Partners With The Lapis Press To Create 26 Choreographers' Scores

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA), a leading West Coast presenter and creative producer dedicated to the advancement of the contemporary performing arts in all disciplines, believes the power of collaboration can nurture the arts ecosystem through the pandemic.

Sharing this philosophy, CAP UCLA brought in The Lapis Press as the renowned print studio to convert The Choreographers' Scores: 2020, 26 hand-made choreographer sketches, into fine art prints. Published by CAP UCLA, the edition of 40 (20 complete box sets/20 loose prints of each score), will benefit the choreographers directly, the Center's programming and various cultural institutions across the nation, through sales and contributions.

Curated and conceived by Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds, and commissioned by CAP UCLA in collaboration with National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) and Pomegranate Arts, The Choreographers' Scores: 2020, began with invitations to a wide range of US-based choreographers in the spring of 2020 who were asked to share a visual and/or iterative insight into their dance creation processes. Each short score reveals something rare and remarkable about how 26 acclaimed choreographers develop ideas long before rehearsals begin, and were created over the summer of 2020 as rehearsal spaces and their frequented stages remained closed. Some are elaborate and structured; some are a flurry of shapes and lines; others are collages of inspiration, instructions, or meditations on time.

The score is a side of the choreographic practice that the public rarely sees. It is a type of precursor to the staged work of dance and, in these unprecedented times, proof that dance can live as artfully as a two-dimensional object.

"I knew early on in the pandemic that concert dance would likely be facing the most acute struggle for returning in its live form," said Edmunds. "Dance has lasted through the ages, and is continuing to be created, but if we want it to flourish, to be compensated commensurately, we need to create the conditions for its creators to flourish. The Choreographer's Scores (2020) was a way to generate small commissions for these artists to contribute ideas, that could exist on the page while awaiting their return to the stage."

Similarly, to CAP UCLA, The Lapis Press puts their artists first and is dedicated to their vision, including Jennifer Steinkamp, who made the sets for the Center's presentation of Night of 100 Solos: Merce Cunningham Centennial Event in spring of 2019. Founded by artist Sam Francis in 1984, The Lapis Press remains true to these values which account for the quality of work they produce.

"Working with CAP UCLA was such a pleasure, not only in our ability to support a Los Angeles cultural icon but also in that it has allowed our studio to work with a new type of artist. As the compositions came into the studio, we found it incredible to see how dynamic and expressive their works were in 2-dimensional form," said The Lapis Press current owner Anthony E. Nicholas. "After working with artists for many years now, I know that the creative mind does not stop at a single format or medium."

The participating choreographers are Alice Sheppard, Ann Carlson**, Aszure Barton, Brenda Way, Caleb Teicher*, Camille A. Brown*, Deborah Hay, Eiko Otake, Elizabeth Streb, Emily Johnson, Faye Driscoll, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Kyle Abraham**, Lucinda Childs, mayfield brooks, Molissa Fenley, Nora Chipaumire**, Okwui Okpokwasili, Pam Tanowitz, Ralph Lemon, Rosie Herrera**, Ronald K. Brown, Sarah Michelson, Shamel Pitts*, Wally Cardona and Zoe Scofield. (*YoungArts alumni, **YoungArts guest artist).

Jewel Malone, Executive Director of the National YoungArts Foundation said, "As a longtime partner of CAP UCLA, YoungArts is proud to continue our work together to support artists and the arts community. Kristy's steadfast leadership during this time has been an inspiration to us all. The Choreographers' Scores: 2020 is just one example of how organizations can come together to create new and inventive ways to support artists and bring art to the public."

Linda Brumbach, Creative Producer and Pomegranate Arts founder said, "CAP UCLA has been a driving force of innovation in the international performing arts ecology. In the spring of 2020, at a time when artists faced so much loss, Kristy found a way to honor their craft, imagination and drive to create new work...even while quarantining at home. As creative producers, Pomegranate Arts supports work that replenishes our humanity and demands awareness. I'm so grateful that Kristy and her colleagues at CAP UCLA trusted us to collaborate on The Choreographers' Scores: 2020 - which not only inspired a broad range of American choreographers to share an intimate part of their creative process but provided a meaningful gesture of support."

Notes on Napkins: 2020, which functions similarly for 100 composers to share their works, is also a micro-commission this season thanks in part to the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant Endowment. More information will be announced soon. For updates on these commissions and programs presented on the CAP UCLA Online channel please visit cap.ucla.edu.

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