Heralded as “One of the nation’s most important institutions” (New York Times), the ADF’s sustained record of creative achievement is indivisible from the history of modern dance. Since 1934, the ADF has remained committed to serving the needs of dance, dancers, choreographers, and professionals in dance-related fields. Remaining true to the goals of its founding artists,the ADF’s programs are developed based on its mission: to encourage and support the creation and presentation of new modern dance work by both established and emerging choreographers; to preserve our modern dance heritage through continued presentation of classic works, as well as through archival efforts; to build wider national and international audiences for modern dance; to enhance public understanding and appreciation of the art form and its cultural and historical significance; to provide a sound scientific/aesthetic base for professional education and training of young dancers and a forum for integrating and disseminating information on dance education.

A creative laboratory dedicated to nurturing and sustaining modern dance, the ADF is an international magnet for choreographers, dancers, teachers, critics, musicians, and scholars, drawing them together to experiment, explore, learn, collaborate, and create in a supportive environment. Students and community members interact directly with luminaries in the field, learning first-hand from those who define modern dance. “The world’s greatest dance festival,” (New York Post) the ADF’s wide range of programs include:

EDUCATION: Professional training programs for dancers, choreographers, and teachers.

• Six Week School (in 2011 ADF attracted 425 students from 19 countries and 34 states)
• Three Week School for Young Dancers (ages 12-16)
• Dance Professionals Workshop
• Winter Intensive in New York, a nine-day workshop designed for students interested in learning about New York's dance scene from the artists who are creating it.
• The first American MFA program in dance between a dance entity, the ADF, and an academic institution, Hollins University. Using the resources of both institutions, the program offers a Year Residency Track for students, Low Residency Track for mid-career artists, teachers and dance professionals, and Low Residency Three Summer Track for emerging artists, teachers and dance professionals.
• The ADF provides full and partial scholarships to students based on both talent and need. Approximately, 50% of ADF students are awarded financial assistance annually.

PERFORMANCES: A six and a half-week series of performances and residencies by major established companies as well as emerging artists from around the world.

• One of the most important functions of the ADF throughout its history has been to provide choreographers with the opportunity to produce new works, many of which are especially commissioned by the ADF.
• The ADF has played a critical role in increasing the repertoires of our country’s modern dance companies (having been the scene of over 640 premieres, over 340 commissions, and over 50 reconstructions).
• The ADF has co-commissioned works with the Kennedy Center for choreographers and jazz composers, joining two indigenous American art forms.
• The ADF has supported, commissioned and helped launch the careers of choreographers such as Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Alvin Ailey, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Meredith Monk, Pilobolus, Trisha Brown, Donald McKayle, Martha Clarke, Eiko and Koma, Ronald K. Brown, John Jasperse, Shen Wei, Tatiana Baganova, and Rosie Herrera, among others, most of whom continue to present work at the ADF.
• Along with our main stage performances, the ADF has presented 65 North Carolina choreographers and their companies in a series titled Acts to Follow (2003-2007), offering audiences a showcase of statewide talent.

AWARDS that give status and importance to accomplished dance figures and to the profession itself.

• For Distinguished Choreographers, the ADF has established the $50,000 Samuel H. Scripps/ADF Award for lifetime achievement in modern dance.
  
  
• For Distinguished Teachers the ADF has established the Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching.

  Award Recipients

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS designed for dancers, choreographers, and audience education. Programming includes the following special conferences, workshops and projects:

• Since 1984, through the International Choreographers Commissioning Program and the International Choreographers Residency program, the ADF has brought 443 choreographers from 88 countries on 6 continents to the ADF to share, exchange, and experience the work and ideas of people from cultures around the world.  The 2011 International Choreographers Residency Program brought 24 choreographers to the ADF.
• Institutional Linkages Program including mini-ADFs in Korea, Russia, India, Japan, China, and Argentina and teaching residencies in 30 countries.
• The ADF has initiated and helped develop modern dance in countries including China, Russia, and Mongolia.
• The ADF introduced French, English, Russian, and Chinese modern dance and Japanese Butoh to US audiences.
• ADF’s Audience Memory Program, directed by Cognitive Scientist in Residence Dr. Ruth Day, is conducting groundbreaking research on the way audiences and dancers perceive and remember movement.  The project has successfully engaged audiences in more active perception, increased audience interest and appreciation, and made dance more accessible to more people.
• International Screendance Festival (celebrating 17 years in 2012), which features juried and curated dance works created specifically for the camera, and boasts over 300 past screenings.
• At the 2006 Festival, ADF held Screendance: The State of the Art, a four-day conference on the current state of the Screendance around the globe. A second conference followed in 2008.
• In 2010, the first-ever scholarly journal, The International Journal of Screendance, dedicated to the inter-disciplinary practice of Screendance was launched at the ADF.
• NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism for working journalists (2003-2010)

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND EDUCATION programs that offer the breadth of the Festival's resources to the community. Programs and activities include:

• ADF Project Dance – a free, year-round program that introduces youth to dance and to the many non-performance career paths available in the performing arts through creative movement workshops (in 2011, ADF offered 130 creative movement classes at 14 different locations) and complimentary tickets (in 2011, ADF partnered with the City of Durham and local non-profits to distribute over 500 free tickets to children and families).
• Panel Discussions that feature choreographers and dancers performing as part of the ADF season.
• Festival Tours that provide free, guided tours of ADF School, giving community members an opportunity to go behind the scenes and see dance in the making.

HUMANITIES AND MEDIA PROJECTS that illustrate how modern dance serves as a special window on American history and culture.

• In conjunction with its 75th anniversary season, the ADF published a book on dance history by Philosopher-in-Residence, Dr. Gerald E. Myers, titled Who’s Not Afraid of Martha Graham?
• Dancing in the Light, which includes six historic works by African American choreographers, filmed by the ADF to preserve and celebrate the black tradition in modern dance, was created in 2007. Originally recorded for ADF’s 2001 Emmy Award-winning documentary series Free to Dance, the works appeared in the series only as brief excerpts.
• Emmy Award-winning PBS television series — Free to Dance: The African American Presence in Modern Dance —produced by the ADF, looks at dance as a window on our culture.
• Black Traditions in American Modern Dance (BTAMD) project was created in 1987 to preserve, celebrate, and create access to classic dance works by African American choreographers. To date, 23 works have been reconstructed on leading US repertory companies and recorded.
• The ADF has issued a series of humanities publications including but not limited to The Aesthetic and Cultural Significance of Modern Dance (1984), The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance (1988), and its sequel, African American Genius In Modern Dance (1993).
• Speaking of Dance: Conversations with the Masters – a collaborative video series that offers profiles of preeminent figures in American modern dance.
• The ADF’s Archival Preservation/Access Project serves to document, preserve, and create greater access to the ADF’s multi-format archival collection that dates back to the 1930s.
• Workshops, lectures, and discussions are held with Duke University faculty from the medical, history, psychology, and philosophy departments.
• Since 2009, the ADF Video Blog, May We Have This CyberDance?, has highlighted the diversity of events taking place during the Festival through daily online coverage of classes, rehearsals, performances, as well as interviews with choreographers, faculty, scholars, and much more.