Gibney Company is a world-class contemporary dance company that presents a breadth of works by emerging and renowned choreographers. Based in New York City at Gibney, a dance and social justice organization founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, the Company underwent an ambitious expansion and reinvention in 2020 following a major donor gift. Over the past few years, Gibney Company has commissioned new works and is building a repertory for performances in New York and around the world. Gibney Company dancers, known as Artistic Associates, support the Gibney organization’s mission as both artists and activists, advancing artistry through performance while also leading entrepreneurial advocacy projects.

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.

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.

GIBNEY COMPANY EXPANSION

In January 2020, the Company announced a transformative gift from Andrew A. Davis and  the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund. With new possibilities for commissioning original works, Gibney Company has retained its longstanding spirit of experimentation while taking a leading role in shaping a more robust landscape for contemporary dance in New York, and beyond.

Gibney Company’s evolution has been inspired by our vision of creating a contemporary dance company whose artists reflect a diversity of experiences and backgrounds. Our aim is to chart a path for the future of dance as a powerful art form and an act of meaningful expression, and to connect with audiences in New York and beyond. – Gina Gibney

The Company, which has doubled in size, performs regular seasons in New York and tour nationally. Gibney Company made its debut at The Joyce Theater in New York in November 2021, and was featured in the opening program of New York City Center’s Fall for Dance in September 2022. In the 2023 season, The Company embarked on its first national tour with stops in ten U.S. cities.

Gibney Company is led by Artistic Director Gina Gibney and Director Gilbert T Small II. Since 2020, commissioned choreographers have included: Bryan Arias, Rena Butler, Alan Lucien Øyen, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Micaela Taylor, Sonya Tayeh, and Yue Yin. The Company’s repertory also includes works by Johan Inger, Ohad Naharin, and Sharon Eyal.

Over the last two years, we’ve brought some of New York’s and the world’s most renowned choreographers into our studios to create new work, or to explore fresh dimensions in existing pieces. We are inspired by their dedication to excellence and excited to share our artistry with new and diverse audiences. – Gilbert T Small II

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.

Commissioned Artists Since 2021
Rena Butler, Alan Lucien Øyen, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Sonya Tayeh, Micaela Taylor, Tiffany Tregarthen & David Raymond, and Yue Yin

Repertory Artists Since 2021
Sharon Eyal, Johan Inger, and Ohad Naharan

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 championed by Director of Engagement Amy Miller, Bard’s Dance Program Director Tara Lorenzen, and Professor of Dance Maria Simpson with support from Senior Company Advisor Alexandra Wells and the Gibney Education Team.

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, 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, taught 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.

Past faculty have included:
Maleek Washington
Dedrick Gray
Cameron Kinney
Alanna Morris
Elisa Clark
Amy Miller

Each fall semester, Director of Engagement Amy Miller also teaches a seminar course entitled Entrepreneurial Artistry as Activism. Modeled after Gibney Company’s Advocacy Fellowship program and welcoming in members of the Gibney leadership as guest speakers, 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 to pinpoint a pressing social issue that ignites a personal passion.

GIBNEY COMPANY RESIDENCY

Once a year, Gibney Company will be in residence at Bard College. Gibney Company will take advantage of unencumbered work time outside of New York City to focus on the production elements of newly commissioned choreography at the LUMA Theater inside the Fisher Center for Performing Arts. Each technical residency will also include exchange with Bard students through open rehearsals, master classes and a final public showing for the larger Annandale-on-Hudson community. 

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  Moving Toward Justice trainings that cultivate a space for ‘artist entrepreneurs’ to build skills and foster dialogue and exchange at the intersection of arts and social justice. Embedded with embodied practice experiences, these sessions addressing activism aim to expand the definition of ‘community’ to include those right around us. Sessions build awareness about a myriad of social justice issues and are rooted in Gibney Community Action’s long history in addressing gender-based violence alongside survivors and social workers.

Teaching Artists

Fall 2022

SPRING 2022

Amy Miller is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, educator, administrator and advocate.  Recently appointed as Gibney’s new Director of Engagement, she builds on her long dedication to both artistry and social action by facilitating the deepening of reciprocal exchange with educational institutions and building new programming that further acknowledges the fractal nature of transformation both inside and outside the studio in our constantly shifting world.

