Dance Lab New York Partners With The Rockefeller Brothers Fund For A New Collaboration

Dance Lab New York (DLNY) has partnered with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) to provide a one-of-a-kind creative experience for an emerging choreographer. The residency will take place at The Pocantico Center in upstate New York this July, allowing the choreographer an opportunity to expand upon a prior week-long residency in June at the DLNY Summer Lab Cycle in the heart of Manhattan. For this unique collaboration, DLNY will provide a stipend for the choreographer, twelve paid professional dancers, forty hours of incubation, a studio supervisor, insurances, and administrative support for the entire process. The Pocantico Center will provide food, lodging, and studio space for the residency. The Pocantico Lab will occur again in 2020 and will support a second choreographer to be named at a later date.

DLNY Artistic Director, Josh Prince, supported RBF's nomination and selection process in which RBF named Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie as the beneficiary of the 2019 summer residency.

"Finding the space, time and resources to create in one of the busiest cities in the world is an immense challenge, but this partnership eases all that stress," said Ephrat Asherie. "Rehearsing with incredible dancers, both here in NYC and upstate in Pocantico, will allow me to hone my craft, focus on the creative process and experiment with new ideas and concepts...what an invaluable gift!"

"The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is delighted to continue our partnership with Dance Lab New York to offer choreographer Ephrat Asherie a summer 2019 residency at the Pocantico Center," commented Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas, Program Director, Culpeper Arts & Culture, Rockefeller Brothers Fund. "The residency will provide time and space for creation of new work, as well as an opportunity to reach new audiences as part of the Pocantico summer season presentations."

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie is a New York City-based b-girl, dancer, and choreographer and a 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance. She has presented work at The Apollo Theater, Dixon Place, Guggenheim Works & Process, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, La MaMa, New York Live Arts, among others. Asherie has received Dance Magazine's Inaugural Harkness Promise Award, the Jacob's Pillow Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, a National Dance Project award, and more. Asherie is a regular guest artist with Dorrance Dance and has worked/collaborated with Doug Elkins, Rennie Harris, Bill Irwin, David Parsons, Gus Solomons Jr., and Buddha Stretch. She earned her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Joining Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie in the lab this summer (June 3, 2019-July 18, 2019) are choreographers William Carlos Angulo, Maria Torres, and DLNY Founder and Artistic Director, Josh Prince. The full roster of dancers includes Gina DePool, Rebecca Kritzer, Melissa Rose LeGaspi, James Little, Miki Michelle, Joey Ortolani, Devin Richey, Annelise Ritacca, Nick Silverio, Aimee Smyke, Julien Valme, and Corey Wright.

Dance Lab New York is the only independent organization exclusively dedicated to promoting and advancing the art form of choreography by gifting vital resources to a diverse range of dance makers. DLNY provides choreographers with a curated company of professional dancers, expansive studio space, and structured rehearsal time in order to incubate ideas in a fully professionalized environment. In addition to creation grants, DLNY's initiatives in training and mentorship ensure continuous progression within the art form. This revolutionary new model for making dance fosters creativity, ingenuity, risk taking, discovery, and collaboration, which impacts the future of dance in New York and on stages across the world.

Over the past six years, DLNY has had the pleasure of providing a company of paid dancers and studio space to more than 30 choreographers, including three-time Tony Award- winner Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton), Camille A. Brown (Once on This Island), Hope Boykin (Alvin Ailey), Lorin Latarro (Waitress), Lauren Lovette (New York City Ballet), Al Blackstone ("So You Think You Can Dance"), Ray Mercer (The Lion King), Brooke Wendle ("America's Got Talent"), Rosie Herrera (Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre), and more.

For more information on Dance Lab New York, please visit www.dancelabny.org.

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