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 Thomas
Warfield is the founder and
artistic director of PeaceArt
International and director of
dance and faculty member at the
National Technical Institute for
the Deaf at the Rochester
Institute of Technology in
Rochester, New York. He is
the director of the RIT / NTID
Dance Company, associate
director of Kaleidoscope Dance
Theatre at the New York
Institute of Dance, as well as
the vocal soloist at Unity
Church.
Having
a minister for a mother,
conductor for a father, and
being the nephew of
internationally renowned
singers William Warfield and
Leontyne Price, it is no small
wonder that at the age of 4,
while studying piano, Thomas
Warfield began a career on the
stage. Thomas wrote his
first play in the 6th grade
about 
African- American, Dr.
Daniel Hale Williams, the
first open-heart surgeon, and
directed A Raisin in the Sun
his senior year in High
School. At ages 17 and 18, he
won the regional Omega Psi Phi
Contest's vocal category for
two consecutive years.
 His
14yrs. with the Opera Theatre
of Rochester, and performances
with the New York City Opera
and Metropolitan Opera
afforded Mr. Warfield the
experience of working with
many of the world's leading
artists, including directors
Franco Zefferelli and Spike
Lee, composers John Adams and
Marvin Hamlisch, scientist
Carl Sagan, singers Placido
Domingo and Beverly Sills and
many others.
While a music & theatre
major at Nazareth College,
Thomas Warfield's vocal
repertoire expanded into
German Lieder and French
Chansons.  Some
of his numerous theatrical
productions have included:
directing & producing
multi-cultural /multi-arts
concerts, the "Tinman"
in The Wiz, "Tulsa"
in Gypsy, the "MC"
in Cabaret, and
"Scipio" in Porgy
and Bess, cabaret singer,
guest vocalist in churches
around the world, dozens of
operas and musicals, along
with performing plays of
Ibsen, Checov, Racine, and
playing Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Thomas Warfield began ballet
training with Olive McCue in
Rochester, NY. He's held
scholarships at The School of
American Ballet, Martha Graham
School of Contemporary Dance
and The Joffrey Ballet School
in New York City.
Mr.
Warfield earned a BFA in Dance
from SUNY Purchase, receiving
the President's Award for
Excellence. Both the New York
Times and the Hong Kong Daily
Standard wrote of his "..
exemplary" performances
with The Purchase Dance Corps,
with whom he performed at the
New York Stravinsky Festival
and the International Festival
of Dance Academies in Hong
Kong. Thomas Warfield has
danced in works by Balanchine,
Anthony Tudor, Martha Graham,
Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor,
Jose Limon, Isadora Duncan,
Mary Wigman, Doris Humphrey,
B. Nijinska, Valslav Nijinsky,
Jane Dudley, Twyla Tharp, Bill
T. Jones & Arnie Zane,
Sally Hess, and Tandy Beal
among others. He's
choreographed for HBO 'Short
Takes Films' as well as for
dance companies around the
world.
In
1988, Mr. Warfield was invited to
perform Lestor Horton's The Beloved,
coached by Carmen DeLavallade, at the
Dance Theatre of Harlem's Open House.
For 10 years, he was invited to
dance/choreograph at The Yard (a
performing arts colony on Martha's
Vineyard). Jane Dudley asked him to
perform her solo Time is Money (the
first time this work was performed since
Ms. Dudley's own performance in 1935) in
NYC for the New Dance Group Celebration
and film, at Bennington College, and in
London, where the British paper, the
Morning Star wrote, his
"...sensitive, superbly trained
body filled every word and every
movement with bitter meaning."
 As
a professional dancer, singer, pianist,
actor, composer, choreographer, music
& theatre director, teacher,
producer and poet, Mr. Warfield has
traveled to dozens of cities throughout
the U.S. as well as Hong Kong, London,
Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athens,
Taiwan, Bangkok, Seoul, Stockholm,
mainland China and Macau - where he was
associate director and guest artist for
a Chinese dance company, and decorated
as an honorary citizen of Macau. For 2
years, Thomas was dance captain and
performer with the Viva Musical Circus
in Japan (a Japanese version of Cirque
du Soleil) - a goodwill collaboration
between American, Japanese and Russian
(Moscow Circus) artists.
The
city of Rennes, France invited Mr.
