A prolific creator who began by choreographing intensely physical, abstract dances, Dendy has worked in the cross-genres of modern and postmodern dance, ballet, performance art and theatre. Known for lacing brilliant dancing with corrosive satire, his pieces deliver their blows (satirizing politics and religion! mocking iconic works–and icons! flaunting the queer spirit!) with virtuosic craft and often with language. (The Bessie committee called his work "wicked alchemy of character and performance.") Whether he's mining Jerry Lee Lewis and Nijinsky, setting a piece to Renata Tebaldi, Phillip Glass or Judy Garland, or simultaneously paying homage to and skewering Martha Graham and psychoanalysis, Mark Dendy makes dances that goad as much as they do entertain.

"I'm interested in making dance plays–a hybrid of dance, theater, cabaret and mixed media. As I've shifted from the invention of stories and characters to drawing more from my own life, the work's gotten more vulnerable. As a non-linear storyteller, my plays spend as much time in fantasy and dream life as they do in 'real time.' I've been exploring how, individually and collectively, each of us have multiple spiritual, cultural and social histories, and, immersing myself in this material, hope to ultimately transcend it."