NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS (NYFA) AWARDS $20,000 TO FOUR DANCE COMPANIES THROUGH THE BUILD PROGRAM July 3, 2013 Contact: Mark Rossier,
[email protected] The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has awarded a total of $20,000 to four New York Citybased dance companies through its BUILD (Building Up Infrastructure Levels for Dance) Program. BUILD provides recipients with infrastructure and capacity building grants to help foster organizational stability and is open to New York City-based dance companies with annual operating budgets between $50,000 and $150,000; since 1999 the program has awarded over $1,000,000. The 2013 recipients, which were each awarded general operating grants of $5,000, are: The Commons Choir; Gametophyte; Maria Hassabi, and Kate Weare Company. About the Recipients: The Commons Choir (www.commonschoir.org), founded by Daria Faïn and Robert Kocik in 2006, has created 8 works that investigate how contemporary artistic practices can reunify language, the body, and the environment. All of their works are developed through rigorous and challenging processes. Their repertoire includes: the installation An Anechoic Darkroom, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC, 2008); The Extent to Which, a co-presentation with Danspace / Center for Performance Research (2008); Re-English, a co-presentation with Movement Research Festival / LMCC, 2010; Working with Stockhausen’s Stimmung 1968, Danspace (2010) and Dance Theater Workshop (2011); Target::furnace, the Chocolate Factory (2011). BEGGING, Dance New Amsterdam (2012). Their most recent work, E-V-ER-Y-O-N-E premiered in February 2013 at New York Live Arts. Gametophyte (www.gametophyte.org), from the Greek meaning to marry and to grow, was founded in 2002 by Dean Moss. It seeks to champion rigorous art practices and innovative art projects for the enhancement of the global creative community. Since 2002 they have completed five evening length works, which have been presented locally MoMA; The Whitney Museum of American Art; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; The Brooklyn Museum; The Danspace Project; Dance Theater Workshop, and The Kitchen; nationally at The Yerba Buena Center for Art in San Francisco; The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, and The World Performance Project at Yale University, and internationally at The Bitgoeul Citizen Cultural Center, Gwangju Korea; The Seoul International Dance Festival; Ksirarnawa Art Center in Denpasar, Indonesia; New Visions Art Festival, Hong Kong and the FNB Vita Dance Festival in Johannesburg South Africa. Maria Hassabi (www.mariahassabi.com) is a director/choreographer/performance artist. In the past decade, she has created eight evening-length performances including SHOW (2011), Robert and Maria (2010), SoloShow (2009), Solo (2009), GLORIA (2007), Still Smoking (2006), Dead is Dead (2004) and LIGHTS (2001), as well as several short form pieces, art installations including CHANDELIERS (2012), and recently her first short film, The Ladies (2012). Her work has been seen in New York at venues at Performance Space 122, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, PS1 MoMA, and has been featured in the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) Crossing the Line fall festivals in 2009 and 2011and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s 2012 River to River Festival, as well as in theaters, museums, art-galleries, public spaces and on film across the US, South America and at various international festivals. New York Foundation for the Arts 20 Jay St. Suite 740 Brooklyn, NY 11211 Phone: 212.366.6900 Internet: www.nyfa.org
Kate Weare Company (www.kateweare.com), is a New York-based dance group creating and performing work that is characterized by thoughtfulness, authenticity and fierce physicality. Weare founded Kate Weare Company in New York in 2005, premiering her first evening-length, commissioned work at Dance Theater Workshop in 2006. The company's first solo evening-length show was commissioned by Danspace Project in March 2009 and featured an original score played live in St. Mark's Church by Argento Chamber Ensemble of New York. A major milestone of growth was the company's first solo show at the Joyce Theater in June 2011. Kate Weare Company's most recent engagements include The Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, Princeton University, ArtPower at U.C. San Diego, Florida Dance Association, Dance Celebration Philadelphia, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Fall for Dance at New York City Center, Spring to Dance St. Louis, Bates Dance Festival, ODC Theater and Danspace Project, as well as participating in residencies, teaching and student commissions at Julliard, Virginia Commonwealth University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Long Island University, Marymount Manhattan College, Bates Dance Festival, SUNY Brockport, Keene State College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The BUILD program is made possible through the generous support of The Lambent Foundation and The Harkness Foundation for Dance. About New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Founded in 1971, the mission of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is to empower artists at critical stages in the creative lives. We do this through three key initiatives: funding, professional development and online resources. We have awarded over $30 million to individual artists through our fellowship and grant programs and Artspire, our fiscal sponsorship program, has helped artists and emerging organizations raise and manage over $50 million. We provide entrepreneurial training to over 1,500 artists annually, nationally and internationally and our online resources are accessed by over 1 million artists and arts professionals each year.
New York Foundation for the Arts 20 Jay St. Suite 740 Brooklyn, NY 11211 Phone: 212.366.6900 Internet: www.nyfa.org