Trust Art - Propel-her Dance Collective - The Balancing Act

Balancing - Left

Balancing Act for Young Women

A public project led by the Propel-her Dance Collective

Project Proposal

With their proposed project, Propel-her Dance Collective will use their choreography to engage young women, teaching them their cooperative creative process and exposing them to their model of achieving shared goals through collaboration rather than competition.

The potential impact of the project is unbounded. First, it provides a platform for presenting new choreography on unfamiliar stages for new audiences. This means that the fruits of their labor will culminate in something more than just a single, isolated, theater-going event. Beyond this, The Balancing Act, is an opportunity for Propel-her to engage with their hometown communities. It is of particular relevance to them that through their project’s outreach component they will give young women a personalized and participatory experience of dance. They believe that if they can integrate this positive, intimate experience into these girls’ personal definitions of dance, they will help recruit them, at the very least, as future members of a new generation of American dance viewers of which our country is so desperately in need.

After collaborating with young women from their hometowns, they will bring the performances they create there back to NYC, where the project will culminate in a several public shows, both outdoor and indoor.

Resources

$68,200 - Artist/Dancer Fees and Salaries
Includes 10 dancer stipend ($900 each), $3,000 Connecticut College Rehearsal Residency Dancer Fee, 8 Dancer salaries (8 dancers @12/hr, 36 hrs total), and $35,000 for a 7 person crew for six tours total.

$8,000 - Choreographer/Teaching Artist Fees
Includes $3,000 for commission fees and $5,000 for choreographer stipends (5 choreographers @ $1,000.)

$4,800 - Production Staff
Includes $1,000 for a videographer, $1,000 for a photographer, $1,300 for a lighting designer, and small stipends for a musical technician and a project crew.

$5,875 - Space Rental
Includes $2,925 for a spring season rehearsal space rental and $2,900 for six pre-tour rehearsal periods.

$27,500 - Theater Rental
Estimated theater costs for 5 Hometown Tours.

$9,200 - Production Expenses
Includes advertising and costumes and props.

$23,530 - Administrative Expenses
Includes publicist salary and administrative personell salaries and minor overhead such as mailings and programs.

$20,850 - Travel and Lodging

$22,445 - Documentation Fee

-----------------------

$190,400 TOTAL BUDGET

About the Artists

Propel-her is a choreographic collective based in New York City. Since 2006, the group has provided the administrative infrastructure to enable the careers of its members. Each member, a female choreographer, shares her resources and ideas, networking connections and fundraising efforts, and administrative skills. This collaborative model allows each member to have focused and investigative creative processes, as well as access to greater resources and a larger audience.

Collective members endeavor to create new works that are evolving in sophistication, complexity and point of view. Through performance and outreach, Propel-her aims to boost member’s artistic visibility as female artists in a male-dominated field, while presenting a unique model for successful collaboration, internal administration, and peer support.

www.propelherdance.com

Betsy Miller
originally hails from Wooster, Ohio. She received her early training at Northeast Ohio Dance. In 2005, Betsy graduated from Connecticut College with a B.A. in Dance. In New York, she has danced in many self-choreographed works and in collaborations with Maggie Bennett. She has worked administratively with the José Limón Dance Foundation, WHITE WAVE Dance, Bates Dance Festival, Doug Varone and Dancers, and the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, and on the youth advisory panel of Dance/NYC, marking a passion for supporting the work of both established and emerging artists in the field. Her choreography has been presented at the d.u.m.b.o. dance festival, The Chocolate Factory, Merce Cunningham Studio, Spoke the Hub, the Cool New York Dance Festival, Williamsburg Art Nexus, and other venues. Betsy is a Fellowship scholar at the Ohio State University, where she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Dance.

“I often see my works as paintings brought to life, infused with a churning visceral motivation, and nuanced by delicate gesture. Ideas generated by cultural reference and personal memory form the basis of these works, presenting audiences with the delicious task of peeling away layers of thought and feelings encoded in the movement.”

