New Dance Alliance Announces 2022 Black Artists Space To Create Residency Artists

New Dance Alliance has announced the 2022 Black Artists Space to Create (BASC) residency artists. BASC is a project offering three Black artists a residency at Modern Accord Depot in Accord, NY. The 2022 recipients are Ama Ma'at Gora, Kayla Hamilton, and Nile Harris. Each artist will receive a one-week residency with exclusive access to a dance studio, living space, and a stipend of $2,000.

New Dance Alliance is offering this space to artists for resting, dancing, creating, healing, grieving, laughing, and breathing. There is no expectation of production and artists do not have to present new work at the end of this residency. Additionally, the artists will have unlimited access to NDA's studio space in Tribeca throughout the 2022 season. The 2022 BASC curatorial committee consisted of Janeill Cooper, Remi Harris, Annie Heath, Angie Pittman, and Anh Vo.

The pilot project of BASC began in 2020 in response to current movements within the dance community and the movements they are building upon. As an artist services organization and presenter, NDA has been guided by the core question: What does it mean to center and support Black artists in this field? NDA understands the stark reality that Black people are navigating not one but two pandemics: one is new, and one is 400 years old. Covid-19 and racism are both disproportionately affecting Black life. In light of this, NDA is working to radically reimagine what it means to serve Black artists right now and to do so in the specific spirit of reparations.

The inaugural recipients of the BASC residency were Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Leslie Cuyjet, and Angie Pittman.

Black Artists Space to Create is made possible in part with funding from the Bernstein Family Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and generous contributions from many individuals.

2022 BASC Residency Artists

Ama Ma'at Gora is a Philadelphia-based multidisciplinary artist, educator, and choreographer. She received her BFA in dance from Georgian Court University. Shortly after, she chose to continue her education in dance at Temple University where she received her MFA. These experiences lent her opportunities to work with such choreographers as Kariamu Welsh, Lela Aisha Jones, Earl Moseley, Sidra Bell, Gregory King, Silvana Cardell, and others. At Drexel she served as Community Based Learning Director overseeing artistic civic engagement; she now serves as an adjunct professor teaching Afro Modern dance and choreographing for Drexel's Fresh Dance. An avid believer in collaboration, she worked with Lela Aisha Jones as a co-teacher at Bryn Mawr College. At Bryn Mawr she was able to practice her pedagogical framework, expanding the possibilities within the collegiate classroom. Leading and directing Ma'at Works Dance Collective has allowed her to make all dancing bodies visible. She began Ma'at Works in hopes of putting more Black femme, queer, trans, and fat folk on stage. Her works push controversial dialogue surrounding identity, trauma, restoration, and reimagining. Adamant about building safe spaces, Gora is co-founder of The Juba House, a co-creation space for Black queer artists living near and around the West Philly community. She has been recognized as a dance artist dedicated to serving the community through transformative art by the Leeway Foundation, receiving its 2020 Transformation Award.

Kayla Hamilton (she/her) is an artist, experience creator, and educator based in the Bronx, NY. She is a member of the 2017 Bessie Award-winning collective of skeleton architecture, the future of our worlds, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. In addition to skeleton architecture, Hamilton has been in process with Gesel Mason Performance Projects, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, and Maria Bauman Morales/MBDance. Her creative explorations have been presented at Gibney, Performance Space New York, and New York Live Arts. When she is not dancing, she's a special education teacher at the Highbridge Green School who loves to watch Law & Order on Hulu while sipping on peppermint tea.

Nile Harris is a performer and a director of live works of art. His work has been presented at the Palais de Tokyo, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival, The Watermill Center, Volksbühne Berlin, Prelude Festival, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Otion Front Studio, and Movement Research at Judson Church. His work has been supported by Pepatián, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Abrons Arts Center, YoungArts, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Harris is currently a resident of the Devised Theatre Working Group at The Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival under the leadership of Mark Russell. He has worked extensively as a performer originating roles in works by various artists including Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Bill Shannon, Robert Wilson, Nia Witherspoon, Lilleth Glimcher, Malcolm Betts X, and Miles Greenberg in venues including New York Live Arts, Museum of Modern Art, Tanz im August, The Walker Art Center, EMPAC, Danspace Project, Superblue, Stanford Live, Dublin Theatre Festival, and MESS Festival.

Learn more at www.newdancealliance.org.