A PACIFIC NORTHWEST PERFORMANCE PLATFORM with
SQUID MGMT ON THE BOARDS VELOCITY DANCE CENTER
JANUARY 15 | 2:30 PM JANUARY 17 | 4:30 PM GIBNEY DANCE: AGNES VARIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Studio H | 280 BROADWAY NYC
CONVERSATION
ON THE BOARDS + VELOCITY + INVESTMENT IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS IN THE PNW with Lane Czaplinski | Artistic Director, On the Boards & Tonya Locker | Artistic Director, Velocity Dance Center TL: Velocity and OtB always have a relationship, whether it’s direct or indirect. LC: I think it’s pretty rare that two organizations in a significant arts town, like Seattle is, have a joint interest in the creation, development and presentation of new work by artists who live in a particular place. TL: What is shared is how we support artists and create a really safe place for unsafe ideas; a safe place for new processes, and for doing things that don’t fit into clear, tidy categories. From emerging, to developing work, to creating a platform to then reach out regionally and nationally. And they even cross; people can move between the two organizations as they develop their careers in a way that’s really quite organic. LC: And I would say about those multiple points of entry that you described, [there is] not just in our organizations, but in the field, an increasing sense of what it is to invest in the creation process. [On the Boards] commissioning budgets have gone up… artists have hundreds of hours of time in our actual
performance spaces making new shows. TL: When I work with our Made In Seattle artists, we’re committing to them for an entire year – or as long as it takes. In the case of Ezra (Dickinson), who created a beautiful art and social justice project about his mother who has schizophrenia, it was: “I want to find out why people like my mother fall through the cracks of our mental healthcare system.” So then we go on a different kind of pathway about how to do that… he went from making a piece for the proscenium, to a piece that ended up taking audiences through the streets of downtown Seattle, where his mother had been homeless. Whatever artists that we support, if they want to get to OtB, we share with them their desire to get to OtB. And we want to help them be ready for that moment too. And the same way sometimes, they’ve gotten to first develop an idea at OtB that is 20 minutes, and then they come back to Velocity and we help them develop it into an evening. LC: So there is definitely a tension about what you just described. Let’s give young artists a space to make work…there are all the attendant problems that go along with that, in terms of their sophistication, their means their resources and leads, oftentimes, to work that our peers, the public, potentially funders, find unpalatable. People are starting to get more interested in, “well
what do artists need?” But it gets into this place where it’s almost as though they’re trying to ensure…[that] their work will be successful. Or, “how do we protect ourselves against their failure?” I would maintain that you don’t… because most things that are new, and most pieces of art are going to be a failure. TL: Why should people be interested in work from the Northwest? LC: I believe that New York is our arts capitol, but it’s a question of telling a more complete picture about what’s happening in this country. …if you consider that from Vancouver down through Portland there’s a corridor of creativity that is very active, and has been for a very long time, and it’s not just in dance… TL: I think we are increasingly living in an economy of ideas, and a center of this economy of ideas is definitely Seattle. When you think about the power Amazon has, and the kind of content it is creating in every domain… it’s a place that’s super entrepreneurial. LC: I also think that there’s a very simple idea that this has been a hotbed…for the creation and development of new dance. And so when you have, [for example], Heather Kravas operating here making her next piece, that comes out of a many-generation development of this sort of dance community… her ability to come back and utilize that to make new work builds upon a
lot of activity that came before it. Pat Graney’s last piece was a major undertaking, and there are many pieces currently in development or that will premiere in the coming months that people should keep tabs on.
Tonya and Lane get deep into regional hierarchies, audiences, artist guidance, curation, and more. Read a transcript of the entire interview at the Velocity blog: velocitydancecenter.org/stance and at the On the Boards blog: ontheboards.org/blog
photo by Lee Goldman
ZOE | JUNIPER 2015 Guggenheim Fellow & 3-time Princess Grace Award Recipient zoe | juniper is a Seattle based dance and visual art team that creates stunning dance performances, video installations and photographic works. Clear & Sweet NDP Tour Support Available Oct 2016 – Nov 2017 Premiere: Sept 28 – Oct 1, 2016 at Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans Clear & Sweet is a multi-disciplinary performance incorporating dance, visuals and live vocals based on an inquiry into Sacred Harp Singing and choreographer Zoe Scofield’s connection to her Southern roots. Set to premiere Fall 2016 at Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, current tour plans include stops at On the Boards, New York Live Arts, Carolina Performing Arts and Bates Dance Festival. Project is available to tour anytime after Oct 2016.
