Richard Alton Frye is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist and choreographer based in New York City whose work bridges ecological research and performance. Raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., he began training at CityDance Conservatory at age 13, studying Contemporary, Ballet, Broadway Jazz, and Sri Lankan dance, and premiered his first choreographic work, Choices, at the CityDance Pop Festival in 2019. Frye is currently pursuing a double major in Dance and Environmental Studies at New York University, where his work explores how choreography can translate environmental inquiry into embodied storytelling. His recent and ongoing projects examine urban agriculture, human-nonhuman relationships, and the hidden environmental impacts of digital infrastructure, including an immersive performance exploring social media’s invisible ties to energy-intensive data centers and a participatory interspecies dance/sculpture work about the Atlantic sturgeon.
Performances he remembers fondly include Asanga Domask’s A Single Cycle of the Sun: A Day in Sri Lanka, performed at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, as well as Robert Priore’s Casita, La Fête, Cirque de Nuit, and Pequeños Monstruos. He has also created environmentally focused choreographic works including Uncrash, Man’s Best Friend, Terra Nostra III, and Through Us As Through It.
