Tere O’Connor has been making dances since 1982 and founded his company, Tere O’Connor Dance, in 1985. He attended SUNY, Purchase, from 1976–80. Known for its distinctive vocabulary, his work includes abstract choreography, idiosyncratic gestures and, often, spoken texts. O’Connor has created over 30 works for his company and has produced dances for the Lyon Opera Ballet and White Oak Dance Project, among others. In 2003, he created a solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov entitled Indoor Man. He has been a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, since 2006. He has also curated dance at The Kitchen and Dance Theater Workshop in New York.