May 28, 2019

Dance Magazine features Ananya Chatterjea

The June 2019 issue of Dance Magazine featured Ananya Chatterjea, artistic director of Ananya Dance Theatre and co-leader of the Shawngram Institute for Performance & Social Justice.

May 2, 2019

Dance/USA awards $1 million+ to 31 Artist Fellows

Ananya Chatterjea, Deneane Richburg & Rosy Simas, all of the Twin Cities, are among the 31.

Washington, DC – Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, is pleased to announce that Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists (DFA) has awarded $1,000,525 in funding to 31 artists addressing social change. The 31 Dance/USA Artist Fellows were selected through a rigorous review by a peer panel. In this pilot round DFA addresses a decades-long issue in the dance field — the importance of supporting individual artists. DFA was established through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. See the list of Dance/USA Artist Fellows here. Find the review panel here.

“We are grateful for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s partnership as we evolve in addressing the needs of the national dance field by raising up the voices of artists who are tackling relevant issues in our society today,” said Dance/USA Executive Director Amy Fitterer. “The Dance/USA Artist Fellows illustrate the ways in which dance flourishes in our country, playing an active and vital role in connecting communities and sustaining cultures.” 

“The Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists program helps dancemakers create both in the manner and with the communities they choose, whether or not their projects result in work for the stage,” said Maurine Knighton, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “This flexible funding, combined with the program’s shared learning network, will help Fellows grow their artistic practices and connect audiences to the creative process.”

About Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists
DFA provides direct support to dance artists who work through dance to address social change within one or more communities. DFA funds may be used at the artist’s discretion to support costs related to their practice; artists are not required to complete a project or perform. The panel was charged with constructing a fellowship portfolio that reflects a range of artists, practices, and communities. Many of the Dance/USA Artist Fellows utilize community facilitation and organizing to advance issues, including race, disability, and immigration; others are the bearers of cultures that were nearly lost. 

Dance/USA Artist Fellows work in an extremely wide range of dance forms and traditions, including: 

• Indigenous forms, including Alaskan Inuit drum dancing, hula, hoop dance, and Interdisciplinary Native art. 

• Traditional dances of Africa, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

• Latin and Caribbean forms, including salsa, Afro-Cuban, danzon, and capoeira. 

• Black vernacular and urban styles, including Chicago footwork, hip hop, house, social, and club. 

• Percussive forms such as tap and zapateado. 

• Contemporary and post-modern dance, drawing from improvisation, performance art, movement theater, as well as scores of dance forms, including Indian, African diasporic; physically integrated, adaptive, jazz and ice skating.  

Ananya Chatterjea Minneapolis, MN
In her contemporary practice, Chatterjea draws from Indian performance traditions, activist street theater, and community to create workshops, staged and interactive public art performances and to train emerging indigenous and artists of color. She intends to deepen her healing movement practices based on yogic and ayurvedic principles and build community relationships near her space, Shawngram Institute, in St. Paul.

Deneane Richburg Saint Paul, MN
Richburg expands the boundaries of ice skating from a Black perspective, using facilitated conversations and the wisdom of the moving body on and off ice to heal the wounds caused by racial trauma. She intends to spend time on a new work about 17th-19th century Black social dance and explore new formats for post-show discussion.

Rosy Simas Minneapolis, MN
Rosy Simas’ (Seneca) choreographic work centers Native cultural/political persistence, weaving themes of personal/familial/collective identity with matriarchy, sovereignty, equality, and healing. During the fellowship period she will foster new and strengthen existing relationships with urban and rural Native communities, work with Native writers on the contextualization and visibility of writing on Native contemporary dance, focus on documenting her work, and strengthening her tribally based leadership skills.

The DFA Program Director is Suzanne Callahan, founder of Callahan Consulting for the Arts, who has managed other re-granting programs for Dance/USA and other organizations.

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The Arts Program of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation focuses its support on contemporary dance, jazz, and theater artists, and the organizations that nurture, present, and produce them. For more information, please visit ddcf.org.  

About Dance/USA
Propelled by our belief that dance can inspire a more just and humane world, Dance/USA will amplify the power of dance to inform and inspire a nation where creativity and the field thrive. Dance/USA is the national service organization for the professional dance field. Established in 1982, Dance/USA champions an inclusive and equitable dance field by leading, convening, advocating, and supporting individuals and organizations. Dance/USA’s core programs are focused in the areas of engagement, advocacy, research, and preservation. Learn more about Dance/USA at danceusa.org.

April 25, 2019

MRAC awards Arts Learning grant to Ananya Dance Theatre

On April 23, 2019, the Metro Regional Arts Council awarded $216,136 to 22 organizations/projects in the second round of its FY 2019 Arts Learning grant program. The awards included a $10,000 grant to Ananya Dance Theatre for the Connective Creations projects at two St. Paul high schools: Gordon Parks High School and the High School for Recording Arts. Activities will take place in late spring and fall of 2019 at the Shawngram Institute for Performance & Social Justice.

