Gibney’s story began in 1991, when choreographer Gina Gibney founded her socially active dance company with a single dance studio to call home. Almost three decades later, throughout the organization’s many expansions, Gibney’s acclaimed resident dance ensemble, Gibney Company, remains at the core of its work.

Gibney Company grew alongside and within the Gibney organization as it became home to thousands of artists and community members across two New York City locations, totaling 23 studios, 5 performance spaces, and 52,000 square feet of space. Within a few years of Gibney acquiring its second location 280 Broadway in 2014, Gina Gibney expanded the Company’s directorial team. Today, the Company is led by Artistic Director Gina Gibney with Directors Amy Miller and Nigel Campbell.

Following its 25th anniversary in 2016, the organization re-envisioned Gibney Company in an intentional effort to empower its dancers as both artists and activists. Now known as Artistic Associates, Gibney Company members advance the quality of the organization’s artistry through impeccable performance and deepen its community engagement through dynamic change and advocacy for issues in the dance field such as diversity, mental health, and economic empowerment. Gibney Company Artistic Associates receive 52-week contracts, health insurance, on-site physical therapy, an annual artistic sabbatical, and paid vacation.

As Artistic Associates’ roles became more robust, the Company also began commissioning creation-based repertory in addition to performing Gina Gibney’s rich, evocative works. In the spirit of its namesake leader’s artistic sensibility, Gibney Company embarks on relationships with artists who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling. Since 2017, commissioned choreographers have included: Bryan Arias, Shannon Gillen, Shamel Pitts, Adam Barruch, Chanel DaSilva, Bobbi Jene Smith, Micaela Taylor, Stefanie Batten Bland, Peter Chu, Banning Bouldin, Mark Caserta, and Yin Yue.

As it prepares for its thirtieth anniversary in 2021, Gibney Company has reached another historic milestone, In January 2020, the Company received a transformative $2 million gift from Andrew A. Davis, a Trustee of the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund. With new possibilities for commissioning original works, Gibney Company will retain its longstanding spirit of experimentation while taking a leading role in shaping a more robust landscape for contemporary dance in New York, and beyond. The Company, which will double in size, will perform regular seasons in New York and tour nationally. Gibney Company will make its debut at The Joyce Theater in New York in November 2021.

Maintaining a sense of connection remains deeply important to us. We continue to explore and offer ways to support you and the dance community at large, virtually. Stay connected with Gibney Company digitally:

LISTEN to Gibney Cares Podcast hosted by Company Director Amy Miller

WATCH Artistic Associates lead Gibney’s Take Care Series

LEARN about Okay, Let’s Unpack This List of Free Therapy & Counselor Sessions organized by Artistic Associate Leal Zielinska.

CONNECT with Artistic Associate Jesse Obremski and his Special Guests From the Field on OUR PATH, his piloted Instagram Live interview series.

Gibney Company is a creation-based repertory company commissioning work from both internationally renowned and emerging choreographers who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous, often superhuman physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling.

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In his Advocacy Fellowship, Anderson aims to address mental health and mindfulness in the dance community to enable longevity and sustainability in dancers’ careers. In a time when artists in the field are struggling and are more isolated than ever, Anderson is creating a yearly retreat model that will provide artists with holistic tools and mindful practices—including meditation, reiki, and sound therapy—to move through trauma within and outside of the dance community at little or no cost. 

Butler’s Advocacy Fellowship project offers teens from various socioeconomic backgrounds—dancers and non-dancers alike—a platform to craft artistic and leadership skills, and to investigate creativity from their personal identities and backgrounds. The course will incorporate dance, choreographic history, and critical thinking exercises to inspire youth to express themselves creatively and feel that they have a stronger voice in their communities.

“Now its own 501c3 non-profit, MOVE|NYC| (co-founded by myself and Chanel DaSilva) was born of Gibney Company’s Advocacy Fellowship initiative! Gina helped me turn my passion for the arts and social justice into meaningful work that can have real positive impact on the field. I learned through Gibney Company that the best way I can serve my communities is through my art, and I was given the resources and concrete tools I needed to actualize my passion!”

