Dawn Fay Oral History, 2021

Interview over Zoom with Dawn Fay conducted by Julia Wilkinson-Manley. Dawn Fay is a native of Memphis, TN. She received her professional training at the North Carolina School of the Arts followed by dancing with Ballet Oklahoma, Miami City Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and Ballet Memphis. During her 20 years of performing she has performed classical works such as Nureyev’s Don Quixote, Fleming Flindt’s La Sylphide as well as in Giselle, Cinderella, and Coppelia. Her contemporary work includes pieces by Garrett Ammon, Trey McIntyre, Jiri Kylian, Choo San Goh, and Lila York, among others. She was a founding member of the Trey McIntyre Project and has staged his work for the Trey McIntyre Project, the Washington Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Ballet Augsburg, and Smuin Ballet. She was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.” For the past seven years she has served as the President of Denver-based dance company Wonderbound after serving as the Producing Director. She is the operational leader, fundraiser, architect of community programming, and also collaborates creatively with her husband Artistic Director Garrett Ammon. She spearheads Wonderbound’s community engagement including work with 20,000 Title 1 public school children and a program through St. Francis Center in Denver for the homeless. Her diligence and hard work kept Wonderbound afloat during Covid with continued full-time employment and health care for all 18 employees while also enabling the production of over 120 video shorts distributed at no cost to public schools and the public at large. During the pandemic she led the fundraising drive to purchase a building as a new, permanent home for the company. She was recently invited to join the International Women’s Forum, Colorado Chapter, an invitation-only organization with 7,000 diverse members from 33 nations.