The Arts Learning projects chosen by MRAC panelists will provide high-quality, age-appropriate arts education for Minnesotans to develop knowledge, skills, and understanding through the arts for children, youth, and adults by engaging people in extended arts experiences and activities with clearly articulated learning objectives. The Arts Learning grant program is a direct result of the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the Legacy Amendment.

April 3, 2019

ADT's Alessandra Williams joining Rutgers' dance faculty

Dr. Alessandra Williams, dance artist-scholar-educator, has accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Dance Department, Mason Gross School of the Arts, at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. 

Dr. Williams is a dancer and scholar whose academic interests include dance and performance studies, Asian and African American culture, transnational feminism, queer of color theory, and comparative studies of race and ethnicity. Having joined the Minneapolis-based Ananya Dance Theatre to train in the company’s Yorchhā technique in 2006, she has performed in seven productions: Pipaashaa: Extreme Thirst (2007), Ashesh Barsha: Unending Monsoon (2009), Moreechika: Season of Mirage (2012), Roktim: Nurture Incarnadine (2015), Horidraa: Golden Healing (2016), Shyamali: Sprouting Words (2017), and Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds (2018).

Dr. Williams recently worked alongside artistic director Dr. Ananya Chatterjea and founding company member Dr. Hui Wilcox to submit their book manuscript Meditation on Dream, an anthology of poetic and scholarly essays on the relationship between choreography and race, gender, sexuality, and diaspora and indigenous frameworks. In other publications, she has theorized the choreography of David Roussève/REALITY dance company as a form of decolonizing alliances in Talking Black Dance Inside Out/Outside In, edited by Takiyah Nur Amin and Thomas DeFrantz (Conversation Across the Field of Dance Series XXXVI).

As Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow, Dr. Williams earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Culture and Performance at UCLA. Through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, she finished her B.A. with honors in American Studies and Dance at Macalester College. From 2018-2019, she served as Inclusive Excellence Fellow in Women’s and Gender Studies and Theatre and Dance at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she choreographed two original pieces for the spring dance concert, and also served on committees supporting diversity and inclusion efforts. From 2016-7, she taught as Visiting Assistant Professor in the dance program of Carleton College.

March 23, 2019

Complex-Standing-There: Ananya Chatterjea's Transnational Dance

Urban Bush Women Choreographic Fellowship Candidate Ananya Chatterjea (Ananya Dance Theatre) speaks with E. Gaynell Sherrod resulting in a “no-holds-barred portrayal of Chatterjea – a transnational feminist, choreographer, performing artist and scholar with exceptional acumen for creating transformational dance-theatre that challenges systemic injustice.”

In this post, the second in a five-part series of articles offering insight into the UBW 2018-2019 co-hort of choreographers redefining the world of dance today; Chatterjea talks with E. Gaynell Sherrod about her origins as choreographer and organizer and her desire to be authentically seen.

Click here for full article.

February 19, 2019

Ananya Chatterjea part of Dance/NYC's 2019 Symposium keynote

Ananya Dance Theatre’s Ananya Chatterjea will participate in the opening keynote of Dance/NYC’s 2019 Symposium at Hunter College, Feb. 22-23. The Symposium will consider the role of New York dance artists and their creativity in a changing United States. It will invite participants to investigate topics of transformative justice, the role of youth in activism and social change, increasing dance education for a thriving workforce, and radical practice, among others, in the context of a changing political climate and following CreateNYC, the City of New York’s first-ever cultural plan.

As the only gathering of its kind for the dance community in the New York metropolitan area, the Symposium aims to share information innovation and to stimulate awareness, interest, and ongoing engagement in dance and dance education. The 2019 Symposium will be hosted campus-style and make use of Hunter College’s expanding dance facilities and performance spaces for panel discussions, case studies, interactive workshops, a networking lunch, and more.

For Symposium overview, agenda, speakers, venues, and sponsors, click here.

When: 
Friday, February 22, 2019 
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. 

and

Saturday, February 23, 2019 
10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where: Hunter College, 695 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065

November 13, 2018

Ananya Dance Theatre at three dance festivals in Delhi and Guwahati, India

Ananya Dance Theatre will participate in three dance festivals as part of its first tour to India, November 22-30, 2018: Aavejak Avaaz, New Delhi; Pragjyoti International Dance Festival, Guwahati; and Natya Ballet Dance Festival 2018, New Delhi.

The tour happens on the heels of October performances at the Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival, Palestine, and Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.

The festival title, “Aavejak Avaaz,” is a two language title with the first word coming from Hindi and the second from Urdu to reflect the syncretic society that India has been. The festival is presented by the Kri Foundation.

Ananya Dance Theatre’s “In Our Bodies Live Our Stories” (film 60 mins) at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

The preview of this ‘documentary film in the making’ captures excerpts from Ananya Dance Theatre’s visually striking performances over many years, against candid conversations that illuminate their journey and philosophy. It embodies the joy, struggle and resilience of women from global communities of color, articulating social justice through a distinctive language of Contemporary Indian Dance. Present for the Q & A will be Darren Johnson, Director and Filmmaker and the dancers of the Ananya Dance Theatre. (Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre)

The film will be presented in the Gulmohar venue at Habitat World, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi, Thursday, Nov. 22, 7pm.

