New York, NY (For Immediate Release) – The dance service organization Dance/NYC and its program partner Gibney are pleased to announce the 10 recipients of the second iteration of the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program, made possible by the generous support of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs CreateNYC Disability Forward Fund, and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. 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.

The recipients of the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program, from December 6, 2021 to March 5, 2022, are:

• x
• Sonya Rio-Glick
• Ogemdi Ude
• Larissa Velez-Jackson / LVJ Performance Co.
• iele paloumpis
• Elisabeth Motley
• Elisa Hernandez
• David Lee Sierra
• Anna Gichan
• Alison Kopit​​
   

Grantees will participate in either in-person residencies hosted by Gibney in New York City or digital residencies in which Gibney hosts a virtual gathering space. The 10 grantees include representatives from two boroughs of New York City, The Bronx (1) and Brooklyn (6); one representative from upstate New York; one representative from Georgia; and one representative from Pennsylvania. Dance/NYC is pleased to be able to expand the reach of the program beyond New York City in recognition of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic which have led to the migration of many dance artists. Grantees are majority African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) and majority women-identifying, transgender, and gender nonconforming/non-binary/genderqueer individuals.

This residency includes, for the first time, a component which connects each grantee with a professional mentor for ten hours of dedicated consultation during the residency period. Drawn from across the arts ecosystem, the mentors represent an incredible range of expertise and experience. Mentors and grantees were matched based on grantee goals for their residency work and artistic career, in the categories of professional, artistic, or production development. This program component is crafted and guided by consultant Laurel Lawson, a choreographer and artist-engineer.

“The Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency program has consistently offered valuable resources to disabled dance artists, and I am happy to bring my work as an artist, researcher, and consultant in support of this program, disabled artists, and the field as a whole,” said Laurel Lawson, Director, Rose Tree Productions.

“With this iteration of the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program, Dance/NYC remains committed to building an ecosystem of support to ensure that disabled dance artists can continue to develop their artistry and have access to the resources they need to thrive,” said Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Executive Director of Dance/NYC. “As we continue to respond to the drastic shifts within our sector instigated by the global pandemic, it is critical that this time leads our sector to seed the current and next generation of disabled arts workers as we continue to center disability as a positive artistic, generative source.”

"Gibney is deeply committed to advancing disability artistry and is proud to partner with Dance/NYC in this crucial work. We are honored to welcome this incredible cohort of grantees into our spaces and community in the coming year," said a Gibney representative.

Each grantee will receive an honorarium of $5,000, an additional stipend of $1,000 for any accessibility needs, up to 36 hours of rehearsal time over the course of one week for in-person residencies or two consecutive weeks for digital residencies, a ten-class card at Gibney for in-person or digital dance classes, a 2-hour public activity with production support provided by Gibney, 10 hours of goal-directed mentorship or professional development consulting from an expert in the field, participation in two cohort convenings focused on professional development, and marketing support through Dance/NYC’s platforms.

These ten grantees were selected by panel review and were among a competitive pool of 23 self-identified disabled dance makers or integrated dance companies led by people with disabilities that submitted applications in response to an open call. Key evaluation criteria included artistic excellence; potential to benefit from a residency; a commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion; and a diversity of participant types and perspectives.

Dance/NYC established the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program in 2019 with its program partners Gibney and Spaceworks as part of its Disability. Dance. Artistry. Initiative. The first iteration of the program awarded residencies to a total of eight disabled dance artists and integrated dance companies across two rounds. The 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.

 

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About Dance/NYC (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 (gibneydance.org)
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 (rosetree.org)
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 (chnfoundation.org)
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 (fordfoundation.org)
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 New York City Department of Cultural Affairs CreateNYC Disability Forward Fund (www1.nyc.gov/site/dcla/index.page)
The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) inaugural CreateNYC Disability Forward Fund was designed to support new and ongoing programmatic efforts in fiscal year 2019 to engage people with disabilities as artists, cultural workers, and audience members. The program is a result of the development of the City’s cultural plan, CreateNYC. In particular, the plan's first-year priorities include an expanded diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda that expressly addresses disability and disability artistry, to build greater diversity across the cultural sector.

 

About the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation (sdrubin.org)
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.