The Company
Since 2000, Word Dance Theater has been proud to bring innovative works to the Washington, D.C. area. With inspired and innovative works such as Wild Hearts: Sappho and Isadora,
Revolutionary!, Isadora Duncan, and its latest production, Preludes: Duncan, Sand & Chopin, Word Dance Theater bring the arts of dance, theater and music together to create new experiences for the public, while paying tribute to the philosophy of Isadora Duncan.
Cynthia Word, Artistic Director and Founder, M.F.A.
Cynthia Word is the founder and Artistic Director of Word Dance Theater. Born and raised in Abilene, TX, she began her Modern Dance training at the University of Illinois with choreographers Beverly Blossom, Chester Wolenski, Mary Anthony and Sarah Rudner. She later received her Master in Fine Arts from The George Washington University, where she later served on the teaching faculty. Based in Washington, DC, Ms. Word has created six major dance/theater productions. In 2005, Dance/MetroDC Awards nominated her for “Best Emerging Choreographer” for States of Mind. In addition to her dance/theater productions, Word has performed in Austria, England, Scotland and Iran. Most recently she toured Greece with the Isadora Duncan International Institute. She is a recipient of an honorary certification in teaching and performance from the Isadora Duncan International Institute, and serves as a Dance Education Consultant with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Cynthia is the recipient of the Maria-Theresa Duncan Award.
Ingrid Zimmer , Associate Director
Ingrid Zimmer received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance/Theatre from Pomona College where she was trained in the Limon Technique. Upon graduating, she moved to Europe where she toured, performed and studied dance at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany under the artistic direction of Pina Bausch. Ingrid has been dancing professionally, teaching and choreographing in the Washington, DC, area for the last 14 years. She has danced with local companies Bowen McCauley Dance, and Rincones and Company. Ingrid has performed in national and international venues including the Kennedy Center, Jacobs Pillow, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, and the Gran Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporanea in Monterey, Mexico. Ingrid is currently in the Certificate Program at the Isadora Duncan International Institute where she is learning Duncan’s original choreography and pedagogical techniques.
Valerie Durham, Guest Artist
Valerie Durham is the founder and Artistic Director of The Duncan Dancers, a Washington, DC-based modern dance company specializing in the technique and repertory of the mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan, and dedicated to taking Isadora’s technique into the 21st century with new choreography in the Duncan style. She also currently serves as President of Word Dance Theater, and is a Teaching Artist with the Kennedy Center, DC Partnerships Initiative. Valerie is a second-year Masters in Fine Arts candidate in dance at the University of Maryland. Valerie has performed nationally and internationally, including as a soloist and company member with the prestigious Lori Belilove & Company in New York City.
Hannah Goldberg, Member
Hannah Goldberg is a dancer, choreographer, and writer from the Washington, DC area, who has been told she danced before she walked. Since the age of three, she has formally studied ballet, modern, jazz, and contemporary in Washington, DC, southern California, and Paris, France. After graduating from The College of William and Mary in May 2010, Hannah returned to the DC-area, and since then has performed with Taffety Punk Theatre Company, Mayzsoul Inc., as well as in the Eureka Dance Festival. She also currently teaches dance and choreographs throughout northern Virginia and DC. Hannah is thrilled to be a part of Word Dance Theater as she has always been inspired by the life and works of Isadora Duncan, and is honored to be joining such a beautiful and gracious community of dancers. She is grateful for all of the opportunities she has been granted thus far, and especially for the support and encouragement of her family and friends, without whom she would be lost.
Jeanne Bresciani, Featured Artist
Jeanne Bresciani, M.A., I.M.A, Ph.D., is Artistic Director and Director of Education for the Isadora Duncan International Institute, an arts and education organization founded in 1977 by Maria-Theresa Duncan and Kay Bardsley. She is a solo performer, teacher, lecturer, reconstructionist, choreographer and creator of festivals. She specializes in the dance of Isadora Duncan and in myth and movement studies. In New York City, she directs Isadora Duncan programs for the New York University School of Education and the Harkness Dance Center of the 92nd Street Y. She also directs two professional dance companies: the Isadora Duncan International Institute Dancers and the “Isadora for Children”™ Performing Group. She was a Kress scholar in art history at Williams College and a Fulbright scholar in dance. She founded and leads three teaching and performance training programs at Tempio di Danza in New York’s Catskill Mountains: the Certificate Program in Isadora Duncan Studies I; the Advanced Diploma in Performance and Choreography II; and the Certificate Program in Myth, Movement and Metaphor. She also teaches intensives in choreographic research called Movement in the Mountains, and she conducts a study-abroad program entitled Sacred Topographies: The Body and The Land. Most recently she has lectured, taught and performed at The Duncan Center in Athens, The National Theater in Budapest, The New Parthenon in Tokyo and the British Museum in London.