The White Oak Dance Project was a dance company founded in 1990 by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris to be the touring arm of the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation.
The company took the name of the animal preservation and land plantation made famous by dance supporter Howard Gillman, who built dance studios on his White Oak Plantation near Jacksonville, Florida for the company to create its first tour. The studios quickly became the premier location to workshop works being created by many of the world’s leading choreographers.
The company continued to tour until 2002, allowing the Foundation to concentrate on the 2004 opening of the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan. The company featured alumni of major dance companies and commissioned new pieces from Morris, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, David Gordon and others.
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“Joseph and his mother come from the
black kings who were before the white man.”
—Peter Abrahams (b. 1919)
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—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
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Then live with me and be my Love.”
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“In 1862 the congregation of the church forwarded the church bell to General Beauregard to be melted into cannon, “hoping that its gentle tones, that have so often called us to the House of God, may be transmuted into war’s resounding rhyme to repel the ruthless invader from the beautiful land God, in his goodness, has given us.””
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)