Dance Exchange Annual Report 2017-2018

DANCE EXCHANGE ANNUAL REPORT 2017-2018

NOTE FROM THE DIRECTORS Dear Friends, Our 2017/2018 Season gave us many reasons to celebrate, and we are excited to share those successes and discoveries with you through this Annual Report.

At the heart of our organization are the ways dance and inquiry brings us together across generations to move through the world. From studio to stage, and those places in between and beyond, Dance Exchange celebrates a legacy of dancemaking that has-- for 42 years-- expanded who gets to dance, where our dancing can happen, what it is about, and why dancing matters. Today we continue that legacy, growing and supporting an intergenerational network of artists working towards change in and with their communities. This season, Dance Exchange also celebrated 20 years in Takoma Park, Montgomery County and the state of Maryland.

Over these two decades, our relationships and roots have made Dance Exchange a home and creative hub for a multi-generational, interdisciplinary network of artists, organizers, and movers of all kinds. In this Annual Report, we will share and reect on highlights from this past season. The discoveries, evolutions, and impacts of our work together could not happen without the generosity of our funders and the diverse experiences and contributions of the artists and changemakers who call Dance Exchange home.

With Sincere Gratitude,

Photo: Ben Carver. Cover photo: Classi Nance

Cassie Meador, Executive Artistic Director Marti Head, Chair, Board of Directors

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MISSION The mission of Dance Exchange is to ignite inquiry, inspire change, and connect people of all ages more deeply to the questions at the heart of our lives through dancemaking and creative practices. Dance Exchange collaborates across generations, disciplines, and communities to channel the power of performance as a means for dialogue, a source of critical reection, and a creative engine for thought and action.

STAFF Cassie Meador Executive Artistic Director Silvia Roberts Director of Operations and Finance Matthew Cumbie Associate Artistic Director/ Communications Elizabeth Johnson Associate Artistic Director/ Partnerships Emily Theys Director of Institutional Giving Samuel Horning Resident Artist & Programs Manager Alison Waldman Marketing & Communications Manager Liz Lerman Founder and Choreographer Emerita

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Martha S. Head, Chair Elliot Maxwell, Secretary Charles Gravitz, Treasurer April Gruber John LoPorto Erica Bondarev Rapach Deb Riley Lillie Rosen John Urciolo Dr. Peter Whitehouse Elliot Rosen, Chairman Emeritus

PARTNERING ARTISTS MK Abadoo Bimbola Akinbola Judith Bauer Daniel Tobin Katrina Browne Ami Dowden-Fant Heather Doyle Thomas Dwyer Tyler French Jessica Hale Chisao Hata

Devin HIll Peter Kelly Kelly King Sadie Leigh Zeke Leonard Deborah Maciel Carli Mareneck Jamé McCray Thomas Moore Stowe Nelson Tarik O'Meally

Darryl Pilate Juliana Ponguta Michelé Prince Sarah Levitt Ramey Rachel Rugh Micah Salkind Liv Schaffer Dorothy Schoeneman Fabiola Torralba Andy Torres vickie washington

PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS All Souls Church, DC American University, DC Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center, NC Arden Courts, MD Arizona Commission on the Arts, AZ Artes de la Rosa Cultural Center for the Arts, TX Arts Scholars Program Atlas Center for the Performing Arts, DC Baltimore County Public Schools, MD Bartol Foundation, PA Belhaven College, MS Berkshire Community College, MA Boston Center for the Arts, MA Bowie High School, MD Brookside Nature Center, MD Brown University, RI City of Rockville, Human Rights Commission, MD City of Takoma Park, MD The Collaboration Council of Montgomery County, MD Dancinema Productions, MD Dance Metro DC, DC

Dance Place, DC Dance TAG, PA Doniphan Dance, MS Embrey Family Foundation, TX Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, MI Flying Deer Nature Center, NY Goldman, Sachs, NY Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN Gwynn Park High School, MD Happendance, MI IS183 Art School of the Berkshires, MA Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, MA John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC Laurel High School, MD Link Centre, MS Michigan Park Christian Church, MD Michigan State University, MI Montgomery Parks, MD Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, VA Museum of the Cherokee Indian, NC NASA 360, DC Natchez Trace Parkway, MS National Center for Creative Aging, DC National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, MI