For queries: email krifoundation.aavejakavaaz@gmail.com

This film is presented by the Kri Foundation.

Ananya Dance Theatre’s “Shaatranga” at Habitat World, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

This is the capstone choreography of the quintet that explores the Work Women Do. Choreographed by Ananya Chatterjea, Shaatranga (seven colours in Bangla) is specifically inspired by ancient Indian Ocean Trade routes that connected Asia, Africa, and parts of South America. It is also connected with shared practices and different methodologies of indigo dying. Central to this choreography is the question ‘How do we show up for each other?’ (Stein Auditorium, IHC)

Ananya Chatterjea is an internationally known feminist, a social justice warrior with a sharp mind and eloquent voice. Her work is both reflected as academic research and dance practice. She is committed to collaboration and community to take on the challenges facing the world. She dedicates this work, especially her solo section in it, to little Asifa.

Ananya Dance Theatre will present “Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds” in Stein Auditorium at the Habitat World India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi, Friday, Nov. 23, 7:30pm. Doors will open at 7:15pm (entry from Gate 3). Free and open to all. For queries: email krifoundation.aavejakavaaz@gmail.com.

“Shaatranga” was commissioned by The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University with support from the Joyce Foundation.

This performance is presented by the Kri Foundation.

Ananya Dance Theatre’s performance is supported by the Ford Foundation.

Pragjyoti International Dance Festival (PIDF), an annual classical dance extravaganza in Guwahati, Assam, India, organized by Kalpa, a Society for Promotion of Literature, Art, Culture and Social Harmony, is celebrating a decade of its cultural journey this year.

On Nov. 25, the curtain raiser of the 10^th PIDF will be held at Madhavadev International Auditorium in Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra, Guwahati. The curtain raiser will feature internationally recognized Ananya Dance Theatre, a contemporary Indian dance company based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. The group is composed of artists of color who create performances about the lives and dreams of women around the world.

Ananya Dance Theatre will present “Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds.” The production was commissioned by The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University with support from the Joyce Foundation.

The Guwahati edition of the Festival will be in collaboration with the Kri Foundation. Ananya Dance Theatre’s performance is supported by the Ford Foundation.

https://www.facebook.com/Pragjyoti-International-Dance-Festival-156835464456680/

In the second edition of The Natya Ballet Dance Festival, a host of accomplished and distinguished artists will reflect the myriad paths of dance in film, choreography, and experimental theatre, delving into the role of dance in narrative.

Ananya Dance Theatre will present a master class, 10:30am-1:30pm, Friday, November 30, 2018.

The class will be held at the Meghdoot Complex, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Mandi House, New Delhi.

The master class is presented by The Natya Ballet Dance Festival 2018 with Sangeet Natak Akademi.

October 22, 2018

Ananya Dance Theatre at Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival

Ananya Dance Theatre presented Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds as part of the Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival, Palestine, Oct. 5-12, 2018.

The company was part of 100 performers and 10 arts organizations from eight countries – United States, Taiwan, Lithuania, Palestine, Hungary, Germany, Tunis, China – that engaged 2,500 audience members and 3,000 students with theater, dance, and magic.

The Festival was organized by the Diyar Theatre of Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture.  

The BIPAF featured 100 theater, dance, and magic artists from eight countries.

Ananya Dance Theatre’s entourage to Bethlehem for its performance of “Shaatranga.”

Festival organizers conducted a walking tour of Bethlehem’s seven neighborhoods.

The International Centre, Dar Al-Nadwa, and Diyar Theatre, Bethlehem, Palestine.

The Bethlehem Peace Center, located on Manager Square, Bethlehem, Palestine.

Clown magicians from Colorado (USA) entertained school children during the Festival.

A street banner for the festival that engaged 2,500 people plus 3,000 students.

Festival artists shared three meals daily on the terrace of the International Centre in Bethlehem.

Some of the many hills surrounding the city of Bethlehem.

September 3, 2018

Shawngram Institute presents: A talk by Dr. Arshiya Sethi

Dance, Music and Theatre in the Sattras, the Medieval Monasteries of Assam in India: A Quiet Resistance to the Dominant Forces of Inequity of the Times

Shawngram Institute for Performance & Social Justice presents: A talk by Dr. Arshiya Sethi

Sunday, September 30, 3:30pm-5pm | This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Arshiya Sethi

About 500 years ago, in the northeastern state of Assam in India, a quiet resistance happened to the then socially prevailing ideas of inequity, forced labour, and insecurity of life, via a faith that used dance music and theatre as worship. In the monasteries, the social divisions crumbled, human dignity was prized, and cultural creativity took root. New expressions in literary, plastic, and performative arts changed the face of the region forever. Political constraints have attempted to conscript these crucibles of cultural creativity through history, but never as severely or as successfully as in recent decades. This talk offers an overview of the journey of this creativity supported by an inclusive and humanising faith, and the challenges by political authority.