Originally from Ohio, her youth as a gymnast evolved into training at The Dance Institute at the University of Akron. She spent a decade at the Ohio Ballet where she performed works by a wide-range of choreographers including José Limon, Lucinda Childs, George Balanchine and Alonzo King.  She was a founding member of Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater where she choreographed numerous works and continues her ongoing connection as artistic advisor.  Since 2012, she has been a Director and a performing member of Gibney Company performing works by Gina Gibney, Bryan Arias, Peter Chu and Shannon Gillen.

Interested in revealing ways to foster both artistic excellence and social engagement in all her work, Miller strives to prioritize both components in equal measure.  For nearly a decade, Miller has focused on Gibney’s Community Action initiatives and has worked closely with social workers toward facilitating movement workshops with survivors of gender-based violence, conducted both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, and facilitated healthy relationship workshops for young people to raise awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. Miller will steward the expansion of the Moving Toward Justice platform at Gibney providing a supportive curriculum for activating arts-based social justice projects aimed at addressing gaps in the field.  Miller co-facilitates creative spaces for advocacy alongside Gibney’s ‘Move to Move Beyond Storytellers,’ a group of survivors creating performances for audiences and performers alike to deepen our critical consciousness, witness the power of reclaiming one’s agency, and move toward shared liberation. Actively moving toward co-creating spaces that value antiracism as a foundational tenet, Miller is a facilitation committee member of Gibney’s internal Decentering Whiteness Working Group offering white-identifying staff members opportunities to unlearn oppressive structures, as well as dovetail energies with Gibney’s Multiracial Staff Group directly addressing reducing harm to and support of our BIPOC staff and greater community.

Miller has facilitated teaching residencies at Oberlin College, Brown University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, SUNY Purchase and The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron among many others.  Miller is currently a teaching artist for the Bard College Dance Program/Gibney Partnership, a multi-year engagement that represents a wide-ranging vision of what dance can be in a liberal arts curriculum.  She has conducted Gibney Company international 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 Gisenyi, Rwanda. Miller has thrice been a Dance/USA Mentor through their Institute for Leadership Training. Miller was honored to receive an Arts & Artists in Progress “Pay it Forward” Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange.  Miller holds a BFA in Dance and is a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for her choreography.

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 partners with Springboard Danse Montréal to offer the annual Gibney Company/Springboard Illume Award. Formerly the EMERGE Award, under new Company Director Gilbert T Small II the Illume Award aims to cultivate and actualize the burgeoning visions of today’s emerging artists toward becoming tomorrow’s creative leaders in the field. Illume Awardees receive:

• A two-night run of a new or existing choreographic work at Gibney Center, including technical and marketing support
• Opportunities to teach classes and share their creative process through dialogues at the Center
• A $5,000 stipend to support their artistic work

Each year, one of Springboard’s Resident, Fellow, or Emerging Choreographers, past or present, is selected by Gibney Company to present in Studio H (The Theater) at Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, which is Gibney’s largest production space. The awardee is selected by the Gibney Company Director, who travels to Montréal each summer to observe the Resident, Fellow and Emerging Choreographers at Springboard Danse Montréal.

Launched jointly in 2018, the ILLUME Choreographic Award is a natural extension of Springboard Danse Montréal’s mission to connect artists to new opportunities, collaborators, and cultural organizations worldwide. It highlights the continual expansion of Gibney Company’s mission: from its beginning as a vehicle for the choreographic vision of its Founder Gina Gibney to then welcoming re-stagings and new commissions from a wide range of guest choreographers, and now creating a platform to provide visibility, resources, and space to rising voices in the community.

2022-2023 Illume Awardee

Gibney Company is thrilled to share that UNA Productions is the 2022 Illume Awardee!

UNA Productions is a dance production company, founded in 2013 by Artistic Director and Choreographer Chuck Wilt, creating, teaching and performing internationally, and based bi-coastally in San Francisco and NYC. UNA’s mission is to discover and communicate deeply rooted embodiments of human existence through physically powerful dancing and imagery that are evocative and colorful. UNA celebrates individuality and is dedicated to bringing vibrancy and joy to the world.

