Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Funds Nine Outstanding Dance Projects

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance has awarded a total of $929,000 to nine outstanding and adventurous dance projects. The grantees represent four dance companies, two presenting organizations, and three individual artists.

Among the 2011 funded projects are dance performances by Philadelphians in their own homes; the untold story of Philadelphia's black dance history finally brought to the page and to the public; a citywide flamenco celebration; and a landmark collaboration between a Ukrainian dance ensemble and contemporary master choreographer, Mark Morris. The grant recipients reflect Dance Advance's commitment to artistic excellence, stimulating a dynamic environment for dance in the Philadelphia region, furthering the creative growth of local dance artists, and engaging a variety of audiences in remarkable ways.

Headlong Dance Theater will seek out non-dancers throughout the city and train them to perform short dance-theater works in their own homes for small audiences of friends and neighbors. This project comes on the heels of prior productions such as CELL and Hotel Pool, in which Headlong pushed the boundaries of audience participation and made use of unusual venues. Organizations such as the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Scribe Video Center will partner with Headlong to produce and document these intimate, one-time-only performances. The documentation will then be shared with a larger audience online, through collections of video, writing, podcasts, and still images.

Dance scholar Brenda Dixon Gottschild will complete the research and writing of her book on Philadelphia legend Joan Myers Brown, founder of The Philadelphia School of Dance Arts and The Philadelphia Dance Company, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in January 2012. The text tells the story oF Brown's struggles with a prejudiced ballet establishment, and covers the previously unwritten dance history of black Philadelphia in the 20th century. The author hopes this will be a model for similarly untold stories emerging in other communities around the nation.

Flamenco practitioners Pasión y Arte will collaborate for the first time with a major flamenco artist: Spanish dancer and choreographer Rosario Toledo. Together, they will create a dance piece that challenges the traditional roles of women in flamenco. It will be the centerpiece performance of a 2010 "mini-festival of flamenco" that includes a symposium for the public and master classes.

Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble will commission influential contemporary choreographer Mark Morris, known for his vivid, innovative works that integrate a range of traditional cultures and modern dance techniques, to create an original dance piece for the ensemble's upcoming 40th anniversary season. The resulting work, a world premiere to be performed in 2012, will attract those who follow Voloshky's folk programming as well as contemporary and ballet dance audiences.

For the complete list of 2011 Dance Advance grant recipients and full project descriptions, please visit the Dance Advance Grants Awarded page.

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