National Dance Festival Lands in Northern New Mexico Next Month

Santa Fe-based Artistic Director Francisco Gella announces the relocation of the New Century Dance Project (NCDP) Festival from Salt Lake City, UT to its new home in Santa Fe, NM. The six-day event celebrating choreography and live dance performance will take place on August 2-7 at NDI New Mexico.

Founded in 2016, NCDP invites professional, collegiate, and high school choreographers from across North America to present their original works in front of enthusiastic dance audiences. Festival finalists were selected from a highly competitive application process in May. Thirty choreographers will travel from all over to Santa Fe to join nearly one hundred pre-professional performing artists participating in the festival's choreography and performance-focused educational intensive.

For the first time in the festival's history, three highly acclaimed choreographers will create new dances for Zeitgeist Dance Theatre (ZDT) Second Company, the festival's presenter. The dancemakers include Lauren Edson, Boise, ID; Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Los Angeles, CA; and Francisco Gella. ZDT Second Company members begin a residency on July 17 working through August 1 just before the start of the Festival. The Trainees who make up the Second Company are among the most talented high school and college students from across the continent and have been selected from a pool of candidates.

All participating choreographers and students will be led through their festival experience by visiting Distinguished Master Artists Jim Vincent, former Artistic Director of world-renowned companies Nederlands Dans Theatre and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; Princess Grace Award-Winning Choreographer Penny Saunders; and University of Utah Assistant Professor of Dance Pablo Piantino, also a former professional dancer with San Francisco Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance.

"NCDP is bringing world-class performance, dancemaking, and education to a city known around the world as one of the greatest centers of creativity and innovation. Santa Fe is the perfect home for our festival," noted Artistic Director Francisco Gella. "Along with our guests coming from across North America, we look forward to six days of celebrating a deep love for the performing arts with all of the dance and art enthusiasts from across Northern New Mexico.

The public is invited to the festival's three concerts featuring the twenty-seven finalists selected from submitting choreographers from across North America as well as three specially commissioned artists. All tickets are offered with a suggested donation of $20. Below are listed the three Santa Fe arts organizations that will each be sponsored by one of the three NCPD concerts with 100% of the proceeds going to support their educational programming.

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