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HISTORY of MDDF'S PROGRAMS & SERVICES

SCHOOL, COMMUNITY, COLLEGE, & UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS
MDDF's School Partnership Program is designed to provide a Comprehensive Arts Education. MDDF works in yearlong and multiyear partnership programs shaped to meet the specific needs of each of our partnership learning communities. MDDF works on arts and dance skills development, interdisciplinary learning integrating dance into all areas of the school curriculum, and aesthetic education.

MDDF's partnership learning communities are currently located in public schools on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Far Rockaway, Queens. MDDF's learning communities include individuals from African American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, White, and other heritages. MDDF also works with students and families with specific needs due to recent immigrant, homeless, foster care, and special needs challenges and concerns. Some of our partnership learning communities serve students and families with poverty rates of up to 97%, as measured by indicators including participation in free and reduced lunch programs.

COMMUNITY, COLLEGE, & UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS
MDDF extends the concept of a comprehensive arts education throughout the preK to higher education and lifelong learning spectrum through its college and university programs, including internships, graduate- and professional-level seminars, and parents-caregivers-and-elders as arts partners programs.


CHOREOGRAPY, PERFORMANCES, & TOURING
Mark DeGarmo has created a repertory of 100 dances, working with living composers, musicians, and live music ensembles, whenever possible. His current artistic research focus includes: real-time improvisational composition; digitalized movement and dance performance; connectivity with natural and constructed environments, architecture, and space; and intercultural transdisciplinarity.

Mark DeGarmo & Dancers has presented annual New York seasons and performed at theaters and festivals throughout the city since 1982, including: BronxFest on the Bronx River at the invitation of legendary folk singer-activist Pete Seeger, Celebrate Brooklyn!, Dancespace at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, Downtown Dance Festival, Joyce Soho, Hunter College, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (dance company-in-residence for 5 years), Middle Collegiate Church, Performance Space 122, Saint Peter's Church at Citicorp, Soho Arts Festival, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and the 92nd Street YM-YWHA.

DeGarmo & Dancers was dance company-in-residence at Tribeca Performing Arts Center 2000-04 (cancelled after achieving the 2nd highest box office sales for a dance company at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in 2000 due to the effects of 9/11). Since June 2001, Mark DeGarmo & Dancers/Dynamic Forms Inc. (MDDF) has been a resident member organization of Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, a 99,000 square-foot Puerto Rican/Latino intentionally multicultural and inclusive multiarts center on New York City's Lower East Side.

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
MDDF's 25 international performance, teaching and cultural exchange programs and tours have included partnerships with communities and publics in: Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Russia, and Slovenia.

DEMONSTRATED EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION, & EFFECTIVENESS
The excellence, innovation, and effectiveness of MDDF's Partnership Programs and Services have been recognized through sustained public and private funding, including:



Bottom photograph by Beatriz Schiller






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