Donald Byrd (he/him) is the Artistic Director of the Seattle based Spectrum Dance Theater, a TONY nominated (The Color Purple) and Bessie Award winning (The Minstrel Show) choreographer. He has created works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, The Joffrey Ballet among others; and worked extensively in theater and opera including The New York Public Theater, The 5th Avenue Theater, CenterStage (Baltimore), Seattle Opera, Dutch National Opera, The Atlanta Opera, The Israeli Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and San Francisco Opera. Awards, prizes, and fellowships include Doris Duke Artist Award, James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award, Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts (Cornish College of the Arts), Masters of Choreography Award (The Kennedy Center), Fellow at The American Academy of Jerusalem, James Baldwin Fellow of United States Artists, Resident Fellow of The Rockefeller Center Bellagio, Fellow at the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue (based at Harvard), Rainier Club Laureate, the Gordon Davidson Award (Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation) and the Mayor’s Arts Award for his sustained contributions to the City of Seattle.