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Dance Biography - Career Notes - History of Choreography - Grants and Fund Raising
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 TONY SILVA, a choreographer, composer and improviser, was born in Manhattan, NY in 1962. He earned a BFA in dance from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1994.
He founded Tony Silva Dance and Music in 1996. He has performed and taught dance in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, California, Texas and at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Silva developed a Contact Improvisation based technique of Modern Dance Partnering that he worked with for 18 years, and taught the technique at Dance Space Center in New York City for four years.
Tony Silva Dance and Music's last performances were September 15 and 16, 2001. The streets of lower Manhattan were foggy with the smoke of the burning towers. They performed 20 blocks north of ground zero four days after the attack. (More about that concert)
| Tony is grateful to all the wonderful people that helped make his dances possible. Thanks especially to the dancers (listed below) who generously brought their talents, experience and creativity every rehearsal and performance. Thanks to the funders without whom none of our performances would have been possible. Tony also thanks his teachers who invested their time and energy into his success. |
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Tony Silva and Danica Holoviak in "Together" 1997
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| Tony Silva in his first dance performance, Dorris Ressell's "Creation Myth" spring 1986. |
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Career Notes
Tony Silva first took an interest in dance as a child in New York City when he studied East Indian dance with teacher Vija Vetra (click here for a 2001 photo or Bio - Movie).
Tony's next encounter with dance wasn't until thirteen years later in 1983 when he took an Afro American studies class, Dance and Ethnicity with Joy Gresham at UMass, Amherst. Thinking originally that it would be a theory class, Tony was surprised when drummer Joe Platz showed up and the next thing he knew he was in the middle of an African Dance class.
He went on to study more African dance with such greats as Pearl Primus and Eno Washington, but soon found he was more at home in Modern Dance class. In 1984 he took a workshop in Contact Improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith, and one in Dance Improvisation with Richard Bull and his company at Hampshire College. Those classes provided the key inspiration that set him on his creative path as a dance maker.
In Spring semester of 1987 his improvisation teacher Susan Waltner encouraged Tony to submit a piece for the student concert. Silva created the solo "Take Flight" to the music of Peter Gabriel. He met Sarah Cary and started making contact-based duets, at first using Gabriel's music again, but then Tony decided to use his own music for dance and created "Spiral Cycle" with Sarah Cary, performed at Hampshire college winter 1987. Since then he choreographed almost exclusively to his own musical compositions.
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| Tony Silva was a founding member of "In Good Company" (Danica Phelps artistic director), an improvisation group based in Amherst, MA, from 1990-93. The group also included Anne Symms, Dylan Star Berkey and Ellen Kaz.
In 1992 "In Good Company" created a series of site-specific performances at four locations around the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts. Silva produced an hour long video called "Dancing Downtown" that chronicled the performances. Major support for the project was provided by The Union Video Center and the UMass Arts Council.
Tony Silva was the first student in the UMass dance department to produce his own concert (April 14 & 15,1993). "Tony Silva and Friends" was a 2 hour show at Hampden Theater, UMass. It featured live vocal performances by Kim Zombik and Corrine Paquin, that blended with the dances.
In 1994 Tony Silva's duet with Elizabeth Della Ratta, "Believing Me" won highest honors at the Northeast division of ACDFA. Through the support of the dance department and a UMass Arts Council grant, Liz and Tony were sent to Washington D.C. to perform at the Kennedy Center.
Tony moved back to his home town of New York City in the summer of 1994, where he was joined by his soon to be wife Michelle Marroquin.
As a dancer, Silva performed at DTW with David Dorfman Dance in Dorfman's 1996 Bessie Award winning “Familiar Movements: The Family Project,” along with his wife Michelle and grandmother Louise Cadby.
By 1996 Tony had developed a style of dance based on partnering that built on the principle that he first learned working with contact and dance improvisation. He became infatuated with the flow of momentum and how it could help dancers navigate through difficult lifts with ease.
He studied the architecture of the body's support structure, falling safely, breath support, counterbalance, and synchronized lifting. By assimilating this foundation material, he could maximize a dancer’s ability to lift and be lifted, and therefore dance in full three dimensionally. People's connection on stage was physical rather than theatrical, so the audience experienced something actually happening rather than something portrayed.
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| In 1994 Tony Silva's duet with Elizabeth Della Ratta, "Believing Me" won highest honors at the Northeast division of ACDFA. |
Tony Silva Dance and Music in 1998
Wen Shaun Yang, Danica Holoviak and Michelle Marroquin
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Rebecca Good joined the company in 1999. Brazilian dancer Renato Bertolino, was a guest artist with Tony Silva, Danica Holoviak, Wen Shaun Yang, Rebecca Good and Michelle Marroquin on tour from NYC to Hampshire College, MA.