Independent scholar, Dr. Arshiya Sethi, twice a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship, writes and speaks on cultural issues, in India and internationally. After three decades as Consultant, building tangible and intangible cultural equities, being dance critic, commentator on Dance and Music on Doordarshan’s archival National programme of Dance and Music for more than three decades, and then advisor on India’s national arts channel, she has established and runs the Kri Foundation, which promotes different ways of looking at the Arts, especially ‘Artivism’- Art directed at Activism.  Her doctoral research has been on the dances of the Vaishnav monasteries of Assam called Sattras from which has emerged the eighth classical dance style of India, Sattriya. Her current scholarly research focuses on diasporic constituencies of dance, and through a multi-disciplinary lens, on cultural ecology at the intersection of politics and society, studying the ways in which artistic practices, especially dance, link with governance, gender, environment, cultural rights, identity issues and beyond, and social justice paradigms. She recently concluded a year long Post Doc attachment under the Fulbright fellowship at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Photo Credit Avinash Pasricha

August 8, 2018

Ananya Dance Theatre presents premiere of "Shaatranga," Sept. 21-22

Ananya Dance Theatre will present the world premiere of Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds, a 90-minute dance without intermission, as part of Women of Substance at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, September 21-22, 2018. The work is the fifth in the company’s five-year series on the theme “Work Women Do.”

Shaatranga (which means “seven colors” in Bangla and is pronounced “SHA-trong-uh”) asks the question, “How do we show up for each other?” and suggests that global women who engage in world-making are refusing to be seen in only blue/indigo – the pain, sorrow, and defeat that has historically framed them. Instead, they share their multifaceted stories that express not only their pain, but their joys, laughter, and the work they do, that goes largely unrecognized, to create positive force in their communities and the world.

Choreographer Ananya Chatterjea uses two primary metaphors to explore relationships among global south communities linked by Indian Ocean trade routes that pre-existed colonization and slavery: Indigo, an important export/import on these trade routes across Asia and Africa, and blue jeans, whose ubiquitous presence in global commerce falls differently on our skin, mediated through histories of denim and indigo.

Shaatranga is Ananya Dance Theatre’s sixth production and collaboration with The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University. Executive Director Kathleen Spehar and Production Manager Kevin A. Jones are key partners in the detailed planning that leads to the production’s mix of interactive and concert elements. “Work Women Do” concludes with this production exploring women’s work with indigo and cotton, commissioned by The O’Shaughnessy with support from a Joyce Foundation Award.

Chatterjea’s choreography combines metaphor and poetry in Contemporary Indian Dance. Yorchha – the company’s remix of Classical Odissi, Chhau martial art, and Vinyasa Yoga – is a movement practice anchored by social justice as it invokes the spirit of Dakini, traditionally embodied by destruction, chaos, and ultimately transformation. Dakini lives in the possibilities of audiences’ and performers’ discomfort and insists that the role of women’s rage and their spiritual ecstasy be seen in the arc towards equity. This tumult resolves through the choreography that weaves ritualistic performance and dances of the gentle warrior.

ADT’s dancers and collaborators represent a range of ethnic, cultural, immigrant, and of color communities: South, South east, and East Asian, African American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, and mixed race. The ensemble’s composition as “women of color” is crucial, yet nuanced, including queer men of color and trans women of color.

Project collaborators are celebrated artists, including behavioral artist/collaborating director Marcus Young, composer Dameun Strange, scenic designer Chelsea Warren, media designer Darren Johnson, costume designer Annie Cady, lighting designer Kevin A. Jones, and composer/lyricist Queen Drea/Andrea Reynolds.

Tickets for Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds are $19-$29. There are discounts for groups, students, seniors, MPR and TPT members, and military. For more information and tickets, contact The O’Shaughnessy Ticket Office at 651-690-6700; summer business hours (through Sept. 1) are Mon.-Fri. 12-4pm; ticket office is located on the main campus of St. Catherine University at 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul. Tickets can be purchased online at theoshaughnessy.com.

Residencies and performances of Shaatranga will be presented at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, Oct. 26-27, 2018; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersy, Feb. 1-2, 2019; Dance Place, Washington, DC, Mar. 30-31, 2019; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Apr. 11, 2019; and Kelley-Strayhorn Theatre, Pittsburgh, May 10-11, 2019.

ABOUT ANANYA DANCE THEATRE

Celebrating 14 years of linking dance and social action, Ananya Dance Theatre is a Contemporary Indian Dance company composed of artists of color who create performances about the lives and dreams of women around the world: People Powered Dances of Transformation™ at the intersection of artistic excellence and social justice. Dancers and collaborators represent many cultural communities in Minnesota: South Asian, Chinese, Hmong, African American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, and mixed race. The company premieres one major work annually, and offers touring performances, classes, workshops, and dialogues. In June 2018, ADT took up residence in its new facility, a women of color-centered space of embodied practice, located at 1197 University Ave. W. in Saint Paul.

