Contemporary | Guest Choreographer
July 13 – July 20
Canadian-American Aszure Barton is a choreographer, director, and innovator whose work has been equated to “watching the physical unfurling of the human psyche” by the National Endowment for the Arts. Aszure started tap dancing at the age of three and has been creating dances since she was a teenager training with Canada’s National Ballet School where, together with classmate and choreographer Matjash Mrozewski, she helped originate the Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Showcase, which is still ongoing today. Through an international exchange platform, Aszure studied at the John Cranko Schule and since then, her works have been performed on countless stages throughout the world, including the Palais Garnier, Mariinsky Theater, The Kennedy Center, Studio 54, Teatro alla Scala, Lincoln Center, and Sadler’s Wells, as well as in museums and exhibits including the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. She has choreographed for theater, film, and opera, including the Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera directed by Scott Elliott and adapted by Wallace Shawn, starring Cyndi Lauper and Alan Cumming; a solo of Salome featuring Jessica Chastain in a theater production directed by Al Pacino; and LA Opera’s recent production of Tannhäuser. Aszure’s work has also been featured in television projects, such as on Sundance’s Iconoclasts TV Series alongside Alice Waters and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Following her high school graduation, Aszure was invited to join the National Ballet of Canada, where she would work as an Apprentice for a season. Curious and driven, Aszure approached the company’s director, asking if he saw a future for her in his company, to which he replied, “I do, but you’re not a priority.” With these honest words spoken, she began carving her own path, going on to receive a Canada Council Grant to explore contemporary dance forms in Europe. This journey opened her eyes and fulfilled her unconventional itch for artistic freedom. Then, after exploring the dance and music scene in Montréal for three years, she moved to New York City as a freelance artist to pursue the making of her own work. In the early 2000s, Aszure danced with independent choreographers including Wendy Osserman, who further introduced her to authentic movement and improvisation, and encouraged her humor. Wanting her work to be seen, Aszure self-produced and presented her own choreography whenever and wherever she could, be it at studios, schools, in delis, clubs, or pubs, all while continuing to freelance and simultaneously work supplemental jobs. In these early years, the New York Times declared, “[Barton] likes to take risks.”
By 2002, she founded her own collective, Aszure Barton & Artists (AB&A), in order to create an autonomous, interdisciplinary, and collaborative platform for process-centered creation. That same year, AB&A made its official premiere at the Montréal Fringe Festival, followed by an inaugural season at New York City’s Joyce SoHo, a venue dedicated to showcasing work by emerging artists. Robin Staff, Executive Artistic Director of Dance Now (NYC), spoke highly of her early choreographies – “Ask people to describe Aszure Barton’s work, and the adjectives fly: dynamic, tribal, demanding, musical, authentic, risky. But ask them to place her in a tradition, and you’re likely to get silence. I don’t think you can categorize her.” Having developed dozens of works with her crew over the years, it was with her most trusted collaborators that the iconic BUSK was born; today, fifteen years later, the work continues to be performed and praised around the globe. A home built out of rebellion to support the ongoing practice of research, AB&A continues to be the space Aszure returns to to push her work further. Recently, this vision grew when she made her latest work for the company, this time in collaboration with her creative partner, acclaimed composer and trumpeter, Ambrose Akinmusire.
With a shared desire to bring more beauty into the world, the two birthed their first creation – A a | a B : B E N D – at Kampnagel’s International Summer Festival, where Falk Schreiber of Tanz Magazine described it as, “a game; a building up of constraints and an escape from these constraints, a celebration of choreographic precision and an undermining of this precision, in fact a collaborative work that also draws its appeal from the fact that two artists who are completely secure in their field playfully unsettle each other.”
Also in the early 2000s, Aszure developed an important working relationship with Mikhail Baryshnikov, who believes her to be “one of the most innovative choreographers of her generation.” She was the first Martha Duffy Resident Artist at Baryshnikov Arts in NYC, leading Baryshnikov to invite her to not only collaborate with him, but to join his project, Hell’s Kitchen Dance, as a dancer and choreographer along with Benjamin Millepied. The group went on to tour several of her works, (Over/Come, named “disturbing and delicious” by the San Francisco Chronicle), and this connection was the start of Aszure finding a longtime creative home at Baryshnikov Arts. Aszure has created with other renowned performers, as well, including Misty Copeland, Gillian Murphy, Isaac Hernandez, Paloma Herrera, Matthew Rushing, Ekaterina Shipulina, and Flamenco artist María Pagés. She has collaborated with celebrated clowns Claudio Carniero (Brazil), Patrick de Vallette and Fred Blin (France), and music artists, including Oscar-winning German composer and piano player Volker Bertelmann (also known as Hauschka).
With over 30+ years of making dances, Aszure continues to be an innovator of form, having contributed to an evolution of highly specialized dance and theater companies worldwide. She has worked with Hamburg Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Ballett am Rhein, Staatstheater Hannover, Gauthier Dance/Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Teatro alla Scala, Grand Thėǎtre de Genève, Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin, English National Ballet, Ballet Ireland, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Martha Graham Dance Company, Limón Dance Company, Houston Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, Malpaso Dance Company, Ballet BC, and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, among others. In January 2024, Aszure premiered multidisciplinary work, Mere Mortals, at San Francisco
Ballet in collaboration with British electronic music producer/DJ Floating Points and mixed media artists Hamill Industries — the first evening-length work created by a female choreographer in SFB’s history, curated by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. Aszure is currently Resident Artist at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago where her newest work, A Duo, was called “exquisite, subversive, exhilarating…and mildly offensive — as dance should be to move it somewhere new” by the Chicago Tribune.
As a creator, Aszure aims to cultivate a space where kind, conscious creativity meets regeneration, an inclusive environment where communal, cooperative energy can thrive. Through a rigorous and detailed collaborative process, she simultaneously respects and dismantles classical and contemporary forms; it is this practice that has propelled her into the field as an award-winning choreographer. Over the years, she has received accolades and honors, including a Bessie Award for her work BUSK, the Gross Prize for Awáa, and the Ken McCarter Award for Distinguished NBS Alumni. She is a grateful recipient of the prestigious Arts & Letters Award, joining the likes of Oscar Peterson, Eugene Levy, Karen Kain, Paul Shaffer, Alex Trebek, Christopher Plummer, and Margaret Atwood. She is also an official ambassador of contemporary dance in Canada. As an educator, Aszure is regularly invited to collaborate with private, public, and independent art institutions and forums around the globe. She served as Artist in Residence at The University of Southern California under the direction of William Forsythe and has developed a longtime working-relationship with The Juilliard School. Currently, Aszure is an artistic partner with Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and she maintains an ongoing presence at her alma mater, Canada’s National Ballet School.
Aszure is delighted to be returning to Jacob’s Pillow in the upcoming season due to her special connection to the organization. In the early years of AB&A, the company was repeatedly invited to create, perform, and teach at Jacob’s Pillow starting in 2004. Most recently, AB&A was meant to perform at the Pillow again in August 2020, but this was postponed due to the pandemic, making this opportunity to share the work again in 2024 a real treat.
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