2011 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ August 12, 2010 deadline ]

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Museums | Music | Musical Theater | Opera | Presenting | Theater
Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Dance

Alaska Dance Theatre, Inc.
Anchorage, AK
$15,000
To support an Evening of Shakespeare - Romeo & Juliet/Othello, a collaboration with the Eugene Ballet Company and choreographer Gillmer Duran to celebrate Alaska Dance Theatre's 30th anniversary. By including story-based ballets with contemporary repertory concerts, the project juxtaposes a classical and contemporary approach to the two classic Shakespeare masterpieces.

Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. (aka Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support AileyCamp, a summer program for inner-city youth. The program, in partnership with Children's Aid Society, will include dance training, performance opportunities, creative writing, visual arts instruction, and personal development workshops.

Arts Resources in Collaboration, Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the Eye On Dance Archive Legacy Project. Materials in this archive include videotapes, photographs, dance periodicals, artist notes, studies, and educational material dating back to 1976.

Artspace Projects, Inc. (Consortium)
Minneapolis, MN
$20,000
To support New Dance for New Audiences, an audience engagement project involving local dance companies and the new Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A partnership with James Sewell Ballet, the project will consist of community-building activities such as hosting in-studio events, assembling a shared mailing list, developing a networking portal on the Cowles Center website for the Twin Cities dance community, creating a base of well-informed dance advocates, assembling a Dance Ambassadors Circle, and expanding collaborative engagement activities for dance companies after the Cowles Center opens.

AXIS Dance Company (Consortium)
Oakland, CA
$20,000
To support the creation of a new work titled Full of Words, choreographed by Marc Brew, a United Kingdom-based choreographer who has a disability. In partnership with Very Special Arts of New Mexico, the company will be in residency in Albuquerque, and will present the work along with activities for youth and adults.

Ballet Arizona
Phoenix, AZ
$25,000
To support Ballet Under the Stars, free ballet performances in local parks in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The company will perform classical and contemporary works at each performance.

Ballet East Dance Company
Austin, TX
$10,000
To support the creation and presentation of Hear Me/See Me, a multimedia presentation of movement, spoken work, and live music, led by local choreographer Sharon Marroquin. The work will be based on stories of immigrant children and their families living in Austin's East Side, which will be translated into movement and narration with traditional elements of folk art.

Ballet Tech Foundation, Inc.
New York, NY
$40,000
To support a tuition-free ballet training program. The program, founded by choreographer Eliot Feld, provides pre-professional arts training including an integrated public academic education and a student performance troupe.

Chez Bushwick, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$15,000
To support the creation and presentation of Why Patterns, choreographed by Jonah Bokaer in collaboration with visual artist Daniel Arsham and composer Alexi Georgopoulos. The work, focused on a neurological theme, will premiere at the Museum of Modern Art's public atrium space.

Chinese Cultural Productions (aka Lily Cai Dance Company)
San Francisco, CA
$15,000
To support a tour of the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company to five California communities. With the tour, Cai will provide Chinese American audiences access to professional performing arts experiences and will introduce many new audience members to contemporary Chinese American dance and music.

Crosspulse
Oakland, CA
$20,000
To support The International Body Music Festival'.

Cunningham Dance Foundation, Inc. (aka Merce Cunningham Dance Company) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$100,000
To support the preservation and distribution of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's final performances at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The company will partner with the Merce Cunningham Trust to create a DVD that will include a film of the final performances as well as bonus material from the archives and excerpts of the 50 works to be preserved in digitized "dance capsules," which will include information on the works to ensure that Cunningham's legacy remains accessible to dancers, scholars, and the public.

D.C. Wheel Productions, Inc. (aka Dance Place)
Washington, DC
$30,000
To support the presentation of dance performances and accompanying residency activities at Dance Place. Artists to be presented include Rennie Harris, Illstyle & Peace Productions, Paul Zaloom, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Lionel Popkin, DanceAfrica DC, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Daniel Phoenix Singh, Wally Cardona, and Cleo Parker Robinson.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre
Dallas, TX
$20,000
To support the restaging and presentation of Pigs and Fishes, choreographed by Elisa Monte. The work will be performed as part of the company's 35th anniversary opening performance at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas.

Dance Camera West
Los Angeles, CA
$10,000
To support the presentation of the 2012 Dance Camera West Dance Media Film Festival. The festival will include a series of dance film screenings from around the world at various venues in Los Angeles.