photo by Kelly O
JODY KUEHNER Part bio drag queen, part contemporary dance and part performance art, Cherdonna Shinatra is a persona who takes what you recognize about dance, what you believe about drag, what intrigues you about improvisation and what delights you about entertainment, tosses it all in a mason jar, shakes it up, and opens the lid. one great, bright, brittle alltogetherness NDP Tour Support Available Jan 2017 – Jun 2018 Part 1 (solo) Premiere: Jun 2-Â4, 2016 at Velocity Dance Center, Seattle Part 2 (full spectacle) Premiere: 2017 at On the Boards, Seattle one great, bright, brittle alltogetherness is a culminating dance and music spectacle concerning itself with ideas of gender, queerness, feminism, the body as a canvas for social change and community as collective. Cherdonna creates a world where linear time and social standards do not exist. Multiple realities are happening at once. She attempts therapy with a literal kitten, heart-to-hearts with audience members and sings feminist anthem songs all the while hyperbolizing the normal humiliations of human existence and vaulting tiny inconveniences to imaginative extremes. Set to premiere 2016, commissioned by Velocity Dance Center and On the Boards.
photo by Tim Summers
KT NIEHOFF KT Niehoff moved to Seattle in the early 90’s and the dance scene followed. Having created work for the stage, camera and sidewalks for 25+ years, KT fosters creative communities through teaching, mentoring and multi-disciplinary creation. Helium Poised Premiere: Spring 2017 Velocity Dance Center at 12th Ave Arts, Seattle Seeking NPN Commissioning Partners and interested NDP Tour Sites Helium Poised is a multi-modal and multi-city project including live performance, an activated installation, workshops and a gallery retrospective specifically created for the audiences with which it intersects. Niehoff will gather, record and source stories of individuals in every location she works in to create an artistic experience designed around the unique shared practices and history of each community.
photo by Bruce Clayton Tom
AMY O’NEAL Amy O’Neal is a dancer, performer, choreographer and dance educator. Her work is an amalgam of her diverse movement and life experiences, presenting social commentary with dark humor and heavy beats. Opposing Forces On Tour 2015 – 16 with NDP Tour Support Available for additional touring Opposing Forces utilizes tropes of contemporary performance to expose fears around feminine qualities in our culture through the hyper masculine dance style of Breaking. With curiosity, vulnerability, and power five world-class B-Boys uncover binary perceptions of gender using a diverse range of dance contexts: battling, commercial dance, and cyphering, all set inside a futuristic geometric landscape. Featuring Fever One of Rocksteady Crew, Brysen “Just Be” Angeles of Massive Monkees, Michael O’Neal Jr of Beat Hippies/ CHPT 1 and Alfredo “Free” Vergara and MozesLateef Sa’Leem of Circle of Fire/Soul Shifters. Future tour stops include Maui Arts & Culture Center, University of Hawaii, Kahilu Theatre, Spoleto Festival and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Outreach Opportunities include: History & Basics of Breaking dance class The History of Hip Hop lecture Opposing Forces Documentary film screening
photo by Bamberg Fine Art
KATE WALLICH Kate Wallich, Dance Magazine’s 2015 25 to Watch, is a Seattle-based dance artist creating strong technical work deeply entrenched in pop culture with her company The YC. Industrial Ballet Premiere: Mar 26, 2016 Velocity Dance Center at The Moore Theater, Seattle Inspired by Seattle’s dramatically shifting culture and yearning to connect to the new population of tech-savvy millennials influencing the cityscape, Industrial Ballet is a one-night only evening length dance and live music super-show in 3 parts. Deeply inspired by the transgressive industrial music genre of the 80’s and 90’s, the three 20-minute dance works will be choreographed and composed to be performed seamlessly as a collection, or be available as stand-alone projects. Commissioned by Velocity Dance Center, Industrial Ballet will be performed by world-renowned dancers Matt Drews, David Harvey, Thomas House, Patrick Kilbane, Andrew Bartee, Lavinia Vago and Kate Wallich at Seattle’s historic Moore Theatre.
