New Dance Alliance (NDA) announced the 2022–23 Black Artists Space to Create (BASC) and LiftOff residency artists.
 
BASC is a project offering three Black artists a residency at Modern Accord Depot in Accord, NY. The 2022–23 recipients are Alexander Diaz, Ayan Felix, and Miriam Parker. Each artist will receive a one-week residency with unlimited access to a dance studio and full living space. Residency schedules are determined by the individual needs of the artists, who also receive a stipend of $2,000 and $250 for travel expenses. NDA offers this space for resting, dancing, creating, healing, grieving, laughing, and breathing. There is no expectation of production and artists do not have to present new work at the end of this residency. Additionally, the artists have access to complimentary studio space at NDA’s studio throughout the 2022–23 season. The artists were selected by a BASC Curatorial Committee including Leslie Cuyjet, Lee Edwards, Alethea Pace, Nicole McClam, and Alicia Morales. 
 
The BASC residency project was created in 2020 in response to current movements within the dance community and the movements they are building upon. As an artist services organization and presenter, NDA has been guided by the core question: What does it mean to center and support Black artists in this field? NDA understands the stark reality that Black people are navigating not one but two pandemics: one is new, and one is 400 years old. NDA is working to radically reimagine what it means to serve Black artists right now and to do so in the specific spirit of reparations.
 
The LiftOff Residency takes place at NDA’s studio in Tribeca and provides movement-based performance artists with a minimum of 36 hours of rehearsal space, a $500 stipend, and two Work Sessions designed for artists to share their creative process and participate in a community exchange. The Fall/Winter 2022–23 LiftOff Residency Artists are Morgan Amirah Burns, Maxi Hawkeye Canion, Ursula Eagly, and evan ray suzuki. The Spring 2023 LiftOff Residency Artists are Juan Jesús Guiraldi, Alison Kopit, Julie Mayo, and Shannon Yu/SHA Creative Outlet. The LiftOff panelists are Mia Martelli, Nicholas Rodrigues, x, and Alexa West.

Stephanie Dabney
July 11, 1958 - September 28, 2022

​New York Times:
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Stephanie Dabney, a principal dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem who became an international star and a role model for aspiring Black ballerinas, died on Sept. 28 at a nursing home in Manhattan. She was 64.

Her sister, Janine Dabney-Battle, said the cause was cardiopulmonary arrest. Ms. Dabney had been living with H.I.V. since 1990 and had weathered numerous health complications.
Ms. Dabney was just 16 in 1975, when she joined the Harlem company, which was founded in 1969 by Karel Shook and Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer at New York City Ballet, to create opportunities for dancers of color.
Mr. Mitchell was a protégé of George Balanchine, and Ms. Dabney was a natural fit for the company’s Balanchine-based neoclassical style. “Stephanie had it all: line, feet, technique, speed, imagination and the most important thing of all, heart,” Virginia Johnson, the company’s artistic director, wrote in an email.

Read entire New York Times article here

FROM Gino Grenek:

I am deeply honored to announce that as of September 1, 2022, I have begun my new role as the executive director of the Stephen Petronio Company. It is with great pride that I return to the company in this leadership position after having danced the work of Stephen Petronio for 17 years.

After earning a degree in engineering from Dartmouth College in 1994, I focused my attention on my love for and commitment to dance and was extremely fortunate to eventually find a home in the ever-evolving and expanding Stephen Petronio Company. From 1999 until 2016, not only did I discover on a daily basis in the studio and on stages around the world just exactly what dance could be, but I found a group of dancers that embodied the lesson my first dance teachers always taught me; that dance at its very best is about ensemble.

During my 17-year tenure with the company as a dancer, I also served as the rehearsal director and assistant to the artistic director. In 2007, my body of work with Stephen Petronio was recognized with a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award. As grateful as I am to have been given such a prestigious honor, I have always believed that the award was not only an acknowledgment of what I had accomplished, but more importantly what we as a company had achieved. Yes, 17 years is a long time, but it truly is only a fraction of the nearly 40-year history of the Stephen Petronio Company and the many extraordinary artists that formed its foundation and continue to create its future.

I hold in my heart and body such profound respect for the artists that danced in the company before me, for those that danced with me and for those that are dancing there now. These are the artists that energized me and continue to encourage me to be a better version of myself than the one I was yesterday. We all knew that attaining true perfection in Stephen Petronio’s work would never really be possible due to the demanding complexity of the choreography. However, as a supportive family of dancers we always invigorated each other to keep pursuing excellence at all times and to face each new challenge without reservations or fear. Achieving perfection was never the goal. Expanding the boundaries of what any of us thought possible was the real pursuit and knowing that to discover a world without limits, we needed to find that together and then share it without hesitation and with love. It is my sincere hope that my time as a dancer in the company embodied that commitment to collaboration, hard work and generosity and I intend to continue to embrace those unshakable beliefs of the Stephen Petronio Company as the new executive director.

On behalf of the team at the Stephen Petronio Company and the Petronio Residency Center, I wish you health, peace and prosperity. I so very much look forward to working with you in the future so that together we can continue the journey to uncover new and expansive ways to encourage this world to be stronger in all capacities. The challenges are great, but so are the possibilities.
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Sincerely,
Gino Grenek
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​Read more about Gino here

BRADLEY SHELVER, a native of South Africa, newly appointed Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet Concert Group in New York, trained at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg and at The Ailey School in New York. 

He has danced with the Ailey II, Elisa Monte Dance, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, The Francesca Harper Project, Limón Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Theater (UK) and in projects with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Lar Lubovich Dance, The Universal Ballet, Radio City Music Hall, and in productions with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He is in his 13th season as a principal dancer with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
 

Mr. Shelver has choreographed works for; Richmond Ballet, Ailey II, Ballet Austin, Lustig Dance Theater, Compania Rio Danca, New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble, Cape Dance Company, Cedar Lake 2, Sobers & Godley Dance, Nexus Dance Lab, as well as creating works for The Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Ballet Schools, Joffrey Ballet School, Central Ballet School (London) The Ailey School, Boston Conservatory, Long Island University and Purchase College.
 
He was co-producer and curator for the annual REVERBdance Festival from 2010-2016. From 2013-2016, he was the Artistic Director of the STEPS Repertory Ensemble and the Production Director for Steps on Broadway. He is currently the Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet Concert Group and The Brooklyn Dance Festival Company and taught classes for the ensembles of Mathew Bourne’s “Adventures in Motion Pictures”, The Lion King on Broadway, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Elisa Monte Dance. 

Mr Shelver is on the faculty of schools and universities worldwide including ABT/JKO School, Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University, The Limòn Institute, Complexions Contemporary Ballet Academy, Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Ballet Schools, The Ailey School, La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts, Joffrey Ballet School, Bikuratim (Israel), Pan American Modern Dance School (Brazil), Hinton Battle Academy. (Tokyo), DAR Jazz Academy (Russia) among others. He is a certified ballet teacher with the ABT National Training Curriculum. 

Also a writer, he was a contributor for Dance Spirit Magazine and his book, “Performance Through the Dance Technique of Lester Horton” is available worldwide.
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