BAM Affiliation

Founded in 1991, Big Dance Theater is known for its adventurous use of music, text, dance, and visual design to expand literary texts, weaving disparate sources and forms into seamless theatrical wholes. Under the artistic direction of Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, the company has created over 20 works—each piece developed over months of collaboration with its associate artists, a longstanding, ever-evolving group of actors, dancers, composers, and designers.

In 2000, the company received an Obie Award for its “passionate practice of the most implausible choreographic and literary concoctions.” Lazar and Parson were honored in 2002 with a Bessie Award for their “boldly arranged marriage of dance and theater,” and Comme Toujours, Here I Stand earned a Bessie Award in 2010 for Outstanding Production. The company also received the inaugural Jacob's Pillow Dance Award in 2007. Parson was recently awarded a Doris Duke Artist Award and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. Big Dance Theater has been presented in dance and theater venues nationally and abroad, in Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Georgia.