ANNOUNCING THE 2020 USA FELLOWS
 
Since 2006, we have provided over $27 million in unrestricted support to 600 artists across the country. This year, 50 artists across 10 creative disciplines will each receive a $50,000 cash award. This is the largest cohort of USA Fellows since we relocated from Los Angeles to Chicago in 2011. Read more now!

Recipients in Dance:
Dianne McIntyre
Lisa Nelson
Will Rawls
Elizabeth Streb
Abby Zbikowski

READ MORE ABOUT ALL FIFTY FELLOWS HERE

Other cateregories are:
Architecture & Design
Craft
Media
Music
Theater & Performance
Traditional Arts
Visual Art
Writing

The 2020 Fellowship Awards were made possible by: 
Anonymous, Sarah Arison, Barr Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Ann M. Hatch, David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Steven H. and Nancy K. Oliver, Pillars Fund, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Fred and Eve Simon Charitable Foundation, The Todd and Betiana Simon Foundation, Paul and Annette Smith, Walder Foundation, Katie Weitz, PhD, Windgate Charitable Foundation, Helen Zell, and the USA Board of Trustees.

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), a nonprofit organization founded in 1963 by the John Cage and Jasper Johns has revealed the eighteen artists selected for its 2020 Grants to Artists cycle. It has also named Meredith Monk the winner of its John Cage Award.

All of the recipients will receive $40,000 in unrestricted funds.

The 2020 grant Dance recipients are:

Milka Djordjevich, Los Angeles, CA
Marjani Forté-Saunders, Pasadena, CA
NIC Kay, Bronx, NY / The Dorothea Tanning Award
jumatatu m. poe, Philadelphia, PA
Music/Sound
Ngọc Đại, Hanoi, Vietnam
Carmina Escobar, Los Angeles, CA
Sean Meehan, New York, NY
Julianne Swartz, Kingston, NY
Marshall Trammell, Albuquerque, NM

Read more about the other catergories and recipients here

Queer|Art, New York City’s home for the creative and professional development of LGBTQ+ artists, is pleased to announce the winner of the second annual Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant For Queer Women(+) Dance Artists, Hollerin Space. Philadelphia-based duo Hollerin Space will receive a $10,000 cash grant to support the development of Hold On, a new work that researches algorithms of black assembly and theories and practices of being free. This particular work traces black gathering and migrations in the broad period between 1919 and into some optimistic future. Development of this work will include study and enactment of the Juneteenth tradition of call, drum & step as part of the group’s training for the premiere of an ensemble production set for 2020 in Philadelphia. The ensemble will convene for 10 workshops over a 9 month period, centering research and world building, at House of Black Infinity located in Philadelphia.

Hollerin Space was one of 59 applicants who applied for the Yaa Asantewaa Grant in its second year. Four other dance artists were acknowledged as finalists for this year--Xianix Barrera, ChE Ware, Taja Will, and Anna Martine Whitehead.

Read more here

FROM THE FOLKS AT DTH:

Dance Theatre of Harlem announced today a $4 million gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the organization’s capacity building efforts, including improvements to salaries for artists and staff, investments in fundraising infrastructure and leadership, and innovative artistic and community-building initiatives. The grant includes a $1 million matching gift to be raised by the Dance Theatre of Harlem Board of Directors, led by Board Chairman Ackneil Muldrow, III, bringing the total support to $5 million. The timing of this gift comes at the culmination of DTH’s extraordinary 50th Anniversary Celebration, with its New York City Center homecoming engagement and Vision Gala April 15-18, 2020.

The grant is the largest single gift made to Dance Theatre of Harlem in the organization’s 50 year history and represents a significant investment in the transformative and innovative work of the organization.

“Throughout its history, Dance Theatre of Harlem has expanded the notion of what ballet could be,” said Executive Director Anna Glass. “We are eternally grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for steadfastly believing that the expression we bring to the art form is unique and necessary. This gift is an investment in our future that will have impact for decades to come.”

For more information about Dance Theatre of Harlem, please visit www.DanceTheatreOfHarlem.org.

