ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE 2022 CHOREOGRAPHER + COMPOSER RESIDENCIES AT JAMAICA CENTER FOR ARTS & LEARNING
New York, NY - Panels of choreographers and dance professionals met virtually in October to select an eclectic group of New York City-based choreographers and composers . The grant provides each artist with a three-month residency in dedicated dance space at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) plus a $1,250 stipend plus an additional $750 for the completion of a public program.
Four collaborative teams of choreographers and composers will create and develop new work and present one free public program in coordination with JCAL later in 2022.
REDTAIL ARTIST RESIDENCIES BACKGROUND:
Redtail Artist Residencies grew out of the EtM Choreographer + Composer Residencies. This program was developed as a response to EtM’s 2014 study, Queens Performing Artists and Workspace: “I Want to Do More than Survive – I Want to Thrive.” Funded by the David Rockefeller Fund, this study analyzed the workspace needs of Queens-based performing and interdisciplinary artists. One significant finding of the study was the identification of Jamaica as an area of great potential growth in arts and cultural activity. The residency is open to NYC-based choreographers, at any stage in their career, applying with or without a composer.
After 38 years of dedicated service to the workspace needs of New York’s performing artists, Exploring the Metropolis (EtM) closed its doors in June 2020. To preserve EtM’s legacy and vision in resolving workspace issues for NYC’s performing artists, Redtail Artist Residencies is pleased to continue one of EtM’s most impactful residency programs at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning.
Redtail Artist Residencies is a project fiscally sponsored by Foundation for Independent Artist, Inc. a non-profit organization administered by Pentacle (Dance Works, Inc.). Pentacle is a non-profit management support organization for the performing arts. www.pentacle.org. For more information about Redtail Artist Residencies please visit www.redtailarts.org or contact Redtails Executive/Program Director Katie Cox at katie@redtailartis.org.
Redtail is grateful for the continue support of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
2022 REDTAIL ARTIST RESIDENCIES RECIPIENTS:
Julia Bengtsson, choreographer & Brian Dean Morales, composer
Hannah Garner, choreographer & Aaron Edgcomb, composer
Dolly Sfeir, choreographer & Jesse Scheinin, composer
Preeti Vasudevan, choreographer & Kamala Sankaram, composer
Swedish-born choreographer Julia Bengtsson has created over 20 ballets, films and opera productions for venues including Carnegie Hall, UN Headquarters, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, and Alvin Ailey Dance Center. In 2021 she was the first choreographer to be awarded a position in Early Music America's Emerging Professional Leadership Council. She has created works for Connecticut Ballet, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, and New York Renaissance Chorus. Her stage direction in Opera Lafayette's production of Venus and Adonis was praised by The Washington Post as “a fine evening's entertainment”. A mentee of the choreographer and director Catherine Turocy, she researches historical choreography preserved in Feuillet notation. Bengtsson has presented her work at seminars and conferences by Temple University, NYU Steinhardt, University of Pittsburgh and Stanford University. She received ten years of education from the Royal Swedish Ballet School and was a Scholarship Student at the Joffrey Ballet School.
Brian Dean Morales is a composer who thrives on the communal participation of music and storytelling. He is most widely known for his orchestration of John Doyle’s The Color Purple, which featured Cynthia Erivo. From a young age, Disney’s Fantasia has always inspired Brian: The combination of expressive and extroverted visuals mixed with dynamic, melodramatic music is an element that regularly dominates his creative output. Many have complimented his music for its emotional catharsis and descriptive, film score-like quality. His chamber ballet, Strangers, was his first serious large-form work for woodwind quintet, percussion and 4 dancers -- completed during the pandemic. Brian, being no stranger to orchestral writing, won first place in the Pittsburgh Philharmonic EQT Young Composer Contest and, as both a Talis and Alba Music scholar, continued his exploration in harmonic textures with a chamber works for oboe quartet (Visions of Sacrifice, oboe part premiered by Celia Craig). He is currently singing with the Cantori NY choir, experimenting with electronic music and loves playing French Romantic Art songs on the piano with friends. He received his M.M. in composition from the Manhattan School of Music and B.M. from California State University Fullerton.