photo by Rob Gray
ALLIE HANKINS Allie Hankins is a Portland-based performer and performance maker committed to illuminating the destabilization of person(a) through uncanny physicality, wry wit, labyrinthine logic and skillfully layered imagery. better to be alone than to wish you were Premiere: May 19 – 22, 2016 at Coho Theater, Portland
better to be alone than to wish you were is a solo dance/performance work that manifests through what it lacks. In this cunningly comedic work, the soloist holds the charge of unattainability as she (in)directly seduces the audience, emulates stand-up comedy techniques that illustrate the nonsensical and illogical practices around love and sex and markets her body in all of its preposterous and grotesque glory.
photo by Nate Watters
EZRA DICKINSON Dickinson is a choreographer, performer, street artist, painter, ceramicist, animator, photographer and filmmaker. For 9 years, Ezra Dickinson has been creating performance gifts for his schizophrenic mother. His last work, Mother for you I made this, premiered on the streets of Seattle in 2013, and critics regarded it as one of the best works of the year. Psychic Radio Star In Development | Premiere: Fall 2016 at On the Boards, Seattle Psychic Radio Star refers to a persona that Ezra’s mother grew into over the years. The premise behind the work is to imagine who the Psychic Radio Star is through the relationship of a mother and son. Blending performance, video projection, composed sound and sculptural design, Dickinson’s work aims to activate conversations surrounding the failed mental health care system in America. The discipline and compulsive work ethic that his mother instilled in him from a young age has given him a strong appetite for social justice, creating a unique and possessed outlook on performance. Available for tour 2017 – 2020.
photo by Tim Summers
MARKEITH WILEY Markeith Wiley is a dancer, choreographer and performer who easily moves between genres. His work is heavily influenced by the ongoing movement of hip hop culture and his southern California upbringing. It’s Not Too Late! the show Premiere: Fall 2016 at On the Boards, Seattle Seeking NPN Commissioning
It’s Not Too Late! the show is an experimental dance/ theater talk show that will literally bend time and space. It contains a shameless host, a two-piece house band, an aloof sidekick, live interviews with local celebs and Paul Mooney-inspired stand up. Outreach Opportunities Include: How to be Black lecture/demonstration (based on the Baratunde Thurston novel How to Be Black) Musicality 101 dance class
design by Erin Jorgensen
SEE MORE PNW ARTISTS DURING APAP 2016 Ahamefule J. Oluo | Now I’m Fine Under the Radar | January 12-17 The Public: Newman Theater | 425 Layfayette Street Heather Kravas | Dead, Disappears American Realness | January 7-11 Abrons Arts Center, Studio 1 | 466 Grand Street Keyon Gaskin | ITS NOT A THING American Realness | January 8-11 Abrons Playhouse | 466 Grand Street zoe | juniper | Clear & Sweet Live Artery | January 16 at 8PM New York Live Arts | 219 W 19th Street NW Dance Project | Yidam by Ihsan Rustem American Dance Platform January 14 at 8PM, January 16 at 8PM The Joyce Theater | 175 Eighth Avenue Spectrum Dance Theater | Love Act I by Donald Byrd American Dance Platform January 14 at 8PM, January 16 at 8PM The Joyce Theater | 175 Eighth Avenue The Dance Cartel with Guest Artist Amy O’Neal On the Floor January 16 at 10PM Liberty Hall at the ACE Hotel | 20 W.29th St
SQUID MGMT is a Seattle-based artist management
team providing a range of services to leading West Coast based dance and performance companies. SQUID believes in personal relationships, providing individually tailored services for each client. Services typically include Fundraising Support and Grant Management, Production and Company Management, Marketing and PR, Financial Organization, Presenter Representation, and general Administrative Support. Want more info? Stefanie Karlin is available for meetings Jan 13 – 20. Email: Stefanie@squidmgmt.com squidmgmt.com
ON THE BOARDS invests in leading contemporary
performing artists near and far, and connects them to a diverse range of communities interested in forward-thinking art and ideas. We believe if we are successful in our work that we can grow our field, enrich peoples’ lives, and contribute to civic and global dialogues. ontheboards.org
VELOCITY DANCE CENTER advances
contemporary dance and movement-based art by fostering the creative explorations of artists and audiences through an invested commitment to education, creation, performance, inquiry, community participation, and inter/national exchange. velocitydancecenter.org
This showing is a part of Gibney Dance’s POP series, a program supporting curated rental opportunities for the dance community.