Faculty

Provocative, whimsical, and ethereal, the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company defies expectations of postmodern dance and soars, unafraid to take risks and dazzle with unflinching honesty. What is remarkable about the company is the ability to breathe and connect with each other in simple gestures as much as grand displays of technical prowess. In a few of the opening dances, intersections amongst couples prevailed thematically, but there was no cliché in sight. The company shoots energy through every limb and glance the entire evening, and Gwirtzman’s choreography shines through in every piece as an ultimate force of nature. OnStageBlog.com

This 20th anniversary concert was a retrospective of pieces created between 1999 and 2018. The pieces were extracted from their original ballets and put together for this hour and a half concert, and were restaged for presentation in the round in Buttenwieser Hall, the large open second floor dance space of the 92nd Street Y, with an intricately painted beamed ceiling hung with chandeliers. The audience was placed on two rows of seats on all four sides of the space. The result was at once elegant and intimate. TheaterScene.com

Mapping, Daniel Gwirtzman’s self-choreographed solo, differentiates itself with a lack of props, collaborators, or external distractions. A neutral white-noise soundscape and an all black costume allow the movement to speak for itself. What start as tense, balletic gestures dissolve into languid articulations. The Dance Enthusiast

The phrase, “angels in the architecture,” written by Paul Simon, has been ringing in my mind since last May’s Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, when Daniel Gwirtzman and three of his New York-based company members debuted part of this larger work [The Oracle]. Choreographed by Gwirtzman the quartet offered fresh perspective on modern dance’s formal values with sparkling sweep and joyful physicality. At its heart, The Oracle was about the intersection of people. Like moving armatures, dancers gave form to space with mathematical elegance and human warmth. Their outstretched limbs arced and crisscrossed as they leaned in and sprang off of one another, weaving ever-changing configurations in a vision that vibrated on a frequency of harmony and brilliance. Arts/ATL.com

The setting of his fingers one by considered one riveted him to the floor and the audience to him. Attitude: The Dancers’ Magazine

Mr. Gwirtzman does know that in dance less can be more. And that’s a good thing for any choreographer to know…he can evoke strong feelings with a few gestures. The New York Times

He’s a tall, lanky, loose-limbed guy. When he kicks a leg out, wheels his arm around, or indulges in spates of very fast, intricate steps, he stirs up the space and makes it contract and expand around him. He gets under the skin of the music he loves, blending casualness with precision…He passes his style on to his lively performers without impinging on their individuality. The Village Voice

Slender and graceful, like a willowy John Travolta. The Martha’s Vineyard Times

With an eye for beauty and an exacting attention to detail, Daniel Gwirtzman takes good care of his audience and his performers. Gwirtzman’s ideal of beauty is kind to the body: His choreography celebrates the long lines and musculature of dancers’ bodies. The dancers are flawless and picture perfect too. Gwirtzman’s work is perhaps best equated with the old-school exuberant style of great modern choreographer Alvin Ailey. Show Business

Encore is both the title of Gwirtzman’s new dance suite and the response it’s likely to inspire. The name refers to the repetitions of rehearsal, as a fictional troupe of Broadway dancers prepares to go on the road, but there’s little tedium in Gwirtzman’s choreography, set to classic jazz recordings. Executing his tricky syncopations and intricate patterns at breakneck tempos, the dancers can’t help but smile. The New Yorker

A whirling dervish of a choreographer…a tall strapping fellow who moves like the wind…he’s a commanding figure no question about it. WQXR, The New York Times

An infectious delight in performing. The New York Times

Daniel Gwirtzman offers fetching dances that display nuanced musicality and notable choreographic craft. Gwirtzman exudes a strong stage presence. BackStage

His dancing was beautiful, with elegant lines and a palpable enjoyment of movement…technically impressive and…exuberantly performed…a joy. New York Dance Fax

A rangy man who can command a stage just by spreading his arms. The Village Voice

Intriguing confrontations and complex relationships were skillfully evoked through deft partnering and economically shaped sections. I appreciated the matter-of-fact performance manner, the crisp, smooth execution of the interestingly shaded and precisely delineated movements, and felt throughout that I was watching the work of someone very much in control of his craft…Gwirtzman always made it clear that important matters were at stake. Dance View Times

Mr. Gwirtzman is the tallest and the lightest on his feet. His and everyone else’s toes are unfailingly pointed. All movement is matched, even to the crooks of fingers and the technique of slow motion rolls on the floor. Attitude: The Dancers’ Magazine

An abundantly inventive artist with a subtle but sure defiance of gender roles. As a dancer he’s a beauty too—lithe, sensual, playful, a rag doll, whose strength and control of form surprise. The Village Voice

Gradually building up from a solo into a quartet, “Timebomb” doesn’t explode all at once. Instead, eyeing each other warily as they work in the round, negotiating handholds and counterbalances in fraught encounters, the dancers suggest participants in the kind of complex schoolyard game that can turn brutal in an instant. Gwirtzman’s choreographic craft and invention—setting the free swing of limbs and bodies against forces of suspension and hesitation—keep the work taut and surprising. The New Yorker

Mr. Gwirtzman has created “The Lecture,” amusingly, for the dancer who has been with him the longest...himself. It should be fun to see what Mr. Gwirtzman, a lanky, supple mover with a nicely ironic sensibility, does with that. The New York Times

It’s hard to believe Mark Morris has already spawned imitators, but Gwirtzman seems headed in Morris’s direction, moving dancers to music with acute sensitivity. The Village Voice (1995)