hit the deck.(studies and accidents) (2006)
Commissioned for the 'Sourcing Stravinsky' Festival at Dance Theater Workshop, Neumann shared the concert with Rennie Harris, Linas Philips & Dayna Hanson, Cynthia Hopkins and Yvonne Rainer. Hit the deck is a 15-minute dance piece for people and chairs exploring the collision of chance operations and "dancing to music". An unpredictable series of musical and theatrical events sometimes relating to the music of Stravinsky with live piano accompaniment.

tough, the tough (2005)
Premiered at Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, April, 2005. Music and sound design by: Hal Hartley, Jane Shaw, Karinne Keithley, David Neumann, Justin Kawashima and The Pockets. Costumes by Miho Nikaido. Original text by Will Eno.
tough, the tough was made possible, in part, with funds from the Danspace Project 2004-2005 Commission Initiative with support from The Andrew Mellon Foundation. Additional support was provided by The Multi-Arts Production Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and by The Moore Family Fund for the Arts of The Minneapolis Foundation. It was developed, in part, during an Artward Bound residency program at White Oak Plantation sponsored by The Field and made possible through Dancenow/NYC – The Silo Project.

Sentence (2003)
Commissioned as a work in progress by the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris in 2001, receiving it's premiere in a three-week run at PS 122 in 2003.
Original sound design: David Neumann with Andy Russ and Flloyd Chambers
Text: Will Eno.
Described by the Village Voice as "One of the funniest, most beautiful pieces ever to appear at the Whitney..." 'Sentence is an adaptable sight-specific work of unpredictable events living on the cutting edge of contemporary dance.

Deep Six (2002)
Commissioned by the Celebrate Brooklyn! Fesival
Original music by: Justin Kawashima with Dave Philips (bass) and Gary Seligson (drums)
Based on a dream of drowning at sea, Deep Six "tells its story" through allusions to the hula form and seductive theatrical effects. Six dancers move with a reluctant samba and more deeply physical expressions as the dance descends calmly to its end.


So That You Could See Us Coming (2001)
Premiered at Symphony Space, NYC
Original music by Laurie Anderson
Imagine the dioramas of early man found in the Museum of Natural History come to life. Three hominids and the three graces interact in evolutions of eclectic movement themes that reveal our proximity to the animal kingdom. The animal we come from, the animal we are ashamed of, and the animals we anthropomorphize are evoked in a comparative movement structure from biology to mechanics: movement histories and movement futures combined.

Pearl River (2001)
Premiered at Context Studios, NYC; PS 122
A collaboration with Stacy Dawson for 8 performers that joyfully explodes the 70's kung fu genre film. Dubbing, combat, horse back riding and a deadly chopstick batlle are amoung some of the highlights of this downtown hit.

Oyinbo (2000)
Premiered at PS 122, NYC
Sound design by Andy Russ
Joyce Theater Foundation Residency
A 45 minute dance for nine inspired by Appalachian culture. Hog calls, square dance caling, and farm hollerin' create an aural landscape where people dance, fight, get lost, and come together. As Deborah Jowitt of the Village Voice said: "I love the community's manners, the way people take each other in, shyly try to copy, get drunk, act up. The behavior is 'real' but despite the verbal material, it's the dancing that makes this community come to life."

Collaborations with John Giorno (1999-2000)
Commissioned by Central Park Summerstage
Premieres at Central Park Summerstage and PS 122 (Completely Attached to Delusion)
A series of solos, duets and trios, which interact with Giorno's poetry. Most of these short dances were performed with Giorno reading his poetry live.

It's Gonna Rain (1998)
Premiered at DTW, NYC
Music by Steve Reich
A solo danced to one of Reich's first landmark compositions of tape loops, this piece explores possession, fanaticism: a person inside out. Losing sense of boundaries of the body to energies

Duck, You Sucker (1998)
Premiered at DTW, NYC
Music and sound performed live by the band Fellaheen (who received a "Bessie Award" for their performance)
Duck, You Sucker is a dance for 5 women who move through the imagery of the violent, ultra male spaghetti western. An examination of the existential landscape where the only beauty is found in the "death scene".


Appropriate Behavior (1997)
Premiered at PS 122, NYC
Music: a historical survey of mostly African-American Dance music.
Two NYC club legends (Archie Burnett and Bravo LaFortune) and Neumann dance through their personal histories of social dancing, bump into racial stereotypes and ignore them. At times portraying each other's parents and themselves, they end up together busting moves they've shared over the years.

Dose (1997)
Premiered at PS 122, NYC
Music: Saturday morning TV, Tom Waits
A dark vaudeville solo in two parts: in the first a sot drunk on TV attempts to have a bowl of cereal. The cereal is not into it. In the second, Tom Waits takes a dance class from Bob Fosse caught in a loop of seductions. A fountain of images appear on the body from just as many influences.



Adirondack (1996)
Premiered at PS 122, NYC
Sound: recorded text from a live announcement of a regional hockey game, original and found music and sound effects.
Adirondack is a 45- minute multi-disciplinary piece for nine performes. Using the "live" event of a hockey game as a frame, this work explodes with the aggressions inherent in American culture. All at once a cocktail party, a hockey game and neither, it floats between dnce and theater, prose and poetry, illuminating the fragile trust between people.

Still (1995)
Premiered at PS 122, NYC
Sound: various samples emanating from on stage objects including a TV, an intercom, a radio and a refrigerator. The text dances the mind from Samuel Beckett to Mr. Rogers with other daytime television dialogues. 'Still' is a one hour group piece that haunts the outskirts of perception, memory, consciousness and dreams. Samuel Beckett meets Mr. Rogers. A poetic journey inside the mind set in the anyday; memoires as ghosts, ghosts as others, others as oneself.