Danspace Project Inc

Programs: Danspace project presents: presenting local, national and international artists a foundation of danspace project's (dsp) work has always been to foster the work of a diverse community of dance artists at various stages of their development, with an emphasis on local new york city artists. Dsp commissioned and presented 10 choreographers in 2016-17 as part of this program: vanessa anspaugh, emily coates, douglas dunn, lily gold, benjamin kimitch, jennifer monson, koma otake, david parker, stacy spence, and christopher williams. Dsp also presented two weeks of screenings and installations by ruth patir and two weeks of the "slow dancing trio a" installation by david michalek with yvonne rainer. Weeklong production residencies were awarded to gold, kimitch, spence and williams, with additional creative residency time benefiting several artists. Additionally, multiple artists were presented through the movement research festival, food for thought showcases, and draftwork works-in-progress series, as well as a "danspace commission reprisal" for vicky shick.

platform series: lost and found curated by ishmael houston jones and will rawlsdsp's platforms are multi-week series devoted to a single curatorial inquiry. Co-curated by ishmael houston-jones and will rawls, our most recent platform 2016: lost & found included daily public events over six weeks (october 6-november 19th, 2016) that included commissioned performances, a workshop, public conversations, and two weeks of production residency. Featuring 100+ artists, lost & found delved into the loss of a generation of dance artists to aids in the 1980s-90s, the continuance of mourning and loss, and the shape of the ongoing aids crisis today. Opening weekend events brought together bill t. Jones, neil greenberg, and archie burnett (in an homage to the late willi ninja), offering a multiplicity of perspectives from dance artists engaging hiv/aids in wide-ranging contexts. Subsequent performances brought together evenings of poetry and spoken word by queer artists of color (timothy duwhite, kia labeija, yaya mckoy, terence taylor, carmelita tropicana) curated by pamela sneed; and a shared evening of dance by jonathan gonzalez, jasmine hearn, jaamil olawale kosoko, and ni'ja whitson; and a singular evening curated by eva yaa asantewaa featuring a collective of 20 black women and gender non-conforming performing artists. To complement the live programs dsp dedicated an issue of our new online journal to lost and found through commissioned essays, visual content and a series of short 'video postcards' by alexis moh. Lastly, dsp published our eleventh print catalogue to accompany the platform with over 270 pages of writings, remembrances and archival material, merging art history, poetics and activism. Lost and found: dance, new york, hiv/aids, then and now is the first book published by dsp to be distributed nationally and internationally by artbook/d. A. P. Acclaimed contributors include penny arcade, marc arthur, c. Carr, douglas crimp, darkmatter, nan goldin, brenda dixon gottschild, neil greenberg, bill t. Jones, deborah jowitt, john kelly, tseng kwong chi, kia labeija, eileen myles, pamela sneed, sally sommer, sarah schulman and muna tseng, among others.

community access dsp offers independent choreographers and companies the opportunity to self-produce, and space for community members to organize residencies and non-public programs at a subsidized rental rate in our venue at st. Mark's church. Dsp provides promotional, production and front-of-house support as part of rental productions. In 2016-17 three weeks were community access productions: valerie green, kathak dance ensemble and new york theater ballet. Two additional space rental weeks included a non-public research residency for a student/faculty group from new york university's tisch school of the arts.

dsp partners with peer organizations and artists regularly, comprising the remainder of our program services. Dsp hosts movement research classes and workshops, providing our space at a subsidized rate. We are also a founding partner with wesleyan university's center for the arts of the institute for curatorial practice in performance (icpp) and participate in program direction, faculty, and advisory roles. Dsp also shares icpp content on its online journal and occasionally in public events. Lastly, dsp raised funds in 2000 to set up affordable office space for independent choreographers, and continues to offer this space at a subsidized rate. A collaboration with moma's department of media and performance art closed our fall season with an unprecedented research residency, centered on the occasion of moma's historic acquisition of simone forti's "dance constructions" (1961). The residency encompassed private working sessions and public events including an evening of films and conversation with forti, artist malik gaines, and moma curator ana janevski. Dsp also partnered with the alliance for downtown new york for an outdoor performance festival (sept 2016), and worked with the madison square park conservancy for a public art project conceived by artist josiah mcelheny (summer 2017).