Myrna Packer '74

Image of Myrna Packer

Myrna Packer and Art Bridgman, collaborators in choreography and performance and Co-Artistic Directors of Bridgman | Packer Dance, are known for their work integrating live performance and video technology. In New York City they have been presented by Lincoln Center, City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts), Dance New Amsterdam, Central Park Summerstage, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center. 

Bridgman | Packer Dance has toured throughout the United States performing at festivals and art centers including Spoleto Festival USA, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Florida Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Dance St. Louis, and Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center. They have appeared abroad in Europe, Asia, and Central America in festivals including Munich International Dance Festival, Festival Internacional de Artes Escenicas (Panama), Kintetsu Theater (Osaka, Japan), Festival Internacional Chihuahua (Mexico), and Tancforum (Budapest). Bridgman and Packer have been guest artists at more than 150 universities, including California Institute of the Arts, Ohio State University, Arizona State University, and the University of Utah.

In 2017 Bridgman and Packer won the New York Dance and Performance Award for Outstanding Production for the performance of their work Voyeur at the Sheen Center. The 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to Bridgman and Packer was the first in the history of the Guggenheim Foundation to be given to two individuals for their collaborative work. They are also recipients of a 2013 National Dance Project Touring Award, National Endowment for the Arts Grants consecutively for 2007 through 2015, a 2008, 2012, and 2015 New England Foundation for the Arts Expeditions Touring Grant, two Choreography Fellowships and a BUILD grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a New York State Council for the Arts Grant, and four National Performance Network’s Creation Fund Awards. They have received five “First Light” Commissions from Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts), a Danspace Project Commissioning Initiative, as well as commissions from Dance New Amsterdam, the 92nd Street Y New Works in Dance, and Portland Ovations. Their international touring has been supported by USArtists International, the Performing Americas Project, the National Performance Network, and La Red de Promotores CentroAmericana y El Caribe.

Their work in live performance and video technology is featured in the 2009 book Gegenwelten, Zwischen Differenz und Reflexion (Against Worlds, Between Difference and Reflection) by Jurgen Schlader and Franziska Weber, published in Munich. Their New York City performance season at The Sheen Center was chosen as "Best of 2016" in both The Village Voice and Huffington PostFor more information, visit: bridgmanpacker.org and@BridgmanPackerDance on Facebook.