Oliver Tompkins Ray is a poet, musician, and composer. Most recently his work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail and on The Fall of America vol 2, A Musical Tribute to Allen Ginsberg.
Oliver Tompkins Ray is a poet, musician, and composer. Most recently his work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail and on The Fall of America vol 2, A Musical Tribute to Allen Ginsberg. He is the author of the Substack “Rimbaud’s Lost Papers.” In 2024 he received a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation. Born in Boston, Mass, and raised in New York City, for the last 15 years he has lived and worked in Tucson, AZ.
Originally from Alaska, John Heginbotham graduated from The Juilliard School (1993), and was a member of Mark Morris Dance Group (1998–2012). In 2011, he founded Dance Heginbotham and the company quickly gained recognition for its unique blend of inventive, thoughtful, and rigorous dance theater works. John received a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2014 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in recognition of his unique choreographic vision and promise. John was a Research Fellow at the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron), was awarded a 2017/18 New York City Center Choreography Fellowship, was a 2016 Fellow at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, and is a two-time recipient of the Jerome Robbins Foundation New Essential Works (NEW) Fellowship (2010, 2012). As a freelance choreographer, John’s projects include Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy;” the Tony Award– and Olivier Award-winning revival of Oklahoma!, directed by Daniel Fish; and John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West, directed by Peter Sellars. John is the Director of the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble, and is a founding teacher of Dance for PD®.
Patti Smith is a performer, author, visual artist. Her memoir, Just Kids, was awarded the National Book Award. Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, named Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and the National Legion of Honor by the French Republic and received Sweden’s Polar Award, for significant achievements in music. Her books include Just Kids, Auguries of Innocence, Woolgathering, M Train, Collected Lyrics, Devotion, Year of the Monkey and most recently, A Book of Days. She is a featured writer on Substack, where her twice weekly writings and readings can be subscribed to online.
Dance Heginbotham (DH), founded in 2011, is known as one of the most adventurous and exciting companies on the contemporary dance scene, celebrated for its vibrant athleticism, humor, and theatricality. Well-known for his 14-year tenure as a dancer with Mark Morris Dance Group, Artistic Director John Heginbotham was recognized for his unique artistic vision with the 2014 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship.
DH had its world premiere in January 2012 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has since been presented by Bard SummerScape, Baryshnikov Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, Celebrity Series of Boston, Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, Duke Performances, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Scottsdale Arts, The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Vail International Dance Festival, and Works & Process at The Guggenheim, among others.
DH has shared the stage with luminaries of the music world including Alarm Will Sound, Brooklyn Rider, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The Knights, National Symphony Orchestra, Joshua Bell, André de Ridder, Christoph Eschenbach, Gabriel Kahane, Eric Jacobsen, Nathan Koci, and Shara Nova, and has commissioned new scores from composers Tyondai Braxton, Ethan Iverson, and Colin Jacobsen. DH has collaborated with designers and artists Maira Kalman, Isaac Mizrahi, Amy Trompetter, Maile Okamura, and Nicole Pearce in the creation of new works.
Dance Heginbotham and Baryshnikov Arts gratefully acknowledge Dance Heginbotham’s board of directors as producing sponsors of the dancers in Woolgathering.
Dance Heginbotham is sincerely grateful for their incredible board of directors, Andrew D. Hamingson, Adrienne Bryant Godwin, Art Priromprintr, Lauren Cherubini, and Joanne Wenig, with special thanks to Karyl Nairn for their steadfast and unwavering support.