Hannah Garner (she/her/hers), recently named ‘25 to Watch’ by Dance Magazine, is a NYC based dancer/choreographer making dance theatre work that “tackles topics like death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine). Having graduated SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance Performance and Composition, minor in Arts Management, and semester at the Beijing Dance Academy, Hannah has gone on to work with Doug Varone & Dancers, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard, and Megan Williams, in venues such as The Joyce Theater, NY City Center, the Park Avenue Armory, and New York Live Arts. Her work as 2nd Best has been commissioned by GroundWorks DanceTheater, Gibney’s ‘dance-mobile’ series, Kizuna Dance, GALLIM x CreateArt, musical artists (Snail Mail, Frankie Cosmos, and Half Waif), Hartt School, and SUNY Purchase, among others. Hannah currently teaches at Gibney Dance Center.
Aaron Edgcomb (he/they) is a composer, drummer, and percussionist from Reno, NV, currently based in Brooklyn, NY whose work appears in such contexts as improvisational music, jazz, “new music”, noise, and song. Aaron has performed in and composed for the experimental rock band Clak; the solo percussion and electronics project REA; The Gown of Entry - an improvisational trio incorporating poetry; and the improvising hardcore trio Trigger. They have collaborated with artists including Ted Reichman, Chris Williams, John Zorn, Lisa Hoppe, Adam Dunson, Joanna Mattrey, and Anthony Coleman. Aaron has performed extensively around the world at venues kuje MoMA PS1, Roulette, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Sarajevo Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Em Agosto Festival in Lisbon – not to mention the invaluable living rooms, garages, basements, and DIY spaces that work so hard to keep creative music alive.
Dolly Sfeir grew up in Lebanon. She is the 2019 Grand Prize winner of the Palm Desert Choreography Competition, and recipient of the choreographic fellowship from Jacob’s Pillow. She was the artist-in-residence for Abingdon Theatre Company, with whom she is developing several short films and an evening-length work. She received a commission from CUNY Dance Initiative to create an evening-length physical theater work. Her commissions in 2022 include Holstebro Dansekompani in Denmark, WHIM W'HIM and CSU Long Beach. Her film “It Cries too Loudly” has been circulating the film festival sphere at festivals such as San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and received 'best short film' from Wilddogs festival and 'best cinematography' from Eastern Europe Film Festival. Sfeir's work has been performed at LPAC, the Battery Dance Festival, Diavolo Dance Theater, Alvin Ailey City Theater, and many more. She graduated summa cum laude from CSU Long Beach with a Dance BFA.
Jesse Scheinin is a composer, saxophonist, arranger and producer. Born in Santa Cruz, California, Scheinin attended the Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, where he was a member of the inaugural class of the Global Jazz Institute. He has had the privilege of being mentored by artists such as Joshua Redman, Danilo Perez and Joe Lovano. Under the moniker Jesse and Forever, Scheinin creates music that could be described as psychedelic orchestral indie rock. He is interested in melding genres and creating unique, sonic worlds that are rooted in the present moment, yet recall both past and future. Scheinin composes for film, TV and concert dance, and produces immersive surrealist events, such as the Forever Festival, a maximalist happening that brings people together through music, dance and performance art. He is based in Brooklyn, where he works with artists such as Nick Hakim, Adrianne Lenker, and Sid Sriram
Award-winning Indian choreographer, performer, and educator, Preeti Vasudevan is an exponent of classical Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) creating new provocative contemporary works from the Indian tradition. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Thresh, a performing arts collaborative that creates experimental productions fostering provocative dialogues around questions of identity, and our collective relationship with heritage cultures and contemporary lives. Recent recognitions include: 2021 residency commission, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, NY; 2020-21 Artistic Committee of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; 2019 recognitions include: Dance Lab New York / Joyce Theater Creation Grant and The Center for Ballet and the Arts’ Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance. 2018 recognitions include Emerging Artist Award, Lincoln Center, Jerome Robbins dance Division Fellowship; DanceMotion USA, US Dept of State and Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times), Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Recent commissions include works for the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Creative Time, among others. Kamala is known for her operas fusing Indian classical music with the operatic form, including Thumbprint, A Rose, Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers, and the forthcoming Jungle Book. Also known for her work with emerging technologies, recent premieres include Only You Will Recognize the Signal, a serial space opera performed live over the internet, Looking at You, a techno-noir featuring live datamining of the audience and a chorus of 25 singing tablet computers, all decisions will be made by consensus, a short absurdist opera performed live over Zoom, and The Parksville Murders, the world’s first virtual reality opera. Kamala is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood surf ensemble whose accolades include two awards for Best Eclectic Album from the Independent Music Awards, the 2018 Mid-Atlantic touring grant, and appearances on WFMU and NPR. Awards, grants and residencies: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, HERE Artist Residency Program, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center. Dr. Sankaram holds a PhD from the New School and is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase.