About
Martha Bowers is an artist, choreographer, educator, producer and arts administrator renowned for her work in site-specific performance and for using the arts as a tool for social change and community development. With a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, she is a part-time faculty member at New York University’s Gallatin School and Tisch Under-graduate Drama Department where she focuses on the intersection of art and activism through the site-specific performance, community arts practices, and youth development.
Martha began her professional career as a dancer when she was hired by the federally funded NYC CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) Artists Project and performed and taught dance throughout NYC’s five boroughs from 1977-1980. As a dancer, she has performed in works by Mitchell Rose, Harry Streep III, June Finch and Catherine Turocy’s New York Baroque Dance Company. She formed her company Dance Theatre Etcetera in the 1980’s and presented concert dance works at various NYC dance venues such as Dance Theatre Workshop, PS 122, Danspace Project, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Taipei Theatre, Celebrate Brooklyn, City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage, as well as on tour both nationally and internationally. From 1993 onwards her work as a director and choreographer focused on the creation of large scale, site-specific performances created both nationally and internationally, which were peopled by diverse casts of professional artists and community members.
Martha is the Founding Executive Director of Hook Arts Media (formerly Dance Theatre Etcetera), an organization recognized for making the arts a critical component of urban renewal efforts in Red Hook, Brooklyn for over 30 years. She was also the Executive Producer of the annual Red Hook Fest from 1994 to 2024. She has received numerous accolades for her work, including the BAXten Arts & Artists in Progress Award for arts education, a Certificate of Merit from the Municipal Art Society of New York which recognizes “people, places, organizations and momentous events that have, in our view, made an exceptional contribution to the life of New York City”, and choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council for the Arts and the Foundation for Performance Arts as well as many commissions for new work from Dancing in the Streets, MASS MoCA, Institute for Choreography and Dance/Cork, Ireland among others.
Martha’s essays on site-specific, community-based performance have been published in various outlets, including the Community Arts Network and a book on site-specific dance edited by Melanie Kloetzel and Carolyn Pavlik.
Mentors
María Benítez
Maria Benitez (1942-2024) was professional dancer and choreographer who is renowned for her contributions to the world of Flamenco dance both in the USA and abroad. She and her husband, Cecilio Benitez, founded the company Teatro Flamenco. Maria performed throughout the Americas and Europe and choreographed for the Metropolitan Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, the Dallas Opera and many more. In 2006, Maria received Spain’s most prestigious award, (La Cruz de Isabel la Catolica) in recognition for her extraordinary commitment to Spanish Arts. She is noted for making New Mexico a capital of Flamenco dance both nationally and internationally.
I had the great good luck to study with Maria while attending the Verde Valley HS in Sedona, Arizona. Having Maria as my dance teacher was life changing. She shared her passion for dance, her rigor as a practicing dance professional, and her skills as an inspiring teacher. Because of her, I went on to become a professional dancer and choreographer, though most definitely not as a Flamenco dancer! Most memorable of all was Maria’s ability to make a creative space for all her Verde Valley students, from many different backgrounds and cultures, where we learned to love and respect each other. “People” was how she addressed us- and then we’d line up to bumble our way through the Spanish folk dance, The Jota, or assemble at the ballet barre, or exit her home when a party had gone on too long! Thank you for everything Maria- dance on!
For more about Maria Benitez
Bessie Schonberg
Bessie Schonberg (1906-1997) was one of America’s most influential teachers of dance composition and a mentor to several generations of dancers. The annual NYC Dance and Performance awards, The Bessies, are named after her. I had the good fortune to study with her while at Sarah Lawrence College in the 1970’s. For years after she retired from Sarah Lawrence, and after I graduated, we remained friends. I counted her as one of my most important mentors and always appreciated her comments on and critiques of my work as well as her steady encouragement of my career as a choreographer. She was wise, compassionate and always knew how to give just the right advice to choreographers as they developed their work. I was deeply appreciative that she often made the long trip from her home in Bronxville, New York into the City to attend my concerts and site-specific events. My favorite comment from her on my work, “Your dances are so plebeian.” Thank you, Bessie! For more about Bessie Schonberg
“I have worked with Martha on; a duet she created for us, two Red Hook site-specific works she directed and a trip to Ireland where we performed and taught. What has always impressed me is how she makes worlds by bringing together “everyday” people and professional artists to do things that have emotional depth. I have met artists whom I have continued to work with because of Martha. Working with her got me to move out of my comfort zone and, by her working in various culturally diverse communities, I know she has also learned and been challenged in her own comfort zones, to do what she does. Her work is the people.”
– Hank Smith: interdisciplinary performance artist, dancer, director / choreographer, tap historian
C.V.
Download CV here.