Creative Capital

Headlong Dance Theater

Amy Smith is a founder and co-director of Headlong Dance Theater. After double-majoring in dance and religion at Wesleyan University, she spent a year at the Center for New Dance Development in Holland, where she soaked up European New Dance. Besides her work with Headlong, Smith has performed in the work of Deborah Hay (lamb, lamb, lamb…), Ishmael Houston Jones (Specimens), and many others. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Dance/USA Board of Trustees, and spent several years working to create Dance/USA Philadelphia, a local service organization. She also serves on the board of the Canary Project, and helps artists and organizations with their tax preparation and financial planning. Smith lives with her husband and two children in a geodesic dome in the woods of southern New Jersey.

Andrew Simonet is a dancer, choreographer and co-director of Headlong Dance Theater. Following a background in theater, he stopped acting in college when he discovered dance. He studied dance at Wesleyan University and at the Center for New Dance Development in the Netherlands. In 2006, Simonet started Artists U, an intensive yearlong planning and professional development program for Philadelphia performing artists. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Elizabeth, their sons Jesse Tiger and Nico Wolf, and their needy dog Fran. Simonet is an artist leader in Creative Capital’s Professional Development Program.

David Brick, a co-director of Headlong Dance Theater, learned his first movement vocabulary through sign language. Many years of gymnastics gave way to modern dance when he entered college. Before starting Headlong with Andrew and Amy, he danced and toured with the Richard Bull Dance Theater, co-created Love Unpunished with Dan Rothenberg for Pig Iron Theatre Company, and directed Madame Douce Amere with the company Fins for Wings for 1812 Productions and the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Brick dances regularly for Nichole Canuso Dance Company and teaches contact improvisation at the Parlor and Dance Composition at Bryn Mawr College.