The West Side YMCA Community Arts Department and Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre present
FOOTPRINTS A Modern Dance Festival
Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA
5 W 63rd Street, New York, NY 10023
Performance Dates: Thursday-Sunday, May 14-17, 2015
Tech/Dress Dates: Monday-Wednesday, May 11-13, 2015

FOOTPRINTS is a week-long dance festival that will celebrate the work of emerging and established modern choreographers on the stage of the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA. This new annual festival, curated by Amanda Selwyn, will showcase innovative works of contemporary dance with a strong theatrical aesthetic.

TO APPLY: Proposed works must be under 12 minutes in length and have 6 dancers or fewer. Please submit this completed application form electronically to aselwyn@ymcanyc.org and mail required attachments plus $100 non-refundable application fee, or submit attachments electronically with payment via credit card. Checks should be made payable to the YMCA of Greater New York to Amanda Selwyn, Community Arts Director, West Side YMCA, 5 West 63rd Street, New York, NY 10023. NEW Application deadline: March 18, 2015. (Disregard deadline in application form)

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About Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre
Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre creates original and dynamic dance theatre that raises questions, challenges social norms and values, and magnifies humanity through dance. Productions pivot around core themes and through an interplay between athletic and pedestrian motion, activate emotional expression, character, and narrative in a rich and abstract collage. Presenting dance in an immediate, mature, and inclusive way, we engage audiences from start to finish and beckon a response of thought, feeling, and soul.  Founded in 2000, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre has presented 10 original evening length works and dozens of shorter works at NY Performance Seasons and festival engagements, and offers residencies to colleges and universities. We have presented over 30 productions at venues including New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, The Ailey Citigroup Theater, John Jay College, and Dance New Amsterdam. 

Inside New York: “Amanda Selwyn is a master at illustrating the symbiosis of sound and movement, the romance of motion and emotion – she had me laughing, crying, cringing and gasping all in the short 55-minute production.”

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival’s Pillow Pages: “Choreographically, Amanda's point of departure is not an image or a gesture, but a theatrical imperative felt in her insistence on expression.”

About the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater
The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side Y is a non-profit, independent, Off-Broadway Theater which exists to:
-Encourage the creative spirit in young people.
-Empower, educate, and maximize the potential of the young people and emerging artists.
-Serve our community by providing affordable and high quality professional arts performances, programming, training, education.
-Create and launch new and innovative works that inspire, entertain, and reflect our diverse community.
-Further the YMCA of Greater New York's mission of building healthy bodies, healthy minds, and healthy spirits.

Marjorie Schlesinger Deane (1923-2003) was a fifth-generation New Yorker with a passion for fashion and the theater. The Chairman of the Tobe Report, an influential advisory service and weekly journal, Ms. Deane was well known in the fashion industry for 60 years. She was the president of the Fashion Group, a founder of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and a member of the Board of FIT.  Mrs. Deane had a lifelong love and appreciation for the theater, ranging from Broadway to Off-Broadway shows to amateur productions and summer stock. In 2004, this theater was named after her by her family with the hope that the lives of others might be enriched by the arts.

About the West Side YMCA Community Arts Program
The Community Arts program at the West Side YMCA empowers, educates, and maximizes the potential of youth and adult emerging and established artists. Our classes are led by experienced instructors who create a stimulating atmosphere with lively activities, discussion and insightful feedback. We strive to create innovative performances, events, and programs that inspire, entertain, and reflect our diverse community.

• VISUAL ART: Youth Visual Arts, ArtWorks – beading, ceramics, painting, drawing, and glassworks
• THEATER ARTS: Kids Company Acting and Musical Theater Program: Production, Showcase, and Workshop; Teen Theater Arts: Teen Theater Collective, Teen Tech Crew; Adult Theater Arts; Theater for Older Adults
• THE WRITER’S VOICE: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Memoir, Poetry, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Writing for the Web, and more
• DANCE: Youth classes in a variety of styles and technique, Footprints Contemporary Dance Performance Festival
• CONVERSATIONS ON THE ARTS: Bi-monthly speaker series featuring writers, actors, directors, and more
• FAMILY PROGRAMS: Multi-Art Family Events, Workshops, and more

How We Build
• Healthy Bodies - We develop bodies and voices through participation in arts programs that build and strengthen community. We teach self-expression through writing, visual art, creative drama, movement, dance, and theatre.
• Healthy Minds - We support arts education and literacy efforts, providing opportunities through the development of innovative partnerships, programming, and theater resource services. We explore ideas and culture. We involve young people in the entire creative and technical process and development of productions. We empower, educate, and maximize the potential of our youth by providing professional performing arts training, workshops, connections, and performance opportunities.
• Healthy Spirits - We develop confidence, imagination, a sense of self, teamwork, discipline, integrity, and other life skills through the teaching of stage skills. We provide a safe place to be passionate and creative, and inspire a desire for learning. We use the arts as a dynamic and progressive tool to teach effective ways to listen and communicate. We provide a creative forum for young people to express their concerns and ideas.