Dance/NYC Announces Disability. Dance. Artistry. Fund Grantees

Dance/NYC is pleased to announce recipients of the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Fund (DDA Fund): AXIS Dance Company, Oakland, California; Jess Curtis/Gravity, San Francisco, California; Dancing Wheels Company and School, Cleveland, Ohio; Full Radius Dance, Atlanta, Georgia; Kinetic Light, Los Altos, California; and Heidi Latsky Dance, New York, New York.

The purpose of the DDA Fund, made possible by the generous support of the Ford Foundation, is to generate dance making and performance by and with disabled artists. This activity is intended to advance artistic innovation and excellence-and, by extension, further disability rights.

"The Ford Foundation is pleased to partner with Dance/NYC to advance equity and inclusion in the dance sector," said Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation. "Dance and the arts have the tremendous power to inspire audiences and to transform hearts and minds. We hope the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Fund will create more opportunities for artists engaged in integrated dance to share their passion with the world."

"With the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Fund, Dance/NYC puts disability front and center as a positive artistic and generative force," offered Lane Harwell, Executive Director of Dance/NYC. "In doing so, it aims to advance the creative and progressive potentials of the art form."

Individual grants range from $30,00-$15,000 and are dedicated to production costs for the following integrated dance performances in the metropolitan New York City area from January 2017 through March 2018:

AXIS Dance Company's AXIS at Gibney Dance
AXIS Dance Company's performance of three New York City premieres as part of Gibney Dance Center's POP Series, including a new work by AXIS' Artistic Director Marc Brew, an internationally-acclaimed choreographer. Gibney Dance, November 2017

Jess Curtis / Gravity's The Way You Look (at Me) Tonight
Jess Curtis/Gravity's presentation of The Way You Look (at me) Tonight, a duet between disabled artist Clair Cunningham and Jess Curtis, and workshop and symposium about disability, performance, and the philosophy of perception with Movement Research. Gibney Dance, February/March 2018

Dancing Wheels Company and School's Physically Integrated Dance: Past Present and Future
Dancing Wheels Company's restaging of a work by Agnes DeMille, performance of current works in its repertory that were choreographed by New York City-based choreographers, and commissioning and premiering of a work by choreographer David Dorfman. The Ailey Citigroup Theater, October 2017

Full Radius Dance's Do You Know What You Are Doing Now?
Full Radius Dance's presentation of a physically integrated dance performance with choreographic work by Douglas Scott and Alice Sheppard. Harlem School of the Arts, September 2017

Kinetic Light's (sponsored by Fractured Atlas) Descent from Beauty
Kinetic Light's performance of Descent from Beauty, an evening-length dance work that tells the story of Venus and Andromeda, choreographed by disabled dancer Alice Sheppard in collaboration with disabled dancer Lauren Lawson and disabled lighting and video artist Michael Maag. La MaMa, Dates TBD

Heidi Latsky Dance's On Display TIMESTAMPed
Heidi Latsky Dance's performance of what choreographer Heidi Latsky calls a "poetic installation that weaves together poetic stillness and dynamic movement into public spaces throughout New York City." Multiple Venues, July 2017

These six grantees were selected by panel review and were among a competitive pool of 27 self-identified integrated companies who submitted applications in response to an open call. Key evaluation criteria included artistic excellence; central roles for disabled artist(s) in the proposed projects and demonstrated values of diversity, equity, and inclusion; commitment to sustain engagement with disabled artists in the future; and organizational and financial capacities to execute the projects.

The DDA Fund leverages Dance/NYC's capacity as a regrantor and extends the organization's work to advance a cultural ecosystem that expressly and equitably includes disabled artists. It responds directly to two recent research reports, Discovering Disability: Data & NYC Dance (2015) and Disability. Dance. Artistry. (2016), and a seminal conference presented as part of ADA25NYC, in partnership with the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities.

Visit Dance.NYC for details about Dance/NYC's Disability. Dance. Artistry initiative.

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