The Latest: Making Moves
McIntyre rehearsing his
Mercury Half-Life. Photo by Kyle Morck, Courtesy TMP.
Following the troupe’s performances at Jacob’s Pillow next month, Trey McIntyre Project’s dancers will disband to allow artistic director Trey McIntyre to focus on freelance choreography, photography and film under the TMP name. “I’ve been craving creating something more tangible than the experience onstage,” says McIntyre.
Though he will remain in Boise, McIntyre will close the company’s headquarters and make cuts to his eight-person administrative staff. Some of his 10 dancers, including Chanel DaSilva, Brett Perry and Travis Walker, will be contracted on a project basis for freelance engagements and to restage TMP’s 30-plus McIntyre ballets on companies and schools.
Co-founded in 2005 by McIntyre, John Michael Schert and Anne Mueller, Trey McIntyre Project became a full-time company in 2008. In 2013, Schert resigned following a CNNMoney report, in which he was quoted, that claimed TMP and Hewlett-Packard’s Boise offices had formed a unique business collaboration; CNNMoney later amended the story after learning it wasn’t accurate.
McIntyre already has experience in other artistic mediums. In 2009, he directed video footage for The Sun Road, a multimedia ballet filmed in Glacier National Park. (The piece will be shown in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this month.) Since then, his passion for filmmaking has grown: He is currently developing documentaries about two of his most applauded works, Ma Maison and The Sweeter End, which were inspired by post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, as well as one that follows TMP’s 10-year history. (Timelines had not been announced as of press time.) This summer, he will stage his Peter Pan (2002) on Queensland Ballet and has been commissioned to create an installation at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. “The perpetuity of a single-vision company doesn’t appeal to me,” says McIntyre. “Not having to maintain the structure of a full-time company will allow me more freedom as an artist.” Still, he adds that he’s not ruling out having another dance troupe in the future.
Final TMP Performances
Des Moines, IA: Des Moines Civic Center, May 1
Lexington, VA: The Route 11 Dance Festival, May 10
Fayetteville, AR: Walton Arts Center, May 16
Kansas City, MO: Muriel Kauffman Theatre, May 22
Vienna, VA: Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, June 11
Jackson, MS: USA International Ballet Competition, June 19
Becket, MA: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, June 25–29