ABOUT “WORK WOMEN DO”

Neel: Blutopias of Radical Dreaming

World Premiere: September 18, 2014, The Cowles Center for Dance, Minneapolis

Neel is about women’s dreams: dreams that unleash tremendous joy; shattered dreams; the imaginative labor that conjures up the most unlikely but exciting dream-visions; and dreams of wholeness and freedom that sound the call for revolution.

Roktim: Nurture Incarnadine

World Premiere: September 18, 2015, The O’Shaughnessy, St. Paul

Inspired by the Seed Sovereignty Movement and farming practices in local communities of color, choreographer Ananya Chatterjea, visual artist Seitu Jones, and behavioral artist Marcus Young have partnered to produce an evening length story reflecting and honoring the age-old work of women who cultivate, nurture, and protect land and agriculture with emotional and blood labor to create a just and sustainable food system for our shared future.

Horidraa: Golden Healing

World Premiere: September 16, 2016, The O’Shaughnessy, St. Paul

The year: 2053. A patient, dark of skin, has been checked into urgent medical care in a state of collapse. She self-identifies as “the child of many continents.” Follow her journey as she travels into the recesses of memory and imagination to conjure a magical healing experience that invites all into its joy-filled dance. Choreographer Ananya Chatterjea, the dancers of Ananya Dance Theatre, collaborating director Marcus Young, sound artists Greg Schutte, Queen Drea, Pooja Goswami, and Tenzin Ngawang, visual artist Alison Hiltner, and lighting designer Kevin A. Jones create an original dance theater production inspired by the remarkable properties of turmeric, the root ingredient of many cuisines and recipes that heal from within!

Shyamali: Sprouting Words

World Premiere: September 15, 2017, The O’Shaughnessy, St. Paul

Shyamaliwas inspired by the courage of global women of color who speak up to sustain communities and whose dissent fuels life force. It celebrates women who refuse to be broken and invokes the resilience of grass, which springs up even when trod upon.

ABOUT THE O’SHAUGHNESSY

Located on the scenic main campus of St. Catherine University, The O’Shaughnessy is one of the Twin Cities’ premiere venues for showcasing the arts. Since opening in 1970, The O’Shaughnessy has presented a dazzling array of both local and national performing arts companies, including the Minnesota Orchestra, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, James Sewell Ballet, TU Dance, The Indigo Girls, Joan Baez and countless others. In addition, the venue hosts public events, student and community performances and features multicultural programming with an emphasis on dance, music and theater. Known for its dedication to artistic development and collaboration, the venue has premiered over 400 new works by local and national artists. The O’Shaughnessy is the home of the Women of Substance series, which showcases the artistry and innovative work of women, both prominent and emerging in their fields, whose voices need to be heard. theoshaughnessy.com

ABOUT WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE

For more than 20 years, the Women of Substance series has showcased women’s ideas, amplified their voices and honored their places on life’s stage. These artists, thinkers and change-makers challenge the status quo, make audiences to look at the world in new ways, and instill a deeper understanding of self, purpose and action. Through art and ideas, the series ignites women’s innate power, consciousness and sense of justice, motivating and inspiring others to take action and lead lives of substance. The Women of Substance Festival magnifies the mission, values and spirit of St. Catherine’s University.

FUNDING CREDITS

Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds
Commissioned by The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University
with support from the Joyce Foundation
Choreography: Ananya Chatterjea

Shaatranga is supported by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Imagine Fund, the Marbrook Foundation, and the Seward Community Co-op. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Metro Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Generous operating support is provided by McKnight Foundation.

Ananya Dance Theatre, in partnership with Andrea Reynolds aka Queen Drea, is a fiscal 2018 recipient of a Cultural Community Partnership grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

August 4, 2018

Conversation-Matrix: Ananya Dance Theatre & Public Functionary | Sept 23 + Nov 9

Ananya Dance Theatre and Public Functionary present a two-part convening, in which both organizations will host cross-disciplinary community dialogues with Twin Cities artists and cultural producers to investigate how artists of color participate as unseen members of the avant-garde. We will explore how mainstream structures define understandings of innovation, cultural specificity, community-engaged artistic processes, and what makes work contemporary.

These dialogues will serve as follow-up to past conversations hosted separately by Ananya Dance Theatre and Public Functionary, and will be hosted at their respective art and community spaces in Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

The convening and conversation events are invitational. 

Ananya Dance Theatre | Gary Peterson – gary.peterson@anayadancetheatre.org

Public Functionary | Tricia Heuring – tricia@publicfunctionary.org

      

Funded in part with money from the Minnesota Humanities Center and the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008

July 24, 2018

ArtChangeUS REMAP: Twin Cities, September 22-25

Join us from September 22-25, 2018 for ArtChangeUS REMAP: Twin Cities, an extraordinary opportunity to experience, expand, and connect! Immerse in artistic workshops with visionary artists and learn new approaches to cultural equity and community benefits.