Dance Exchange, Inc. (aka Liz Lerman Dance Exchange)
Takoma Park, MD
$30,000
To support the creation and presentation of How to Lose a Mountain, a multimedia work choreographed by Cassie Meador. The project will include a series of community engagement activities and an online platform that maps the work's development process.

Dance Films Association, Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support a national tour of the Dance on Camera Festival (DFA). Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, DFA plans to hold domestic and international programs of one to six films each, often with the filmmaker(s) present to lead a discussion.

Dance Heritage Coalition, Inc. (Consortium)
Washington, DC
$25,000
To support the creation of a free, user-friendly online database to match artists with appropriate archival partnerships for the preservation of their work. In a partnership with the Los Angeles Dance Foundation, the coalition will develop and encourage the use of the "Dance Collections Database" as a means for safeguarding the artistic legacies of dance companies.

Dance Notation Bureau, Inc.
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the recording in Labanotation of Martha Graham dances and the creation of an online video archive of performed excerpts from these scores and other scores in the Dance Notation Bureau archive. The project will supplement and enhance the functionality and usefulness of the Dance Notation Bureau Online Score Catalog by enabling the user to view performance excerpts of Labanotated dances.

Dance Ring (aka New York Theatre Ballet)
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the restaging and presentation of Sir Frederick Ashton's 1982 ballet, Pas de Légumes (The Vegetable Ballet) by the New York Theater Ballet. The performances will take place in New York City at the Florence Gould Hall and the Winter Garden/World Financial Center, and will be presented in a program featuring other classical revivals from recent New York Theatre Ballet repertory.

Dance Theatre of Harlem, Inc.
New York, NY
$40,000
To support the education and community outreach initiative, Dancing Through Barriers. The project will include performances, lecture-demonstrations, ballet master classes, and other educational activities conducted by the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble.

Dancing in the Street, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the fifth annual festival, Hip-Hop Generation Next: From the South to East Asia. In collaboration with the Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education in the Bronx, the festival will include a commissioned work by Emilio "Buddha" Stretch Austin, Jr. and an East Asian choreographer; a block party in the Bronx that will feature dance, music, and spoken-word performances; films and panel discussions; and ArtWorks, a paid internship for teens.

Daniel Phoenix Singh & Company (aka Dakshina) (Consortium)
Washington, DC
$10,000
To support Dakshina's reconstruction and presentation of Anna Sokolow's Frida and Homage to David Alfaro Siqueiros. In partnership with the Baltimore Theatre Project, and in close association with the Sokolow Foundation, the company will present performances, each accompanied by post-performance discussions and an educational exhibition about Sokolow's vision, body of work, and her place in the modern dance continuum.

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre Foundation Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support the creation and presentation of Portals, choreographed by Dušan Týnek, featuring the music by Aleksandra Vrebalov in a live performance by The Ethel Quartet. The work was inspired by Francisco de Zubaran's painting Saint Bonaventure Praying, and will explore the multiple forces that exist on different planes and their power and influence upon each other.

Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater
San Francisco, CA
$10,000
To support the creation and presentation of the eighth annual San Francisco Trolley Dances, a series of site-specific dance performances that will take place along one of San Francisco's trolley lines, free-of-charge.

Eugene Ballet
Eugene, OR
$25,000
To support regional dance touring and outreach activities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The company will present a repertory program, including Artistic Director Toni Pimble's Divertimento, choreographer Gillmer Duran's Without the Cover, and choreographer Jessica Lang's Solo in Nine Parts in collaboration with Alaska Dance Theatre, as well as a touring production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

Everett Dance Theatre
Providence, RI
$10,000
To support the creation and presentation of Brain Storm, a multimedia dance/theater production that examines the current state of brain research and its implications for society. The piece will be developed both in Providence, at Everett's Carriage House Stage, and in Greenfield, New Hampshire, in conjunction with a two-year residency with The Crotched Mountain Foundation, a not-for-profit serving individuals with brain injuries and other disabilities.

Festival Dance & Performing Arts Association, Inc. (aka Festival Dance)
Moscow, ID
$9,000
To support the Festival Dance Youthreach Programs. Touring professional companies will provide free performances and master classes to third- to sixth-grade students in north central Idaho and eastern Washington, presenting a range of dance genres including ballet, modern, jazz, and multicultural dance.

