My history as an artist exists among the intersections of movement, text, sound, and song. I am continually searching for self and alterity, whether inhabiting my own work or the landscapes of other artists. My desire to experience diverse aesthetic constructs is embedded in my history as an artist.
My current practice centers on interrogating presence, absence and identity as performative states. With each work, I want to reconsider the relational container for participants and performers and how this relationship can trigger shifts in sensorial perception and imagination. I create performance works and installations in various temporal forms from short works to durational tasks.
I recognize that being in this world is a complicated performance of reality constructs, values, and vulnerabilities. I strive to share these challenges within the environments of my work. I don’t seek to answer questions but to question underlying assumptions.
David Thomson, is an interdisciplinary collaborative and performing artist who has worked in the fields of music, dance, theater and performance with such artists as Mel Wong, Jane Comfort, Bebe Miller (’83-’86; ’03-’06), Remy Charlip, Marta Renzi, The Lavender Light Gospel Choir, Trisha Brown (‘87-‘93), Patricia Hoffbauer, Donna Uchizono, David Roussève, Wendy Perron, Susan Rethorst, Iréne Hultman, Michel Laub/Remote Control (NL), Lee Nagrin, Ralph Lemon (’99-’10), Bo Madvig (DK), Sally Silvers, Tracie Morris, Sekou Sundiata, Reggie Wilson, Dean Moss/Layla Ali, Mike Taylor, Meg Stuart, Marina Abramović, Muna Tseng, Alain Buffard (FR), Clarinda Mac Low, Daria Faïn & Robert Kocik, Deborah Hay, Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Tere O’Connor, David Bowie, Fiona Templeton, Kaneza Schaal, Yanira Castro, Okwui Okpokwasili, Lee Mingwei/Bill T Jones, Carl Hancock Rux, Taka Yamamoto, Matthew Barney and Annie-B Parsons/Big Dance Theater among others. He has been a member of Yvonne Rainer’s “Raindears” since 2015. Thomson has performed downtown, Off-Broadway and in London with the Drama Desk-nominated a capella performance group, Hot Mouth, founded by Grisha Coleman, Jonathan Stone, Viola Sheely and Thomson.
His own work has been presented by The Kitchen, Danspace Project at St Mark’s Church, Dance Theater Workshop, Roulette and Movement Research at Judson Church. Thomson has been Artist-in-Residence at Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Gibney Dance Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Invisible Dog, Topaz Arts and Mount Tremper Arts Center, The Yard, Performance Space NY and The Lunder Institute of American Art. His work has been supported by The Robison Foundation, The MAP Fund, Jerome Foundation and the Brooklyn Arts Council among other sources. Thomson was honored with a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for Sustained Achievement (2001), as part of the creative team for Bebe Miller’s Landing/Place (2006) and for Outstanding Production for his first evening-length work he his own mythical beast (2018).
Thomson has been awarded fellowships from United States Artists|Ford, NYFA in Choreography (2013, 2022), MacDowell, Yaddo, The Yard (Bessie Schoenberg Fellow), The Rauschenberg Foundation, LMCC Extended Life Fellowship (2018-21) and is a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Awardee (2022). He is currently a Mabou Mines Associate Artist and Danspace Artist Research Fellow.
Thomson has served on the faculties of Movement Research, NYU, Sarah Lawrence, The New School, Barnard, Bennington, Middlebury and Pratt as well as teaching internationally.
He has worked as an Arts Administrator and/or Database Consultant for several organizations including New York Foundation for the Arts, Merce Cunningham Foundation, Dieu Donné Papermill, National Performance Network, and Movement Research. He developed the Trisha Brown Archive Database in collaboration with Cori Olinghouse. An ongoing advocate for dance and the empowerment of artists, he was one of the founding members of Dancer’s Forum and has served on the boards of Bebe Miller/Gotham Dance, Dance Theater Workshop and New York Live Arts.
In 2017, he initiated The Artist Sustainability Project with Kate Watson-Wallace, which serves as a platform and practice to expand the discourse surrounding ideas of financial, artistic, and personal empowerment within the arts community. Thomson began dancing at Haverford/Bryn Mawr Colleges and later received his BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from SUNY Purchase.