REMAP begins with two days of participatory workshop intensives, September 23-24, led by stellar artists who are innovating methodologies at the nexus of art making and social change. Participants will include artists, organizers, educators, change makers and all who would like to add more creative methods to their work. Featured workshop artists are: choreographer Ananya Chatterjea, visual artist Seitu Jones, visual artist Rosalie López, ceramicist Cannupa Hanska Luger, playwright/director Meena Natarajan, theater director Dipankar Mukherjee, vocalist Rebecca Mwase, multidisciplinary artist Junauda Petrus, vocalist Ron Ragin, musician Dameun Strange and performing artist Carlton Turner.

REMAP will culminate in a forum, September 25, on equitable, sustainable arts-driven change, featuring a roundtable and small group conversations based on ArtChangeUS Cultural Community Benefits, introduced by Creative Many Director of Creative Industries Cézanne Charles. The roundtable will feature organizers, artists and grant makers from the Twin Cities and around the US, including: Penumbra Theatre Artistic Director Sarah Bellamy, The Saint Paul & Minnesota Community Foundations Program Officer Sharon DeMark, HRK Foundation Executive Director Kathleen Fluegel, Teatro del Pueblo Artistic Director Alberto Justiniano, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Program Director for the Arts Maurine Knighton, Artspace President Kelley Lindquist, The McKnight Foundation Arts Program Officer & Director of Artist Fellowships Arleta Little, Pangea World Theater Artistic Director Dipankar Mukherjee, Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Randy Reyes, Jerome Foundation Program Director Eleanor Savage, Bush Foundation Community Creativity Portfolio Director Erik Takeshita, Grantmakers in the Arts President & CEO Eddie Torres, ArtChangeUS Director Roberta Uno, New Native Theater Founder & Artistic Director Rhiana Yazzie and others. Artistic share by visual artist Dyani White Hawk and performance by Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble.

ArtChangeUS REMAP: Twin Cities will take place in Minneapolis and St. Paul, two US cities in Mnisota Makoce on Dakota land. Minnesota is transforming: 19% of its residents are people of color, compared to about 1% in 1960.  The population of color in the Twin Cities region is expected to be at least 40% by 2040. REMAP was planned in collaboration with Ananya Dance Theater and Pangea World Theater.

ArtChangeUS is committed to creating an inclusive environment. This includes providing accommodations to make our event more accessible. If you need accommodations to fully participate in REMAP: Twin Cities, please include your needs on the registration form or email elizabeth@artchangeus.com

Content Advisory: Workshops and events at ArtChangeUS REMAP: Twin Cities may include explicit conversations about class- and race-based conflict, the Middle Passage, and substance abuse. Certain workshops will foster a supportive environment for personal story sharing.

November 11, 2017

ADT: "We're putting down roots to broaden our work with our communities"

Ananya Dance Theatre is establishing a new rehearsal and meeting facility for the research and development of works of dance theater and training of next generation dance artists of color.

ADT’s new home at 1197 University Avenue, St. Paul MN

We will lease space at 1197 University Avenue West, on the border of St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway and Union Park neighborhoods. Our target move-in date is February 1, 2018.

Your support on Give-to-the-Max-Day and through the end of 2017 will help us install a dance floor and make our new space ADA-compliant. We invite your financial gift in any amount.

We believe in the transformative power of dance.

We offer a vision and reflection of shared humanity and use art to call audiences into civic dialogue to re-imagine the world and build community.

Our activities are rooted in a commitment to a women-of-color framework that recognizes shared experiences and differences, goals of social justice and equity, and invites communities into artistic work where women of color occupy the center.

This area will be the 24′ x 42′ dance floor in ADT’s new home.

Our non-mainstream dance form and company model reflect “a United Nations of difference” among our artists, project participants, and audiences – different in gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and nationality/background.

Our dancers, artistic collaborators, and audiences represent the ethnic, cultural, immigrant, and of color communities that call Minnesota home: Indigenous, South, Southeast, and East Asian, Pacific Islander, African American, Latinx, Palestinian, Afro-Caribbean, African, and mixed race.

We combine the metaphor and poetry of Contemporary Indian Dance with social justice themes to create original dances that tell stories about the lives and dreams of women around the world and inspire audiences through visual and emotional engagement.

Please join our movement today!

September 20, 2017

ADT national convening investigates definitions of "contemporary dance"

Ananya Dance Theatre hosted Curatorial Conversations: Multiplicitous Contemporary, a convening led by Ananya Chatterjea and Michèle Steinwald, Sunday, September 17, at Open Book in Minneapolis.

Attendees at Multiplicitous Contemporary, Open Book, Minneapolis MN, Sept. 17, 2017. Photo by Toan Thanh Doan

This gathering was designed to engage discussion about the definitions of “contemporary dance” in response to ADT’s production of “Shyamali: Sprouting Words,” bring in perspectives from artists of color, and build a pluralistic, shared understanding of the term and its applications in curatorial practice.

Multiplicitous Contemporary was a focused, exploratory dialogue on curation with invited national leaders in the field of dance and performance, ready to investigate the ways in which racism structures understandings of “innovation,” “tradition,” “cultural specificity,” and community-engaged artistic process.

