The Yard Announces Schonberg (Boston) Fellowship Residency

The SCHONBERG (BOSTON) FELLOWS is a pilot mentored residency initiative that connects The Yard to the professional dance community of Boston, created in partnership (and appreciation) with the Arts and Culture Program of The Boston Foundation, the city's community trust. The Yard´s Chloe Jones and David R. White have curated the 2017 group of artists, looking both at early choreographic achievement and future creative potential. Peter DiMuro, McKersin Previlus, and the duo of Claire Johannes and Jordan Jamil Ahmed are the first wave of dedicated artists to take the plunge. Old friend and acclaimed David Parker, the Boston-bred choreographer/singer/percussive dancer who leads The Bang Group (TapTheYard; Nut/Cracked), is the mentoring ghost in the machine.

Peter DiMuro is interested in the parallel processes that we - as audiences, as dance-makers - go through to make work, and how we can experience a series of events to help reveal what we already know but may not be aware we know. His new work will investigate how one can be in, out, and between different locations and spaces. The work will illuminate the extraordinary apparent in everyday life with the collaborators Allyson Esposito, Kara Fili, and Michael Winward.

Together with dancers BrIan Frazier and Melvin Samboy, and percussionist Kofi, McKersin Previlus will present an excerpt for a larger project, The Block. The work examines, intersects, and explores the different issues and experiences people of color have in the "hot zones" within neighborhoods, the toxicity behind fragile masculinity, and other prevalent male identity topics in society.

In Claire Johannes and Jordan Jamil Ahmed´s work, the status quo is confronted with their belief that art and politics are inseparable. Speaking up in the political climate´s intent on silencing the voices of the marginalized, a population they both belong to, Johannes shares her stories as a queer woman and Jamil Ahmad his, as a queer and multiracial Muslim man. Their performance will be colored with their diverse histories rooted in both humor and trauma.

The Yard's multi-week OFFSHORE CREATION RESIDENCIES (OCSR) offer selected artists and their collaborators extended space and time as well as weekly stipend, travel and housing support to all participating individuals for the research and construction of new works. All residencies end with a performance outcome of the work(s) in progress presented to the public. In 2017, other artists benefiting from OSCR support include 2017 SCHONBERG FELLOWS Raja Feather Kelly and David Thomson; as well as Pam Tanowitz and Camille A Brown. The OCSR program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, The Boston Foundation and The Yard's valued individual donors.

ABOUT PETER DIMURO

Peter DiMuro has woven a career as a choreographer, director, teacher, community engager, and performer. His original company, Performance Associates, and his fifteen-year collaboration -

including 5 years as Artistic Director- with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, laid the foundation for his current creative umbrella, Peter DiMuro / Public Displays of Motion. DiMuro's work has been commissioned by leading presenters and universities, including The Kennedy Center/DC, Dance Place/DC, Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, AURAS Dance/Lithuania, The Boston Conservatory, and Point Park University. He created, collaborated on and directed seminal projects for Dance Exchange, founded by MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient Liz Lerman, including "The Shipyard Project" and the "Hallelujah Project", working with multiple communities nationwide. DiMuro has also toured with "Near/Far/In/Out", an intergenerational LGBTQ based performance work, bridging the subject matter of early dances and workshops created during the height of the AIDS crisis, with a new perspective of ever-shifting relationships of the LGTBQ community and mainstream America.

DiMuro has received support from the NEA, the National Performance Network, the Boston Foundation's Next Step, the Boston Dance Alliance; the Mayor's Office of Boston; and The Dance Complex, for which he serves as Executive Artistic Director. In May, DiMuro received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Dance from Salem State University.

ABOUT McKERSIN PREVILUS

Growing up without the means for dance classes, Previlus overcame his troubled environment, persevered and became the dancer that he is today. With Ethnic-Haitian dance already in his vocabulary, he started building a bigger arsenal with Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Tap. In college, he started trading work hours for classes and started studying ballet and modern intensively. Now, he is leading workshops throughout various parts of the country orientated towards social justice and, the roots of African American culture and movement. Out of his many projects and goals, his main and current project involves building up men in the inner city to become emotionally intelligent while being agents of social change within their community with the creation of a program called, Bridge 4 my Brothers.

ABOUT CLAIRE JOHANNES AND JORDAN JAMIL AHMED

Claire Johannes is a Boston born dance and performance artist. After receiving her primary training in Boston, Johannes continued to earn her BA in Dance and Performance Studies from Eugene Lang College: The New School for Liberal Arts in New York City in 2013 where she developed a love for somatics and improvisational practices. Throughout her time in New York, Johannes worked and studied under contemporary artists such as Neil Greenberg, Danielle Goldman, Juliana May, Juliette Mapp, Beth Gill, and Michelle Boulé. In addition to her performance work, Johannes featured her own choreography at Abrons Art Center, Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, Gibney Dance Center, and AUNTS. Since returning to Boston, Johannes has danced for Jimena Bermejo-Black and Paul Laurey in addition to performing as a regular company member in Ruckus Dance since Spring 2015. Johannes co-founded the collaborative dance project power//PLAY with Jordan Jamil Ahmed in October 2015 and has performed their work at The Dance Complex, Outside the Box Festival, Third Life Studio, and The Arts at the Armory. power//PLAY has recently received residencies at Green Street Studios and Denmark Arts Center.

Jordan Jamil Ahmed is a dance and performance artist, writer, and educator from Marion, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a diverse training in creative writing, English literature, and dance under the mentorship of David Caplan and Marin Leggat. After graduating, he performed with Tim Miller in residence at the New Museum in New York City and co-founded Equal Footing with Kathleen Dalton. Following his move to Massachusetts he began dancing and choreographing in the Greater Boston Area and has performed at The Institute of Contemporary Art, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Center for the Arts, Outside the Box Festival, Mobius, The Arts at the Armory, Third Life Studio, The Dance Complex, and Green Street Studios. Currently, in addition to his work with Claire Johannes as power//PLAY, he dances for Michael Figueroa, Peter DiMuro, Brian Feigenbaum, and Jimena Bermejo-Black.

Performance:

Saturday, September 9, 2017, 6:30pm
Location: The Yard's Patricia Nanon Theater, 1 The Yard, Middle Road, Chilmark, MA 02535

Tickets: $25 (Adult); $15 (Seniors, Students, Military); $5 (Children under 12); Behind the Counter and Membership discounts apply

Driving Directions:

Driving to The Yard from Vineyard Haven

Head south on Water Street toward Beach Road. Take the 3rd right onto Beach Road. Continue onto State Road. Turn right onto Middle Road. Take the 2nd left into The Yard.

Driving to The Yard from Edgartown

Head southwest on Water Street toward Davis Lane. Take your 2nd right onto Cooke Street. Turn left onto Edgartown West Tisbury Road. Turn left onto State Road. Continue onto South Road. Make a left onto Middle Road. Take the 2nd left into The Yard.

Bus

There is a public bus service on Martha's Vineyard that connects to all of the towns on the island. There is a bus stop just a short walk from The Yard in front of the Community Center, which runs every hour. Fare is $1 per town, each way.

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