NYU Production Lab’s Artist Development Program for Dance Debuts Original Works by Inaugural Cohort
In May 2024, The NYU Production Lab announced six dance artists selected for its inaugural 2024 NYU Artist Development Program for Dance. Since then, the members of the cohort have focused on developing new performance pieces and on broader career growth over the six-month program.
On September 10th, 2024, the cohort will perform selections from their new works at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts for an audience of industry leaders.
“The hope of the NYU Artist Development Program for Dance is to build an ecosystem within the dance field, developing artistic networks and critical career readiness for NYU alumni as they navigate critical transition points in their career,” says NYU Production Lab director Linsey Bostwick, who is leading the program with associate Ntshadi Mofokeng along with many industry professionals from across the dance space in New York and beyond.
The program has gathered the inaugural cohort together each month to focus on their work in-progress, while also providing bespoke mentorship, access to studio space, and community building.
The program has also hosted monthly events open to the larger NYU dance community, focusing on major areas of concern for careers in dance including professional communication, business logistics, audience engagement, community building, and wellness. Experts across the dance field joined the cohort and larger group to share their experience and guide the work.
Bostwick comments, “Unlike many development programs for artists, we did not focus solely on emerging or mid-career artists, but rather concentrated on artists that are in transition during different stages of their careers. This inaugural group of dance artists represents a diverse array of dance genres and schools of study across the university.”
Current works from the inaugural cohort:
Kristel Baldoz, Yellow Fever
Drawing from Anne Anlin Cheng’s concept of ornamentalism, I engage the relationship and slippage between objecthood and personhood, and orientalism and objectification that is tied to the female Asian identity. Cheng’s concept addresses how the Asiatic woman, the “yellow” woman, is seen as an aesthetic ornament – she is viewed as an object rather than a person. Through dance, ceramics, and indictment, I investigate the choreography and movement between body and objects.
Rohan Bhargava, Baraat
“Baraat” is a multidisciplinary work of dance, music, and theater that scrutinizes the institution of marriage in India through a queer and inclusive lens. It fuses aesthetics from Bollywood cinema, Indian street-theater, Bhangra dance, and queer sexuality into one cohesive whole.
Austin Coats, Warren’s Gospel
Warren’s Gospel (gospel meaning “good news” or “good story”) is a love letter to queer black men.This testament teases the taboos and intersections of queer black identities in relationship to the black church or Christianity.
David Lee, Resonance
The performance explores the Asian American experience, addressing societal pressures, humanizing the perpetual foreigner, and celebrating queer Asian identity through contemporary, jazz and street dance (hip hop, house, waacking).
Jade Mann, Untitled Work-in-Progres
Through the carefully constructed sequencing and layering of visual and sonic material, this work-in-progress examines the role of images in the movement of history, and their role in both making sense of and influencing our world. The work engages with an archive ranging from the first recorded human works of art in the animal-centric prehistoric Chauvet cave paintings, to modern day advertising, political propaganda and viral imagery. Translated into highly sculpted physical tableaus and warped idiosyncratic movement, these images rapidly shift and rearrange forming a dense panorama of shapes and sounds.
Grace Yi-Li Tong, FREE RANGE YOLKY
Created as an exploration of “facedance”, FREE RANGE YOLKY is the solo prologue to the half-evening-length work: ZOO!, an illumination of memory, charade, and the unsaid in the Asian-American experience. Originally created in 2022, FREE RANGE YOLKY collages and chews on scenes from the recesses of the diasporic body, regurgitating hyperbolic movement languages of clowning, pantomime, and of course, dance.
For more information, please contact: dancedev@nyu.edu,
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About the NYU Production Lab
The NYU Production Lab is a development center whose mission is to support the next generation of artists in designing and launching thriving careers in their industries. The Lab serves as an experiential-learning bridge for students navigating the transition from an academic classroom to their professional field.The Production Lab aims to serve students and alumni at all stages with a commitment to diversity and an intent to foster an inclusive artistic industry. The Lab strives to be at the forefront of cultural entrepreneurship, preparing today’s emerging artists for the jobs of tomorrow and expanding the arts ecosystem. Learn more at wp.nyu.edu/productionlab/