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Tony was always interested in very physical dancing:
"I believe that our physical limitations are based in a large part on our perceived boundaries. My experience has shown that when a dancer spends time working at the edge of their perceived safety limits, they become comfortable in that state and their limits expand."
He founded his company "Tony Silva Dance and Music" (TSDM) on that philosophy in 1996, with fellow UMass alum Danica Holoviak. There first work "Together" was developed over a 7 month process. This became Silva's signature piece and defined his approach that he would use for the next 10 dances. Intricate partnering was painstakingly developed into long phrases that spilled out in an inevitable flow.
After many small showcases in New York and New Jersey, Silva self-produced a concert with XYPOLITUS Dance Theater at the Murce Cunningham's studio theater. At this concert he premiered two new pieces The Three Graces, with Danica Holoviak, Wen Shaun Yang and Michelle Marroquin, and Boys will be Men" with Esteban Cárdenas, Paul Matteson, Francisco Rider, Tony Silva and Mark Stuver.
1999 proved to be Tony's most prolific year with the development and performance of five new pieces. He made a dance with his seven year old niece Gwendolyn Stegall called "Gwendolyn and the Giant."
Rebecca Good joined the company in the summer of 1999. She helped Silva create the duet "Toomai" based on characters from Rudyard Kipling's "Toomai of the Elephants" from the Jungle Book. Good also collaborated with Tony Silva and Susan Lamberth on "Hunger" for The 42 Street Deli Dance Festival.
In the Fall of 1999, the company created "RUSH!" Guest dancer Renato Bertolino and the full company (shown on left) helped create the work though guided improvisations and a few scattered phrases choreographed by Silva.
in 2000 Silva created Duets for Small Spaces, a round-robin of 4 duets that take place in a 12 foot square of rope. This series of dances were created with the original company of Danica Holoviak, Wen-Shuan Yang and Rebecca Good. It was later adapted for a new cast.
In August of 2000, the company presented "Air Born," at University Settlement, as a part of the New York International Fringe Festival. The concert featured four of Tony's recent dances and three videos with sound scores composed by Silva.
In 2001, both Rebecca Good and Wen Shuan Yang left the company and TSD&M held it's first audition. Six fantastic dancers spent two days with the company, working on improvisation and set partnering phrases. Two dancers stood out as being perfect for the company's material. Geraldine Cardiel and Kelly Hayes joined Tony Silva Dance and Music in 2001, with Danica Holoviak and Tony Silva for the company's final performances.
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The performances of "Into the Blue" were scheduled for September 15, and 16, 2001, at the Murce Cunningham Studio Theater in lower Manhattan. The concert was to be a retrospective of Silva's dances ranging from 1995 to 2001. Guest artists DeFacto Dance were also scheduled to perform.
Then, four days before the show opened, came the September 11th attacks.
Tony recalls 9/11
"I woke up in my Brooklyn apartment and got ready to go to the final studio rehearsal before tech and performances. I turned on the radio, and a man was saying that he had just seen a plane crash into the World Trade Center. I turned on the television just in time to see the second plane crash into the other tower.
I figured the trains would not be running, so I jumped into my car and headed for rehearsal across town. It was the most perfect day out. The sun was shining, but it wasn't too hot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. . . except for a dense black streak across the sky. Like a highway of smoke, flowing from the burning buildings.
As I drove, it wasn't hard to trace the smoke to the towers clearly visible across the river. The news told of a third attack in Washington. It seemed the world was coming to an end, but I had to get to rehearsal just in case anyone showed up.
When I arrived, I found that everyone was there.
We didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say, but somehow as a group we decided we needed to dance. So for 45 minutes, while all the horror was happening in lower Manhattan, nine dancers had a deep, but highly agitated improvisation.
We finally stopped and decided we had to go find our loved ones. One of the dancers lived on the lower east side and couldn't cross the bridge to get home to her sick boyfriend. My wife and most of my family were in Manhattan and it was quite a while before I could account for everyone. It was a mess, but we somehow got through that day."
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The Shortest Distance Between Nine Points (2001)
Improvisation with De Facto Dance.
Performed at Into the Blue |
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"As a group it was decided to go ahead with the performances of Into the Blue, even though it meant having to cross state police and military blockades at 14th street to get to tech rehearsals. There was a grim faced state policeman with riding boots at the barricade. We him the postcard for the show, which luckily had a photo of us on the cover. I think it helped to lighten the moment because he let us pass.
I grew-up in Greenwich Village, in Westbeth where the concert was to take place. I watched the towers being built out my 9th floor bedroom window over the course of five years. That was my old neighborhood. Now, it was foggy and desolate, with few people and no cars.
We did what needed to be done to make the show happen. It was stressful for everyone, but I think we all felt we needed to do something and this was the something we could do. The energy of the disaster infused into our work. We didn't block it out, we were present with it. We had no choice about that. It was in the very air we breathed.
