Roulette announces this year's cohort of Awarded Artists: Dreamcrusher, Elias Stemeseder, Emilio Modeste, NO LAND, Sylvie Courvoisier, David Leon, Leo Chang, Lester St. Louis, Nava Dunkelman, and Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith. 

Each year, Roulette responds directly to artists’ needs for money, space, and support by awarding commissions, residencies, and generous production stipends to extraordinary artists—cumulatively totaling over $2.2M and counting. For our 2024-2025 season, we are proud to present awards to a cohort of eleven incredible and distinctive artists at various stages in their careers, who will be premiering new work or honing ongoing projects in the coming year. 

Maho Ogawa
Stephanie Acosta
Ash Rucker
Sofia Engelman & Em Papineau
Shira Kagan-Shafman

The LEIMAY Incubator Program is a self-directed opportunity offered primarily to a local community of dancers & choreographers, providing resource sharing to aid in their creative development.

Hear from the artists and stay tuned to LEIMAY's social media for more spotlights!​

The 2024-25 artists-in-residence are Maria Bauman, Javon “Ja’Moon” Jones, and Nubian Néné. Each artist will receive a one-week residency with unlimited access to a dance studio and full living space at Arts on Site R&R in Kerhonkson, NY, as well as a $2,000 stipend. The residency is designed as both a retreat and a space to create without the pressure of developing a new project. Additionally, artists have access to complimentary studio space at New Dance Alliance’s loft in Tribeca throughout the season, and are invited to show work at NDA’s annual Performance Mix Festival.

Founded in 2020, BASC was envisioned by former NDA advisory board member Angie Pittman “as a way to value and amplify the tremendous work that Black artists have historically done and are doing to shape our nation’s imagination, language, and humanity.” 

New Dance Alliance is committed to continually assessing its role in amplifying, uplifting, and supporting artists of color across its programmatic platforms. As a predominately white-led organization, NDA hopes to learn and continue to push the boundaries of what it means to create a more equitable dance field. NDA’s hope as an organization is to not only grow this program, but also to create a community of artists to whom it is continually able to offer support. 

Artists are selected by an invited curatorial committee of previous BASC artists and New York-based artists. The committee is modeled after Movement Research’s Artists of Color Council. NDA’s motivation in gathering this committee is to transfer organizational and curatorial power to artists of color, and work toward cultivating a more transparent and accessible organization for all artists. This year’s committee selected artists who demonstrate a rigorous commitment to conversation in dance and performance within the communities they are rooted in, in addition to dedication and longevity in practice, performance, and community building.

The 2024-25 BASC curatorial committee: j. bouey, Kyle Marshall, Babou Sanneh, and Jelani Taylor.

Penny Arcade (she/her) aka Susana Ventura is a poet, actress, writer, theatre maker, and videographer whose focus on community building as the goal of performance and performance as a transformational act have brought her recognition far outside American soil and mark her as a true original on the world stage, where she is considered an international icon of artistic resistance. Penny debuted in John Vaccaro's explosive Playhouse Of The Ridiculous in 1968. She was a teenage Superstar for Andy Warhol's Factory featured in the film Women in Revolt. Since 1985 she has created her own text-based work. She has written 16 full length plays and thousands of performance pieces.  Since 1999, along with her long-time collaborator of 33 years, Steve Zehentner, she has cohelmed The Lower East Side Biography Project "Stemming the Tide of Cultural Amnesia ", a video project preserving and  celebrating the rich tapestry of downtown NY's creative diversity. It streams and broadcasts every Monday at 11pm on NY cable stations and online. Complete access to Penny’s large body of work and social practice is available at www.patreon.com/penny_arcade.

NICKY PARAISO (he/him) is an actor, singer, musician, writer, curator, and solo performance artist.  He has been a fixture of the NY downtown performance scene for almost five decades. He is Director of Programming for The Club at La MaMa, and Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, which will celebrate its twentieth year in April 2025. He has worked as a performer with vanguard artists Jeff Weiss & Carlos Ricardo Martinez, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks. Nicky has also performed in the works of Anne Bogart, Laurie Carlos, Jessica Hagedorn, Robbie McCauley, Richard Elovich, Dan Froot, Fred Holland, Dan Hurlin, Christopher Williams, among many others. He has also performed with Ma-Yi Theatre Company & National Asian-American Theatre Company (NAATCO). Nicky is the recipient of a 1987 Bessie Award for his Collective Performances, the Lilah Kan Red Socks Award, a 2012 BAX Arts & Artists in Progress Arts Management Award, a 2018 TCG Fox Fellowship as an Actor of Distinguished Achievement, and the 2019 (NY Innovative Theatre) Ellen Stewart Award for Stewardship. Nicky is an acclaimed solo performance artist and has written & performed the following solo shows: Asian Boys directed by Laurie Carlos (Performance Space 122), Houses & Jewels directed by Laurie Carlos (DTW), and House/Boy directed by Ralph B. Pena (La MaMa, Dublin Theatre Festival, Singapore Performance Initiation Festival). Nicky's most recent full-length performance, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories, directed & designed by John Jesurun, premiered at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre in March-April 2019, performing with choreographer/dancers Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, and Paz Tanjuaquio.

The Ruth Maleczech Award is a no-strings-attached cash award granted by Mabou Mines together with Ruth’s family, Clove Galilee and Lute Breuer. The awardee is selected through a nomination process and is given to a performer who embodies Ruth’s daring and raw, naked, fearlessness in every performance. “The Ruthie” was created to honor Ruth Maleczech, the beloved artist/performer/director and co-founder of Mabou Mines. She was an inspiration, a mentor, and a role model for countless artists.

​Want to win tickets to the 2024 Gala?

Black Dance Stories is giving away two $75 tickets to Black dance artists if you can answer this question:

When did Kyle's BDS episode air, and who was he in conversation with?

Submit your answer to: 
[email protected] by May 5th at 10AM.

Winners will be announced via our social media platforms!

The workshop will be held from 12 - 1:30 PM on Thursday April 18th. 

REGISTER HERE  

On Friday April 19th - they will be in conversation with National Book Award Winner, Imani Perry, about Black contemporary art practices in the rural South. I hope you can make it to this event, as well. 

REGISTER HERE 

Both events will be held in the CBA Studio at 16 Cooper Square, NYC.

​TOP FLOOR:
Thurs-Sun April 25-28 | 7 PM
PROGRAM A: Thurs & Sat | PROGRAM B: Fri & Sun
Martha Graham Studio Theater | 55 Bethune St
Sliding Scale General Admission Starting at $20

ALL OVER:
Sat & Sun April 27-28 | 1-3:30 PM
Site-specific tours run every 30 minutes starting at 1 PM.
Westbeth | 155 Bank St
FREE!

Read more here