Donald Byrd, Spectrum Dance Theater, Grief

Join us for Program Notes at 6:30 pm, a pre-performance Q&A with Donald Byrd and Lensic Executive Director Joel Aalberts. Free for all ticket holders. 

Grief, by Tony Award-nominated choreographer Donald Byrd, is a profound new production that looks white supremacy straight in the eye. Known for his socially challenging work, Byrd explores the experiences of Mamie Till-Mobley after the 1955 murder of her son, Emmett Till. Opting for an open-casket funeral, Till-Mobley said it best: “I want people to see what they did to my boy.”

Grief explores the experiences of Mamie Till-Mobley after the 1955 murder of her son, Emmett Till. Opting for an open-casket funeral, Till-Mobley said it best: “I want people to see what they did to my boy.”

Spectrum Dance Theater (SDT) was founded in 1982 to bring dance of the highest merit to a diverse audience composed of people from different social, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.  Their principal objective is to make the art form of dance accessible through contemporary dance performances and high-quality training in a variety of dance styles.

Under Donald Byrd’s visionary artistic leadership since 2002, the organization has embarked on an exhilarating transformation that has attracted world-class dancers, produced some of the most ambitious works in contemporary dance, and generated local and national praise.