FROM The Steering Committee of the NY Dance and Performance Awards:

The Bessies, announced today that Lucy Sexton, who has served as Executive Director of The Bessies since 2009, is stepping down to expand her work in cultural advocacy with New Yorkers for Culture & Arts and to pursue new creative projects. She will continue in an advisory role until the end of January 2020. Michele Thompson joins the organization as Interim Executive Director.
 
Steering Committee Chair Martin Wechsler said, “Lucy has had a tremendous impact on the NY Dance and Performance Awards. Throughout her ten years as the executive director she expanded the scope of The Bessies to recognize all genres of dance and performance, while remaining true to its ‘downtown’ dance roots. She created new opportunities to support and lift up artists, and she brought The Bessies more powerfully into the public eye. We are immensely indebted and grateful to Lucy for her years of leadership at The Bessies.”
 
During her tenure, Sexton helped The Bessies become an independent organization serving New York dance throughout the year. In addition to her oversight of the organization, she broadened the scope of the awards by increasing the size of the Selection Committee so that it could better recognize the wide range of dance happening in New York City; established partnerships with organizations including the American Dance Festival, CUNY Dance Initiative, NYS DanceForce, Dance/NYC, and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography; and initiated open roundtable discussions for dance artists and presenters connecting The Bessies more deeply within the community. In addition to the awards for dance artists presented at the annual ceremony, new awards introduced include the Juried Bessie Award, which helps the chosen artist’s work get seen outside of NYC, the Bessies Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating, and the Bessie Angel Award for individuals garnering resources for dance.

“It has been a great honor and joy to serve as executive director of The Bessies,” said Sexton. “I’ve been involved in New York dance my entire life and want nothing more than for the dance communities of this city to be recognized and strengthened. I am thrilled that the work of The Bessies will continue with my invaluable Bessies collaborator Heather Robles, and the esteemed Michele Thompson.”

Sexton will be working full-time as the Executive Director of the cultural advocacy coalition New Yorkers for Culture & Arts, which advocates for increased funding and improved public policy to support culture in the city.

Read the entire press release below:

Reggie Wilson's Fist & Heel Performance Group in they stood shaking while others began to shout @ Danspace Project

Carmen  de Lavallade in Life of a Legend: Carmen de Lavallade @ Lincoln Center

Miguel Gutierrez with six Latinx performers – Alvaro Gonzalez, John Gutierrez, Xandra Ibarra, Nibia Pastrana Santiago, and Evelyn Sanchez Narvaez in This Bridge Called My Ass  @ The Chocolate Factory

Urban Bush Women in Hair & Other Stories @ BRIC

DELIROUS Dances/Edisa Weeks in her own work Three Rites: Liberty @ Mabou Mines

Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born in Adaku's Revolt @ Abrons Arts Center

Netta Yerushalmy's PARAMODERNITIES @ NYLA

Batsheva Dance Company in Venezuela @ BAM

Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug in Darkness Odyssey Part 3: Non-Opera @ NYLA

Stephen Petronio Company @ NYU Skirball

"Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event" (Merce Cunningham) @ BAM

Kyle Abraham (Live! The Realist MC) @ Skirball

Jonathan González in Lucifer @ Abrons Arts Center

George Sanchez in XIV @ Dixon Place

The entire lineup of The Clark Center 60th Anniversary Tribute with 5Plus Ensemble, Dyane Harvey-Salaam, Juel D. Lane, Amy Hall Garner Dancers, HSA Dances and Philadanco! @ Summer Stage- Marcus Garvey Park

Ayodele Casel + Arturo O'Farrill @ The Joyce Theater

Streb & CITI Company in Falling & Loving @ Peak Performances
 
Kayla Hamilton and Jerron Herman curated by Alice Sheppard in one of the three "Double Plus" series at Gibney.

Ella Rothschild & Marjani Saunders Forté + Everett Saunders @ BAC Space Showing

Clifton Brown & Danica Paulos of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in Lar Lubovitch's Fandango @  New York City Center

Jamar Roberts' Ode danced by members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre  @  New York City Center