Dance. Workforce. Resilience. Initiative
Monday, August 13, 2012
Town Hall: Kickstarting NYC Dance
This event has already occurred. Please enjoy photos, video, and event information below.
When: Monday, August 13, 2012, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: Ballet Hispanico, 167 W 89th St, New York, NY
Thank you for your interest in our Town Hall: Kickstarting NYC Dance, at Ballet Hispanico--an effort to put new crowdfunding and engagement tools to use for NYC dance.
In her Washington Post piece, "Dance is Kickstarter's most successful category," Sarah Kaufman uses the Dance/NYC town hall as her example of "funders and dance advocates… paying attention." Read more of what Sarah is saying about Dance/NYC and Kickstarter. .
We’ve launched a Kickstarter Curated Page, drawing attention to the Kickstarter campaigns of Dance.NYC registered users. You can also register for a free membership through Kickstarter. We’ve also partnered with USA Projects.
Enjoy the event's Twitter feed on Storify.
Enjoy more images from the event here.
New York City’s dance community is working entrepreneurially to put new crowdfunding and engagement tools—Artspire, Indiegogo, RocketHub, and USA Projects, to name a few—to use in making dance, and increasing levels of support and participation. Join Dance/NYC and Kickstarter to explore opportunities for “kickstarting” NYC dance by integrating such tools into your practice. Led by Kickstarter’s Art Program Director, Stephanie Pereira, this town hall will dig deep into four successful case studies and engage potential campaigners, small and large, in discussion about what works, what’s possible, and what’s next for NYC dance.
Featured Speakers
Eduardo Vilaro, Artistic Director, Ballet Hispanico (opening remarks)
Stephanie Pereira, Director, Art Program, Kickstarter (moderator)
Michele Byrd-McPhee, Ladies of Hip Hop Festival
David Dorfman, David Dorfman Dance
David Neumann, Advanced Beginner Group
Sarah A.O. Rosner, the A.O. Movement Collective
Eduardo Vilaro, Artistic Director, Ballet Hispanico
Eduardo Vilaro joined Ballet Hispanico as Artistic Director in August 2009, following a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. He has been part of the Ballet Hispanico family since 1985. As a dancer in the Ballet Hispanico Company, Mr. Vilaro performed works by Vicente Nebrada, Talley Beatty, Ramon Oller and other audience favorites. As an educator he assisted Ballet Hispanico founder Tina Ramirez in developing a program for children living in temporary housing and was involved with many aspects of the organization’s education residencies. Mr. Vilaro came to New York City at the age of six from his native Cuba. He began his dance training as a teenager on scholarship at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and also studied at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance. He received a B.F.A. in Dance from Adelphi University and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Art from Columbia College Chicago.
Stephanie Pereira, Director, Art Program
Stephanie Pereira has spent the last 10 years working with artists and arts organizations to catalyze creative communities through both on- and offline engagement. Stephanie previously served as Associate Director, Learning & Engagement at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, a non-profit residency center in New York City. She holds an MA in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA in Visual Art from Rutgers University.
Michele Byrd-McPhee, Executive Director and Founder, Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival
Michele Byrd-McPhee is the executive director and founder of Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival (LofHHF) and directing cofounder of Montazh Performing Arts Company. Originally based in Philadelphia, Montazh Performing Arts Company has now evolved into the “Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival Crew”, located in New York. Being one of the few women dancing alongside groups of men, she became increasingly aware of the narrow opportunities for women in Hip-Hop. Her experiences as a woman in Hip-Hop dance were the catalyst for her to create an outlet for female dancers. Michele created a safe space, a neutral zone where the art does not get lost or stifled because of complexities of male/female relationships. Now living in the NYC area, Michele most recently spent a semester teaching Intro Hip-Hop Dance at Connecticut College. Michele provides organization and artist consulting services; production management services and continues to be an advocate for the Hip-Hop dance community, especially for women.
David Dorfman, Artistic Director, David Dorfman Dance
David Dorfman is the Artistic Director of David Dorfman Dance and is the recipient of the 2005 Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. As a performer, he toured internationally with Kei Takei's Moving Earth and Susan Marshall & Co and his choreography has been produced in New York City at venues ranging from the BAM Next Wave Festival to The Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, The Duke on 42nd Street, Danspace Project/St. Mark's Church, P.S. 122, and Dancing in the Streets. His work has been commissioned widely in the U.S. and in Europe, most recently by AXIS Dance (Oakland, CA), Bedlam Dance Company (London), d9 Dance Collective (Seattle), Eisenhower Dance Theatre (Detroit), and the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia for the musical Green Violin, for which he won a 2003 Barrymore Award for best choreography. David holds a BS in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Dance from Connecticut College, where he joined the faculty in 2004 and is currently Professor of Dance and Department Chair.
David Neumann, Artistic Director, the Advanced Beginner Group
David Neumann has been a featured dancer in the works of Susan Marshall, Jane Comfort, Sally Silvers, Irene Hultman, Cathy Weiss, Big Dance Theater, and the late club legend Willi Ninja. He was a member of Doug Varone and Dancers, and an eight-year original member and collaborator with the Doug Elkins Dance Company. He continues to perform and choreograph for theater, opera and film working with such directors as: Hal Hartley, Laurie Anderson, Robert Woodruff, Lee Breuer, Peter Sellars, JoAnn Akalaitis, Chris Bayes, Mark Wing-Davey, Daniel Sullivan, Les Waters and Molly Smith. As artistic director of advanced beginner group, Neumann’s work has been presented in New York at PS 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Central Park SummerStage (where he collaborated with John Giorno), Celebrate Brooklyn and Symphony Space (where he collaborated with Laurie Anderson) and The Whitney. His work has also been presented at the Walker Art Center and MASS MoCA. David is currently a professor of Theater at Sarah Lawrence College and a guest lecturer at both Barnard College and The Graduate Acting Program at Yale University.
Sarah A.O.Rosner, Artistic Director, the A.O. Collective
Sarah A.O. Rosner is a choreographer and arts businessman making work out of Brooklyn, NY. She founded the A.O. Movement Collective in 2006, and has been at their helm creating Anti-Ephemeral PoMo Humanist work and ideology ever since. Rosner is also the founder of arts blog Urgent Artist and freelancer collective A.O. PRO(+ductions), and has been featured as a panelist, speaker, and educator by Dance Theater Workshop, the Field, Dance NYC, CLASSCLASSCLASS, Bard College, and New York Live Arts. She pioneers radical business, champions sustainability, and loves to yell about art.
Celebrating 42 years of dance and culture, Ballet Hispanico is recognized as the nation’s preeminent Latino dance organization. Led by Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro, Ballet Hispanico explores, preserves and celebrates today's Latino cultures through innovative artistic collaborations, world class dance training and national education and outreach programs.
Dance/NYC Town Halls are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.
