André W. Tyson is a former Principal Dancer and Company Teacher with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. His affiliation with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation began as a scholarship student in 1980 and continued through 1994. Mr. Tyson became a member of the Foundation’s two junior companies, Ailey 3 (1980) and Ailey 2 (1982) and performed with the main company from 1985-1994. Presently, Tyson is Assistant Dean at the California Institute of the Arts Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance. As a faculty member he teaches Contemporary Technique (Levels I-IV), Pilates (Mat I-II and Reformer II), Jazz and Repertory. Tyson supervises Production Crewing for SDL School of Dance concerts and serves as a Peer Advisor for the dance department. Tyson is also an Admissions Recruiter for the program. Prior to joining the team at CalArts, Tyson was an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts Department of Dance from1998-2008. Throughout his career he has studied with a range of distinguished master teachers. His ongoing quest for excellence is evidence of commitment to his personal growth as an artist and a belief that such commitment is reflected in the devotion and instruction he provides his students. Creative expression as manifested in the expansion of physical and artistic boundaries, reflects Tyson’s proactive approach to his career development and concomitantly enriches his ability to create, instruct and inspire.

The list of master teachers with whom Tyson has studied is a long and distinguished one, including Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, James Truite, Ana Marie Forsythe and Milton Myers in the Horton Technique. Graham Technique was studied with Pearl Lang, Dudley Williams, Denise Jefferson, Pat Thomas, Penny Frank and Carol Fried, while ballet was learned under the tutelage of Fred Danielle, Kyne Franks, Michael Vernon, Robert Christopher, Delores Brown, Homer Bryant, Gabriella Taub-Darvash and Walter Raines. Tyson broadened his expertise by studying jazz with Nat Horne, Fred Benjamin, Alvin McDuffie, Jose Meir, Cecilia Marta, Suzie Taylor and Jerome Robbins and Dunham Technique/African dance with Joan Peters, Lavinia Williams and Katherine Dunham. To further strengthen the command of his craft, Tyson acquired extensive training in somatic applications. Pilates method was studied with Romana Kryzankowska a protégé of Joseph H. Pilates and co-owner/founder of Power Pilates /New York, NY, Susan Moran-Perish and Master Instructor Phoebe Higgins. Floor barre a terre technique was developed with Master Teacher Zena Romett and technique innovators Diane Grumet and Pam Prisbisco. In 1985 with a personal invitation from Alvin Ailey, Tyson joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company.

Tyson has choreographed more than 50 works. Notably, he has created works for a broad range of companies such as Ailey III, Ailey II, Dance Compass, Brooklyn Dance Theater, Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Company, Premiere Dance Theatre, Milwaukee Dance Connection, City Ballet Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet II, Dance Wisconsin, Ballet Forder Zentrum /Nuremberg, Germany, Dance Point /Osaka, Japan and de Theaterschool Jazz Dance Company /Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

In 1982 Tyson was the recipient of a New Jersey State Council of the Arts Fellowship Grant for choreography. He served as an assistant to Talley Beatty in the restaging of his work The Road of the Phoebe Snow on Ailey 2, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Company 1985-1990. He also assisted Mr. Beatty during the restaging of his The Stack Up on the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company for the American Dance Festival in 1988. In 1994, Tyson was invited to participate as a guest choreographer at the prestigious Carlisle Project. He was the featured choreographer for Toenails of Steel & Ruby Red Text, a program produced as part of the 20th anniversary season for the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center in Brooklyn, New York in 1996. Here his work, Lost Boyz, was presented as part of a collaborative project of other black gay and lesbian composers, poets and choreographers under the Artistic Direction of Ron K. Brown. He restaged Alvin Ailey’s Sinner Man and Mean Ole’ Frisco for the 65th Anniversary Celebration of Men Dancers at Jacob’s Pillow in 1997. Most recently, Tyson restaged Talley Beatty’s Come And Get The Beauty Of It Hot for the University of South Florida School of Theater and Dance, collaborating with former Ailey dancer John Parks.

Tyson was selected to choreograph Chancellor Nancy Zimpher’s Inaugural Celebration at UW-Milwaukee in 1999. While in Milwaukee he developed an affiliation with Ko-Thi Dance Company, one of the country’s pre-eminent independent companies focused on works of African and Afro-Caribbean origin. In 2000 Tyson performed as a Guest Artist and served as Creative Consultant for the company. Tyson went on to receive a grant from the Alvin Ailey Dancer’s Resource Fund that same year. In 2003 he received a grant from the UW-Milwaukee Arts and Humanities Award Program and choreography for the University’s Viennese Ball in 2004.

Tyson expanded his choreographic talents to musical theater with a very successful and well reviewed restaging of Ain’t Misbehavin for the Skylight Opera that same year. He was a 1999, 2005 and 2006 recipient of a grant from the Faculty Development Fund of the UW-Milwaukee PSOA Department of Dance. Recent choreographic endeavors include Juke Joint a second collaborative offering with Ko-Thi Dance Company under the musical direction of Milwaukee Jazz legend Berkley Fudge. He followed that with the creation of Armatrading a poignant work set to music of Joan Armatrading at UW-Milwaukee PSOA Sketch Pad and Personal IMPERATIVES for AAADT /Joan Weill Center for Dance 2005. Additionally, Tyson presented the world premiere of awt@vestiges.com for The Milwaukee Ballet, a work using digital media that deals with society’s interdependency with technology. Prior to leaving UW-Milwaukee he created Organic Algorithms and The Permanence of Goldfish.