Cara Liguori
Cara Angela Liguori was born and raised in Flushing, Queens. Cara attended Connecticut College where she majored in Dance and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2005. In New York, Cara has studied with Paul Taylor Dance Company and Doug Varone & Dancers and she has performed with Heidi Latsky Dance, Betsy Miller, Natalie Desch, Stefanie Nelson Dance Group, Aviva Geismar/Drastic Action and Janessa Clark/Kilterbox. Since co-founding Propel-her Cara’s work has been presented with the group and by the Envision Chamber Orchestra, New York City FRINGE Festival and GrooveMamaInk. In summer of 2008, Cara participated in Dancing to Connect as a teaching artist in public schools in Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany. She also attended the Impulstanz Festival and Workshops 2008 in Vienna, Austria for two weeks studying with members of ROSAS and William Forsythe’s Company. Cara is a certified Pilates Mat Instructor and she is currently creating a new dance with a FAR Space residency through The Field.

“Overall my dances have a vivid, painterly quality like detailed snapshots from a brain in deep dream state. Often conveying a transformation of character through the confrontation of a personal demon, my pieces possess moments of identifiable, universal humanity. An insistent pursuit of personal inquiry translates into a therapeutic energy that can be felt by audiences, pervading my choreography regardless of its subject matter. With movement that is feral, coy, sturdy, rhythmic, and sensual, I aim to share a visceral experience with viewers of the catharsis that is both part and product of my creative process.”

Ani Javian
Ani Javian is originally from Milford, Connecticut where she began her dance training with Lee Lund. She graduated with degrees in Dance and English from Connecticut College in 2005, where she studied with David Dorfman, Jeremy Nelson, Lisa Race, Eddie Taketa, Dan Wagoner, among others, and was the recipient of the Martha Myers' Award for Creativity. Ani has danced for independentdancemaker, David Dorfman's underground project, Betsy Miller, Amy Adams, Molly Lieber, Labor Force Dances and Natalie Desch at Chashama. Her choreography has been shown at the d.u.m.b.o. dance festival and MR Open Performance. Ani teaches dance in Connecticut and Brooklyn and makes dances anywhere.

"In my work, I closely consider both spatial and human relationships by unearthing an underlying rhythm: a push and pull between dancers, movement and music, performer and audience. There is a strong sense of architectural structure while the dance is propelled by inner-narrative, enriching stories for audiences. I balance this structure by utilizing instinct at the heart of my work: developing natural, inherent movement and guttural responses to it. I play subtlety against a large physicality that stems from untreated and raw energy."

Maggie Bennett
Maggie Bennett grew up in Louisville KY, where she trained in classical ballet at the University of Louisville Dance Academy. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2005 with BAs in Dance and English. She spent four months in Ghana studying traditional Ghanaian dance, and has studied Body Mind Centering, Alexander, and Klein Techniques. Maggie has worked with David Dorfman Dance, Dance Theater Et Cetera as a dancer and costumer, Jennifer Monson/iLAND Ridgewood Reservoir Project, Cara Liguori, and Paul Matteson. She has collaborated with Propel-her member Betsy Miller. She currently dances with Vanessa Justice Dance, Karl Cronin/Dry Earth Project, Charlotte Gibbons, Jennifer Monson and is part of the improvisation-based research/performance group Cheap Cake. She has presented work at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Spoke the Hub, Dixon Place, MR Open Performance, and Dance Theater Workshop as part of Fresh Tracks. Maggie is a certified instructor of Pilates.

“My dances are homemade and intimate. I work to reveal relationships between images and concepts that have no obvious relationship. In bringing together seemingly unrelated images, states, scenarios, statements, experiences and characters, an idiosyncratic logic emerges that echoes the logic of the current world. By developing abstract states that emerge from concrete ideas, rather than the idea itself, a deep embodiment of sensory existence emerges, to see and experience the world more clearly.”