Founded in 2015, MOVE|NYC| is a multi-pillared New York City based arts and social justice organization whose mission is to cultivate greater diversity and equity within the dance profession and beyond. It holds the important responsibility of shaping the next generation of dance artists and leaders and actualizes this responsibility by providing artistic training, mentorship, professional development, presenting opportunities, and other quintessential resources for career advancement to primarily historically marginalized and underrepresented artists. Through its programs and activities, MOVE|NYC| is committed to artistic excellence, mentorship, community engagement, equity, and social change in its capacity to level skewed access to a professional and sustainable dance career for artists at the earliest stages of their artistic pursuits.

MOVE|NYC| imagines a field in which exceptionally gifted dancers, no matter where they are from, have access to the best training. It imagines more artists who are empowered to bring their own cultural backgrounds to their specialized fields. It imagines more artists creating new ways to move the field forward. It imagines an art form that will connect with more audiences. It imagines more people imagining. www.movenyc.nyc

“For my advocacy fellowship, I’m developing CONFIDANZ, a program that highlights collaborative techniques for dance artists and photographers to create thoughtful and crafted images. Professional photographs are a vital tool for advancement in the dance field. Yet, few dancers have a comprehensive understanding of the key components of photography, which limits their ability to collaborate effectively with photographers. The sessions stress the importance of trust, dialogue, and understanding between dancer and photographer (both artistic and logistical). CONFIDANZ workshops create a safe and supportive environment for dance artists to learn tangible tools and build ‘confidanz’ through bold choice-making, leading to successful and empowering photo shoots.

In the summer of 2018, CONFIDANZ was piloted with pre-professional dancers enrolled in the Gibney Summer Study program and youth (ages 14-21) enrolled in The Door’s Summer Dance Intensive. Photographs from workshops with The Door were shown at The Whitney Museum in August 2018. The program is generously funded by The Ready Foundation with gracious support from Gibney and The Door’s board member, Bethany Menzies.” www.confidanz.org

Miller focuses on Gibney’s Community Action initiatives through facilitating movement workshops with survivors of trauma, conducting both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, developing healthy relationship workshops for young people and raising awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. She has conducted Gibney’s Global Community Action Residencies at Mimar Sinan University and Koc University (Istanbul), University of Cape Town (South Africa), DOCH: School of Dance and Circus (Stockholm), MUDA Africa (Tanzania) and most recently in Gisenyi, Rwanda.

Our Paths believes in and celebrates a world where WHY is at the forefront of how we see each other, our selves, and our global community. We ask artists WHY to explore and bring forth conversations that showcase their individual, though inevitably interlaced, motivations and ideas and to cultivate communal empathy. Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why says this message of WHY “is inherently optimistic. It is inherently human. And those who believe in it share it.”

We achieve this optimism and humanity by highlighting artists and creating space for dialogue through an online platform that includes video, written interviews, and podcasts.

We invite you to join these “inspiring” and “ethereal” conversations that ask WHY and explore the power of this ethos and how we can support ourselves and our communities across the world.
 
Since late March 2020, in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic, Our Paths has offered an Instagram LIVE Interview Series bimonthly on Sundays at 3:00 pm EST, via @Jesse_Obremski, with artists from across America. Featured artists have included: 

• Gregory Dolbashian (Director of The DASH Ensemble and Co-Founder of The DASH Academy and The Playground)
• Zui Gomez (Artistic Associate with Gibney Company and Founder/Director of Confidanz)
• Lloyd Knight (Principal Dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company)
• Amy Miller (Company Director of Gibney Company)
• Fredrick Earl Mosley (Founder/Director of Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance)
• Leal Zielinska (Artistic Associate with Gibney Company and Founder/Director of Okay, Let’s Unpack This)
• Future artists include: Mark Caserta (Choreographer and Co-Founder of DRIGGProductions, Gibney Company Spring 2020 Commissioned Artist, and Gibney/Springboard Danse Montreal EMERGE Choreographic Award Recipient) (May 10th, 2020) and Yin Yue (Choreographer and Founder/Director of YY Dance Company and FoCo, and Gibney Company Spring 2020 Commissioned Artist) (May 17th, 2020).

Pajarillaga’s Advocacy Fellowship project is a platform for diverse creators to produce socially relevant and impactful new works on film.  In response to the lack of in person performance opportunities during this time, this project will also serve as an online archive and database of artistic films that will be open and accessible to the public. Curated films will challenge artists to reflect on their sense of purpose in a unified and collaborative space.

