Be among the first to experience American choreography's newest creative shoots...
European dance enthusiasts visiting America might want to put two sources of American choreography on their radar— the North Carolina-based American Dance Festival and New York's CUNY Dance Initiative.
Every summer Duke University hosts the American Dance Festival (ADF)— bringing in commissioned works from across the USA, as well as some more local North Carolina talents.Dating back to the Great Depression, ADF's pedigree is defined by the BIG name choreographers that have been part of their performances and educational efforts through the years.Some of these include many of the choreographers whose work has been presented in Europe from time to time, including:Lar Lubovitch, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones, Ohad Naharin, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Doug Varone, Twyla Tharp, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Mark Morris, Pilobolus, and more.
For dance lovers, blocking out weeks in mid-June through the month of July to attend the American Dance Festival in North Carolina will afford opportunities to see new works from both up and coming dance troupes and those that are relatively firmly established in the US and Canada.
With planning you can expect to see at least three ADF performances per week.In between dance performances you will find many a vacation spot and experience familiar to Americans but not yet on most European tourists' radar.A few hours away one can find beach rentals —tip:book these months in advance.It's also easy to plan self-guided road trips through the rural surrounds of Duke University with a focus on the Civil Rights Trail of North Carolina, US Revolutionary War and Civil War history, and more.
Many Europeans are more familiar with the role that the New York City dance scene has played in the world of dance.Indeed, many of the aforementioned BIG names associated with the ADF make New York City their home.But there is an undertow on the New York dance scene— and the arts in general— that is born of the skyrocketing rental costs in the city.Modern dance— and especially collaborative efforts with long gestation times between lead choreographer and troupe— need time and space (literally) to make their magic happen.In this crucible, the CUNY Dance Initiative was born.
Alyssa Alpine, director of the CUNY Dance Initiative recounts how the organization came to be and it's raison d'être as follows,
"The CUNY Dance Initiative was launched in 2014 to provide critical resources for NYC dance companies – rehearsal and performance spaces – while benefiting students and communities surrounding colleges in the city's public university system (CUNY). We have kept a clear eye on this mission over the past 10 years, and the core of what we do hasn't changed because the need is – if anything – greater now than it was when we started.
Dance artists are navigating an affordability crisis in NYC. There's the high cost of living – a big picture issue facing many New Yorkers -- and also the cost of creating. That's where we step in. The seed for the CUNY Dance Initiative came out of a 2010 study titled "We Make Do," which found that NYC's dance sector was struggling due to the shortage of affordable, appropriate rehearsal and performance spaces. Very few NYC dance companies have permanent spaces, and most choreographers rent rehearsal space by the hour at independent studios. Not only does this get expensive – most choreographers need over 100 hours of rehearsal to create one new work, and rental rates run $10-$40/hr on average --but it also takes a lot of time to juggle dancers' schedules with when and where space is available.
The "We Make Do" study cited underutilized studios and theaters on CUNY college campuses as one potential solution to the space problem faced by NYC dance artists. Cue the CUNY Dance Initiative, a residency program for local dance artists housed within the city's public university system. Over the past decade, we've built a consortium of 13 CUNY colleges across all five boroughs of New York City to host 20+ residencies each year, offering artists space to create and connect with new audiences, plus an honorarium.
While dance artists gain the most from CDI, CUNY students and residents in CUNY communities benefit as well. We sponsor guest lectures and master classes for CUNY students as part of the residencies, and by underwriting performances at the colleges, we help bring in new, local audiences for dance shows…"
Though CDI is a relatively young effort, it's notable that many of the more than 250 choreographers that CDI has sponsored with residencies have already made their way to European performance spaces and dance festivals— Jon Lehrer Dance, Christopher Rudd, among many more. Seeing them in situ—- in New York City— can afford you the opportunity to be among the first to experience American choreography's newest creative shoots.
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