The shows were on the 15th and 16th, 2001, at the Murce Cunningham Studio Theater. With the smell of the burning towers heavy in the air, dancers performed and audience came to watch. For some it was a healing ritual. Others left because the work triggered emotions that were too overwhelming. But, we all participated, and for me that is a deeply important affirmation."
- Tony Silva on 9/11
Those were the last performances for the company. Tony Silva Dance and Music disbanded and Silva moved to Northampton Massachusetts, were he lives with his wife Michelle Marroquin and cat, Mochi. He works as a dance accompanist and composer. He also runs a graphic design business.
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Tony Silva - History of Choreography
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Into the Blue (2001)
Choreographed and Performed by Geraldine Cardiel, Kelly Hayes,
Danica Holoviak and Tony Silva under the direction of Tony Silva
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Costumes by Mindy Nelson
Lighting by Chris Hudacs
"Into the Blue" is an adventure which takes four dancers on a journey fraught with uncertain risk. They are dependent on each other to overcome obstacles and danger as they are compelled forward into the unknown.
For more about the Into the Blue concert click here.
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The Shortest Distance Between Nine Points (2001)
Improvisation Directed by De Facto Dance with input from Tony Silva
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by:
Tony Silva Dance & Music Geraldine Cardiel, Kelly Hayes,
Danica Holoviak, Tony Silva and Wen-Shuan Yang
De Facto Dance Kelly Donovan, Meg Fry, Aggie Postman
and Lee Shapley
Lighting by Chris Hudacs
"The Shortest Distance Between Nine Points" is an improvisational collaboration between Tony Silva Dance & Music and De Facto Dance. Using the technique of improvisational choreography developed by the late Richard Bull, the two companies merge to create an ensemble work that equals more than the sum of its parts.
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 Duets for Small Spaces, Summer 2000
Choreography by Tony Silva with input from the dancers
Music by Tony Silva
Performed by
Rebecca Good and Tony Silva - Duet #1
Tony Silva and Danica Holoviak - Duet #2
Danica Holoviak and Wen-Shuan Yang - Duet #3
Wen-Shuan Yang and Rebecca Good - Duet #4
Costumes by Danica Holoviak
Lighting by Januz Jaworski
"Duets for Small Spaces” is a series of 4 dances, each constrained within a 12’ x 12’ space and time of exactly 5 minutes. The pieces are personal and range from intimate touch to intense high speed partnering. The work explores different aspects of relationship including harmony, discord, synergy and support.
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Rush!, Fall 1999
Choreography by Tony Silva with input from the dancers
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Renato Bertolino, Rebecca Good, Danica Holoviak, Tony Silva and Wen-Shuan Yang
Photo by Frank Ward
"Rush!" takes place in a world of people too busy to notice each other. A tiny gap opens in the form of a momentary daydream and tension melts as connections are made.
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Toomai (1999)
Choreography by Tony Silva with input from Rebecca Good
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Rebecca Good and Tony Silva
Lighting by Januz Jaworski
Based on characters from Rudyard Kipling's "Toomai of the Elephants" from the Jungle Book.
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Hunger (1999)
Choreography by Tony Silva in collaboration with the dancers
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Rebecca Good, Susan Lamberth and Tony Silva
Lighting by Januz Jaworski
Background Video by Tony Silva
"Hunger" is a pseudo Butoh piece based on impressions of Butoh performances by Sankai Juku and others.
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Expedition, Winter 1999
Choreography by Tony Silva in collaboration with the dancers
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Danica Holoviak, Tony Silva and Wen-Shuan Yang
Lighting by Eva J. Pinney
An adventure of exploration captured in dance.
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 Gwendolyn and the Giant, Winter 1999
Choreography by Tony Silva in collaboration with Gwendolyn Stegall
Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Gwendolyn Stegall and Tony Silva
Lighting by Eva J. Pinney
7 year-old Gwendolyn Stegall makes her professional dance debut as a lost child who finds a friend in an oversized companion.
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 The Three Graces, Spring 1998
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
with Susan Poliniak and Katy Elevitch Voice
Liz Claire Violin, David Conrad Cello
Performed by Danica Holoviak, Michelle Marroquín and Wen-Shuan Yang
Costumes by Albert Sakhai
Lighting by Chris Dalos
Set in a mythical landscape, this action packed work mixes elements of ancient iconography with a modern physicality. These contemporary Graces are still able to express their feminine sensuality while performing as strong and competitive members of a group. These Three Graces demonstrate determination, strength and action.
