Award-winning tap dance company Dorrance Dance, and choreographer/dancer/ performance artist Shamel Pitts and his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE, are the 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Artists in Residence for the 2020-2021 season. Center Director Taryn Kaschock Russell explains why their work is so meaningful at this moment.
Continuing 92Y’s rich history of artist residencies, our Harkness Dance Center this week announced its new artists in residence for 2020/21 — two collectives with distinct styles, journeys and goals, and each a deserving choice for the residency’s aim of developing and amplifying the most significant voices in dance right now.
Dorrance Dance is the award-winning tap dance company founded by MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Michelle Dorrance. Dorrance describes the company’s work as “rooted in protest and transcendence.” She says, “In my generation, to be a tap dancer is to be an ambassador for the unsung history of a Black art form. It is our job to tell the history of tap dance as a celebration of Black culture and a never-ending struggle against racism.” Harkness Dance Center Director Taryn Kaschock Russell says, “Dorrance Dance is one of the most compelling and innovative companies in dance today. Their work is grounded in history while pushing and expanding the art form at every turn.” The company’s work was brilliantly captured in our online fundraiser this spring — 92Y Together. Russell says, “The world changed overnight when COVID-19 hit. Dorrance Dance had been slated to perform on our stage at our annual gala. Weeks later, reeling from their own COVID-related blows, they danced instead in front of our building, in an astonishing display that found beauty and joy amidst adversity.”
Dorrance Dance’s residency will focus on deepening the company’s involvement in education. “92Y’s unique and longstanding education-themed programs mean we can help introduce the amazing work of Dorrance Dance to students and educators on a scale previously unimagined,” says Russell. Dorrance Dance will participate in both our new Young Leaders education outreach initiative — joining artists including Roxane Gay, Christian McBride and Paquito D’Rivera — and work closely with 92Y’s Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) to build out their own educational platform. Through presentations on the legacy of tap dance, livestreams, master classes, and more, the company will share their work with tens of thousands of students and educators across the country, including developing a new dance curriculum for NYC public schools.
“The world changed again with the death of George Floyd,” says Russell, who has long followed and championed the electrifying young choreographer/dancer/performance artist Shamel Pitts, a Brooklyn native who spent eight years living and dancing in the Middle East, and whose work Time Out Israel called “heart-piercing.” Russell believes Pitts’ choreographic voice and what she calls “its ability to expand our understanding of what it means to be Black,” is exactly what needs to be shared in dance at this moment. The residency of Pitts and his Brooklyn-based collective TRIBE will allow them to further develop their critical work, and will involve them, too, in our Young Leaders series, with presentations on choreography and the art of improvisation. They will participate in what Russell calls “a conversation and digital sharing about the genesis of TRIBE by location, uniting its influential dancers from — and now scattered in — Tel Aviv, Brazil, South Africa and Brooklyn.” Shamel Pitts/TRIBE will also contribute to our 92Y Confronts Hate initiative, with a performance premiere addressing racial injustice.
Russell says none of these endeavors would be possible without the generous support of the Howard Gilman Foundation. “It is through the Foundation’s forward-focused vision that we are able to work with these collectives and contribute to their growth and reach, which will enrich lives across the US through the beauty and power of dance.” She adds that the residencies’ importance at this time cannot be overstated. “Artists have found their audiences, performance opportunities and earning potential evaporate overnight. These residencies provide a platform for sharing their inspirational voices at a time when they — and the world — need them most.”
The Harkness Dance Center artists in residence (AIR) program receives major support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, Inc., and Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Additional support is provided by Deborah and Charles Adelman and Dede and Michael Rothenberg.
This program is part of the Harkness Dance Center, which recognizes the ongoing generosity of the Harkness Foundation for Dance, as well as the major support of Jody and John Arnhold.