The Joyce Announces Ten Choreographers to Participate in Two Residency Initiatives

The Joyce Theater proudly announces that it will continue to support the dance community with the selection of ten choreographers to participate in two residency initiatives which will take place during a two-year period, with additional artists to be selected to participate in 2011.

One initiative, made possible by a $200,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation's Cultural Innovation Fund and a $50,000 grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, will provide opportunities for collaboration and experimentation between dance and theater artists. At the heart of this initiative is an effort to encourage dance artists to embrace new methods of creating work by introducing them to the theater model in which projects go through multiple workshops. Gideon Lester, who directs the new Arts Collaboration Lab at Columbia University's School of the Arts, will serve as Guest Curator for these residencies. Although the focus will be on process rather than product, choreographers will have the opportunity to create new work. They will also receive rehearsal space and cash grants.

The six recipients for the current year are as follows:
Monica Bill Barnes (choreographer) with Pam MacKinnon (director)
Barnes is a New York-based choreographer whose company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, celebrates the individuality, humor and innate theatricality in everyday life. The company has performed frequently in New York City and in thirty cities throughout the United States and abroad.
Alexandra Beller (choreographer) with Katherine Profeta (dramaturg)
A former member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Beller is Artistic Director of Alexandra Beller/Dances. She has received several residences, has been a guest choreographer for the dance departments of major institutions, and her work has been commissioned by companies throughout the United States.
Nora Chipaumire (choreographer) with Doris Mirescu (director)
A Zimbabwean native who has lived in the United States for twenty years, Chipaumire has received a Bessie Award for choreographic work in 2007 for her work, chimurenga, and also received a 2008 Bessie Award in performance for her work with Urban Bush Women.

Doug Elkins (choreographer) with Anne Kauffman (director)
A two-time Bessie Award winner, most recently for the critically-acclaimed Fraulein Maria, Elkins is the recipient of significant choreographic commissions and awards. He has taught extensively in the United States and Europe and has created original work for companies worldwide.
Mark Lonergan (choreographer/director) and Kirsten Bowen (dramaturg)
The Artistic Director of Parallel Exit and a 2008 Drama Desk Award nominee for Unique Theatrical Experience, Lonergan has created several dance-theatre works for which he has received grants and awards. His work has also toured to international festivals and theaters.

Gesel Mason (choreographer) with Morgan Jenness (dramaturg)
Gesel Mason is Artistic Director for Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Co-founder of MRP Inc. She has an extensive performing career with companies and artists such as Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah, Liz Lerman and Ralph Lemon. She is a professor at University of Maryland at College Park, has received numerous residencies and awards for her work.

The second initiative is made possible by $375,000 in funds from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has generously supported Joyce residencies for twelve years. Part of a $650,000 grant for several projects designed to assist dance companies in the creative process, this initiative is providing an enhanced creative residency opportunity to choreographers who have been selected by The Joyce based on artistic merits. In addition to supporting the participants by providing them with choreographic advisers who will guide them through their creative process, these residencies will include space for creative development; a paid, self-selected assistant; the opportunity to show the work to a targeted invited audience; and a $25,000 cash award.

The four recipients are as follows:

Wally Cardona (working with choreographic advisors David Gordon and Phyllis Lamhut)
The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and a Bessie Award, Cardona teaches at The New School and at The Juilliard School. His work has been performed throughout the United States and Europe.

Jessica Lang (working with choreographic advisor Phyllis Lamhut)
Since 1999, Lang has choreographed extensively for major ballet and modern companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street, and Ballet de Monterey. She has received numerous commissions and grants and has choreographed for universities and institutions, including The Juilliard School and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Pam Tanowitz (working with choreographic advisor David Gordon)
A 2009 Bessie Award winner, Tanowitz founded Pam Tanowitz Dance in 2000 and has received commissions and residencies throughout New York. She has collaborated with several prominent dancers throughout her career and has set her work on Purchase Dance Corp, Oregon Ballet Theater, and dance majors at The Ohio State University.

Kate Weare (working with choreographic advisors David Gordon)
The recipient of a 2009 Princess Grace Award and a nominee for the 2008 Alpert Award in the Arts for Choreography, Weare founded Kate Weare Company in 2005. She has been awarded residencies and commissions from institutions throughout the United States, including the Bates Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, and Dance Theater Workshop.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences since 1982. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to establish the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant New York home for more than 310 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. The organization has long maintained a dance education program for schools, families, and adults, as well as residency and advisory programs for dancers and choreographers. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists. Since 2009, The Joyce has also been responsible for Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios, nine affordable studios, located at 38th Street and Eighth Avenue, that are appropriate for rehearsals, auditions, classes, and workshops. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000. Additionally, for the past seven years The Joyce has co-presented a summer series of free outdoor dance performances in Lower Manhattan as part of the River To River Festival.

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