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 Boys Will Be Men, Spring 1998
Group Improvisation Directed by Tony Silva
Music, Sounds and Voices by Tony Silva
Performed by Esteban Cárdenas, Paul Matteson, Francisco Rider, Tony Silva and Mark Stuver
Costumes by Albert Sakhai
Lighting by Chris Dalos
"Boys will be Men" (an improvisation for five men), was originally created with a different cast in 1993 for “Offerings” at Hampden Theater in Massachusetts. The dancers in the recent version all had an extensive and varied background in improvisation. The challenge was to find a way of working where each dancer could draw upon their skills and experience yet still function as part of a unified piece. A series of loose structures and exercises was used in rehearsals, but in performance the dancers were free to work without structures.
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 Together, Spring 1997
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Danica Holoviak and Tony Silva
Costumes by Albert Sakhai
Lighting by Chris Dalos
"Together" is a physical exploration of the interface between the human and animal aspects of people. Set in a dreamlike soundscape, the characters phase back and forth between creatures and people, between a single being and two in a relationship, between lovers and fighters. On a journey through an abstract narrative, they are always together.
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 Anxiety Dream, Spring 1995
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva
Performed by Geraldine Cardiel (photo)
Performed originally by Elizabeth Della Ratta
Costume by Albert Sakhai
Lighting by Chris Hudacs
This solo was created in DTW’s Bessie Schönberg choreography workshop in the Fall of 1995. The most important thing I learned from Bessie was to see my work for what it is rather than what I think it is or want it to be. Much thanks to Elizabeth Della Ratta, the original soloist.
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 Believing Me, Spring 1994.
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Elizabeth Della Ratta and Tony Silva
Costumes by Tony Silva
Selected from over 50 pieces at the Northeast ACDFA, to be performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
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| OTHER DANCES BY TONY SILVA:
Court, Fall 1998.
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva (Listen)))
Performed by Esteban Cardenas, Danica Holoviak, Michelle Marroquín, Tony Silva and Wen-Shuan Yang
Costumes by Albert Sakhai
In the Belly of the Whale, Spring 1993.
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva
Performed by Elizabeth Della Ratta, Eric Kale, Galois Cohen, Brian Dawbin, Lynn Calahan and Shaun Curtin
Props by Tony Silva
Lines in Space, Spring 1993.
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva
Performed by Tony Silva
Boys will be Men, Spring 1993.
Choreography by Tony Silva
Music by Dead Can Dance
Performed by Shaun Curtin, Brian Dawbin, Christopher Johnson, Eric Kaiel and Tony Silva,
Daughters of the Moon, Spring 1992.
Choreography and Music by Tony Silva
Live Vocals by Martin Fisher, Corinne Paquin, Tony Silva and Kim Zomik
Performed by Michelle Marroquin, Lynn Strauss and Stacey Woodland
Angst Losbinden, Fall 1990
Choreographed and Performed by Thomas Mouk and Tony Silva
Spiral Cycle, Fall 1987.
Choreographed and Performed by Sarah Cary and Tony Silva
Music by Tony Silva
First Step, Fall 1987.
Choreographed and Performed by Sarah Cary and Tony Silva
Music by Peter Gabrial
Take Flight - Solo, Spring 1987.
Choreographed and Performed by Tony Silva
Music by Peter Gabrial
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GRANTS AND FUNDRAISING
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SUPPORT |
Into the Blue
September 15 and 16, 2001
Final concert for Tony Silva Dance and Music w/ guests De Facto Dance. |
Significant support from Private Donors. |
Air Born
August 6-25, 2000
Concert. |
Significant support from Private Donors. |
Two Tone
Spring 1998
Concert with XIPOLITUS at Cunningham. |
Significant support from Private Donors. |
National ACDFA
Spring 1994
Brought winning piece to Dance Festival. |
UMass Department of Arts & Humanities.
Friends of Dance. |
ACDFA
Spring 1994
Brought UMass to Dance Festival. |
UMass Arts Council.
Friends of Dance.
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Dancers' Video Night
Spring 1993 |
UMass Arts Council. |
Offerings
Spring 1993
Concert with Tony Silva & Friends. |
UMass Arts Council.
Significant in-kind support from Residential Arts. |
In Good Company
Dancing Downtown
Fall 1992
1 hour documentary of site-specific dance improvisation performances under the direction of Danica Phelps. |
UMass Arts Council.
Five Colleges Inc.
Significant in-kind support from The Union Video Center. |
Omni Arts Fair
Spring 1988
Multi-diciplinary arts fair featuring sculpture, painting, dance, theater and music. |
UMass Arts Council. |
SCHOLARSHIPS
Chancellor's Talent Award (full tuition waver for UMass), Fall 1991 - Fall 1993.
Harvard Summer Dance Program (Technical scholarship), Summer 1992.
EDUCATION
University of Massachusetts (and the Five Colleges) - BFA Dance 1994.
Harvard Summer Dance Program - 1992.
Workshops: Contact Improvisation, Choreography, Dance Improvisation.
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