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 Director Director Gilbert T Small II.

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: Sonya Tayeh, Alan Lucien Øyen, 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.

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 has doubled in size, will perform regular seasons in New York and tour nationally. Gibney Company made its debut at The Joyce Theater in New York in November 2021.

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 Moving Toward Justice Fellowship Revive, 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 more isolated than ever, Revive welcomes facilitators who have also been professional artists of the dance field to offer practices such as meditation and Ilan Lev Method integrated into institutional daily structures. Anderson also aims to create a yearly retreat model that will provide artists with holistic tools and mindful practices — including Reiki and hypnotherapy — to move through trauma within and outside of the dance community at little or no cost.

Rena Butler is Gibney Company’s Choreographic Associate. This is a new position created to allow Butler, who joined Gibney Company as an Artistic Associate in 2020, to continue her career as a professional dancer while further developing her talent and experience as a choreographer and leader in the dance field. The three-year, full-time position will provide time and space for research and travel as Butler develops new works for Gibney Company and for dance companies in the U.S. and abroad, while she continues to rehearse and perform with Gibney Company.

In 2015, with support from Gibney’s Moving Toward Justice Fellowship program, Campbell co-founded MOVE|NYC| with his partner Chanel DaSilva. MOVE|NYC|‘s mission is to cultivate greater diversity and equity in the dance field and beyond. The cornerstone of MOVE|NYC| is its tuition-free, Young Professionals Program which provides year-round access to 1-on-1 mentorship & college/conservatory prep for a diverse roster of gifted New York City teenagers. MOVE|NYC| aims to empower the next generation of leaders in our field by celebrating each young artist’s unique cultural identity.

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Gomez’s Moving Toward Justice Fellowship aims to provide dancers/artists with the resources and support to advocate for themselves while feeling more confident in their own skin. Developed for dance professionals to students, CONFIDANZ offers photography workshops and services from a photographer’s perspective, focusing on lighting basics, movement coaching, and informative legal guidance all while valuing healthy dialogue throughout the process.

CONFIDANZ workshops create a safe and supportive environment for dance artists to learn tangible tools and build ‘confidanz’ that will support them in participating in safe, successful, and empowering photo shoots. CONFIDANZ published a 2021 calendar featuring members of Gibney Company.

CONFIDANZ is additionally supported by the Ready Foundation.

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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 and raising awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. Committed to performance as advocacy, she also works alongside Gibney’s Move to Move Beyond Storytellers. Now advocates after experiencing gender-based violence, the Storytellers activate the stage as a supportive container to reclaim a sense of agency and to move more fiercely in the direction of the shared liberation each one of us deserves.

Obremski’s Moving Toward Justice Fellowship project OUR PATHS envisions and cultivates an ethos where WHY is at the forefront of how we see each other, ourselves, and our global community towards communal empathy. Through an online platform featuring video, written interviews, podcasts, and workshop models, OUR PATHS creates space for dialogue, highlighting artists from across the field and exploring individual motivations and ideas in an effort to foster communal empathy.

OUR PATHS is additionally supported by the Ready Foundation.

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Pajarillaga’s Advocacy Fellowship project, EVERGREEN, 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.

In April 2021, Kevin Pajarillaga partnered with Portland school/organization “Open Space” to conduct a virtual workshop with six teachers over three days in honor of Earth Day, with all proceeds going to the environmental organization, Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

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Feeling the need to create more opportunities for dancers later in their performance careers, Phelan’s Advocacy Fellowship project, Movement Museum, aims to support mid-career and established artists in building upon 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.

Currently, Movement Museum is in production on a series of short films featuring Gibney Company’s Artistic Associates in collaboration with Movement Museum commissioned choreographers.

Shiau’s Advocacy Fellowship, BODYHUES, exists to challenge harmful body stereotypes that have been fostering a culture that nurtures hierarchy, exclusion, and supremacy based on how one looks; and to remind culture that not one body is the same, and different is absolutely beautiful. It is time to dismantle body-shaming culture, deconstruct body stereotypes, and create spaces for all. BODYHUES believes that when loving and celebrating our miraculous bodies and building confidence in our bodies, we are truly thriving by unlocking the full potential, pleasure, and creativity from within.

BODYHUES, launched in August 2021, features four guest speakers presenting workshops that center nurturing self-love, self-care, self-confidence, and creativity within participants.

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As a member of the ever-expanding LGBTQIA+ family, Thoman’s Advocacy Fellowship is a multi-prong biannual magazine featuring intergenerational artists across mediums. This publication will be dedicated to community care and self-practices that highlight senses of validation and grounding calmness.

