Taryn Kaschock Russell
In November of 2023, I became the Founding Director of ArtsOrb, an emerging organization that advocates for and supports dance artists as they transition from early success to more sustainable futures. We launched an inaugural fundraising initiative for our pilot project : Building a network of organizations, residencies, and creative stakeholders to support a cohort of 3 artists / arts collectives as they workshop, develop and produce new work. Our pilot project is fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
I am very excited to begin this next chapter as it feels that I have been building towards it my entire career in one way or another, most specifically in the leadership positions I have held for the past 15 years...
Most recently, as the Harkness Dance Center Director, I oversaw all aspects of dance at 92NY. In the fall of 2021, under my curation and directorship, the 92NY launched the Harkness Mainstage Series, bringing a year-long dance series to the Kaufmann Concert Hall stage--where Alvin Ailey premiered Revelations in 1960--for the first time in over 50 years. Before working to revitalize 92NY's in-person dance platforms, I created a mid-pandemic online opportunity, connecting emerging choreographers with established industry leaders and company directors: the Future Dance Festival. The festival grew to include live New York City performance opportunities and introduced the work of over 80 choreographers to prominent industry leaders including: the Directors of Ballet Hispanico, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, RUBBERBAND, AIM by Kyle Abraham, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Limón Dance Company, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey School and the Executive Director of Works & Process.
Before Directing the Harkness Dance Center, I served on the Artistic leadership team of the Juilliard Dance Division for three years as both the Associate Director and as the Acting Artistic Director. I had the opportunity to program the main stage performances at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater for both seasons with four commissions for New Dances during the fall and a triple bill in the spring which included Martha Graham’s Rite of Spring and Bill T. Jones D-Man in the Waters.
Photo by Richard Termine
Photo by Todd Rosenberg
As education is one of my passions, I deeply treasured teaching on the faculty of the Juilliard School and as a lecturer for the Conservatory of Dance, SUNY Purchase between 2014 -2019. Over the past two decades, I have additionally enjoyed being a company guest teacher with Abraham in Motion, the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Límon Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, Ballet BC, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Gibney Company and a frequent company teacher for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during their home seasons in New York.
In 2013, prior to moving back to New York, I directed Hubbard Street 2 in Chicago for five seasons. During my tenure as Director of HS2, I was responsible for programming and staffing the HSDC summer intensives and curating HSDC’s National Choreographic Competition. In this capacity, I truly realized my passion for mentoring and championing emerging artists. Hubbard Street 2 created its first full-length children’s program Harold and the Purple Crayon: A Dance Adventure under my directorship. Harold premiered at the Kennedy Center to a sold-out house in October of 2010. The production went onto performances at the Joan B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the American Dance Festival in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, the Cleveland Playhouse, at the Aspen Santa-Fe Dance Festival and at the Detroit Opera House. The success of this children's program remains an enormous source of pride—a labor of love inspired by the birth of my first child, Donovan.
As a performer, I was fortunate to travel extensively over a twelve-year career with both Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet, performing works by George Balanchine, John Cranko, Agnes de Mille, Martha Graham, Lar Lubovitch, Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, and William Forsythe. As a creator, I have composed a number of site-specific installations, most notably in collaborative partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Invested in the belief that access to dance should be universal and inclusive, I continue to reach out to connect to other art forms using improvisation and choreographic tools. In 2019, I taught both a movement workshop for a group of emerging opera singers for their weeklong immersive SongStudio experience led by Renee Fleming and I led movement explorations for the 222 young musicians at the NYO summer programs both under the umbrella of Carnegie Hall.
I currently serve as an Artistic Advisory Council of MOVE[NYC] and on the Advisory Council of the Misty Copeland Foundation, organizations whose missions I am passionate about as they serve to provide greater access and opportunity for the next generation, diversifying our dance field; I also serve on the Advisory Board for Back to Healing, which provides positive empowerment and community for individuals living with scoliosis.