Gary Masters (Founder and Co-Artistic Director) for sjDANCEco is the 2014 Isadora Duncan Awardee for Outstanding Achievement in Restaging/ Revival/Reconstruction for the company’s 2012 production of Joseé Limón ‘s The Moor’s Pavane and the 2007-8 Awardee for ‘Sustained Achievement’. He has been a Professor of Dance at San Josée State University since 2001. A graduate of the Julliard School, he has been associated with the Limón Dance Company/Foundation as Dancer, Artistic Associate, Reconstructor, Director of the Limón West Dance Project and the Limón Dance Company’s San Joseé Operations since 1969. He has been hailed by Dance Magazine as “…one of the most gifted performers in contemporary dance…” and his choreography as a “…dance with symbolism that may be seen as something deeply spiritual, a kind of seeking into the unknown…” Besides choreography for sjDANCEco, he has created work for the Limón Dance Company/NY, Limón West Dance Project/San Joseé, Diablo Ballet/Walnut Creek, Nashville Ballet, Dance Kaleidoscope/Indianapolis, Path Dance Company/Baltimore, Cabrillo Music Festival and Opera San Joseé. For more than a decade together with Fred Mathews, he directed the Mathews-Masters Dance Company/New York that toured the US, Canada and abroad. Other awards include Council Silicon Valley’s 2005 Artist Fellowship for Choreography and two National Endowment Choreography Fellowships.
What did the Fellowship or Laureate mean to you at the time you received it?
It meant that Dance and the artists creating and preserving the Art Form were vital to our community and to the quality of life that our city and region believes important.
What do you do now? Has your art evolved or changed?
I continue to teach, choreograph, and direct - hoping to inspire the next generation to continue their creative quest despite any obstacles that might get in their way. Go to our website and see how we keep the dance flame burning: www.sjdanceco.org
What is one piece of advice you would give to an emerging artist?
Embrace the world around you, be generous to others and persevere through your art!
Briefly, how would you describe the state of the arts locally, as well as national and beyond?
Not enough support!