The discussion explored shared understandings of what constitutes “contemporariness” for artists of color and artists inventing new forms within culturally specific traditions, and interrogated the mismatch between such approaches and knowledge resources in the arts sector.

Multiplicitous Contemporary was supported in part by the McKnight Foundation and The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University. This activity is funded, in part, by an appropriation from the Minnesota Legislature with money from the State’s general fund.

In addition to Chatterjea and Steinwald, attendees included Philip Bither, Senior Curator, Performing Arts, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN; Eyenga Bokamba, Executive Director, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis MN; Moira Brennan, Program Director, Multi-Arts Production Fund, New York NY; Marianne Combs, Arts Reporter, Minnesota Public Radio News, St. Paul MN; Amorette Crespo, Program Associate, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles CA; Shoshona Currier, Director, Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston ME; Thomas DeFrantz, Professor, Department of African and African American Studies, Professor, Program in Dance, and Professor, Theater Studies, Duke University, Durham NC; Colleen Furukawa, Vice President-Programming, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Kahului HI; Anna Gallagher-Ross, Curator, Fusebox Festival, Austin TX; Melanie George, Audience Education & Dramaturg, Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts, New York NY; Tracie D. Hall, Director, Culture Program, The Joyce Foundation, Chicago IL; Brooke Ellen Horejsi, Assistant Dean/Executive Director, UtahPresents, University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT; Liz Ivkovich, Graduate Research Fellow & Teaching Assistant, and Education, Communication & Research Coordinator, University of Utah Sustainability Office, Salt Lake City UT; Arleta Little, Program Officer & Director of Artists Fellowships, McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis MN; Dayna Martinez, Artistic Director, World Music, Dance and the International Children’s Festival, The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, St. Paul MN; Sara C. Nash, Program Director, Dance, National Dance Project, New England Foundation for the Arts, Boston MA; Wendy Perron, Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher, Writer, Editor & Dance Addict, New York NY; Carla Peterson, Director, The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Florida State University School of Dance, Tallahassee FL; Gary Peterson, Managing Director, Ananya Dance Theatre, Minneapolis MN; Shelley Quiala, Vice President, Arts Education & Community Engagement, The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, St. Paul MN; Ramon Rivera Servera, Department Chair, Associate Professor, and Director of Graduate Studies, Performance Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston IL; Eleanor Savage, Program Director, Jerome Foundation, St. Paul MN; Arshiya Sethi, Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellow from India, Independent Scholar, Managing Trustee, Kri Foundation; Kathleen Spehar, Director, The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, St. Paul MN; Carlton Turner, Executive Director, Alternate ROOTS, Atlanta GA; Laurie Uprichard, Senior Curator of Performing Arts, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans LA; Marya Wethers, Dancer and Independent Manager, Producer & Curator; Director of International Initiatives, Movement Research, New York NY; and Marcus Young, Behavioral & Social Practice Artist, Collaborating Director, Ananya Dance Theatre, Minneapolis MN.

Members of Ananya Dance Theatre also joined the conversation: Leila Awadallah, Renée Copeland, Alexandra Eady, Kealoha Ferreira, Julia Gay, Felicia Perry, Hui Niu Wilcox, Alessandra Williams, Lizzette Chapa, and Toan Thanh Doan.

Chatterjea and Steinwald will host a condensed version of Multiplicitous Contemporary at the National Performing Arts / Visual Arts Network annual meeting in San Francisco in December 2017, and in two separate sessions at the APAP Conference in New York in January 2018.

July 19, 2017

New England Foundation for the Arts awards National Dance Project grant to Ananya Dance Theatre

(BOSTON, MA) The New England Foundation for the Arts has awarded $1,795,000 through the National Dance Project (NDP) to support the creation of 20 new dance works that will tour the United States.

Now in its third decade, NDP is widely recognized as one of the country’s major sources of funding for dance. NDP’s signature approach provides funding for both the creation and touring of works. A panel of national dance leaders, including artists and presenters, selected these projects out of 126 competitive applications through a two-round process. The choreographers and companies from around the country include nine U.S. artists who are first-time NDP grant recipients as well as one international collaboration. Each project will receive grants ranging from $40,000 to $45,000 for the creation of the new work, plus $10,000 in unrestricted general operating support for each artist recipient.  A total of $665,000 will be awarded to U.S. organizations to present these works when on tour.

“As a result of program and field research, NDP is moving forward with program design changes, including increased professional development, piloting a community engagement fund, and ways to incentivize presenters in areas that have not seen as much dance, and we continue to celebrate the core of the program: creation and touring of new dance work” said NEFA executive director Cathy Edwards.

NDP has invested more than $36 million in funding to artists and organizations to strengthen partnerships and bring dance into communities across the U.S. To date, NDP has supported the creation of over 412 new choreographic works that have toured to all 50 states and Washington, DC, reaching over 2.8 million audience members.

