DANCE Swag!

Gregory King holds an MFA from Southern Methodist University. He is also certified in Elementary Labanotation by The Dance Notation Bureau. He has performed with The Washington Ballet, Donald Byrd/ The Group, The Metropolitan Opera, The New York City Opera, Erick Hawkins Dance Company and The Lion King on Broadway. Mr. King has taught master classes at Boston Conservatory, Boston University and Bowdoin College. He has served on faculty at Texas Ballet Theatre and Boston Ballet. He has served as Artist in Residence at Temple University and Assistant Professor of Dance at Dean College where he taught Horton, Introduction to Laban Movement Analysis, Senior Seminar and Composition. Mr. King writes for ThinkingDance.net, Broadstreet Review, The Dance Enthusiast, and The Philadelphia Dance Journal. Currently, Mr. King is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance and Consortium on Faculty Diversity at Swarthmore College. www.Gregorykingdance.com

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thINKingDANCE was started to catalyze conversation about dance and to develop the skills of dance writers in the Philadelphia area. Our initial year-long training scheme, funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance, has included workshops with great visiting dance writers, monthly peer-critique sessions, and lots of editor/writer dialogue. In our first year, we published over two hundred articles drawing attention to Philadelphia’s robust and diverse dance community.

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Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Dancing Oral Histories | Gregory King | thINKingDANCE

Through all the years I’ve viewed his works, Bill T. Jones has exposed what lies at the underbelly of his explorations, never stopping to nurse the discomfort of disturbed viewers. Extolled with many accolades including the Kennedy Center Honor, a…

It was easy to forget I was at a dance performance!

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In the brief pop-up prelude to October's Asian Arts Initiative 'SaltSoul' performance, Jungwoong Kim visits the site of a Philadelphia tragedy and the memories of a personal tragedy in South Korea.

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Rhizomas: A Lesson in Contrast | Gregory King | thINKingDANCE

Foreign to me I must admit. Butoh. Foreign. But my inquisitive self led me to Rhizomas: a performance art piece conceived by Butoh practitioner Ryuzo Fukuhara in collaboration with a local Philadelphia improvisational quartet, Wormhole Superette. Inside…

From the onset, it was hard not to notice the many contrasts, even if they were subtle. The chaotic strumming of each string, and the high pitch screeching echoing through the speakers were an anarchic counterpoint to Fukuhara’s orderly trancelike movement ritual. He moved lightly, yet with noticeable weight, carrying his pelvis low to the ground, often maintaining a rounded torso which acted as the anchor to his angular limbs.

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Dear Philadelphia…. Next Round On Me!

Photo by M. Edlow for Visit Philadelphia EDITORS NOTE - I first spoke with Mr. King almost two years ago to date about his writing and postings on FaceBook,

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Talia Mason’s Onion Dances: Dancing Memories

photo credit Irina Varina by Gregory King for The Dance Journal The smell of onions dawdled in the air as I walked through the corridors of the Headlong

Red chested from her self inflicted beating, Mason lowered herself towards the floor and I couldn’t help but wonder if her body had become metaphoric memory – as if pounding here chest was an attempt to beat her memories into nonexistence.

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A Response to Beyond Dance Company … In Kind

by Gregory King for The Dance Journal I recently attended a performance of Beyond Dance Company’s “Evolution of Women” at The Painted Bride on

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Beyond Dance Company: Not a Girl… Not Yet a Woman

photo credit Kchow Studios by Gregory King for The Dance Journal Willingly welcoming new dance companies and new choreographic voices with passion and

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Photos by Alexander Iziliaev by Gregory King for The Dance Journal A year ago, the second companies of Philadanco (D/2) and Pennsylvania Ballet (PB2)

With the melding of both companies performing various dance genres with mixed casts, the second annual “2 gether we Dance”, was a leap towards commonality and the embracing of difference. 

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Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company celebrate 30 years of Philadelphia performance, collaboration and dance. Critic Gregory King became part of the show.

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Birds on a Wire Dance Theatre’s HATCH – Words On A Strip of Paper

photo credit Plate 3 Photography by Gregory King for The Dance Journal Self-described as an entirely volunteer run company committed to artists’ engagement,

As each piece wafted by, I realized I had no use for my bus ticket (the piece of paper I was holding). My thoughts drifted to the many ways the paper could have been used – how HATCH could have separated itself from other showcases …  completely eviscerated their competition. But instead of dwelling on my own expectations, I allowed the words “Dark, Vast and Maze” on the strip of paper, to fall to the bottom of my traveling satchel.

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Queer Artists of Color: Why Their Works Matter | Gregory King | thINKingDANCE

These works by Powerhouse and Witherspoon were not just about queer pride, but about rejecting white heteronormative dominance by using the queer black body to illuminate queer black experiences.

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Impressions from Philadelphia: Kun-Yang Lin/ Dancers’ Prince Theatre Season

"There has always been an edge to Lin’s choreography; something offbeat about phrasing, something gritty about his vocabulary." Gregory King, Philadelphia.

Kun-Yang Ling/Dancers is one company on the dance map in The City of Brotherly Love that continues to push artistic boundaries.

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The Social Sessions: Chapter 1 – Building Homes…..Literally

Photo of Caroline O'Brien by Thomas Weir by Gregory King for The Dance Journal Realizing the need for an outlet where artists could give back to the

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Mom brings back Opus Cactus, a piece from 2001, and makes the desert bloom.

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Mom brings back Opus Cactus, a piece from 2001, and makes the desert bloom.