Floricanto Dance Theatre (aka Danza Floricanto/USA)
Pasadena, CA
$10,000
To support Danza Floricanto/USA's creation and presentation of Alma Llanera-Spirit of the Plains, a new dance work inspired by Rudolfo Ananya's novel Bless Me Ultima. The company also will reprise two traditional folk dance works in its repertoire, Day of the Dead and Navidad, and will conduct workshops, lecture-demonstrations, educational assemblies, and residences in conjunction with the performances.

Foundation for Dance Promotion, Inc. (aka Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$60,000
To support the development and implementation of a documentation/archiving and licensing/distribution program that will benefit and service the dance field nationwide. In partnership with Dance Theater Workshop, the company will offer professional documentation for works presented at the newly merged and created "The Center" as well as technical assistance for member artists.

Gotham Arts Exchange, Inc. (aka Zia Artists)
New York, NY
$60,000
To support Zia Artists' programs at The Joyce Theater. Artist Access will allow emerging artists to further develop their audiences by presenting them on a shared bill during a two-week festival at the Joyce, reaching an audience of more than 1,500. American Dance Focus will be the first-ever produced American "platform," or performance series, of dance artists for the purpose of promoting the export of American dance.

Gotham Dance, Inc. (aka Bebe Miller Company)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the The Bebe Miller Company's planning phase for Dance Fort, a web-based portal that will provide insight into the creation of a dance. The project will include a series of conferences and convenings with a team of artists, archivists, and digital technicians to explore and plan a prototype of the work.

GroundWorks Dancetheater
Cleveland Hghts, OH
$15,000
To support guest artist residencies with Broadway director Lynn Taylor-Corbett and Philadelphia Dance Company choreographer Roni Koresh. Each artist will develop a new work for the company during their residencies, including Taylor-Corbett's work that will be inspired by the music and lyrics of rock legend and Akron native, Chrissie Hynde.

H.T. Dance Company, Inc. (aka H.T. Chen & Dancers)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the development and presentation of Eight Strokes & the Moving Word, a new dance educational performance that will address themes of literacy and discipline, and the artistic expressions of Chinese arts - dance, calligraphy, and martial arts. The program involves dance, video projections, narration, and audience participation, and will include a comprehensive study guide for teachers and students.

House Foundation for the Arts, Inc.
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the creation, presentation, and national touring of the evening-length movement, music, and media work, On Behalf of Nature, conceived by Meredith Monk. The concepts and imagery for the work have been drawn from the writings of poet Gary Snyder and other authors and scientists who address the fragility of the global ecology.

Indian Performing Arts Samskriti
Houston, TX
$20,000
To support the Indian Dance in a Global Context Festival. The three-day international festival will feature lecture-demonstrations, performances, workshops, master classes, and panel discussions in Indian classical, folk, and contemporary dance styles.

International Tap Association
Austin, TX
$20,000
To support the further development of Tap History Now, a website, archive digitization, database editing, and publication project designed to address the lack of documentation in tap dance. Activities will include designing and linking scholar Constance Valis Hill's essay "Tap Dancing America-A Cultural History" through the Library of Congress's website, the continued digitization of tap artists, and the International Tap Association's publication On Tap, as well as continued access to the Tap Anthology.

Jazz Tap Ensemble Inc.
Los Angeles, CA
$20,000
To support the production of Jazz Tap Originals - Acoustic Percussion, the third DVD in a series that chronicles the creative life of Jazz Tap Ensemble, with a focus on the tap dancer as percussionist and artist. The DVD will be approximately 60 minutes in length, and will include works by such tap artists as Fred Strickler, Sam Weber, Keith Terry, and Artistic Director Lynn Dally.

Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$55,000
To support the presentation of outdoor performances designed to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of 9/11/01 in Lower Manhattan's Rockefeller Park. In partnership with the José Limón Dance Foundation, the program will feature three to four New York City-based dance companies and in addition, one new dance work will be commissioned for the event.

LEVYdance, Inc. (Consortium)
San Francisco, CA
$15,000
To support the design and construction of prototypes for a multimedia and live art installation conceptualized by choreographer Benjamin Levy. The Exploratorium (San Francisco's museum of science, art, and human perception) will partner with Levy during the project's research and development phase to create the initial prototype installations in the museum's West Gallery.

Lobero Theatre Foundation
Santa Barbara, CA
$15,000
To support DANCEworks, a four-week residency by an emerging choreographer on stage at the historic Lobero Theater. SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara will collaborate on the project to provide an artist with significant time and space to develop new work on an actual stage (instead of in a studio) and will culminate with public performances of the new work.

Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc.
New York, NY
$80,000
To support dance rehearsals in preparation for performances in New York City and on the U.S. tour. The company will rehearse new and existing works focused on a common theme of the 1940s and 50s: the new science of psychology.

Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education
Los Angeles, CA
$20,000
To support the post-production phase of a documentary film about Jack Cole, a man widely acknowledged as the father of American jazz dance. The film will fuse narrative on Cole's life with archival footage, re-staged works, and interviews with dance luminaries about the breadth of his influence on the American dance field.

Missouri Historical Society (aka Missouri History Museum )
St. Louis, MO
$20,000
To support the preservation of costumes from the Katherine Dunham Dance Company's collection, primarily those created by scenic and costume designer John Pratt. Once conserved, these pieces will be photographed, catalogued in museum records, digitized on the museum's online database, and made available for exhibition.

Museum of Performance & Design (Consortium)
San Francisco, CA
$25,000
To support the inventory, digitization, and conservation services for the legacy materials of Bay Area dance companies Joe Goode Performance Group and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. In partnership with Joe Goode Performance Group, the museum will gather the sizable collections of legacy materials and make them available via the websites of the museum, each company, and the Dance Heritage Coalition's Secure Media Network.

Museum of Performance & Design
San Francisco, CA
$19,000
To support phase II of Full Spectrum: Preserving Rare & Diverse Bay Area Dance Video, 1985-2000. The project will create archival-quality digital masters of 300 selected dance recordings which are currently housed in fragile and obsolete formats.

National Institute of Flamenco (aka Conservatory of Flamenco Arts)
Albuquerque, NM
$10,000
To support a tour of flamenco dance performances. The programs will be performed by the conservatory's performing groups: Niños Flamencos, a children's group for ages 5 to 12; Alma Flamenca, a pre-professional company for teens and young adults; and Yjastros: The American Flamenco Company for professional dancers.

New York Baroque Dance Company, Inc.
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the French Ballet Project, which will include performances, residencies, workshops, and a conference. Artistic Director Catherine Turocy will reconstruct Entreé des sauvages de l'Amerique (1685), composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully; Les Sauvages (1736), an opera-ballet by Jean-Phillipe Rameau; and Les Fête de Ramier (1745), an acte de ballet by Jean-Phillipe Rameau.

New York Chinese Cultural Center, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support Dance China 2011, an overview of Chinese dance and Chinese choreographers. The project will highlight the influence of Chinese traditional dance forms on modern dance today.

Nichole Canuso Dance Company
Philadelphia, PA
$10,000
To support the creation and a work-in-progress series of The Garden by choreographer Nichole Canuso. The multimedia dance work will be created in collaboration with media artist Lars Jan, composer/musician Michael Kiley, and set/visual designer Luciana Stecconi.

Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the reconstruction and presentation of Alwin Nikolais' Gallery by the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Gallery, which originally premiered in 1978, is a work that is lit entirely by ultraviolet light, and dancers and props are used like puppets.

Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, Inc. (aka Paul Taylor Dance Company) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support a residency by the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Taylor 2. In partnership with Binghamton University, State University of New York, the project will include a three-week residency by Taylor 2 that culminates in a performance by the full company.

Philadelphia Dance Company (aka Philadanco)
Philadelphia, PA
$30,000
To support Philadanco's creation and presentation of a new work by hip-hop choreographer Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris, and the revival of choreographer Billy Wilson's Rosa (1990), a work in tribute to Rosa Parks. The works will be part of the Full Circle, Black Dance Philadelphia project, which will highlight the American dance contributions of African American dance artists from Philadelphia.

Pick Up Performance Company, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the development of an archive of choreographer David Gordon's 50-year body of work. In partnership with the Jerome Robbins Dance division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Gordon will articulate and contextualize his eclectic art-making process by providing audio narrations to accompany his materials - ranging from scripts and production notes to press and oral histories with performers.

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (aka PICA) (Consortium)
Portland, OR
$20,000
To support the presentation of a dance collaboration between Flemish/Moroccan dancer/choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Indian/French performer Shantala Shivalingappa. PICA's Time Based Arts Festival, in partnership with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, will produce and present Play, a work co-choreographed and performed by the two artists to live music.

Project Bandaloop
San Francisco, CA
$12,000
To support the multimedia element of a new dance/theater work titled IdEgo, choreographed by Artistic Director Amelia Rudolph in collaboration with multimedia designer Austin Forbord. Remote performance footage of the company will be integrated with an on-site live video feed and projected close-ups of the dancers, among other effects.

