The Headlong Dance Theater was founded by Co-Directors David Brick, Andrew Simonet and Amy Smith in 1993. From 1993 to 2012, David, Andrew and Amy collaborated in the creation and performance of all Headlong’s dances and share credit for all the company’s work. Starting in 2013, David and Amy share the Co-Director duties, and Andrew is pursuing other non-artistic work. Lead by the Co-Directors, our staff, performers, designers, and dramaturg Mark Lord, contribute immensely to the creative and administrative work of Headlong, and we are deeply indebted to them all. We are committed to collaboration and process-orientation in everything we do, from creating new work to teaching to budgeting to community service. Over the years, Headlong has created over forty dances. Our recent obsessions have been with audience engagement (asking audience members to DO things and take risks); site-specificity (working outside of theatrical venues and embracing the actual physical reality of the site); and creating opportunities for shifts of consciousness and awareness (drawing attention to things that already exist, but that we forget to pay attention to). Rather than relying on a single dance style or technique, Headlong develops a unique movement vocabulary for each new piece. The Co- Directors’ eclectic movement backgrounds include modern, ballet, jazz, tap, contact improvisation, releasing techniques, theater, sports, sign language, Bharata Natyam, and Ghanaian dance. Drawing on these sources, as well as the potential movements of audience participants and the wonderfully idiosyncratic movements of non-professional performers, we create movement vocabularies that both reflect and comment on the subject matter we are exploring. Many of our earlier works were known for their witty take on contemporary culture. Our earliest pieces were inspired by the work of Richard Bull and Cynthia Novack, pioneers and developers of structured improvisation. Headlong continues to practice choreographic improvisation in the studio and on stage, and to use the compositional ideas embedded in that form even when creating set movement material. Headlong has performed nationally and internationally to a range of audiences, and their work — informed by a deep commitment to collaboration, and formal experimentation — has won many fans and much acclaim.