Danspace Project presents new work in dance, supports a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work, encourages experimentation, and connects artists to audiences.
Now in its fourth decade, Danspace Project has supported a vital community of contemporary dance artists in an environment unlike any other in the United States. Located in the historic St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Danspace shares its facility with the Church, The Poetry Project, and New York Theatre Ballet. Danspace Project’s Commissioning Initiative has commissioned over 480 new works since its inception in 1994.
Danspace Project’s Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW²) provides context for audiences and increased support for artists. Our public programs (including Danspace Presents, Platforms, Food for Thought, DraftWork), Commissioning Initiative, residencies, guest artist curators, and contextualizing activities and materials are core components of CW² offering a responsive framework for artists’ works. Since 2010, we have produced nine Platforms, published nine print catalogues and five e-books, launched the Conversations Without Walls discussion series, and explored models for public discourse and residencies.
As part of the Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research, members of Mediating the Archive have collaborated with Danspace Project on their Platform 2016: Lost & Found. Curated by Will Rawls and Ishmael Houston-Jones, Lost & Found examines the impact of AIDS on generations of artists and seeks to recover the generation of mentors, role models, and muses who died from the disease. GC PhD student Janet Werther has worked to prepare a dossier and recover archival material on dancer, John Bernd, one of the earliest New York choreographers to explicitly represent gay sexuality and the disease in his work). And Werther and GC PhD student Jaime Shearn-Cohen have worked together with faculty coleader Edward Miller to organize a series of events at the Center for the Humanities on recovering narratives of the AIDS crisis, in conjunction with the Platform.
