Choreographer, Director, Master Educator, Scholar, Designer
Germaul Barnes
Germaul Barnes is a choreographer, director, master educator, scholar, and designer with a multifaceted career spanning over 30 years in contemporary dance. Global in vision and influence, he is known for a bold, urgent, energetic movement style, steeped in spirituality and optimism. His work regularly reflects his deep knowledge of and interest in anthropology, the culture of African diaspora, Blackness, musicality, and social justice. In April 2019 he premiered his latest commission, a new work for Alabama Ballet. Barnes is a BESSIE Award-winning former dancer and current répétiteur for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He is currently a full-time dance instructor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, The Dance Foundation artist-in-residency, curator for Contemporary Improvisation for Black Men, choreographer adviser for One Dance-UK and Movement Research (New York, NY), advisory board member, and curator for the Thelma Hill Performance Arts Center and IABD Next Generation Member. Barnes choreographed Marley - A Musical (2015). He has created more than 50 works for his dance collective Viewsic Dance, presented on stages and by companies across the world including SummerStage, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, 92nd Street Y, ICA Boston, Movement Research at the Judson Church, the International Modern Dance Festival (Belarus), Ghana National Dance Company, International Dance Theatre Festival (Lublin, Poland), Friends of Tafo (London, England), Jasmyn Fyffe Dance (Toronto, Canada), and beyond. He has served on the faculty and as a guest choreographer for the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Fordham BFA Program at The Ailey School, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Joffrey Ballet School Summer Intensive. He has also worked with Katherine Dunham, Eleo Pomare, Pilobolus, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Group Motions Dance Company, Philadanco, Pacific Conservatory Theatre, and guest artist for numerous ballet and contemporary companies.