David Rousseve is a choreographer, writer, director and performer who makes evening length dance/theatre pieces which combine original non-linear narrative, engaged, propulsive movement and bursts of bold, poetic visual imagery. Creating work primarily for REALITY, his racially and sexually diverse troupe of seven performers, Rousseve draws upon what he calls the "accessibility and grit" of both traditional and pop African-American culture and his "downtown" sensibility. Just as he conjures his movement vocabulary from modern, classical, hip-hop and release techniques, so he weaves - and transforms - diverse audiences and the relation between movement, image and text. For Rousseve, the point of making work is to take himself, his dancers, and his audience, to places they might not, otherwise, be able to go.
"I am attempting to create a discourse with my audience on 'universal issues of the heart.' As such, the work is a coming together of gay, straight, Black, White, young and old. It is the 'offstage' process of watching diverse people come together and work intimately with those they might otherwise simply be afraid of, combined with the "on-stage" communication with the audience that is the most fulfilling and powerful aspect of my work."