NEFA’s National Dance Project Announces 2023 Production Grants

(BOSTON, MA) The New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) has awarded $2,030,000 through the National Dance Project (NDP) to support the creation of 20 new dance projects that will be shared across the United States. In addition, NDP has awarded $200,000 in Finalist Awards to 20 new dance projects.

The National Dance Project is one of the country’s major sources of funding and field building for dance, supporting the creation and sharing of new projects. The 12 NDP Advisors, made up of artists, presenters, producers, arts administrators, and cultural strategists, selected these projects out of over 167 competitive applications; 75% of the awardees are first-time NDP recipients. Each artist/company receives $45,000 for the creation of the new dance project as well as $10,000 in unrestricted general operating support. Additionally, each grantee receives $11,500 to support Production Residencies for Dance and/or Community Engagement for their project. A total of $700,000 is allocated to support U.S. organizations to present these projects, in-person, digitally, or via new hybrid models.  

“This year’s NDP Production Grantees represent a quality of study that amplifies and reflects the varied biological, emotional, and spiritual change society has experienced particularly over the past few years,” said NEFA’s senior program director for dance, Indira Goodwine-Josias. “The projects push others to be imaginative, conjure process and ritual, and intentionally promote multi-generational preservation through collaboration. They lead with a transformative spirit that honors the past, cares for the present, and paves a way for the unknown.”

Since 1996, NDP has invested more than $49.2 million in funding to artists and organizations to strengthen partnerships and bring dance into communities across the U.S. To date, NDP has supported tours of 789 choreographic works that have toured to all 50 states, Washington, DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico reaching over 3.4 million audience members in-person and virtually.

“The National Dance Project support is vital to the creation of new contemporary dance works,” said Ashley Ferro-Murray, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Foundation. “It allows individual artists and the field to actively consider what it means to produce live performance and how the pluralistic process impacts our broader cultural landscape. We are grateful for the social and aesthetic considerations that will undoubtedly come from this group of awardees and their visionary projects.”

“The 2023 cohort of the National Dance Project acknowledges the rich diversity and complexity of dance and dance artists across the country,” said Emil Kang, program director for Arts and Culture at the Mellon Foundation. “We are grateful to be in partnership with our colleagues at the Doris Duke Foundation and NEFA to realize this work, and in particular want to thank the NDP advisors for their recognition of this talented group and the communities that lift them.” 

NEFA's National Dance Project is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, with funding for special initiatives from the Boston Foundation and the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.

The 2023 NDP Production Grant projects are:

• 4|2|3, Baye & Asa, New York, NY
• Black Dancing Bodies: SpeakMyMind, Ladies of Hip-Hop, Jersey City, NJ
• Clouds from a Crumbling Giant, inkBoat, San Francisco, CA
• DIASPORADICA, RUPTURE, San Francisco, CA
• Following the Road to Ose Tura, Adia Tamar Whitaker & Àse Dance Theater, Brooklyn, NY
• How to Bend Down/How to Pick it Up, Kayla Hamilton, Bronx, NY
• IS IT THURSDAY YET?, Jenn Freeman, Queens, NY
• Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS, dani tirrell, Washington, DC
• Memory Fleet, Jasmine Hearn, Houston, TX
• Movement for Mercy, Keshet Dance Company, Albuquerque, NM
• New Ghost, Litebulb/LB Productions, Chicago, IL
• NORRI, DaEun Jung, Los Angeles, CA
• Ouroboros, Nejla Yatkin Dance, Chicago, IL
• Put Away the Fire, dear, Kayla Farrish, Brooklyn, NY
• Rezas e Folhas, Viver Brasil, Los Angeles, CA
• Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies, Nava Dance Theatre, San Francisco, CA
• Untitled Night, Morgan Thorson, Minneapolis, MN
• WAKE, Jay Carlon, Los Angeles, CA
• What We Ask of Flesh, Christal Brown/INSPIRIT, Middlebury, VT
• Zaz: The Big Easy, SOLE Defined, Washington, DC

Project descriptions, work samples, and tour coordinator details are included on each grantee’s listing in the NEFA grantee directory. For questions, contact program staff at ndp@nefa.org.

In 2020, with the support of NDP’s funders, NDP increased the finalist award from $1,000 to $10,000. This award recognizes the applicants’ artistic impact and the investment that is part of an extensive process.

The 2023 NDP Finalist Award projects are:

• All Together Now!, Big Dance Theater, Brooklyn, NY
• ANTARANGA: BETWEEN YOU AND ME, Ananya Dance Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
• Dancing Distributed Leadership, Bridge Live Arts, San Francisco, CA
• ETHOS IV: Cycle/De-growth/Rebirth, Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape (AK/AUH), Chicago, IL
• Femenine // Kyle Marshall Choreography's Julius Eastman Project, Kyle Marshall Choreography, Brooklyn, NY
• Future Fields, Dance Exchange, Takoma Park, MD
• Ghosts of Hell Creek, Prehistoric Body Theater, Surakarta, Indonesia
• Jekyll & Hyde, PUSH Physical Theatre, Inc., Rochester, NY
• Many Happy Returns, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, New York, NY
• Max Roach @ 100 - Percussion Bittersweet (working title), Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Brooklyn, NY
• Noisefloor, little house dance, Portland, ME
• Open Machine, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, Margaretville, NY
• Roots of Loving Us, CONTRA-TIEMPO, Los Angeles, CA
• Show Queen, Jesse Factor, Pittsburgh, PA
• States of Hope, Hope Boykin, New York, NY
• THE SECRET SHARER, DNAWORKS, Fort Worth, TX
• Threesome, Jody Kuehner / Cherdonna Shinatra, Seattle, WA
• Vishwas, Blue13 Dance Company, Los Angeles, CA
• When We were Queens…, Culture Mill, Saxapahaw, NC
• YES!, Yayoi Kambara, San Francisco, CA

Learn more about the projects and the review process. 

About NEFA

The New England Foundation for the Arts invests in artists and communities and fosters equitable access to the arts, enriching the cultural landscape in New England and the nation. NEFA accomplishes this by granting funds to artists and cultural organizations; connecting them to each other and their audiences; and analyzing their economic contributions. NEFA serves as a regional partner for the National Endowment for the Arts, New England’s state arts agencies, and private foundations. Learn more at www.nefa.org.

CONTACT: Ann Wicks, 617-423-1390