Amy Tennant Adams
Amy Tennant Adams was born and raised in Kinnelon, NJ. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2005, with degrees in Dance and Human Development, and was the recipient of the Connecticut College Dance Department Award and the Creative Dance Continuum Service Award. Amy has danced in the Beijing Cultural Arts Festival in China and performed her own work in Calcutta, India. In New York she has performed with Heidi Latsky, David Dorfman, Stefanie Nelson, Faith Pilger, Ellen Stokes Shadle, Erin Malley, Betsy Miller, Ani Javian, and is featured in a dance film by Diego Agull. Amy now lives in Brooklyn, and currently works with Regina Nejman and Company, with whom she toured twice to Brazil and performed at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She also dances with Valerie Green/ Dance Entropy. Amy is Pilates mat certified and teaches dance and choreographs for children of all ages in Queens and New Jersey.

“I strive to create movement and art with a lucid structure from a conceptual point of view. Inspired by individual experiences and interpretations, I use these elements as a springboard in fabricating innovative, honest, and intelligent work. My process is rooted in understanding the physical feeling and shape behind my own intuitive created movement. This results in full, physical, and integrated contemporary movement with clear lines and distinct musicality. With added moments of subtle quirkiness and humane gesture, the movement aims to reveal integrity in human nature and authenticity of character through performance.”

Artist's Past Work

Dominion, 2007
Choreographed by Betsy Miller. Ensemble work for 6 dancers. Music by Johann Strauss, Jr. A satirical look at corporate culture. Aggression, arrogance and greed play themselves out in a white-collar assault on the human spirit as one individual bravely tries to break the stranglehold of conformity. Dancers: Amy Tennant Adams, Ani Javian, Julia Kelly, Josh Knowlton, Megan Macfarlane, Betsy Miller. Video shot by Jol Del Senno.

This Is Your Welcome. 2008
Choreography by Amy Tennant Adams. This trio sincerely and lightheartedly explores individuality versus conformity- what it is really like to ‘fit in’, if there is such a thing. The dancers move methodically in their own set paths and then converge to take notice of similarities and differences in each other. With a ‘big change,’ the dancers are able to share themselves and feel welcomed by the world around them. Music by Zoe Keating, The Cadillacs, and the Vogues. Dancers: Amy Adams, Ani Javian, Kathleen Kelly.

Reproach/Re-approach (excerpt), 2007
Created and performed by Maggie Bennett. A solo performance made in collaboration with a solo performance the choreographer's best friend gave a year ago in a North Hampton living room. The project of trying to make a piece in collaboration with another piece embodies the content material for the solo: the ongoing project of trying, so cyclical and ever-present that it becomes the dominant experience. Music by John Jacob Niles.

Goddess Worship, 2007
Choreographed by Cara Liguori. This dance is an attempt to accept and embrace talent, aptitude, strength, and ferocious ambition. It is an examination of star quality; a tribute to the female icon and woman herself. Music by Erykah Badu, Etta James, gypsy.cz, and John Legend. Ensemble work for five female dancers. Dancers: Maggie Bennett, Julia Burrer, Megan Macfarlane, Eleanor Smith.

Public Wall

Balancing - Right2

Wednesday

May202009

The Balancing Act - NYC Performance May 28-29

Propel-her is pleased to announce the premiere of THE BALANCING ACT

An evening of original work by emerging female choreographers:

Amy Tennant Adams, Maggie Bennett, Ani Javian, Cara Liguori, Betsy Miller, Catherine Miller & Lisa Race.

May 28 & 29 @ 9pm and May 30th @ 8pm.

Merce Cunningham Studio Theater

55 Bethune Street 11th Floor (@ corner of Washington)

Tickets: $15

For advance reservations, please email the date you prefer to attend, your name and the number of tickets desired to propelherdance@gmail.com with the subject line: TICKET RESERVATIONS.

YOUR support and contributions have made this concert possible.

Now it's time for us to share what you've helped us create.

All our best,

Propel-her Dance Collective

www.propelherdance.com

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. This project is also supported by The Field's Sponsored Artist Program and Trust Art (trustart.org).

May 20, 2009 at 2:53 |

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