Berkshire Pulse Receives NEA Grant

Berkshire Pulse, South County’s dynamic dance and performing arts education center located in downtown Housatonic, has announced that it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a $10,000 Challenge America award. This award will support Soul Steps Residency 2024, a three-week artist residency with Soul Steps, a NYC-based dance-theater company founded in 2005, dedicated to teaching and performing African American step dance. In total, the NEA will award 257 Challenge America awards totaling $2,570,000 that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to Berkshire Pulse, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”

During this 2024 residency, five Soul Steps company members will teach significant in-school programs at Taconic and Pittsfield High School, continue developing their work-in-progress Step Show: The Musical in the Berkshire Pulse studios, and offer a free workshop and performance for the community. Berkshire Pulse’s ongoing partnership with Maxine Lyle and Soul Steps, who have been artists-in-residence at Pulse and teaching artists in Berkshire County Schools, started in 2022 and continues to expand.

"Step dance, at its core, is about celebrating community and taking up space unapologetically, and we are honored to partner again with our friends at Berkshire Pulse in offering programming that unlocks this rich craft for the young people of Pittsfield and the surrounding region," says Maxine Lyle, Artistic Director of Soul Steps.

While in residence at Berkshire Pulse in 2023, Maxine Lyle and Soul Steps taught workshops at local Pittsfield elementary and high schools and at Simon's Rock. 

“Soul Steps is just what we all need coming out of winter. Some fire and community empowerment!” says Veronica Bone, Community & In-school Program Manager, “They were such a hit at Pittsfield High School last year that students wanted to start a step team and have been eagerly waiting for the company's return. We’re so excited to have even more time with the company and students this year.”

They introduced participants to the basics of the African American tradition known as “stepping” and educated the students about the key historical points in step’s development. For over a century, step dancers have used their bodies as percussive instruments to create a new physical language that inspires, celebrates, and forges community. Soul Steps brings this art form to the stage in high-energy performances that combine percussive movement, hip-hop rhythms, and call and response. During the residency at Pulse, Lyle has also been developing her Step Show: The Musical, presented as a work-in-progress at MASS MoCA in December 2023 in partnership with Jacob’s Pillow.

Step Show: The Musical is a two-act theatrical production, currently in progress, that showcases African American step dance and its role in Black college life. Infusing body percussion with hip-hop, R&B, and soul, this intergenerational coming-of-age story takes a riveting ride through the world of step dance and its imprint on Black culture.

“We are thrilled to have been selected to receive this grant,” says Artistic Director/Founder Bettina Montano. “Expanding our  partnership with Soul Steps and the Pittsfield Public Schools connects directly with the heart of our mission – to build and strengthen our community with educational and health-sustaining performing and movement arts programming.”

Berkshire Pulse’s partnership with Soul Steps has also received support from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Arts Build Community Innovation Grant. The Challenge America program requires grantees to raise matching funds of $10,000 from community sources. Individuals and companies interested in supporting this project can call (413) 274-6624 or visit berkshirepulse.org for more information or to make a donation. For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

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