Movers & Shapers: Adam Barruch

Adam Barruch began his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television, working with prominent figures such as Tony Bennett, Jerry Herman and Susan Stroman. He later received dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. After three years, he graduated early and was accepted into the dance department at The Juilliard School. As a dancer he has performed the works of Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Susan Marshall, Jose Limon, Daniele Dèsnoyers, and was a dancer with Sylvain Émard Danse in Montreal. He has also worked with The Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, performing and researching Conflict Transformation as part of The Legacy Project. Based in Brooklyn, Adam currently creates and performs work under the epithet of his own company, Anatomiae Occultii.

As a choreographer, Adam’s work has been presented at venues such as The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, City Center, NYU/ Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, The Juilliard School, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, Ailey-Citigroup Theater, The 92Y: Buttenweiser Hall, Jacob’s Pillow: Inside/Out, LaMaMa,The Cedar Lake Theater, Gina Gibney Dance Center, The Harris Theater, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Cowles Center, The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard, Bates Dance Festival and Theatre Usine C in Montreal. He has also taught technique and repertory at Princeton University, The Boston Conservatory, The Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program, Marymount Manhattan College, The Martha Graham School, The Hartt School, The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, New York University, Hofstra University, West Virginia University and La Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán (EPDM).

Adam Barruch was selected as a participant in the 2011 Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab made possible by generous support from the Ford Foundation. Adam Barruch’s short-film collaboration with filmmaker Nel Shelby, Folie a Deux, was screened at the Dance On Camera Festival in Lincoln Center in 2012. In June 2013, Adam performed a full-length evening solo work, My Name is Adam, at Joe’s Pub commissioned by DanceNOW NYC, and was a recipient of a Late Stage Production Stipend from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. In addition, he has also created works for companies such as Ailey II, Keigwin + Company, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, River North Dance Chicago, BalletX, Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, Graham II, GroundWorks Dance Theater and Minnesota Dance Theatre, as well as for dance icons Margie Gillis and Miki Orihara. Adam has also choreographed two music videos for Tokyo based musical act mishmash* and created movement for Variety Worldwide, whose projects combine non-traditional theater with nightlife and dining.

Adam was the recipient of a 2014 Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, which recognizes institutions and individuals for distinguished accomplishments and exceptional talent in the arts and sciences. In September 2015, Adam Barruch was the choreographer-in-residence at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara, California as part of the 2015 DANCEworks Residency. Adam Barruch was an artist-in-residence at the 92Y Harkness Dance Center in 2016-2017. He is currently working on a new physical theater production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.