Racing Thoughts, Inc. (aka Jane Comfort and Company)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the creation and presentation of a new dance/theater work, Beauty, choreographed by Artistic Director Jane Comfort. The work will premiere in New York City, and will be presented during the Bates Dance Festival's 2012 summer season in Lewiston, Maine.

Ragamala Dance (Consortium)
Minneapolis, MN
$25,000
To support the creation and presentation of a new Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance form) work, The World of 1,001 Buddhas, choreographed by Ranee and Aparna Ramaswarmy. In partnership with The College of St. Scholastica, Ragamala will premiere the work at A Center for the Arts in Fergus Falls and at the Mitchell Auditorium in Duluth alongside Tokara Taiko drummers and two chenda drummers.

Ringside Inc. (aka STREB)
Brooklyn, NY
$50,000
To support the audience development and access programs Public/Action New York and Public/Action on Tour. Performances and classes for students will take place at Streb Lab for Action Mechanics (SLAM) in Brooklyn, while the tour program will involve a series of residencies throughout the United States comprising rehearsals and performances, a youth education program titled Kid Action, adult workshops and lecture-demonstrations, and panel discussions.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Foundation (aka dba Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company)
Salt Lake City, UT
$25,000
To support dance residency activities and performances at the Del E. Webb Center in Arizona and at the University of Southern Mississippi. The project will include lecture-demonstrations, creative movement classes, teacher workshops, open rehearsals, master classes, parent/child workshops, and performances.

River North Dance Company
Chicago, IL
$10,000
To support the creation, premiere, and tour of a jazz dance choreographed by Artistic Director Frank Chaves. The work will be accompanied by an original jazz score composed by Orbert Davis, founder and artistic director of Chicago Jazz Philharmonic; for the Chicago premiere, the work will be accompanied live by the jazz musicians.

Robert L. Reed Tap Heritage Institute
Saint Louis, MO
$10,000
To support the presentation of the 20th annual St. Louis Tap Festival. The festival will feature artists such as Arthur Duncan, Omar Edwards, Avi Miller, Ofer Ben, Jason Samuels-Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and Robert L. Reed.

Saint Louis Ballet Company
Chesterfield, MO
$10,000
To support the presentation of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Artistic Director Gen Horiuchi. The company will collaborate with the Variety Children's Charity of St. Louis to offer free tickets to disabled children and their families.

School of American Ballet, Inc.
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the tuition-free Boys Program and community outreach activities. The project will comprise no-fee auditions, free public ballet demonstrations, and a series of lecture-demonstrations to the general public and underserved students throughout New York City.

Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, Inc. (aka Park Avenue Armory)
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the presentation of New York-based dance companies for the Park Avenue Armory's Dance Triptych program. Choreographers Shen Wei and Elizabeth Streb each will create a new, large scale work for the armory's vast 55,000 square foot, non-proscenium drill hall, while the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will perform their final EVENT before the company closes.

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater
Minneapolis, MN
$10,000
To support Cast from the River's Edge/The Boundary Waters Project, the creation and presentation of a new dance work during a residency in Ely, Minnesota. A company repertory program will be followed by two weeks of daily workshops and rehearsals with area residents, leading to the creation and presentation of a new work.

Tigertail Productions, Inc. (Consortium)
Miami, FL
$10,000
To support danceAble XII, a series of performances, workshops, panels, and film screenings exploring and promoting dance for people with disabilities in Tampa and Miami, Florida. In partnership with the Florida Dance Association as co-producer, the project will involve AXIS Dance Company (Oakland, CA) in a Tampa residency and a performance of a new work by Marc Brew.

University of Iowa (on behalf of Hancher Auditorium)
Iowa City, IA
$20,000
To support a dance residency with Hubbard Street 2 presented by Hancher Auditorium. A variety of educational activities are planned as well as public performances and the creation of a new work.

Velocity Dance Center
Seattle, WA
$15,000
To support Strictly Seattle Summer Dance Intensive, a dance training festival that engages professional dance artists with student dancers and culminates in the creation and performance of new works. During an intensive three-week period, students participate in daily technique and compositional classes and rehearse with a choreographer in preparation for a weekend of performances.

Wylliams/Henry Danse Theatre
Kansas City, MO
$10,000
To support the reconstruction and presentation of Anna Sokolow's Session for Six. Sokolow Dance Theater/Dance Ensemble's Artistic Director Jim May will be in residence with the company for three weeks introducing the dancers and the general public to Sokolow's history, point of view, and movement style.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506

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