Gibney Dance Center At 890 Broadway Scheduled To Open 9/1

Artistic Director Gina Gibney has announced that Gibney Dance will open two new studios in the historic 890 Broadway building on September 1, 2010. Building on the twenty-year track record of Studio 5-2, and with generous support from Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, Gibney Dance Center (GDC) will now offer three spacious studios to support different aspects of the artistic process, including affordable rehearsal space, unique programming, and classes open to the dance community. Located in a building recognized for its history of quality, determination, and professionalism, the Center will aim to create a focused and lively work environment that supports both process and product while encouraging artists to delve into authentic exploration in all stages of creative development.

Gibney stated "with the dramatic loss of rehearsal spaces over the past decade, Gibney Dance is deeply aware of the importance of maintaining and expanding our presence at 890 Broadway. The new studios will allow us to step up our service to the dance community by offering affordable rehearsal space and unique programming. We envision the new nonprofit spaces as both self-sustaining and serving the dance community."

Three Spaces
All three studios feature broad expanses of pillar free space, 13-foot ceilings, and streams of natural light and air.
Studio 1 will provide a 36' x 36' rehearsal studio and Production Office that will be designed and equipped for rehearsals and residencies for dance and theater groups.
Studio 2 will provide an affordable 20' x 36' workspace for small group rehearsals and exploratory work. GDC will develop and raise funds for a growing roster of special creative programs, and provide affordable space for independent artists and small dance groups.
Studio 3 (formerly Studio 5-2) will continue to offer a gorgeous, fully equipped studio space and a daily roster of professional and specialty classes with some of the most highly regarded teachers in the city.

In addition to offering workspace and classes, new programs will include boo-koo and One-Shot. boo-koo is a space grant program that will provide emerging choreographers with rehearsal time and technical assistance in exchange for community give-backs, such as free workshops or performances for audiences with limited exposure to the arts. One-Shot is a web-based, solo performance relay curated by Sarah Maxfield. Each participating artist receives six hours of rehearsal time at GDC, during which he or she will create a solo performance specifically for the internet. Each web-based solo will be premiered online, and remain available in a web-based catalogue for performance viewing at any time.

GDC programming will also build upon recent pilot projects, such as Sorry I Missed Your Show! A partnership with DanceNYC, this series presents video screening of works by both emerging and established choreographers followed by thoughtful discussions and reflections led by some of the great minds of the contemporary dance world.

About Gibney Dance
Gina Gibney Dance (GD) was founded in 1991 as performing and community action dance company. The mission of GD is to create and perform contemporary choreography that expresses the humanity and physicality of women and men, and to enrich and reshape lives through programs that give voice to communities in need. Our vision is to be a trailblazing force in the community, tapping into the vast potential of movement, creativity and performance to effect social change and personal transformation. Gibney Dance's goal is to "advance to the next stage" by cultivating and integrating our existing assets - artistic excellence, community expertise, and workspace - such that they give rise to something far greater than the sum of their individual parts.
Gibney's choreography honors the power of personal identity while speaking to our common experiences as human beings. Intricate crafting and a deep sense of human connection and emotional authenticity distinguish her work. GD's work has been presented at noted venues in the United States and abroad, including Danspace Project, Works & Process at The Guggenheim Museum, Yale Repertory Theater, The Joyce Theater's Altogether Different Series, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Internationale Tanzmesse NRW, The Bagnolet Platform (Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales De Seine-Saint-Denis), L'Agora de la Danse (Montréal) and elsewhere. Many respected funders have supported GD, including The National Endowment for the Arts, The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Community Trust/Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust. GD has developed a sustainable model that involves a year round company of dancers, thriving community programs and a stable artistic home at 890 Broadway.
Recent Gibney Dance funding has been generously provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs/ Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation/State Senator Thomas K. Duane, Arnhold Foundation, Avon Foundation, BlackRock Alternative Advisors, the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, Carrie Newman Events, the Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation, Inc., the Diogenes Charitable Foundation, EILEEN FISHER, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Emma A. Shaefer Charitable Trust, Financial Decisions, Goldman Sachs, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Inc., Kennedy Johnson Gallagher LLC, the Laura Jane Musser Fund, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, LEGO Children's Fund, M·A·C AIDS FUND, Macy's Merchandising Group, Moody's Foundation, the New York Community Trust/Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, Pentacle/ARC (with funding from the LuEsther T. Mertz Advised Fund at the New York Community Trust, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the Emma A. Shaefer Charitable Trust and the National Endowment for the Arts,) and Tisch Dance Summer Residency Festival, funded in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance and Yentus & Booher.

About Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech
Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech is a recognized innovator in the ways it has brought together the often-antagonistic bedfellows of New York real estate and the performing arts. Ballet Tech Foundation conceived and directed the renovation of The Joyce Theater. And in partnership with American Ballet Theatre it saved from commercial development the building now known as The Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theater (890 Broadway) - one of New York's principle rehearsal complexes for the performing arts. Ballet Tech Foundation's ability to conceive and carry out extraordinary projects such as these attests to its understanding of the need to create an infrastructure to support its more poetic enterprises.