Grant Recipients Grants to Artists Dance 1999

Terry Creach

A black and white portrait of Terry Creach in front of a mirrored wall in a dance studio. He has short hair and wears a dark sweatshirt and thin rectangular wire rimmed glasses. He leans on a barre in the studio and tilts his head slightly downward and to the left, looking at something beyond the frame of the image and smiling slightly.
  • 1999 Grants to Artists
  • Dance
  • Choreographer, Professor
  • Born Springfield, MO, 1949
  • Died 2022, North Bennington, VT

The effects of the grant were many, but the singular benefit was a full year without the constant, gnawing fear of meeting expenses... 2000 was a roller-coaster of new endeavors and artistic growth along with slack times, restlessness, and irritations... But with the Grant and with the performing and choreographic opportunities that, thankfully, did appear, I had a chance to address these issues and frustrations...

- Terry Creach, January 30, 2001

Artist Statement

Having a "men's company" is not a unique construction but certainly a rare one. It's a situation that I stumbled into and have stayed interested in. Men's bodies are both familiar and particular and loaded with behavioral constructs.

I'm interested in the physical interactions, the transactions, the really small improvisations that occur when people come into close proximity, into awareness and influence. I'm interested in their unique solutions to common situations. We develop strategies and vocabularies around investigations of weight, strength, timing, and momentum and we shift and shape the layers of meaning that pile up, as they will. I like the intimate with the athletic.

- 2000

Biography

Terry Creach was a postmodern dancer and choreographer. Collaborative investigations and partnering explorations were at the core of his choreographic process.

He performed with James Cunningham's Acme Company, the Vanaver Caravan, and Annabelle Gamson. Creach's company, founded first in 1983 with Stephen Koester as Creach/Koester, grew from a collaborative duet into an internationally touring ensemble. The group continued under Creach's direction since 1996 as Creach/Company. The company has been presented at venues including Danspace Project, The Kitchen, Symphony Space, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Cleveland Public Theater, and Teatro de la Danza in Mexico City.

With support from his 1999 Grants to Artists award, Creach presented History of Private Life (2000) at Danspace Project and choreographed Tell Me the Truth About Love (2000), a work based on poems by W.H. Auden. In 2000 Creach also created "Kin" for Daghdha Dance Co. of Limerick, Ireland and showed "Conversation Piece" at Movement Research. He received choreographic commissions from Dartmouth Dance Ensemble, Dance Repertory Theater of Florida State University, and Mo-Trans Dance of Missoula. Creach was awarded choreography fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Creach was a guest choreographer and teacher at numerous national and international dance programs including Tisch School of the Arts at New York University Summer Dance Festival, the Juilliard School, Ohio State University, Florida Dance Festival, Instituto Nacional de Belles Artes in Mexico City, University of Florida, Bates Dance Festival, and University of Maryland, College Park. He was on the dance faculty at Bennington College from 1987 to 2019 and from 2004 to 2010 he served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs there.

A black and white performance still of two dancers in a white space. The dancers wear all dark clothes and face away from the camera. The dancer on the left bends slightly backwards and leans to the left, lifting their left foot. The performer on the right bends on the right foot and lifts their right foot upwards by their waist.
FCPA-supported work Air Tight, 2001. Photo by Matthew Huber.
A black and white performance still of two dancers in a white space. The dancers wear all black and face away from the camera.  The dancer on the left leans forward over their right bent leg and lifts their left leg up by their waist. The dancer on the right bends backwards towards the left and balances on their left leg with their other leg and both arms behind them.
FCPA-supported work Air Tight, 2001. Photo by Matthew Huber.
Part 2 [of 3], 2009, work-in-progress showing at Movement Research at Judson Church.
My Pleasure, at Joyce SoHo, 2005.