Pam Tanowitz

Photo: Brad Paris.

Pam Tanowitz is a critically acclaimed New York-based choreographer and collaborator. She founded Pam Tanowitz Dance in 2002. She is currently the Fisher Center at Bard’s Choreographer in Residence.

Her 2017 dance New Work for Goldberg Variations, created in collaboration with pianist Simone Dinnerstein, was called a “rare achievement” (The New York Times). Four Quartets (2018), inspired by T.S. Eliot’s literary masterpiece and set to music by Kaija Saariaho, was called “the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century” (The New York Times).

Tanowitz was recently named a 2020 Doris Duke Artist. In 2019, she received the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. In 2016, Tanowitz was presented with the Juried Bessie Award for “using form and structure as a vehicle for challenging audiences to think, to feel, to experience movement; for pursuing her uniquely poetic and theatrical vision with astounding rigor and focus.” Other honors include an Outstanding Production Bessie Award in 2009 for her dance Be In the Gray With Me, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award in 2010, Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University in 2013–14, a Fall 2016 Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, and a 2016–2017 City Center Choreography Fellowship. Her work was selected by The New York Times Best of Dance series in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

She has created work for New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, The Royal Ballet, The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America, Juilliard Dance, Ballet Austin and New York Theatre Ballet, among others. Commissions include The Barbican Centre, Lincoln Center, Fisher Center at Bard, The Joyce Theater, Vail International Dance Festival, New York Live Arts, Guggenheim Works & Process, Duke Performances, Peak Performances and the ICA/Boston.

Originally from New Rochelle, New York, Tanowitz holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Sarah Lawrence College, and is currently a visiting guest artist at Rutgers University.