Velocity Receives Two 2013 Art Works Grants from NEA

Velocity has been nationally recognized with two 2013 Art Works Grants from National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support three groundbreaking artistic and educational programs.

The NEA awarded $20,000 to support Maximum Velocity 2013, a world-class summer dance intensive consisting of two programs: Strictly Seattle and the 20^th Annual Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI). Participants will engage in four weeks of education, creation, performance, inquiry, professional development, community participation, and exchange with inter/nationally recognized faculty.

Strictly Seattle is a total immersion into the Seattle dance scene, offering three weeks of rigorous physical and compositional training, rehearsals for beginning to professional dancers, and culminating in a weekend of professionally produced performances. One of the world's leading festivals of dance and improvisation, Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation brings together internationally renowned dance artists and teachers to perform, collaborate and share their creative processes.

In addition to recognizing Maximum Velocity, NEA awarded $20,000 to support artist fees and travel for SCUBA National Touring Network for Dance 2014. The funding will be shared between a national consortium of four presenting organizations: Velocity, Philadelphia Dance Projects, ODC San Francisco and independent Minneapolis curator Laurie Van Wieren.

Velocity initiated SCUBA in 2002 to create a national platform providing precious touring opportunities to contemporary dance artists. SCUBA gives audiences a view of the breadth of choreographic invention happening across the country, and every year send a Seattle artist on their first national tour.

"Velocity is very grateful for the NEA's support and for the positive impact it will have on the vitality of dance in our region. We are honored to be recognized for our part in the national arts ecology and to be in the company of other great Seattle organizations who are helping to make our city a leading cultural center." - - Tonya Lockyer, Executive/Artistic Director

SCUBA 2013 performances are this weekend April 26-28 in Velocity's Founders Theater and feature a world premiere by Maureen Whiting Dance Company, Seattle's Shannon Stewart and Philadelphia's Green Chair Dance Group.

View PDF of the 2013 Art Works Grants & Partnerships from NEA click here. For more information about Strictly Seattle click here. For more information about Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation click here. For more information about SCUBA click here.