Northwestern High School, MD Open Circle Theatre, MD Prince George's County Public Schools, MD Rainbow History Project, DC Refugee Services of Texas, TX Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, PA Takoma Park Community Center, MD Temple University, PA Texas Christian University, TX The DC Center for the LGBT Community, DC TraceWay Retirement Community, MS Twinbrook Community Center, MD University of Maryland, MD Virginia Tech University, VA W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, MI WaMPS (Women and Minorities in the Physical Sciences), MI Warren Wilson College, NC Wayne State University, MI Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, MI Woolly Mammoth Theatre, DC

“Dance Exchange establishes the relevance of dance in the context of community building. Sharing and listening became a real conversation through dance alone. I have witnessed Dance Exchange surpass barriers of age, language, race, and profession.”

— Rose Kotopka, student, Texas Christian University

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TWENTY IN TAKOMA

photos clockwise from top: Ben Carver, Kayla Gangemi, Ben Carver, and Kennedy Center

This season we celebrated 20 years at home in Takoma Park, Maryland. Formerly the Takoma Park Post Office, Dance Exchange moved to 7117 Maple Avenue, opening to the public in 1998 as the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, a school for movers and makers of all ages. The building was fully renovated in 2004 to house our current programming (which includes our Organizing Artists for Change (OAC) Institutes, weekly classes, Youth Programs and our HOME series) and serve as a creative hub for artists, organizers, and entrepreneurs who call Dance Exchange home. We marked this anniversary with “Celebrating 20 Years in Takoma Park: Performance & Party”, an evening with artists, supporters, and friends in our studios; and “Twenty Together: A Community Block Party”, an afternoon of live music and performance.

MOVEMENTS ACROSS PERFORMANCE | PRAYER | PROTEST Co-directed by Elizabeth Johnson and Cassie Meador, this constellation of activities brought us into conversation and action around stories of migration, immigration, and journeys, including performances and engagements in Takoma Park, at Capital Area Food Bank, and through a service and sermonic movements at All Souls Church. As part of this project, a new work was created and performed on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage as a prologue to Liz Lerman’s iconic work Still Crossing. More than 80 artists, faith leaders, community members and the All Souls Choir shared the stage.

“I am very excited to know Dance Exchange is an active ally in working towards the elimination of racism and oppression in dance and within our communities.”— Stephen Clapp, Executive Director, Dance Metro DC 4

MOVING FIELD GUIDE PROGRAM

Created and directed by Cassie Meador and developed in partnership with the US Forest Service, The Moving Field Guide integrates the arts with science learning, using movement and creative tools to connect people to the environment around them. With funding from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County’s Wheaton Cultural Grant program, The City of Takoma Park, and The Takoma Foundation, Dance Exchange has expanded the Moving Field Guide program to include several weeklong camps.Through Spring Break and Summer camps in Takoma Park and at Brookside Nature Center in the Wheaton Regional Park, youth had an opportunity to learn about their local ecosystems while choreographing dances in response to their observations and discoveries.

GROWING OUR OWN GARDENS Conceived and directed by Matthew Cumbie, Growing Our Own Gardens is an iterative performance project rooted in queer world-making. With an intergenerational cast, Gardens surfaces and celebrates stories, struggles and possibilities of queer communities through dance, spoken word, drag, queer club culture, and interactive audience engagement. With funding from the NEA and ARCUS Foundation, among others, Gardens activities in 2017/18 included engagements such as workshops at the DC Center and Queer History Walks with the Rainbow History Project, and a performance at Dance Place in Washington, DC, called Growing Our Own Gardens: a queer world, unfolding.

“Dance Exchange integrates an artistic process of storytelling through movement combined with deep listening and creative exploration that facilitates community connection and understanding and also opens the door to heartfelt expression and increased social value for all participating.”

