Judy Hussie-Taylor
Executive Director & Chief Curator
Judy Hussie-Taylor has been at the helm of Danspace Project since 2008 during which time she initiated the critically-acclaimed PLATFORM series featuring guest artist curators, publications, and new contexts for performing arts presenting. She has produced 14 Platforms and, in addition to annual Danspace seasons, curated numerous off-site projects in New York City at Times Square, Madison Square Park, Castelli Gallery, and Deadalus Foundation at Industry City. In 2021, she curated and commissioned a series of films for Danspace by Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born, Reggie Wilson, Ishmael Houston-Jones, and Eiko Otake & Joan Jonas. She initiated and co-organized Joan Jonas’ and Eiko Otake’s historic collaboration Drawing In Circles installation and performances at Castelli Gallery in March, 2023. She has served on panels and as a guest speaker at universities, organizations, and foundations including at Yale University School of Drama, University of California-Berkeley Arts Research Center, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Wesleyan University, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, MAP Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Drexel University, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, and the New York State DanceForce.
Hussie-Taylor worked from 1990-1998 at the Colorado Dance Festival (CDF) where, as artistic director, she curated the multi-year series Let’s Dance The Americas focusing on participatory and social dances of the Americas. From 1998-2005 she curated multidisciplinary performances and projects at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art including Thread Mansion: Sculpture, Photography, and Poetry by Cecilia Vicuna (2002) and Imaging the Spirit: Juan Carlos Alom and Albert Chong (2002). In 2007, she curated Eiko & Koma’s River, a site-specific performance at the confluence of the Platte River and Cherry Creek in downtown Denver for the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver. From 2000-2005 she taught in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Colorado-Boulder and served as faculty and interim director of the Department’s prestigious Visiting Artist Program. She has contributed to numerous publications including: Curating Dramaturgies (Routledge, 2022); Curating Live Arts (Berghan, 2018); Pew Center/UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center Digital Publication; and the Yale’s Theater journal. She served as an advisor to Drexel University’s Museum of Dance by Boris Charmatz at the Barnes Museum, Philadelphia Contemporary, Bryn Mawr College, Madison Square Park Conservancy, and for the Walker Art Center’s Interdisciplinary Think Tank. She was a co-founding advisor and faculty at the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University. She was the recipient of the first New York Dance & Performance “Bessie” Award for curation in 2016 and was conferred a Chevalier D’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2014. With Danspace Program Director & Associate Curator Seta Morton, she recently collaborated with choreographer Kyle Abraham on Danspace’s 15th Platform.
In the press:
Choreographers Are Becoming Curators, Too (New York Times)
Movers and Shapers (New York Times)
Take Me to Church and Let Me Dance (New York Times)
Okwui Okpokwasili Wants You to Slow Down and Walk With Her (New York Times)
A Platform for Dancers to Mix it Up (New York Times)
Eiko Steps Away from Once Dance Partner, to Take on Many More (New York Times)