SLMDances Professional Development for the People
Sep 21, 2020, 11:59 pm EDT
Professional Development for the People! (PD for the People!) is a 7-session online course (with a 1 week break, mid-course) that shares SLMDances’ praxis of self-development, community building, artistic practice steeped in strategic vision, decolonized organization building, and the embodiment of our collective values: HUMANITY, DREAMING, COMMUNITY, TRANSPARENCY, LEARNING, and ACTIVISM.
We will offer to you creative works, stories, and resources that have supported our journey to creating a values-centered, mission-oriented collective in which leadership and labor is shared, and artists feel whole, valued, and cared for. Our practices offer tenacity in artistic, cultural, and movement organizing work.
We are sharing our *magic* with you! This course is for you if you are an artist, organizer, educator, cultural worker, or other related practitioner who is deepening and re-imagining your leadership practice.
SLMDances has partnered with Gibney to support the technical and administrative production of the course. Applicants will receive updates and notifications from Jessie Kardos of the Gibney Training Department.
LEARNING OUTCOMES INCLUDE:
- Embodied practice
- Investigating and developing practices of self-management
- Developing practices of community building
- Defining practices of liberation
- Defining personal, collective, or organizational values
- Defining practices of collaboration
- Defining practices of cooperative economics
- Developing practices of reflection, improvisation, and responsiveness
- Developing activism practices that are long term and strategic
By the end of this course, participants will share an idea that they are dreaming of that applies the skills they have learned and plan to continue to work on beyond our time together.
Thank you for choosing to show up for yourself and your communities through this work. We are so excited to be on a journey together with you.
We see you! We support you! We lift you up!
COURSE TIMELINE
August 27: Applications Open
APPLICATION EXTENDED! September 21: Applications Close 11:59PM EST
September 25: Applicants Notified
October 1: Fees Due
October 2: Waitlist Confirmed and Zoom Info sent
COURSE MEETS WEEKLY ON TUESDAYS, 5:30-8:30PM
October 6, 13, 20, 27
NO CLASS Nov 3
Nov 10, 17, 24
Sydnie L. Mosley Dances Collective Bio
Sydnie L. Mosley Dances (SLMDances) is a New York City-based dance-theater collective that works in communities to organize for gender and racial justice through experiential dance performance. SLMDances’ works engage audiences in the artistic process; our dances provoke a visceral reaction to the physicality on stage and incite conversation toward community action.
The works reflect real life experiences central to our identities, and pulls focus to the stories of women and Black folks. The movement vocabulary fluidly integrates modern dance techniques and movement of the African Diaspora, while dancers frequently use their voice with spoken text and audible breath. Through dimensional compositions, specific, textured movement, humor and character development, choreographed works appeal to a sense of humanity.
The collective situates itself amongst the Harlem arts community by creating and presenting dance uptown; partnering with other Harlem artists and businesses; and focusing community-based initiatives within Harlem. SLMDances travels for projects both domestically and internationally as relevant to the mission and interests of the collective.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray recognized Artistic Director Sydnie L. Mosley for using her talents in dance to fuel social change. Other support and recognition includes: Manhattan Community Artists in Residence through Lincoln Center Education (2018-2020), LMCC Creative Engagement (2017, 2019, 2020), CUNY Dance Initiative (2016- 2017), Dancing While Black Artist Fellowship (2015-2016), and The Field Leadership Fund (2015-2017), The Performance Project @ University Settlement (2015-2016). Sydnie is a 2013 alumna of the Create Change Fellowship with The Laundromat Project, and the Gibney Dance Institute for Community Action Training. In 2011, she became the inaugural Barnard Center for Research on Women Alumnae Fellow.
SLMDances has shown work at Dixon Place, Gibney Dance, The Chen Dance Center newsteps program, the FIGMENT Festival on Governor’s Island, RoofTopDance, 92Y, as a part of the New York Foundation for the Arts Boot Camp Arts Festival at Surreal Estate and Joyce SoHo, The Actor’s Fund Arts Center, the Harlem Arts Alliance Artz, Rootz & Rhythm Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Riverside Church, The Red Carpet Theater at Taino Towers, Harlem Stage’s The Takeover, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), Triskelion Arts, The New School for Hollaback!’s HOLLA:Revolution, Barnard College, Cornell University, The Pennsylvania State University, Amherst College and Duke University, in addition to the NYC anti-street harassment rally, annually, and many outdoor performances including the Suite Summer Festival at Socrates Sculpture Garden in Queens and Multicultural Arts Festival in Harlem.
Photo by Amir Hamja.