Tribus’ Advocacy Fellowship, Converge2Emerge, (“C2E”) aims to magnify emerging choreographic voices in New York City through resource allocation, professional mentorship, career development, and artistic collaboration. We curate dance performances that seek to showcase a wide range of dance forms while challenging the Eurocentric placement of dance solely on a theatre stage by activating unconventional spaces. An application process will reward selected choreographers with the resources to create work and cultivate their voice, mentorship in self-production to continue building their portfolio, and a network to draw upon in the future.

The first selected emerging choreographer Rachel Harris and cinematographer Aidan Gibney will collaborate to create a virtual dance film set to premiere in September 2021.

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The Bard College Dance Program/Gibney Partnership provides unique opportunities for Bard students to work closely with Gibney Company and Company Curated Teaching Artists. The program launched in September 2020 and is the fourth professional partnership launched by the Bard Dance Program, which began in 2009 with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and has included the American Dance Festival and the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

The partnership is spearheaded by Company Directors Amy Miller and Nigel Campbell, Bard faculty member and Partnership Coordinator Tara Lorenzen, and Bard Director of Dance Maria Simpson, with support from Senior Company Advisor Alexandra Wells and Senior Company Manager Beatrice Johnson.

This partnership represents a wide-ranging vision of what dance can be in a liberal arts curriculum at a time when artist engagement in both local and global communities is essential.

Program Components

Curriculum

Each semester, Company Curated Teaching Artists selected by Gibney’s leadership teach courses embedded in Bard’s dance curriculum, including studio courses for all levels of dancers as well as seminar courses that address discipline-specific topics. Extracurricular workshops and master classes will further enhance the educational field of study.

During the inaugural semester, Maleek Washington, 2019 Company Curated Artist and former Gibney Community Actionist, teaches two modern dance technique courses on Bard’s Campus, following a strict COVID-19 safety plan. “It’s amazing how much we can push our boundaries inside of boundaries. It’s been super gratifying to work with Bard students in this unprecedented time,” says Washington.

Company Director Amy Miller is also facilitating Dance Writing as Activism course via Zoom with sessions guest moderated by Artistic Director and CEO Gina Gibney, Gibney’s Senior Director of Artist Development & Curation Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Company Director Nigel Campbell, and Senior Company Manager Trina Mannino. Modeled after Gibney Company’s Advocacy Fellowship program, this course is for students who want to combine an intense exploration of the written word as a tool to speak more powerfully about the relevancy of body-based performance, and/or to pinpoint a pressing issue that ignites a personal passion. 

Gibney Company Residency

Once a year, Gibney Company will be in residence at Bard College. Gibney artists will take advantage of unencumbered work time outside of New York City at the beautiful facilities of the Fisher Center for Performing Arts. Each technical residency will include open rehearsals and a final public showing for the community at Bard. Details of the 2021 residency period will be released this spring.

Community Action

This partnership will also involve connections between the Bard community and Gibney’s Community Action team. Gibney will share two Community Action programs with Bard students: our Hands are for Holding assembly program, which uses movement to start conversations with young people about healthy relationships, and our Move to Move Beyond movement workshop series, which addresses individual choice-making as a way to cultivate collective agency.

Teaching Artists

FALL 2021

Elisa Clark is an award winning artist, educator, and administrator from the Washington, DC area, who trained at the Maryland Youth Ballet, before receiving a BFA from The Juilliard School, under Benjamin Harkarvy.  Ms. Clark was a founding member of Robert Battle’s Battleworks Dance Company, where she also served as Company Manager.  Additionally, she was a featured member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Mark Morris Dance Group, and performed with Nederlands Dans Theater and The Metropolitan Opera, in works by Jirí Kylián, and Crystal Pite amongst others, respectively.  Her extensive performing career has also included appearances in the Off-Broadway production of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, as well as in film work with Breton Tyner-Bryan’s Breton Follies Productions, and as an actor in several Samuel Beckett plays, directed by Mark Morris for Northern Ireland’s Happy Days Festival.  As an educator and mentor, she has held residencies and faculty positions at the Ailey School/Fordham University, Alabama School of Fine Arts, American Dance Festival, Brown University, George Mason University, Indiana University, Jacob’s Pillow, Marymount Manhattan College, MOVE (NYC), University of North Carolina School of the Arts, New World School of the Arts and is currently on faculty at the University of the Arts and Princeton University.  As a repetiteur and rehearsal director, Ms. Clark frequently restages the works of Mr. Battle and Mr. Morris, in addition to serving as Mr. Battle’s creative assistant for new works.  Ms. Clark is a Princess Grace Award Winner and a Certified Life Coach, often leading seminars, empowering artists to navigate their respective field.  Her most recent performing engagements have been dancing alongside Monica Bill Barnes in Happy Hour. She is grateful to be a Gibney Teaching Artist with Gibney Dance.