UNA has been presented by the Clarice-Smith Performing Arts Center, the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver, Sointula and Alert Bay-performing and engaging in cultural exchange with the ‘Namgis First Nation Community, presented by Fusion International:Japan in Kaga and Tokyo, co-presented by the ODC Theater, presented by the Spectrum Dance Festival, Movement Research at the Judson Church, 92nd St. Y, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Platform! Montreal, CPR and more. Chuck/UNA has been an Artist in Residence of Berkeley Ballet Theater, Fusion International (Japan), Brooklyn College/CUNY Dance Initiative, The Launchpad/Dance Initiative (CO), 92nd St. Y, and a choreographic fellow for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation NDCL. Wilt and UNA’s Associates have created and set repertory for KSU Dance, Springboard Danse Montreal as Resident and Emerging choreographer, NYU Tisch Dance, UMD, SALT Pro, Ailey Fordham, Mason Gross Rutgers University, LINES Training Program, Berkeley Ballet Theater/Post Ballet/SF Girls Chorus, LITVAKdance Company, and the ODC Youth Company. This winter, Chuck will create new work for Post Ballet with the Kronos Quartet.

Website: www.una.productions
Instagram: @una.productions

Learn More

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.

Learn More

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.

Sign Up Here

Gibney Group Study proudly offers customized, immersive programs for students around the world. Designed to provide a glimpse into the professional dance world and sustainable careers in the arts, the Group Study program offers technical training and addresses pressing issues in the field.

Group Study offers groups of dancers the opportunity to select a series of online or in-person classes tailor-made to fit the needs and aspirations of their dancers or programs.

Learn More

Education Residencies bring Gibney Company, Gibney’s acclaimed resident dance ensemble, 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. Gibney Company has partnered with Adelphi University, Brown University, Connecticut College, Jacksonville University, Marymount Manhattan College, New York University, Texas State University, and others on training residency programs.

To inquire about planning your residency, please contact Amy Miller, Gibney Director of Engagement, at amy@gibneydance.org

Both acknowledging and pushing against the often transactional nature of university residency exchanges with non-profits, Gibney creates multi-year partnerships with academic institutions dovetailing together our individual resources, expertise and lived experiences in hopes of offering more comprehensive interplay between students, faculty, and university audiences with our Director of Engagement Amy Miller alongside the Gibney Company Leadership and Artistic Associates. 

To inquire about university partnerships with Gibney, please contact Director of Engagement, Amy Miller, at amy@gibneydance.org

Learn More about our Bard College Dance Program Partnership

Contact Global Touring Representative Barbara Frum, Outer/Most, for all booking inquiries.

Email: bfrum@outermostagency.com
Tel.: +1 416-727-0725

Education Residencies bring Gibney Company, Gibney’s acclaimed resident dance ensemble, 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. Gibney Company has partnered with Adelphi University, Brown University, Connecticut College, Jacksonville University, Marymount Manhattan College, New York University, Texas State University, and others on training residency programs.

To inquire about planning your residency, please contact Amy Miller, Gibney Director of Engagement, at amy@gibneydance.org

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 championed by Director of Engagement Amy Miller, Bard’s Dance Program Director Tara Lorenzen, and Professor of Dance Maria Simpson with support from Senior Company Advisor Alexandra Wells and the Gibney Education Team.

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, 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, taught 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.

Past faculty have included:
Maleek Washington
Dedrick Gray
Cameron Kinney
Alanna Morris
Elisa Clark
Amy Miller

Each fall semester, Director of Engagement Amy Miller also teaches a seminar course entitled Entrepreneurial Artistry as Activism. Modeled after Gibney Company’s Advocacy Fellowship program and welcoming in members of the Gibney leadership as guest speakers, 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 to pinpoint a pressing social issue that ignites a personal passion.

GIBNEY COMPANY RESIDENCY

Once a year, Gibney Company will be in residence at Bard College. Gibney Company will take advantage of unencumbered work time outside of New York City to focus on the production elements of newly commissioned choreography at the LUMA Theater inside the Fisher Center for Performing Arts. Each technical residency will also include exchange with Bard students through open rehearsals, master classes and a final public showing for the larger Annandale-on-Hudson community. 

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  Moving Toward Justice trainings that cultivate a space for ‘artist entrepreneurs’ to build skills and foster dialogue and exchange at the intersection of arts and social justice. Embedded with embodied practice experiences, these sessions addressing activism aim to expand the definition of ‘community’ to include those right around us. Sessions build awareness about a myriad of social justice issues and are rooted in Gibney Community Action’s long history in addressing gender-based violence alongside survivors and social workers.