Warfield (accompanying Rochester's Mayor
Johnson), as the only performing artist,
to present a solo concert in Rennes in
celebration of the 40th anniversary of
Rochester/Rennes Sister Cities
Association.
 Receiving
a Research Fellowship, Thomas Warfield
was a MFA degree candidate at the
University of Utah, where he founded and
was president of DanceArt, a performing
arts company dedicated to social and
environmental awareness. The group was
nationally recognized for raising funds
& consciousness about Romanian
orphaned children afflicted with the
AIDS virus. At the University of Utah,
Thomas served as president of the Fine
Arts Student Council, a member of the
University's Liberal Education
Committee, a founding member of the
Multicultural Board, and a teaching
assistant in the Ethnic Studies and
Modern Dance Departments, Mr. Warfield
represented the University of Utah at
three American College Dance Festivals,
and in 1991 was an invited guest speaker
at the National Graduate Students'
Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies
at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
 Thomas
Warfield has presented solo concerts
and workshops in schools, hospitals,
community centers, theological
seminaries, homeless shelters, and
correctional facilities; working with
urban youth, professional
dancers/musicians, the elderly,
mentally & physically disabled,
drug/alcohol abusers, blind & deaf
children, AIDS/cancer patients and
many others around the world. Thomas
Warfield has taught extensively in the
U.S.A. and abroad on a variety of
subjects including: ballet, modern and
African-based dance, choreography,
improvisation, piano, voice, drama,
poetry, English, African-American
studies, art/religion, classes on
self-esteem, and workshops on
nurturing compassion. Mr. Warfield is
also a facilitator/trainer for the
National Coalition Building Institute
(NCBI) doing workshops for schools and
corporations in leadership training,
welcoming diversity, prejudice
reduction and non-violent conflict
resolution.
 Thomas
Warfield is the founder and artistic
director of PeaceArt International, a
not-for-profit (501c3) local/global
outreach organization utilizing the
arts to foster world peace and
dedicated to the multidimensionality
of the creative human experience,
facilitating greater human
understanding and building community
through individual and collective
creativity in the arts. The
international publication Planetary
Connections wrote that PeaceArt
International helps define peace
"... by creating rich and
meaningful experiences for people to
share their ideas with one
another." (Winter 1994).
Mr.
Warfield is a freelance dance critic
for Gannett Newspapers. His poetry has
won international awards and is
published by International Press. Mr.
Warfield's original idea and project
of creating "A Global Poem In
Praise Of Peace" has garnered
global recognition by letters from
Leonard Bernstein, Mother Teresa and
hundreds of others. Mr.Warfield's
music compositions are featured on a
CD benefiting community anti-violence
programs. His own, self produced, CD,
Celebrate the Moment, featuring all
original songs, with vocals and piano
accompaniment by Thomas Warfield is
sold throughout the world.
 Mr.
Warfield has served as an adjudicator
for the American College Dance
Festival, Omega Psi Phi Talent
Contest, The Leontyne Price Vocal
Competition, the Idaho Council for the
Arts and the Arts and Cultural Council
of Rochester. Mr. Warfield is listed
in "Most Outstanding Young Men in
America," and "Who's Who
Among University Students." He is
a National Dance Association Awardee,
recipient of 'The Creative Community
Service Award' from the University of
Utah, and 'The Certificate for
Outstanding Leadership and Moral
Sensitivity' from the Greater
Rochester Community of Churches. He
was awarded the 1999 Dance Award from
the Circle of Colors Foundation, and
in May 2000 was given an award for
volunteerism from The United Nations
Association.
Mr.
Warfield is a member of the
Metropolitan Opera Guild, Dance
Critics Association, International
Dance and the Child, the Earth Society
Foundation, the National Peace
Foundation, Association of American
Cultures, the Human Rights Campaign
Fund, Amnesty International and
Greenpeace. He is a founding member of
both World Dance Alliance (where he
serves on the Int'l committee for
Africa) and International Association
of Blacks in Dance, and serves as
vice-president of two boards: Peace
For Education and The China Millennium
Council. He is on the advisory board
of International Organizations of
Rochester, NY, and a former board
member of Young Audiences, Inc. Thomas
attributes his passion and blessings
in life to the SPIRIT of love.
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