MANCC Forward Dialogues has its Third Iteration with National Endowment for the Arts Funding

From August 11-24, 2024, MANCC will host MANCC Forward Dialogues (MFD) for the third time since 2017, each time supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. MFD, an early career laboratory for artists based around the U.S. and its territories, was first piloted in 2017 and held again in 2019. Now in its third iteration, this MFD was originally planned for 2020 but postponed to 2024 because of COVID.  

Each iteration of the MFD program has been designed to identify, support and catalyse the ideas of emergent movement-based artists by providing access to a stimulating environment that encourages experimentation and exploration in a facilitated, process-oriented laboratory setting. Unlike a more typical MANCC residency that encourages artists at all stages of a project to work independently, including just before a premiere, the MFD program is devised for robust collaborative exchange and dialogue among participants. The program also aids MANCC in developing relationships with the next generation of dance makers by learning about and supporting their evolving artistic practices. 

Movement-based makers are invited to apply based on nominations from both field leaders nation-wide and prior MFD participants, and to propose a collaborator to bring with them to the lab. This creative collaborator can be any artistic and/or intellectual collaborator with whom the applicant wishes to develop ideas at and beyond MANCC. 

Review of proposals leading to selection of the participating pairs of artists by the program facilitators is based on:  

1) a demonstrated commitment to artistic practice and experimentation, 
2) a vision for the future of one’s creative practice, 
3) an openness to discourse and collaborative inquiry, and 
4) a strong desire to be part of a working lab with peers that prioritizes the generative exchange of ideas.  

The 2024 Facilitators, each recognized nationally in the dance and performance field, are Yanira Castro, Makini and Joseph Hall. Castro is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who has come to MANCC for six residencies from 2007 to 2022 to develop different artistic projects. Makini is a choreographer, performer and video artist, whose work delves into critical dialogue with Black queer artist folx; they have been a MANCC residency artist in 2017 and 2018 and returned in 2022 and 2023 as an Embedded Writer with MANCC Artist Maria Bauman. Hall is the Executive Director of Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, PA and a practicing artist as well. 

The MFD artist pairs are: Majesty Royale (NC) and Graciella Ye’Tsunami (NY); Caleb Dowden (LA) and HighHealDoula (LA); Rebecca Fitton (CA) and Emily Hansel (CA); Benji Hart (IL) and Edrimael Delgado Reyes (PR); Antonius Tin Bui (CT) and Jeric Smith (WA); Kimiko Tanabe (NY) and Nora Alami (IL); and John Maria Gutierrez (NY) and Irisdelia Garcia (NY). These artists and their collaborating peers were chosen by this year’s facilitators to further develop their critical thinking through participation in facilitated dialogue, peer showings, reflective writing and creative explorations in and outside of the studio, aided by the creative and collaborative environment and the audience of their artistic peers. 

In addition to the engagement and sharing of information by the facilitators and artists, three guest presenters will offer further opportunities for learning during the lab. Farai Malianga, a noted videographer/editor, sound and multi-media designer, and composer/musician who works in film, theatre and dance, will offer an interactive session entitled An open conversation on collaboration, music, and sound design. Malianga, an Assistant Professor in the School of Dance, will also engage with the artist pairs around documentation and audio/sound support. David Thomson, an internationally acclaimed Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artists, initiated The Artist Sustainability Project in 2017 to expand the practice and discourse of financial, artistic and personal empowerment for artists. He will offer an intensive based on this Project, entitled Investing in Yourself: Supporting the individual to facilitate the artist. Thomson will follow this with Making Money Work Together: Conversations for the field and for artists with Celeste Smith, a cultural thought-leader in philanthropy with a finger on the pulse of race and social discourse; this conversation will then spark a dialogue with the facilitators and participating artists. Given the radical changes ongoing in our field regarding funding and the precarity of artists’ circumstances, this conversation will center on what the future can look like. For MANCC and the lab’s facilitators, emerging artists are critical drivers for re-imagining how our field can and will best function.