Teaching Artists

Fall 2022

SPRING 2022

Amy Miller is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, educator, administrator and advocate.  Recently appointed as Gibney’s new Director of Engagement, she builds on her long dedication to both artistry and social action by facilitating the deepening of reciprocal exchange with educational institutions and building new programming that further acknowledges the fractal nature of transformation both inside and outside the studio in our constantly shifting world.

Originally from Ohio, her youth as a gymnast evolved into training at The Dance Institute at the University of Akron. She spent a decade at the Ohio Ballet where she performed works by a wide-range of choreographers including José Limon, Lucinda Childs, George Balanchine and Alonzo King.  She was a founding member of Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater where she choreographed numerous works and continues her ongoing connection as artistic advisor.  Since 2012, she has been a Director and a performing member of Gibney Company performing works by Gina Gibney, Bryan Arias, Peter Chu and Shannon Gillen.

Interested in revealing ways to foster both artistic excellence and social engagement in all her work, Miller strives to prioritize both components in equal measure.  For nearly a decade, Miller has focused on Gibney’s Community Action initiatives and has worked closely with social workers toward facilitating movement workshops with survivors of gender-based violence, conducted both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, and facilitated healthy relationship workshops for young people to raise awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. Miller will steward the expansion of the Moving Toward Justice platform at Gibney providing a supportive curriculum for activating arts-based social justice projects aimed at addressing gaps in the field.  Miller co-facilitates creative spaces for advocacy alongside Gibney’s ‘Move to Move Beyond Storytellers,’ a group of survivors creating performances for audiences and performers alike to deepen our critical consciousness, witness the power of reclaiming one’s agency, and move toward shared liberation. Actively moving toward co-creating spaces that value antiracism as a foundational tenet, Miller is a facilitation committee member of Gibney’s internal Decentering Whiteness Working Group offering white-identifying staff members opportunities to unlearn oppressive structures, as well as dovetail energies with Gibney’s Multiracial Staff Group directly addressing reducing harm to and support of our BIPOC staff and greater community.

Miller has facilitated teaching residencies at Oberlin College, Brown University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, SUNY Purchase and The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron among many others.  Miller is currently a teaching artist for the Bard College Dance Program/Gibney Partnership, a multi-year engagement that represents a wide-ranging vision of what dance can be in a liberal arts curriculum.  She has conducted Gibney Company international 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 Gisenyi, Rwanda. Miller has thrice been a Dance/USA Mentor through their Institute for Leadership Training. Miller was honored to receive an Arts & Artists in Progress “Pay it Forward” Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange.  Miller holds a BFA in Dance and is a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for her choreography.

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 partners with Springboard Danse Montréal to offer the annual Gibney Company/Springboard Illume Award. Formerly the EMERGE Award, under new Company Director Gilbert T Small II the Illume Award aims to cultivate and actualize the burgeoning visions of today’s emerging artists toward becoming tomorrow’s creative leaders in the field. Illume Awardees receive:

• A two-night run of a new or existing choreographic work at Gibney Center, including technical and marketing support
• Opportunities to teach classes and share their creative process through dialogues at the Center
• A $5,000 stipend to support their artistic work

Each year, one of Springboard’s Resident, Fellow, or Emerging Choreographers, past or present, is selected by Gibney Company to present in Studio H (The Theater) at Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, which is Gibney’s largest production space. The awardee is selected by the Gibney Company Director, who travels to Montréal each summer to observe the Resident, Fellow and Emerging Choreographers at Springboard Danse Montréal.

Launched jointly in 2018, the ILLUME Choreographic Award is a natural extension of Springboard Danse Montréal’s mission to connect artists to new opportunities, collaborators, and cultural organizations worldwide. It highlights the continual expansion of Gibney Company’s mission: from its beginning as a vehicle for the choreographic vision of its Founder Gina Gibney to then welcoming re-stagings and new commissions from a wide range of guest choreographers, and now creating a platform to provide visibility, resources, and space to rising voices in the community.

2022-2023 Illume Awardee

Gibney Company is thrilled to share that UNA Productions is the 2022 Illume Awardee!

UNA Productions is a dance production company, founded in 2013 by Artistic Director and Choreographer Chuck Wilt, creating, teaching and performing internationally, and based bi-coastally in San Francisco and NYC. UNA’s mission is to discover and communicate deeply rooted embodiments of human existence through physically powerful dancing and imagery that are evocative and colorful. UNA celebrates individuality and is dedicated to bringing vibrancy and joy to the world.