—Lauren Embrey, Embrey Family Foundation 5

organizing artists for change Dance Exchange’s Organizing Artists for Change (OAC) initiative connects, supports, and grows an intergenerational network of socially engaged artists nationwide. Through OAC’s Institutes and Artist Cohorts, we provide opportunities to share and develop creative practices, discover new pathways for dance in the world, connect and collaborate with artistic peers, and deepen facilitation, dancemaking, organizing approaches through creative projects around the country. In 2017/18, with generous funding from the Embrey Family Foundation, DX set in motion OAC: Texas. This multi-year OAC residency supports partnerships with Texas Christian University, Artes de la Rosa, the Refugee Services of Texas, and Texas State University to connect students,faculty, artists, and organizers across campus and beyond campus, and to share tools and practices through an experiential curriculum for working in and with communities. In FY19, we plan to add a OAC Fellowship to this initiative.

Photo: Matthew Cumbie. Back cover photo: Ben Carver.

OFF-SITE/INSIGHT Cassie Meador’s Off-site/Insight: Stories from the Great Smoky Mountains was funded by the NEA’s Imagine Your Park program. This project included a range of programmatic activities that occurred in and around the National Park, including Moving Field Guide trainings for Park Rangers and local artists and educator, Ranger and Artists led workshops for local elementary students, and community engagements in partnership with the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Warren Wilson College, ArtSpace Charter School, and Appalachian Highlands Learning Center. Dance Exchange was commissioned by the National Park Service to perform during a total solar eclipse event with NASA 360, the National Institute of Aerospace, Cherokee storytellers, Southwest Community College, and local artists. Over 1,300 people gathered in person at Clingman’s Dome for the performance engagement that celebrated and explored the science, mythology, spirituality and storytelling traditions connected to solar eclipses.

“I am deeply motivated by the language and practices held at DX. The positive working relationships and engaged learning I have experienced and witnessed at Dance Exchange has ignited positivity in the possible in all I do and create.”

— Chisao Mata, Performing Artist/Educator/Global Arts Activist 6

2017-18 financials at-a-glance Based on FY18 Operating Income: $574,130.11 and Operating Expenses: $576,040.98*

*unaudited

Dance Exchange by the numbers We connected with more than 50,000 people locally, nationally, and virtually during our 2017-2018 season.

We supported 161 small businesses, arts organizations, and individuals this season at our studios. We average between 110-130 rental hours a week, providing more than 5,000 hours a year to renters.

By working with 64 organizations in 11 states —Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia— as well as the District of Columbia, we reached hundreds of communities nationwide.

We contracted and worked with 57 partnering artists this season. These artists create and contribute to meaningful work worldwide and help shape the creative vision and direction at Dance Exchange.

Through our classes at our Takoma Park studios, we engaged more than 650 movers.

We reached more than 35,000 viewers online through performance engagements in The Great Smoky Mountains and at the Kennedy Center. These performances were live-streamed to audiences worldwide.

Beyond our studios, we reached more than 2,400 elementary, high school, and college students, and educators through residencies, trainings, workshops and STEAM-based camps.

“At Dance Exchange, we feel like we are part of an arts community. We share a common mission, a cross-cultural effort to share our art/art form with any and everyone who has an interest in what we do. Where else can you experience such diverse artistic excellence in one environment?”

—Assane Konte, Artistic Director of KanKouran West African Dance Company

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DANCE EXCHANGE 2017-2018 FUNDERS

Thanks to the generous support of foundations, government agencies, corporations, and individuals, Dance Exchange was able to thrive during our 2017-2018 season! (Support received between July 1, 2017- June 30, 2018) $100,000+ The Embrey Family Foundation $30,000 - $99,999 The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County The Maryland State Arts Council The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation $10,000 - $29,999 The National Endowment for the Arts $5,000 - $9,999 The Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts The City of Takoma Park GlaxoSmithKline The ARCUS Foundation Martha S. Head $1,000 - $4,999 Greater Washington Community Foundation The Arthur and Elizabeth Roswell Foundation The Takoma Foundation Aditi Dussault Charles Gravitz Elizabeth Lerman Dorothy Levy Elliot Maxwell William & Tamara Pullman Elliot Rosen & Sharon Cohen John Urciolo William Wellnitz Peter Whitehouse $250 to $999 Jonathan Griffith Ashley Heath Elizabeth Johnson Eleanor Kerlow Lillian Rosen Elizabeth Spelman Renee Weitzner

