NEFA's National Dance Project Announces Awards for New Dance Production and Presentation

(BOSTON, MA) The New England Foundation for the Arts has awarded $1,795,000 through the National Dance Project (NDP) to support the creation of 20 new dance works that will tour the United States. 

Now in its third decade, NDP is widely recognized as one of the country’s major sources of funding for dance. NDP’s signature approach provides funding for both the creation and touring of works. A panel of national dance leaders, including artists and presenters, selected these projects out of 126 competitive applications through a two-round process. The choreographers and companies from around the country include nine U.S. artists who are first-time NDP grant recipients as well as one international collaboration. Each project will receive grants ranging from $40,000 to $45,000 for the creation of the new work, plus $10,000 in unrestricted general operating support for each artist recipient.  A total of $665,000 will be awarded to U.S. organizations to present these works when on tour. 

“As a result of program and field research, NDP is moving forward with program design changes, including increased professional development, piloting a community engagement fund, and ways to incentivize presenters in areas that have not seen as much dance, and we continue to celebrate the core of the program: creation and touring of new dance work” said NEFA executive director Cathy Edwards.

NDP has invested more than $36 million in funding to artists and organizations to strengthen partnerships and bring dance into communities across the U.S. To date, NDP has supported the creation of over 412 new choreographic works that have toured to all 50 states and Washington, DC, reaching over 2.8 million audience members.

NEFA's National Dance Project is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with funding for special initiatives from the Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French American Cultural Exchange, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The  2017 NDP Production grant recipients are: 

• Ananya Dance Theatre, Minneapolis, MN - Shyamali: Sprouting Words
• Cynthia Oliver Co. Dance Theatre/COCo, Urbana, IL – Virago-Man Dem
• David Roussève/REALITY, Sherman Oaks, CA – Halfway to Dawn
• Eiko Otake, New York, NY – The Duet Project: Distance is Malleable
• Ephrat Asherie Dance, New York, NY - Odeon
• Everett Company, Providence, RI – Good Grief
• Flyaway Productions, San Francisco, CA – The Wait Room
• jumatatu poe & donte beacham, Philadelphia, PA – Let ‘im Move You: This Is a Formation
• Kimberly Bartosik/daela, Brooklyn, NY – I hunger for you, (working title)
• Kinetic Light/Alice Sheppard, Los Altos, CA – DESCENT
• LEVYdance, San Francisco, CA – RUSH
• Michelle Ellsworth, Boulder, CO – Post-Verbal Social Network
• Netta Yerushalmy, New York, NY – Paramodernities 
• ODC/Dance, San Francisco, CA – Path of Miracles
• Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, Miami, FL – Make Believe
• Rosy Simas Danse, Minneapolis, MN – Weave 
• Sarah Michelson, New York, NY – (Iteration)/\
• STREB Extreme Action Company, Brooklyn, NY – Love is Boxing
• Union Tanguera/Kate Weare, Lyon, France/New York, NY – In Love I Broke Beyond
• Yin Mei Dance, Port Washington, NY – Peony Dreams: On the Other Side of Sleep

To learn more about the grantees and their projects, visit the directory of NDP projects with tour support available on www.nefa.org, look for the August 2017 National Dance Project publication available in early September, or contact program director Sara Nash at 617.951.0010 x512 or snash@nefa.org.

About NEFA
The New England Foundation for the Arts invests in the arts to enrich communities in New England and beyond. 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.

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 CONTACT: Ann Wicks, 617.951.0010 x534