William Byram

Trinity Laban Postgraduate Award in Music & Dance - Dance

William Byram, born in Jackson, Mississippi, graduated from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College in 2020 with a BFA in Dance. During his time at Purchase, he choreographed the first large-scale collaboration between the Conservatories of Music and Dance for the mainstage opera production of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas. This production received 2nd place in the 2020 National Opera Association Competition. His work has been performed at Dancers Responding to AIDS and Jazz Choreography Enterprises. This summer, he will be presented at the Battery Dance Festival in downtown NYC. William will pursue an MFA in Choreography at Trinity Laban. His proposed thesis project will be a movement theater piece focused on male fragility and aggression, exploring how they manifest in the body. The narrative for the work is adapted from a 1999 Human Rights Watch interview on men’s experiences with sexual assault. He also hopes to learn about British etiquette and discover the similarities between his Southern upbringing and culture. Upon return to the U.S., William plans to pursue a career in higher education dedicated to deconstructing gender in the classical arts and as a movement director/choreographer committed to access and exposure to the arts in the American South.