National Choreographers Initiative-About NCI


Mission Statement To support and nurture the process of developing new choreography. To educate and enrich the community through access to the creative process. To support and strengthen the dance community; dancers, choreographers, artistic directors, boards of directors, and audiences; by investing in the future of dance.

Facilities Irvine Barclay Theatre will present the National Choreographers Initiative performance in its 750-seat, state-of-the-art facility. The Barclay, an independent performing arts center near the University of California Irvine, is a leading presenter of contemporary and world dance. Companies that have appeared at the Barclay include: Ballet Preljocaj, Batsheva, Bebe Miller, Bill T. Jones, Garth Fagan, Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, Lar Lubovitch, Maguy Marin, David Parsons, Doug Varone, Hubbard Street, Joe Goode, La La La Human Steps, Lines, Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, Sasha Waltz, Sean Curran, Stephen Petronio, Streb, and Susan Marshall. The Barclay is also home to the New World Flamenco Festival. Rehearsals will be conducted in the dance studios of UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dance Department. Both the theatre and campus are centrally located in southern California.

National Choreographers Initiative 2008 Advisory Committee
	Anne B. Nutt Barbara Tingley Sally Anne Sheridan Pam Shue Molly Lynch Barbara Roberts Lois Osborne Sophie Cripe Joanne Keith Helen Holland Bobbi Cox Diane Diefenderfer

Artistic Director

MOLLY LYNCH is currently Assistant Professor in the Dance Department, Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California Irvine. She is the Artistic Director for the National Choreographers Initiative, a project to nurture the development of new choreography. Recently she worked with Irvine Barclay Theatre on special projects, creative consulting, and financial analysis. She also has taught ballet and pointe at Chapman University and dance management, dance production, and ballet at California State University, Long Beach. She was the Artistic Director for Ballet Pacifica from 1988-2003. During her tenure, Ms. Lynch established Ballet Pacifica as Orange County’s leading professional dance company and one of the area’s top performing arts organizations. Among her innovative trademark programs was the Pacifica Choreographic Project. Under Ms. Lynch’s direction, the company worked with forty emerging choreographers, premiered more than forty new ballets and restaged some of America’s most beloved classics. Ms. Lynch has also choreographed 22 concert ballets, 6 children’s ballets and a full-length production of “The Nutcracker”. She began her dance training with Lila Zali at Ballet Pacifica before receiving a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School and then performing with the Louisville Ballet. As a fine arts major at the University of California, Irvine, she studied with such distinguished figures in dance as Eugene Loring, Antony Tudor and Olga Maynard. Upon receiving her MFA in dance from UCI, she was named Outstanding Graduate Student—the first student from Fine Arts so honored. In 1992, Ms Lynch was given the esteemed Outstanding Alumnus award from UCI and was named one of Orange County Metro Magazine’s Ten Women Who Make A Difference. She was also the recipient of the Red Cross Clara Barton Cultural Arts Award and the Boy Scouts of America Women of Excellence award in 1996. She was the recipient of the 2001 Choo San Goh Award for Choreography.