SPRING 2021

Alanna Morris-Van Tassel
Dancer/Choreographer/Educator/Artist Organizer. Brooklyn native and Saint Paul-based artist excavating cultural retention and fragmentation within Caribbean diasporic identity. TU Dance performer (2007-2017). Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch! TU Dance’s former Artistic Associate (2020) and current Advisor to Springboard Danse Montreal. Minneapolis City Pages’ Artist of the Year and Best Choreographer for her solo, “Yam, Potatoe an Fish!” Artistic Director of AMVTP, founded in 2017 to produce dance, education and community-building initiatives. 2015 McKnight Dance Fellow. Graduate of The Juilliard School and LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. Currently developing performance art project, Black Light, which explores the nobility of black-ness, divine feminine expression and primordial creativity. Live and virtual presentations in 2021 and 2022. www.alannamvt.com

SPRING 2021

Cameron McKinney, the Artistic Director of Kizuna Dance, is a New York City-based choreographer and educator. With over 15 years of Japanese language study, he created Kizuna Dance with the mission of using contemporary floorwork to create works that celebrate the Japanese culture. He was recently selected as a 2019-20 U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow to collaborate with renowned Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki and present work in showcases in Japan alongside the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympic Games’ events. He is a 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at The School at Jacob’s Pillow (under the direction of Dianne McIntyre and Risa Steinbeirg), a 2017-18 Alvin Ailey Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow, and a 2018 Asian Cultural Council Individual Grantee. Through Kizuna Dance, Cameron has presented work and taught in fifteen states and in Japan, Mexico, France, and the UK. His commissions include Princeton University, twice from the Joffrey Ballet School, twice from the Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival, The Dance Gallery Festival, Manhattanville College, CREATE:ART, Western Washington University, and SUNY Brockport, among numerous others. His teaching credits include Adjunct Lecturer positions at Princeton University and Queensborough Community College, and he has taught on faculty at Gibney Dance since 2016. He has also taught on faculty at the Joffrey Dance School, the Charlotte Dance Festival, the Tennessee Dance Festival, the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, and Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center. He is currently building Nagare Technique, a training module that blends streetdance styles and contemporary floorwork. Through Kizuna Dance’s new Culture Commissions program, he also directly supports emerging artists through commissions for new works created through research-oriented explorations into the Japanese culture.

FALL 2020

Maleek Washington (Entertainer) is from the Bronx. A graduate of the Boston Conservatory, where he studied on full scholarship, he began his dance training at Harlem School of The Arts, Broadway Dance Centerand LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. He has danced with CityDance Ensemble (Washington DC), Montreal’s SpringBoard Danse (working with Jose Navas & RUBBERBAND), and Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M for four seasons, before becoming the first African-American male to perform in Sleep No More. He has also performed for Sia, Phish, and Rihanna (for an immersive experience for her AntidiaRy Campaign). Maleek was part of NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live and performed with Camille A. Brown and Dancers in the 2018 Ted Talk Conference in Vancouver. Maleek is thrilled to be a member of CABD for 4 seasons having the opportunity to work on shows like Porgy and Bess of the Metropolitian Opera as an assistant choreographer, Spike Lees Mont Blanc Commerical as assistant choreographer, and Camilles Alvin Ailey piece entitled “City of Rain”. Recently Maleek was a guest choreographer and adjunct professor at University School of the Arts for fall 2019. Finished his 3rd year choreographing at Sydney’s premiere Full time training program Brent Street and was Movement Director for Fenders “Inside the Box” with Chic’s, Nile Rodgers.

Gibney Company partnered with Springboard Danse Montréal to offer the annual Gibney Company/Springboard EMERGE Award. The EMERGE Award aimed to cultivate, mentor, and actualize the burgeoning visions of today’s young artists toward becoming tomorrow’s creative leaders in the field. EMERGE Awardess received:

• Commissioning support to create a new work for Gibney Company
• Mentorship through the creative process from a seasoned choreographer
• Opportunities to teach classes and share their creative process through showings and dialogues at Gibney