Feeling the need to create more opportunities for dancers later in their performance careers, Phelan aims to support mid-career and established artists in building on their artistic portfolios. By widening participants’ skillsets within the field, the project’s ultimate goal is to promote sustainable longevity in dance. The project will provide dancers with tools, resources, and guidance from leaders in the field to support their journeys in developing multifaceted career opportunities while still performing.

Shiau’s Advocacy Fellowship intends to address the issue of body-shaming through story-telling and ongoing conversations. Pulling from her own experiences, the project will offer dancers resources to create positive and healthy relationships with one’s body. Shiau aims to dismantle cultural stigmas around body image and to reignite an inclusive “body love language.”

As an Asian queer representative of the LGBTQ+ community, I want to develop and enhance the roots of solidarity within this community. For my Advocacy Fellowship, I am developing a multi-pronged digital platform for LGBTQ+ youth that focuses on highlighting communication and self care practices. I envision that this platform will be a chance for LGBTQ+ youth to explore other mediums of art, through the form of an online gallery, which would feature work by LGBTQ+ youth. The platform  gives space to individuals to hear others’ queer experiences, whose paths may have not crossed in person . By hearing from and connecting with a variety of folks with diverse backgrounds, the platform will remind viewers and participants that they’re not alone. Tangible self-care practices will be available on the platform to help build awareness and acceptance for all voices, bodies, and minds. It is to be hoped that this safe arena for expression leads to deeper acknowledgment of each individual and creates lasting bonds within the community.

Recognizing the struggles of freelance artists in a time of limited opportunity and the inherent career hierarchy of the dance world, Tribus’ Advocacy Fellowship aims to uplift emerging choreographic voices across diverse aesthetics and traditions through producing an eventual informal performance series. In addition to increasing performing opportunities for emerging artists, the project will also redistribute resources to young dancers who have been uniquely professionally impacted by COVID-19.

OKAY, LET’S UNPACK THIS is a collective effort to normalize the conversation on mental health in the dance community. The project website holds space for dance artists to share their mental health stories in written or verbal (video) form, and offers comprehensive resource lists for anyone who might need additional support.

“No matter how strong, disciplined, or driven I’ve become, I am inevitably still a human being. Yet, I’ve often felt expected to defy this simple fact. No one is immune to vulnerabilities and challenges, including mental illness—even those superhuman in the dance community. What we can control is how we choose to address mental health and challenges within the field. This begins with a complex conversation.” www.okayokayokay.org

Gibney Community Action’s methods are shared around the world through Global Community Action Residencies.

Community Action Residencies (CARs) seamlessly blend artistry and outreach. By combining performance engagements with opportunities to learn about our program model, residencies provide local organizations with powerful tools for impacting their local community.

Community Action works hand-in- hand with dance companies, universities, and social service organizations to design a program that is effective, compelling and specifically adapted to the host nation’s culture and concerns.

To date, Global CAR has partnered with artists and organizations in Gisenyi, Rwanda; Montreal, Canada; Istanbul, Turkey; Cape Town, South Africa; Stockholm, Sweden; Yerevan, Armenia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Residency Activity

Gibney Company offers richly textured choreography by Founder Gina Gibney and renowned guest choreographers, performed by a stunning company of dancers. Ms. Gibney’s work, praised by The New York Times for its “great intelligence and almost literary sensitivity,” is characterized by intricately crafted movement episodes with a sense of deep connection and emotional inevitability.

The Residency Performance Component may include:

• Dance master classes
• Informal showings
• Public performances of Company repertory

Gibney Company is an established leader in using movement and creativity to reach new demographics in local communities. Our extensive experience includes work with domestic violence survivors, youth-at-risk, and people affected by HIV/AIDS. The Community component of our residencies is designed to share our expertise with local dancers, encourage them to use the arts to empower those in need, and help them forge partnerships with local social service organizations.

The Residency Community Component may include:

• Panel discussions
• Sample Movement Workshops
• Learning about the issue of domestic violence
• Sensitization training to work with specific populations
• Technical assistance in program and partnership development
• Lecture-demonstrations for social service organizations and community partners

Host a CAR

Gibney is always seeking new partnerships with organizations from different parts of the world. If you are interested in creating a partnership and would like more information about our residencies, fill out the form below and one of our staff members will get back to you.

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Training Residencies bring Gibney Company to your city to work directly with your students and community.

Residencies are adaptable to support pre-existing community and educational goals. We will work with you to develop a plan that meets your needs and your budget.

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