In 2010 he created Sketch Pad Book 2: Impulses 2008 and fEnDiNg at the California Institute of the Arts. That same year, Tyson participated in Conversation With A Choreographer, part of the Pasadena Dance Theater Choreographers Masters Series and created a new work Rumours. This was a very unique choreographic endeavor in which, over the course of three weekends, PDT challenged three different choreographers, each from a different dance genre, to create an original dance work in only twelve hours using the same ten dancers, each work lasting the same eight to twelve minutes with music picked from a lottery of musical scores. In 2011 Mr. Tyson restaged Treading in the 2nd Mind for Irvine Valley Community College, Irvine, CA and Florida State College at Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL.

With more than 30 years of experience, Tyson has taught at studios throughout the New York Tri-state area as well as respected studios across the country and the globe. He has taught at such internationally renowned dance festivals as the International Sommerakademie des Tanzes in Koln, Germany in 1997 and 1999 and the International Tanz Wochen in Vienna, Austria in 1996. As a company teacher at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1985-1994, Tyson conducted lecture demonstrations and master classes for residency programs. He continues as both a guest instructor at the school and guest company teacher. Teaching at Smith College, Wake Forest University, Ballet Forder Zentrum, the University of South Carolina, Ballet Tennessee, Milwaukee Ballet School, de Theaterschool Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten and the North Carolina School of the Arts, Tyson functioned as a member of the Contemporary Dance Faculty. He taught all levels of contemporary dance (Horton and Graham based techniques), Pilates method, jazz, floor barre a terre, contemporary partnering, and choreographic workshops. Additionally, he served as an artistic advisor to the dance student body at each respective institution. He has taught summer workshop intensives for CalArts CSSSA Program 2009, Hubbard Street Dance Company Los Angeles 2010, 2011 and Bates Dance Festival 2011. He continues to broaden his range as a certified Pilates instructor and teaches the Pilates method locally and nationally. Since 2004 Tyson has visited Napoli, Roma, Pescara, Teramo and Olbia, (Sardegna) Italy where he conducted well-attended Contemporary Stages.

Throughout his career, Tyson has evidenced a commitment to community service. He is firmly committed to making dance accessible to everyone and has done numerous master classes and residencies in New Jersey, Boston and Milwaukee Public Schools. Tyson seeks to cultivate and help broaden the scope of artistic exposure for minority and inner city children and serves as a mentor to young students of color. Upon arriving in Milwaukee, Tyson immediately became involved in community outreach teaching master classes and special workshops at Marquette High School, St. Joan Antida High School, Roosevelt Middle School and the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. Most recently, he conducted a master class for Immersion Dance Workshop Milwaukee, WI. Tyson also served as Artistic Coordinator, Rehearsal Director and Company Teacher for City Ballet Theatre, a Milwaukee based modern dance company. Tyson supervises the dance component of the CalArts Community Arts Partnership program at the Lula Washington Dance School in Los Angeles, CA. He is a founding member of WE CARE, an organization formed in 1991 to assist members of the Alvin Ailey organization who have been affected by catastrophic illness and has produced and directed several successful fund raising benefits. For more than 20 years Tyson has maintained a vibrant on-going presence and involvement with AIDS Walk NYC, AIDS Dance-A-Thon NYC, AIDS Walk Wisconsin and AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

Tyson's career reflects work and collaboration with a stellar roster of dancers, choreographers, composers and directors in both live and recorded performances. Tyson performed as a soloist in Osaka, Japan in 1995. He was a guest artist with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, A Tribute to Judith Jamison 10th Anniversary Celebration /New York, NY in 1999 and Ko-Thi Dance Company, Art In Motion /Harvest in 2000. Tyson performed with Allyson Green Dance, In The Name New York, NY in 2001. He is also a former member of Complexions Dance Company, an exciting young company under the creative direction of Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, two fellow Ailey alumni. He has performed several works by Mr. Rhoden, notably Interiors at Symphony Space New York, NY in 1995 and Cake at the Joyce Theater New York, NY in 1997. In 2005, he performed as a guest artist at Long Island University Faculty Dance Concert. He appeared as a performer and choreographed an episode of the new NBC show Parenthood in 2010.

For the past several years Tyson has combined a full teaching schedule with a successful range of international performances across Europe and Asia. He appeared in a feature article in the March 2005 edition of Dancer Magazine: An Interview with Professor Dancer Andre Tyson by Yvonne Houston, Dance Magazine College Guide College Dance=New Directions and Back Stage. He also conducted residencies at Long Island University and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater / Joan Weill Center for Dance. In 2006 Tyson completed his sabbatical project, a solo performance and collaborative choreographic retrospective concert: Recriminations & Recovery: Loose Confessions of an Ex Altar Boy at UW-Milwaukee PSOA Department of Dance. The work opens a dialogue with the audience on the theme of justice as it relates to identity, race, sexuality, art and life. The work was met with positive response and enthusiastic reviews. Most recently he performed in Layla Means Night choreographed by CalArts colleague Rosanna Gamson at RedCat in Los Angeles, CA in 2011.

Tyson’s position as Assistant Dean at the California Institute of the Arts Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance provides him with exciting new challenges that nourish him as an artist, administrator and an educator. Exploring stimulating career opportunities as well as new artistic frontiers color and heighten not only his life as a creator, performer, educator, but like a pebble in a pond, ripple outward to influence and enhance the lives of his students and the dance community. The synergy and synchronicity of the art of dance is made manifest daily in the dance between teacher and student, choreographer and dancer, colleague and colleague, and college and community. These relationships, like art, are organic and evolving. Tyson remains committed to sharing his talents and giving back to the art form he loves and that has been such a force for good in his life and the lives of so many others.