Gibney Company is a world-class contemporary dance company that presents a breadth of works by emerging and renowned choreographers. Based in New York City at Gibney, a dance and social justice organization founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, the Company underwent an ambitious expansion and reinvention in 2020 following a major donor gift. Over the past few years, Gibney Company has commissioned new works and is building a repertory for performances in New York and around the world. Gibney Company dancers, known as Artistic Associates, support the Gibney organization’s mission as both artists and activists, advancing artistry through performance while also leading entrepreneurial advocacy projects.

Gibney’s story began in 1991, when choreographer Gina Gibney founded her socially active dance company with a single dance studio to call home. Almost three decades later, throughout the organization’s many expansions, Gibney’s acclaimed resident dance ensemble, Gibney Company, remains at the core of its work.

Gibney Company grew alongside and within the Gibney organization as it became home to thousands of artists and community members across two New York City locations, totaling 23 studios, 5 performance spaces, and 52,000 square feet of space. Within a few years of Gibney acquiring its second location 280 Broadway in 2014, Gina Gibney expanded the Company’s directorial team.

Following its 25th anniversary in 2016, the organization re-envisioned Gibney Company in an intentional effort to empower its dancers as both artists and activists. Now known as Artistic Associates, Gibney Company members advance the quality of the organization’s artistry through impeccable performance and deepen its community engagement through dynamic change and advocacy for issues in the dance field such as diversity, mental health, and economic empowerment. Gibney Company Artistic Associates receive 52-week contracts, health insurance, on-site physical therapy, an annual artistic sabbatical, and paid vacation.

As Artistic Associates’ roles became more robust, the Company also began commissioning creation-based repertory in addition to performing Gina Gibney’s rich, evocative works. In the spirit of its namesake leader’s artistic sensibility, Gibney Company embarks on relationships with artists who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling.

GIBNEY COMPANY EXPANSION

In January 2020, the Company announced a transformative gift from Andrew A. Davis and  the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund. With new possibilities for commissioning original works, Gibney Company has retained its longstanding spirit of experimentation while taking a leading role in shaping a more robust landscape for contemporary dance in New York, and beyond.

Gibney Company is led by Artistic Director Gina Gibney and Director Gilbert T Small II. Since its expansion, the Company has commissioned eight new works from a wide range of choreographers including Rena Butler, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Sonya Tayeh, and Yue Yin; and performed acclaimed repertory Johan Inger and Ohad Naharin.

Gibney Company’s evolution has been inspired by our vision of creating a contemporary dance company whose artists reflect a diversity of experiences and backgrounds. Our aim is to chart a path for the future of dance as a powerful art form and an act of meaningful expression, and to connect with audiences in New York and beyond. – Gina Gibney

Over the last two years, we’ve brought some of New York’s and the world’s most renowned choreographers into our studios to create new work, or to explore fresh dimensions in existing pieces. We are inspired by their dedication to excellence and excited to share our artistry with new and diverse audiences. – Gilbert T Small II

In the 2020-2021 season, the Company doubled in size and made its debut at The Joyce Theater. In the 2022-2023 season, the Company commissioned and premiered Ghost Town by Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond at its second season at The Joyce Theater; restaged and premiered Ohad Naharin’s work YAG 2022 at New York Live Arts; embarked on an eight city U.S. tour including performances at DANCECleveland and TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND; and premiered Johan Inger’s Bliss  at New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival. The 2023-2024 season features two new commissions, the first by the Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo, and the second by the choreographic team of Jermaine Spivey and Spenser Theberge; featured performance of Sonya’s Tayeh’s OH COURAGE! at the 20th Fall for Dance Festival; and international tour stops at prestigious festivals including Fall for Dance North in Toronto, Holland Dance Festival, and Dance Victoria in British Columbia. The Company returns to New York City for its season finale in the spring of 2024. 

Gibney Company is a creation-based repertory company commissioning work from both internationally renowned and emerging choreographers who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous, often superhuman physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling.

Commissioned Artists Since 2021
Rena Butler, William Forsythe, Emilie Leriche, Mthuthuzeli November, Alan Lucien Øyen, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Jermaine Spivey & Spenser Theberge, Sonya Tayeh, Micaela Taylor, Tiffany Tregarthen & David Raymond, and Yue Yin. 

Repertory Artists Since 2021
Sharon Eyal, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Ohad Naharin and Twyla Tharp.

Education Residencies bring Gibney Company, Gibney’s acclaimed resident dance ensemble, to your city to work directly with your students and community.

Residencies are adaptable to support pre-existing community and educational goals. We will work with you to develop a plan that meets your needs and your budget. Gibney Company has partnered with Adelphi University, Brown University, Connecticut College, Jacksonville University, Marymount Manhattan College, New York University, Texas State University, and others on training residency programs.

To inquire about planning your residency, please contact Karen Kitchen, Executive Producer, at karen@gibneydance.org.

Both acknowledging and pushing against the often transactional nature of university residency exchanges with non-profits, Gibney creates multi-year partnerships with academic institutions dovetailing together our individual resources, expertise and lived experiences in hopes of offering more comprehensive interplay between students, faculty, and university audiences with our Gibney Company Leadership and Artistic Associates. 

To inquire about university partnerships with Gibney, please contact Karen Kitchen, Executive Producer, at karen@gibneydance.org.

Gibney’s Moving Toward Justice (MTJ) Curriculum cultivates spaces for ‘artist entrepreneurs’ to build skills and foster dialogue and exchange at the intersection of arts and social justice. Geared toward artists, educators, administrators and activists alike this discussion-based curriculum centers somatic awareness and makes space for the exploration of the ‘new choreographies’ at play in social and interpersonal justice, all while expanding the definition of ‘community’ to include those right around us. Sessions could include sharing Gibney’s time-tested Model and Methods; self-management best practices; skill-building toward facilitation techniques, program development, persuasive writing, business practices in entrepreneurship; as well as the personal stories of Gibney Company’s Artistic Associates embarking on their fellowship projects addressing gaps in the dance field.

Sessions build awareness about a myriad of social justice issues and are rooted in Gibney Community’s long history in addressing gender-based violence alongside survivors and social workers. This curriculum is inspired by Gibney’s organizational-wide model valuing reflection, expression, collaboration and sustainability while intentionally progressing from internal ideas to external action, and from individual work to collective care. This four part framework aims to move from the abstract toward the tangible, internal to external, from the individual towards the collective.

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Gibney Company’s full-time dancers, known as Artistic Associates, embrace a broad spectrum of activities—in the studio, on stage, within our organization, and throughout the community. Artistic Associates give back to the dance field through individually-crafted Moving Toward Justice Fellowships. Each Artistic Associate pinpoints a pressing issue in the dance field then leverages the resources and mentorship of the larger organization to develop, implement, and co-create new programs in response to the evolving needs of the field.

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A repository of current and past Moving Toward Justice Fellowships, updates and curriculum sharing.  Check back for updates on annual convenings to further cohort relationships and share project developments.