Previous EMERGE Awardees

La Tresse – 2020-2021

After the three dancers’ serendipitous meeting in Tel Aviv, Erin O’Loughlin (Calgary) and Laura Toma (Ottawa, the first certified Gaga teacher in Canada) decided to relocate to Montréal and formed the collective LA TRESSE together with Geneviève Boulet. Their first work, Beauté Brute has been shown at numerous festivals and venues including Zone Homa, Vue Sur La Relève, OFFTA (Montréal), Dance Matters (Toronto) and La Rotonde (Quebec City). Created during a residency at Arsenal Gallery, their second trio Volume II premiered in 2016 at Festival Quartiers Danses where they were awarded the “Prix Coup de Coeur du Public” (Audience Choice Award) and has been presented at VALSPEC (Valleyfield) and The Grand YYC (Calgary). Their piece A Walkabout is a work developed for outdoor, public performance, and was premiered at the 2017 edition of Festival Quartiers Danses.

LA TRESSE has been awarded creative residencies from: La Rotonde, Shawbrook Dance (Ireland), Agora de la Danse, Danse Danse/Arsenal Art Contemporain, and CCOV. They have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal. LA TRESSE was featured as Emerging Choreographers in the 2017 edition of Springboard Danse Montreal and returned in 2019 as Resident Choreographers. They were invited choreographers for the Winter 2019 session at the École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal where they created a new work, World was on fire; l’ère du Verseau, for the second-year students. Their new creation and first full-length piece L’Encre Noire was presented at Agora de la Danse in November 2019. They continue to collaborate with other Montreal artists on various projects, including the creation and performance of promotional material for the Fall/Winter 2018 campaign for local fashion brand Sokoloff. In 2018 they were also featured in a photo essay titled Inviting Contradiction in The Dance Current, Canada’s premiere dance magazine.

Mark Caserta – 2019-2020

Mark Caserta, from Philadelphia, graduated from the University of the Arts with a BFA in 2010. He danced professionally with international touring companies Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz De Montreal and Camille A. Brown & Dancers since then. Mark was a 2018 Emerging Choreographer at Springboard Danse Montreal and recently premiered his first full evening-length work as part of Gibney’s Performance Opportunity Project in February. In the past year, Mark was commissioned to set work on Dark Circles Contemporary Dance with partner Mikey Morado and Atlanta based company Kit Modus. Mark has presented work at Wanderlust Dance Festival, The Austin Dance Festival, The Banff Center for Performing Arts, Steps On Broadway Choreography Lab and the Brooklyn Dance Festival. He has also created work on the University of the Arts School of Dance and Pace University. He currently teaches full time while co-directing the Pre Professional Company at Dance Industry Performing Arts Center, co-directing a non profit the Thriving Artist Project and creating new work for his own project.

Watch Mark Caserta’s Gibney Company repertory work UMEUS

Micaela Taylor – 2018-2019

Micaela Taylor is a professional dancer/teacher/choreographer from Los Angeles, CA, where she trained at Marat Daukayev School of Ballet and Los Angeles County High School of the Arts. She graduated from Cornish College of the Arts and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance, 2014. She has worked and performed with Ate9 Dance Company, Zoe Scofield, Camille A. Brown, Kate Wallich, & BODYTRAFFIC. Nonetheless, her choreographic passion led her to found Los Angeles based contemporary dance company, The TL Collective in 2016. Her individual movement style of Hip Hop combined with contemporary technique has led her to find a new way for people to move which is best described as Contemporary/Pop. Alongside the launch of The TL Collective, Taylor has been commissioned to choreograph and teach by LA Contemporary Dance Company, AMDA College, Springboard Danse Montreal, MOVE(NYC), Cal State Long Beach, and Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre. Her work has been presented by Gelsey Kirkland Performing Arts Center, ACE Hotel, Raymond Kabaaz Theatre, Grand Performances, and Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

Watch Micaela Taylor’s Gibney Company repertory work EYESOW

Symbio Physiotherapy is Gibney Company’s 2021 Exclusive Physiotherapy Partner.

SYMBIO’S MISSION

Moving you to health as we mutually grow into our best selves, insistent upon cultivation of each other and our community. Through education and empowerment, and by leading a growing movement of wellness and preventative care, we are changing the face of healthcare in our country.

THE SYMBIO TEAM

A collection of the best in their fields, all personally identifying with their patients because we are just like our patients. Each provider specializes with a population they know and love because we know being part of your tribe is the fastest way to understanding what you need to get back to it.

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FREE 1:1 SESSIONS

Gibney Company and Symbio Physiotherapy are thrilled to offer two months of FREE physiotherapy sessions to the Gibney community! Every Thursday in August and September, a Symbio clinician will offer free 45 minute sessions at Gibney’s 280 and 890 Broadway locations.

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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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