Forward Motion Theater, Inc. was incorporated as a non-profit arts organization in the spring of 2001 and has achieved 501(c)3 status. Forward Motion Theater is dedicated to exploring forms of communication that resonate regardless of social or cultural heritage, and believes this approach will open the door to a future full of diversity and understanding.

Our History:
Forward Motion Theater is a New York City-based dance-theater-media company founded in 1995 by choreographer Eric Dunlap and media artist Holly Daggers. The mission of FMT is to explore the combination of movement and technology through both live performance and digital media. Works with themes ranging from science fiction, spirituality, and the mutability of the human form are realized through innovative stage and lighting effects and formalized composition.

Eric Dunlap spent his formative years as a dancer with the Nikolais/Louis Dance Company, becoming well versed in Nik’s movement technique and pioneering approach to light and dance works. After meeting media Holly Daggers in 1995 and discovering that they shared common interests in science fiction, electronic music, and psychedelia, they created a dance about the mating rituals of Martian fungi Nocturn that featured costumes threaded with fiber-optic lights and a color-change mechanism invented by Daggers that responded to the dancers’ movements. This successful collaboration led to four self-produced full-length dance theater productions that garnered reviews from The New York Times and the Village Voice among others. Since then, their performances have spilled out of the black box of traditional dance theater into a spectrum of other media and venues, from video and film to site-specific parties and events. Performances have fostered collaborations with other artists, performers, filmmakers, VJs, engineers, puppeteers, and even the music and fashion industries.

Far from “experimental”, FMT continues in the Nikolais Dance Theater tradition of staging choreoworks in a highly visual and media enhanced style but also deconstructs movement with a scientific eye, examining the elemental properties of movement in Space, Shape, Time, and Motion. Dunlap and Daggers have created live shows incorporating lasers, digital projections, and interactive music elements that are firmly rooted in formal composition and a rich history of live performance and profesional training. An important aspect of the company1s mission is to reach new audiences with its “stunningly inventive” use of choreography and technology. Towards that end, their current projects include developing not only works for live theater, but also creating new performance venues through video and the web.

Please visit www.FORWARDmotiontheater.org… for more information.