Dance/NYC Announces Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program (DEADLINE: Oct 10)
Company:
Dance/NYC
Dance/NYC and its program partner Gibney are pleased to announce the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program, made possible by the generous support of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Dance/NYC will award residencies to up to ten (10) disabled dance artists and/or disability-led integrated dance companies. The purpose of the residency program is to expand opportunities for dancers with disabilities, including spinal cord injury (SCI) and other impairments, and to advance accessibility and equity for disabled dance artists within the larger dance, residency, and presenting communities.
Dance/NYC remains committed to delivering regranting programs that address disparities in the dance field by continuing to fill gaps in the availability of resources where they are most needed. It believes the dance ecology must itself be just, equitable, and inclusive to meaningfully contribute to social progress and envisions a dance ecology wherein power, funding, opportunities, conduct, and impacts are fair for all artists, cultural workers, and audiences. Dance/NYC's approach cuts across its public programs and all aspects of its operations.
The Residency Program responds directly to Dance/NYC's research, Performing Disability. Dance. Artistry.(Dance.NYC/PerformingDDA18), which underscores the need and opportunity to engage residency centers in the professional development and training of disabled artists and to provide critical training to presenters, driving mentorship and shared learning among artists and presenters. It also recognizes the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on disabled dance workers, as highlighted by its recent publication Coronavirus Dance Impact Informational Brief.
In an effort to ensure every aspect of the program is informed and led by disabled dance artists, Dance/NYC gathered feedback from disabled dance workers across its network and is working with disabled choreographer and artist-engineerLaurel Lawson of Rose Tree Productions who has expertise in disability arts, access, mentorship programming, and facilitation.
"As we continue to respond to the tectonic shifts that the global pandemic has wrought on our sector, Dance/NYC remains focused in our efforts to ensure that disabled artists can continue to develop their artistry and have access to the resources they need to thrive. ," said Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Executive Director, Dance/NYC "The time is now for our sector to seed the current and next generation of disabled arts workers, as we continue to center disability as a positive artistic generative force."
"The Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency program has consistently led in service to disabled dancers and I am happy to bring my work as an artist, researcher, and organizer in support of the program's continued growth, in support of disabled artists, and in support of the field as a whole," said Laurel Lawson, Director, Rose Tree Productions.
"Gibney is proud to partner with Dance/NYC on this important program and to continue our work supporting disability artistry. We are committed to making our space and resources accessible to all, and this initiative plays a key role in supporting disabled artists in our field," said Gina Gibney, Founder, Artistic Director & CEO, Gibney.
Applications are now open for individual disabled dance artists and/or integrated dance companies led by people with disabilities to apply for residencies during the period of December 6, 2021 through March 5, 2022. Residencies will be awarded to up to ten (10) disabled dance artists and/or integrated dance companies to support their creative process. These residencies will be hosted in New York City by Gibney, but eligible applicants may be based outside of the metropolitan area. Given the continued impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus, both in-person and digital residencies will be available.
Benefits include an honorarium of $5,000 per participant, an additional stipend of $1,000 for personal care assistant(s) or any accessibility needs, up to 36 hours of rehearsal time, a ten-class card at Gibney, an informal public engagement opportunity, ten hours of goal-directed mentorship or professional development consulting from an expert in the field, participation in cohort convenings, and marketing support.
Applications will be considered for only one residency program, per applicant. A copy of the applicant's U.S. IRS Determination Letter, which proves the entity's 501(c)(3) designation or tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 170(c)(1) is required, or proof of fiscal sponsorship. The program's goals are artistic, and applicants with primarily therapeutic or educational goals will not be considered. Additional information about eligibility and application requirements are now available on Dance/NYC's website at Dance.NYC.
The deadline for application submission is October 10, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
About Dance/NYC
Dance/NYC's mission is to promote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization. Visit Dance.NYC/DDA for details on Dance/NYC's Disability. Dance. Artistry. initiative.
About Gibney
Founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, Gibney is a New York City-based performing arts and social justice organization that taps into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation. Gibney deploys resources through three strategic and interwoven program areas: Gibney Center, a meeting ground for New York City's artistic community comprising 23 studios and 5 performance spaces that provide critical space for training, rehearsal, professional development, performances, and convenings; Gibney Community, programs that use movement to help address a range of social issues with a focus on gender-based violence and its prevention; and Gibney Company, a creation-based repertory company commissioning work from both internationally renowned and emerging choreographers. Gibney supports movement-based artists in every aspect of their creative development: classes, residencies, low-cost rental space, entrepreneurial training and incubation, presentation opportunities, commissioning, and operating a professional dance company.
About Rose Tree Productions
Founded in 2019 by Laurel Lawson, Rose Tree Productions is a transdisciplinary arts organization which innovates in dance and technology with nuanced disability-borne understanding of multiplex experience. Rose Tree's mission is to create and produce art which is technically excellent, impactful to socio-emotional and community experience, and to advance the field through creativity, technology, innovation, and education for the equity and benefit of disabled peoples, artists, and the public. Program design and consulting for equitable access for artists and to the arts is a core component of Rose Tree's work in support of disabled artists and the field.
About the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation
The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation is the largest private funder of spinal cord injury research, rehabilitation, clinical training, and programmatic support in the United States and Canada. The Foundation partners with scientific, charitable and educational organizations conducting spinal cord injury research, training in spinal cord medicine, and supports grassroots organizations providing services to assist individuals affected by spinal cord injury. Drawing ongoing inspiration from its founder, the Foundation is dedicated to a future where individuals with spinal cord injuries live full and productive lives as active participants in their communities.
About the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation was founded in 1936, and has invested in innovative ideas, visionary individuals, and frontline institutions advancing human dignity around the world across eight decades. We believe in the inherent dignity of all people. But around the world, too many people are excluded from the political, economic, and social institutions that shape their lives. In addressing this reality, we are guided by a vision of social justice—a world in which all individuals, communities, and peoples work toward the protection and full expression of their human rights; are active participants in the decisions that affect them; share equitably in the knowledge, wealth, and resources of society; and are free to achieve their full potential. Across eight decades, our mission has been to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement.
About the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation was founded in 1995, and is primarily committed to providing grants and programmatic support for: access to art for a broad audience, art in the service of social justice, art in the service of social change and discourse, and under-recognized artistic practice. The Foundation supports arts and cultural organizations through grants to catalyze collective action, promote equality, contribute to advocacy and policy change, and develop capacity for greater civic engagement. The Foundation is also interested in supporting organizations outside of the arts whose programs seek to engage communities through cultural activities. Now in its sixth cycle, the art and social justice grant program will reward twenty-seven New York–based cultural organizations for their artistic activism and engagement with social justice. Grants will provide direct support for exhibitions, educational programs, activist initiatives, artists' projects, publications, and operations.
