Tobacco Road Dance Productions

Tobacco Road Dance Productions, or TRDP, is a dance organization and production company based in Durham, North Carolina. The organization provides a mentorship program, workshop and rehearsal space, and production and performance opportunities for local dancers and choreographers in the Research Triangle.
History
Tobacco Road Dance Productions was founded in 2013 by Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck, a dance graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and William Commander, a dance graduate from Elon University. The organization was founded as a means to provide an opportunity for local contemporary dance artists to create work and present it to the community. Tobacco Road began with a six-month season hosting workshops and panel meetings with choreographers who had been offered residency to provide feedback on their work. At the end of the season, Tobacco Road would produce a dance concert to showcase the choreographers' works.
In 2018 Jess Shell and Lindsay Winthrop, both MFA dance graduates from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, took over leadership as co-directors and co-owners of Tobacco Road after Woodbeck and Commander announced the possibility of ending the project. Under their leadership, Tobacco Road changed it's season from six months to nine months.
In January 2019, Indy Week listed the Tobacco Road dance concert in its Top 15 Theater and Dance Shows of 2018.
Mission
Tobacco Road hosts an artistic panel, consisting of new panelists each season, that provides feedback to choreographers who are producing work through the organization. Choreographers who are selected via an application process and are given residency for a nine-month season. The concert provides a free venue, theatrical designers, technicians, and stage crew for choreographers in residence.<ref name= indy/>

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