Dance Rising NYC continues promoting embodied advocacy for the dance field. In Brooklyn to Harlem for International Dance Day, bringing the dynamic energy of dance to small businesses and public spaces. Created in partnership with cultural organizations and local businesses across the city, the 2022 Video Tour is a reminder that the dance industry is an essential part of NYC's cultural identity. More information, including rolling venue locations and details can be found at www.dancerising.org

 

Formed as a grassroots collective at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dance Rising NYC has become a platform for embodied advocacy that affirms the importance of dance in all its forms. The dance sector of NYC is still in crisis after a full year of fighting for recognition as a field in need of support by the state and city during the first year of the pandemic. Dancers live in every neighborhood in the city - and this sector - filled with skilled, empathic, tenacious artists and workers - can lead a vision for the arts in New York City, one where every New Yorker can be inspired and moved by arts and culture. The Astor Place Day of Dance celebrates the industry's tenacity and insists that dance is a vital performing art -- one that shapes NYC's identity as a cultural center. 

 

The 2022 Video Tour launched in partnership with two Brooklyn cafes – LOCOCO and The Bakery on Bergen – Dance Rising celebrates the survival of small businesses in NYC in the aftermath of the pandemic, and on International Dance Day, Bakery on Bergen and Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem will both be featuring the videos of over 400 dancers. 

 

In a demonstration of unity amongst the arts, cultural and public spaces: Marcus Garvey Park, The Hispanic Society Museum & Library, Bronx Arts and Dance (BAAD), Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning will all host large scale projections of over 400 dancers on their outer walls, bringing the diversity and energy of dancers to New York City residents. 

 

Now, in 2022, marking the second anniversary of the commencement of the pandemic, Dance Rising is teaming up with small businesses and cultural institutions across the city to produce large-scale projections in empty retail windows, on walls, screens and online. Collectively, these videos will re-saturate the city with dance, offering New Yorkers the energy of this resilient art form as our city rebuilds. (online content available at www.dancerising.org).

 

In a comment about partnering with Bakery on Bergen, Dance Rising founding member Joya Powell, director of Movement of the People Dance Company, says, "Dance has always been a part of the Vann family. I remember dancing in Akim's father and mother's, Teddy and Wanling Vann's, basement in Brooklyn at a very young age, or dancing at Vann family birthday parties. We have grown into phenomenal Black women business owners, true to our NYC roots, making our fathers proud. It is a powerful statement when dance and small local businesses become collaborators. Thank you Akim, creator and owner of The Bakery on Bergen, for sharing your (wall) space with your dancing NYC community, for supporting MOPDC, Dance Rising NYC, and for your visionary activist practices involving community and care."

 

Kristina Burmudez, director of Project.KB and new member of the Dance Rising Collective says: "It is really exciting when we have individual small businesses stepping up and supporting Dance in order to enrich our communities, build awareness and create space for advocacy. As we continue building momentum, I look forward to seeing how much arts workers and other small businesses can accomplish together. Thank you Hans from LOCOCO for always supporting Brownsville-based Project.KB, now Dance Rising, and continuously working towards building community in LOCOCO's neighborhood, East Williamsburg."

 

 

SCHEDULE

Indoor projections in coffee shops: 60-minute video loop February 18-19

LOCOCO, 236 Stagg St. Brooklyn, NY 11206 - videos are featured from 2-5 pm on Saturday February 18th. Come by for for a snack or drink during artist interviews (2:30 - 4:30 pm) or come hang during their open mic night (5 - 8 pm) Videos will be on display all weekend. 

The Bakery on Bergen, 740 Bergen St, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Window displays: February 25-April 1 nine compilations on view in rotation in empty retail spaces

Large scale projections: pop up projections on outdoor walls in all five boroughs starting in March 2022.

Full video series online: www.DanceRising.org/the-videos

 

The videos that are featured in Activated Architecture|Dancing Walls come from the hyper-local dance outs Dance Rising has organized over the past two years: 400+ dancers and companies across the boroughs and the tri-state area simultaneously took to the parks, streets, and rooftops to dance, calling attention to an entire sector that was shut down for more than a year by the pandemic. Dance Rising collected video recordings from these dance-outs, representing individual artists and established companies like Limon, Ballet Hispánico, Flamenco Vivo, Trisha Brown, Heidi Latsky Dance, The Bang Group, New York Theatre Ballet, Kinesis Project dance theatre, jill sigman/thinkdance,The Equus Projects, Renegade Performance Group, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, and Movement of the People Dance Company. 

 

In March 2021, to honor the one-year anniversary of the shutdown of the sector and in partnership with 30 cultural institutions, Dance Rising held an initial Five Boro Video Tour, bringing the videos of 300+ dancers to all five boros in lobby displays, kiosks, bus stops, newsstands, social media and a multi-screen, 24/7 10 day installation at 20 Astor Place. These videos were also shared on park movie screens in Brooklyn, the Upper West Side and Inwood during summer 2021. 

 

Partner organizations/venues: 

Manhattan: Village Alliance, Meatpacking BID, Marcus Garvey Park, Hispanic Society Museum & Library 

Brooklyn: Bakery on Bergen, LOCOCO

Queens: CUNY Dance Initiative, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning

Staten Island: Snug Harbor Cultural Center

Bronx: BAAD

 

Dance Rising's Activated Architecture | Dancing Walls is made possible in part by support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, John and Jody Arnhold | The Arnhold Foundation, John C. Robinson, The Village Alliance and other generous individuals. Projections possible, thanks to 4Wall Entertainment and Peter Nigrini. Dance Rising videos are edited by Carley Santori. Dance Rising's technical team includes Lauren Parrish, TD of DanceNOW at Joe's Pub; Peter Nigrini, lighting and projection designer for Broadway, Bill T. Jones and the Park Avenue Armory.

 

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

Dance Rising was formed in August 2020 as an urgent response to the pandemic by a collective of independent NYC dance artists and administrators. A platform for embodied advocacy that unites the dance industry and amplifies diverse voices and bodies, Dance Rising focuses public attention on the field and engages with stakeholders about partnership and possibility. It also provides audiences with opportunities to enjoy safe, site-specific performances and celebrates local artists--a potent reminder of the importance of arts and culture in NYC. Led by Melissa Riker, director of Kinesis Project dance theatre, Dance Rising is fiscally sponsored by The Field and advised by Lucy Sexton of New Yorkers for Culture & Arts.

 

THE DANCE RISING COLLECTIVE

Active members: Kristina Bermudez/Project.KB, Teresa Fellion/Bodystories, DJ McDonald, Joya Powell/Movement of the People Dance Company, JoAnna Mendl Shaw/The Equus Projects, Melissa Riker/Kinesis Project, Juan José Escalante/National Dance Institute, Claudia-Lynn Rightmire

Founding members: Jill Sigman/thinkdance, André Zachary/Renegade Performance Group,Alyssa Alpine/CUNY Dance Initiative, Maura Nguyen Donohue, Remi Harris, Leslie Roybal/Flamenco Vivo, Amber Sloan, Xianix Barrera