Up to $250 Frederica Adelman Nephelie Andonyadis Katherine Armstrong Anne Asher Luisa Aviles Joanna Axtmann Robert Bagnall Ysaye Barnwell Sherrie Barr Charles Bashara Judith Bauer Laura Beckerman Kathleen Bell Reena Bernards Sally Bloom-Feshbach Erica Bondarev Rapach Margot Born John Borstel James Brasic Connie Brown Linda Caldwell Larry Coppard Suzanne Costilo Ellen Cumbie Matthew Cumbie Corina Dalzell Lillian DeArmon Lois Dicker Nathan Drevna Shirley Dumas Thomas Dwyer Cynthia Dyballa Diane Lazarus & Ron Eichner Ronit Eisenbach Sara Eisenberg Adriane Fang Jennifer Feldman Ashley Flory Mary Beth Flournoy sTan fOwler Julie French Esther Geiger Hellen Gelband Gay Gellhorn James Gibson Arnold Glick

Sarah Greenbaum Pam Grout Jonathan Han Kimberlee Hannum Chisao Hata Mary Henderson Devin Hill William Hillegeist Albert Holm Sam Horning & John LoPorto Judith Hurvitz Denise Jakobsby Eric Jakobsson Lyla Johnson Ron Johnson Theodore Johnson Lauretta Kerr Robert Kerr Eliza King Brigitte Ladisch Patricia Laird Alice Leeds Adele Levine Sarah Levitt Abel Lopez Beth Lyons Emily Macel Theys Christina Marty Megan McNItt Cassie Meador Kimford Meador KJ Meador Anne Megibow Arlene Mester Mary Miller Stair Martha Minow Samuel Moore Christopher Morgan Patricia Mullaney-Loss Sara Narva Olga Nesterova Naomi Nim Cindy O’Brien Michael Oldak Kevin Ornsby Matthew Ott Bikem Ozturk

Katherine Parmalee Sara Pearson Carla Perlo Juliana Ponguta Jacquelyn Puente Laura Quiropa Larry Ravitz Linda Reinisch Deena Richardson Deborah Riley Emily Rizzo Erin Roberts Silvia Roberts Paul Rosen Robert & Barbara Roswell Catherine Roth Robert Sacheli Alison Schmidbauer Jennifer Schmidt William Seabrook Timothy Semenza Naomi Silver Meredith Skeath Jessica Sloane Brian Stewart Richard Sugarman Kathy Sykes Christopher Szkrybalo Alexander Tang Gaby Thali Nancy & Jeffri Theys Jan Toolsie Helen Trilling Mark Twery Mark Vilandry Maren Waldman Mark Waldman Elizabeth Wallace Wendy Wellnitz & Jim Ren Howard White Alison Whyte Patrik Widrig Martha Wittman Bryan Yamasaki

ABOUT DANCE EXCHANGE Dance Exchange is a Takoma Park, MD-based non-profit arts organization committed to dancemaking and creative practices that engage individuals and communities of all ages to cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and their world, and to open up the questions at the heart of their lives. Founded in 1976 by Liz Lerman and under the artistic direction of Cassie Meador since 2011, Dance Exchange creates dances by asking four questions: Who gets to dance? Where is the dance happening? What is it about? Why does it matter?

Throughout Dance Exchange’s forty-two-year history, we have remained committed to breaking boundaries between stage and audience, theater and community, movement and language, tradition and the unexplored. Dance Exchange is known for innovative performance projects and creative practices that engage communities and partners across wide ranging disciplines. Through these collaborations, we advance how individuals and communities come together through process and performance to reflect and create change in the world.

Dance Exchange is a 501 (c)(3) organization. If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation, visit us at www.danceexchange.org.

DANCE EXCHANGE | 7117 Maple Avenue | Takoma Park, MD | 20912 | 301-270-6700 | www.danceexchange.org