Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd founded Donald Byrd/The Group in 1978, which toured extensively nationally and internationally before closing in 2002 when was named artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle. He studied at Tufts, Yale, The Cambridge School of Ballet, the London School of Contemporary Dance, and The Ailey School. Since 1976, Byrd has created over 80 works for The Group, Spectrum, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and many other major modern dance companies in the United States and abroad. Best known for The Harlem Nutcracker, a reworking of the Christmas classic, he also choreographed for numerous stage productions, including for the New York Shakespeare Festival and New York City Opera. He has taught across the country and was a Fellow at the Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard for three years. Byrd was appointed to the Seattle Arts Commission in July 2003.