Aszure Barton is a prolific creator whose dance work has been equated to “watching the physical unfurling of the human psyche” by the US National Endowment for the Arts. Born in Canada, she started tap dancing at the age of three and has been making dances for as long as she can remember. Her works have been performed on countless stages throughout the world, including the Palais Garnier, Mariinsky Theater, The Kennedy Center, Studio 54, Lincoln Center, and Sadler’s Wells, as well as in museums and exhibits, such as the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. She has choreographed for theater, film, and opera, including Broadway.

Early in her career, she founded Aszure Barton & Artists | AB&A in order to build an autonomous, interdisciplinary, and collaborative ground for process-centered exploration. Born from rebellion and a desire to bring people together, she has cultivated this creative hub to expand beyond conventional choreographer-company structures, reshaping what it means to build a body of work into what she calls "a mobile home for trusted humans". Since its inception, she's been generating dance language with her AB&A crew while simultaneously creating commissions worldwide — all through a rigorous, collaborative process. AB&A serves as both waterhole and ever-stretching thread for this choreographer and her most trusted collaborators.

She has worked with celebrated artists and companies including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jessica Chastain, Misty Copeland, Alan Cumming, Cyndi Lauper, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Bayerisches Staatsballett, English National Ballet, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company, Hamburg Ballett, Martha Graham Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater, Sydney Dance Company, and Teatro alla Scala, among others. Last year, she premiered a new work (Mere Mortals) at San Francisco Ballet in collaboration with British electronic music producer/DJ Floating Points, longtime collaborator Michelle Jank, and mixed media artists Hamill Industries — the first evening-length work created by a woman in the company’s history, curated by Director Tamara Rojo. Aszure is also the current Resident Artist at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

Her latest artistic venture is a fertile collaboration with highly acclaimed trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire; the two premiered their first work titled A a | a B : B E N D at Germany’s largest production house, Kampnagel, and plan to tour it globally over the coming years with the partnership of Pomegranate Arts. Having produced numerous projects together to date, their creations have been described as "a refusal of categorization that also draw their appeal from the fact that two artists who are completely secure in their field playfully unsettle each other” (Tanz Magazine).

Aszure Barton continues to be an innovator of form, having contributed to an evolution of highly specialized dance and theater companies worldwide. Over the years, she has received accolades including a Bessie Award for her celebrated work Busk. She was the first Martha Duffy Resident Artist at Baryshnikov Arts and is a recipient of Canada’s prestigious Arts & Letters Award, joining the likes of Margaret Atwood, Karen Kain, and Oscar Peterson. A dual Canadian-American citizen, she is also an official ambassador of contemporary choreography in Canada. As an educator, she serves as creative partner with Boston Conservatory at Berklee and was formerly Artist-in-Residence at USC Kaufman during William Forsythe's tenure as artistic advisor. Her other longstanding educational collaborations include Canada's National Ballet School and Arts Umbrella, as well as The Juilliard School in New York.

“I believe that care transforms creation and can live at its center: care for those we create with and those we create for. Where there is care, there is patience and possibility."

- Aszure