UNA has been presented by the Clarice-Smith Performing Arts Center, the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver, Sointula and Alert Bay-performing and engaging in cultural exchange with the ‘Namgis First Nation Community, presented by Fusion International:Japan in Kaga and Tokyo, co-presented by the ODC Theater, presented by the Spectrum Dance Festival, Movement Research at the Judson Church, 92nd St. Y, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Platform! Montreal, CPR and more. Chuck/UNA has been an Artist in Residence of Berkeley Ballet Theater, Fusion International (Japan), Brooklyn College/CUNY Dance Initiative, The Launchpad/Dance Initiative (CO), 92nd St. Y, and a choreographic fellow for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation NDCL. Wilt and UNA’s Associates have created and set repertory for KSU Dance, Springboard Danse Montreal as Resident and Emerging choreographer, NYU Tisch Dance, UMD, SALT Pro, Ailey Fordham, Mason Gross Rutgers University, LINES Training Program, Berkeley Ballet Theater/Post Ballet/SF Girls Chorus, LITVAKdance Company, and the ODC Youth Company. This winter, Chuck will create new work for Post Ballet with the Kronos Quartet.

Website: www.una.productions
Instagram: @una.productions

Learn More

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.

Learn More

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.

Sign Up Here

Gibney’s Moving Toward Justice (MTJ) Curriculum cultivates spaces for ‘artist entrepreneurs’ to build skills and foster dialogue and exchange at the intersection of arts and social justice. Geared toward artists, educators, administrators and activists alike this discussion-based curriculum centers somatic awareness and makes space for the exploration of the ‘new choreographies’ at play in social and interpersonal justice, all while expanding the definition of ‘community’ to include those right around us. Sessions could include sharing Gibney’s time-tested Model and Methods; self-management best practices; skill-building toward facilitation techniques, program development, persuasive writing, business practices in entrepreneurship; as well as the personal stories of Gibney Company’s Artistic Associates embarking on their fellowship projects addressing gaps in the dance field.

Sessions build awareness about a myriad of social justice issues and are rooted in Gibney Community’s long history in addressing gender-based violence alongside survivors and social workers. This curriculum is inspired by Gibney’s organizational-wide model valuing reflection, expression, collaboration and sustainability while intentionally progressing from internal ideas to external action, and from individual work to collective care. This four part framework aims to move from the abstract toward the tangible, internal to external, from the individual towards the collective.

Learn More

Gibney Company’s full-time dancers, known as Artistic Associates, embrace a broad spectrum of activities—in the studio, on stage, within our organization, and throughout the community. Artistic Associates give back to the dance field through individually-crafted Moving Toward Justice Fellowships. Each Artistic Associate pinpoints a pressing issue in the dance field then leverages the resources and mentorship of the larger organization to develop, implement, and co-create new programs in response to the evolving needs of the field.

Learn More

A repository of current and past Moving Toward Justice Fellowships, updates and curriculum sharing.  Check back for updates on annual convenings to further cohort relationships and share project developments.

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.

Website

Instagram

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.

Website

Instagram

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.

Website

Instagram

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.

Instagram

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.

Instagram

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.

Website

Instagram

Zielińska’s OKAY, LET’S UNPACK THIS aims to normalize the conversation on mental health in the dance community. When the pandemic caused the cancellation of shows, tours, and rehearsals the OKAY, LET’S UNPACK THIS collective quickly realized that many artists who rely on mental health services would struggle to access critical support systems due to significant loss of income. Over the past several months, OKAY has cultivated a community of therapists and counselors who are offering free services to dancers during this unprecedented crisis. Their services are listed on OKAY’s website, www.okayokayokay.org, alongside other mental health resources. The website also shares dance artists’ own mental health stories in written and video form and offers comprehensive resource lists for anyone who might need additional support.

OKAY, LET’S UNPACK THIS launched a free 8-week Online Support Group for dance students, open to all dancers currently attending a college, conservatory, or pre-professional dance program. This marks the first expansion of Zielinska’s fellowship into this age demographic.

OKAY, LET’S UNPACK THIS is additionally supported by the Joseph and Bernice Tanenbaum Foundation, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, and Virginia & Timothy Millhiser.

Website
Instagram