Natalie Desch, a company member since 2001, is originally from New Castle, PA, where she began her dance training under the guidance of Deborah Parou. After receiving her BFA and the Martha Hill Prize from The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, she joined the Limon Dance Company where she performed from 1996-2001. Additionally she has appeared for Varone at the Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, and with the Aquila Theater Company. A Hunter College faculty member since 2005, Desch also has taught at the Bates Dance Festival, for the Lincoln Center Institute, and regularly teaches at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and at the 92nd St. Y in NYC. She has staged the works of Doug Varone, Jose Limon, and Jiri Kylian both domestically and abroad, and her choreography has been presented at various venues and festivals around NYC and throughout the country.
Photo by Rose EichenbaumAward-winning choreographer and director, Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, television and fashion. He is a passionate educator and articulate advocate for dance. By any measure, his work is extraordinary for its emotional range, kinetic breadth and the many arenas in which he works.
His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for more than two decades. In 2008, Varone’s Bottomland, set in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, was the subject of the PBS "Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America."
In opera, Varone is in demand as a director and choreographer. Among his four productions at The Met are Salome with its sensational Dance of the Seven Veils for Karita Mattila, and the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy. He has staged multiple premiers and new productions for Minnesota Opera and Opera Colorado and choreographed for Washington Opera and New York City Opera, among others. Varone is a frequent collaborator of composer Ricky Ian Gordon: choreography, Grapes of Wrath (2008); direction and choreography, Orpheus and Euridice for Lincoln Center (2006 Obie Award).
His numerous theater credits include choreography for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters across the country. He staged several seasons of designer Geoffrey Beene’s NYC couture runway shows. Film credits include choreography for the Patrick Swayze film, "One Last Dance."
Varone has also created works for the Limon Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Rambert Dance Company (London), Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Bern Ballet (Switzerland) and An Creative (Japan), among others. His dances have been staged on more than 30 college and university programs. Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Honors also include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two American Dance Festival Doris Duke Awards for New Work, three from the National Dance Project and two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies) – for Sustained Achievement in Choreography, for his 2006 Boats Leaving.
The 2011/12 season marks the Company's 25th Anniversary. Since its founding in 1986, Doug Varone and Dancers has commanded attention for its expansive vision, versatility, and technical prowess. On the concert stage, in opera, theater and on the screen, Varone's kinetically thrilling dances make essential connections and mine the complexity of the human spirit. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone's work can take your breath away.
At home in New York City, Doug Varone and Dancers is the resident company at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. On tour, the company has performed in more than 100 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, San Francisco Performances, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto's Harbourfront, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater, the Venice Biennale, and the Tokyo, Bates, Jacob's Pillow and American Dance Festivals. In opera and theater, the company regularly collaborates on the many Varone-directed or choreographed productions that have been produced around the country.
Doug Varone and Dancers are among the most sought after ambassadors and educators in the field. Annual summer intensive workshops at leading universities attract students and professionals from around the country. The company's multi-discipline residency programs on tour capture their concepts, imagery and techniques across disciplines and for people of all ages and backgrounds, reaching out to audiences in ways that directly relate to their lives and interests.
Varone, his dancers and designers have been honored with 11 New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies). In celebration of their 25th year, the Company will be touring and reconstructing major dances from past repertory, as well as recent new works and premieres.
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