Doug Elkins - Masterclasses & Lectures for the Dance Faculty

Doug Elkins is a 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and two-time New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award-winning choreographer who began his career as a B-Boy, touring the world with break dance groups New York Dance Express and Magnificent Force, among others.  Elkins is widely credited with being one the first choreographers to successfully blend street dance and martial arts with the more traditional vocabulary of modern dance. He is a recipient of significant choreographic commissions and awards from the NEA; Brandeis University; The Yard; The Foundation for Contemporary Arts; NYS Task Force on Partnerships in Dance; Atlantic Center; and Choo San Goh and H. Robert Magee Choreographic Fellowship.

In 2006, he was honored in New York City with the inaugural Martha Hill Award for Career Achievement and in 2016, was the first choreographer commissioned to make work for the groundbreaking entity Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. Other highlights of Elkins’ career include the creation of original work for Batsheva, Rotterdam Danceworks, Flying Karamazov Brothers, Union Dance (UK), MaggioDanza (Firenze), Pennsylvania Ballet, New Dance Ensemble, Dance Alloy, Graz Opera Ballet, Trinity Irish Dance, and CanDoCo of London, a disabled and non-disabled company.  He has consistently worked in theater (including collaborations with Robert Woodruff, Barbara Karger and Michael Preston, Arin Arbus, Mark Wing Davey, JoAnne Akalaitis) and has taught and created work for students at an array of universities. He is a graduate of SUNY/Purchase and holds an MFA from Hollins University/ADF. Elkins is the proud father of two teenagers.