UNIVERSAL: dance, the common language of expression
TANGIBLE: accessible to a multi-cultural and multi-generational audience
ESSENTIAL: addresses the human condition and spirit
Vincent E. Thomas founded VTDance as an outlet for performance projects including solo, group, and collaborative choreographic endeavors. VTDance is multi-dimensional. The work builds on the use of contemporary dance, improvisation, text/ movement, a variety of sound sources, and collaborations with other artists, including dancers, musicians, poets, visual artists, and others [to be discovered]. These ideas coupled with witty, poignant, athletic and gestural movement are the rich palette for VTDance.
Vincent E. Thomas (Artistic Director) dance, choreographer and teacher, received his MFA in Dance from Florida State University and a BME in Music from the University of South Carolina. He has danced with Dance Repertory Theatre (FSU), Randy James Dance Works (NY/NJ), Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (MD), and presently a guest performer with EDGEWORKS Dance Theater (DC), and an adjunct artist with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. His choreography has been presented at various national and international venues including Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, and Avignon, France. In July 2008, he performed in the World Congress on Dance Research in Athens, Greece, and the International Choreographers’ Showcase in Bari, Italy. His company VTDance, performed with the Ahn Trio at the 2005 Bands of America Summer Symposium. He was selected as one of eleven choreographers from around the world to convene for the 2005 Omi International Dance Collective and served as the guest mentor for the 2007 Dance Omi residents. Vincent is a recipient of a 2008 Kennedy Center Local Dance Commission Project Award, a 2008 Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts Grant, a 2007 & 2005 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Choreography, two 2006 Metro DC Dance Awards for Emerging Choreographer, and Outstanding New Work (for his evening length work the “Grandmother Project”), 2005 City Arts & Humanities Individual Artist Grant, 2004 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Solo Dance Performance and the 2004 Henry C. Welcome Fellowship. He is a 2007-2008 Artist Scholar in Residence at Michigan State University (MI), a faculty member for the Urban Bush Women Summer Institutes (NY), and an Assistant Professor of Dance at Towson University (MD).