, and international performance opportunities for the youth and other professional artists. Good Dance Since 1984 has presented work at The Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, The Dances Made To Order online Dance Film Festival, Houston Fringe Festival and The New Orleans Fringe Festival, where 1984’s presentation of “Isis & Nephthys” earned the company its first Big Easy Tribute to The Classical Arts Award for “Outstanding Choreography” (New Work). The Marigny Opera House has commissioned Good Dance Since 1984’s newest work, “Keeper of the Flame” which premiered this fall at the New Dance Festival 2013.
Website: http://www.gooddancesince1984.com/