NEFA’s National Dance Project is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with funding for special initiatives from the Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French American Cultural Exchange, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The  2017 NDP Production grant recipients are: 

• Ananya Dance Theatre, Minneapolis, MN – Shyamali: Sprouting Words
• Cynthia Oliver Co. Dance Theatre/COCo, Urbana, IL – Virago-Man Dem
• David Roussève/REALITY, Sherman Oaks, CA – Halfway to Dawn
• Eiko Otake, New York, NY – The Duet Project: Distance is Malleable
• Ephrat Asherie Dance, New York, NY – Odeon
• Everett Company, Providence, RI – Good Grief
• Flyaway Productions, San Francisco, CA – The Wait Room
• jumatatu poe & donte beacham, Philadelphia, PA – Let ‘im Move You: This Is a Formation
• Kimberly Bartosik/daela, Brooklyn, NY – I hunger for you, (working title)
• Kinetic Light/Alice Sheppard, Los Altos, CA – DESCENT
• LEVYdance, San Francisco, CA – RUSH
• Michelle Ellsworth, Boulder, CO – Post-Verbal Social Network
• Netta Yerushalmy, New York, NY – Paramodernities 
• ODC/Dance, San Francisco, CA – Path of Miracles
• Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, Miami, FL – Make Believe
• Rosy Simas Danse, Minneapolis, MN – Weave
• Sarah Michelson, New York, NY – (Iteration)/\
• STREB Extreme Action Company, Brooklyn, NY – Love is Boxing
• Union Tanguera/Kate Weare, Lyon, France/New York, NY – In Love I Broke Beyond
• Yin Mei Dance, Port Washington, NY – Peony Dreams: On the Other Side of Sleep

To learn more about the grantees and their projects, visit the directory of NDP projects with tour support available on www.nefa.org, look for the August 2017 National Dance Project publication available in early September.

About NEFA
The New England Foundation for the Arts invests in the arts to enrich communities in New England and beyond. NEFA accomplish­es this by granting funds to artists and cultural organizations; connecting them to each other and their audiences; and analyzing their economic contributions. NEFA serves as a regional partner for the National Endowment for the Arts, New England’s state arts agencies, and private foundations. Learn more at www.nefa.org.

June 8, 2017

Ananya Dance Theatre exhibiting at Arts Midwest

Ananya Dance Theatre will host a Marketplace exhibit booth at the Arts Midwest Conference in Columbus, Ohio, August 28-31.

Gary Peterson, managing director, Ananya Dance Theatre, will meet you in Booth #827 of Battelle Hall, Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Available for touring: “Shyamali: Sprouting Words” • NPN Touring Support Available

Photo by V. Paul Virtucio

Ananya Dance Theatre will present the world premiere of “Shyamali: Sprouting Words” as part of Women of Substance at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, September 15-16, 2017. The work is the fourth in the company’s five year series on the theme “Work Women Do.”

Shyamali is a 90-minute dance that explores how dissent against oppression fuels life force. Inspired by the courage of women around the world to refuse silence and sustain communities against injustice, “Shyamali” means “dark green” in Bengali, and invokes the resilience of grass, which springs up when trod upon.

Shyamali is structured in three acts and questions the audience’s relationship to the stage. Act One invites community members, drawn from workshop participants, on stage to witness as dancers enter from the auditorium. A moment of co-creation with the local community, the interactions with the dancers are spontaneous. A vocalist calls for renewal out of loss, and guides audience members to their seats.

Act Two unearths “moving as grass,” women rising up, fast footwork in protest, female intimacy/love as political action, and reckons with the emotional toll of being in continuous dissent.

The final act draws upon Chatterjea’s time among Standing Rock water protectors, and pays homage to the power and potential of peaceful, ceremonial, and spiritual protest with looping phrases, abstract mudras, and yogic breath work as performers take their stand among the audience.

“Shyamali: Sprouting Words” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, in partnership with the Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA, the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Kahului, HI, the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN, and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

In addition to our home theater, residencies and performances have been confirmed at all four venues, along with a confirmed presentation at UtahPresents! at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

We are creating Shyamali to work artistically with a minimum of eight dancers, though the full 13 performers are available when possible. Our tour ensemble will include eight performers (includes Chatterjea) and a production manager who will direct load-in/load-out and call light and sound cues.

Available for touring: “Shaatranga: At the Edge of New Worlds”

Ananya Chatterjea • Photo by Ryan Stopera

“Shaatranga” will premiere in Fall 2018 at The O’Shaughnessy, St. Paul. This dance will be the capstone of Ananya Chatterjea’s five-year exploration of the theme, “Work Women Do.” As ancient trade routes across Asia, the Indian Ocean, and silk routes map the spread of cotton and indigo through colonial to contemporary times, the production and distribution of blue jeans serves as metaphor for the journeys of women of color throughout history to achieve justice.

For more information: gary.peterson@ananyadancetheatre.org • 612.486.2238.

May 1, 2017

Dance/USA awards Engaging Dance Audiences grants to 21 organizations

Engaging Dance Audiences is administered by Dance/USA and made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Washington, DC –  Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, is pleased to announce that Engaging Dance Audiences (EDA), the national funding program focused on refining and sharing dance audience engagement practices, will award $1,112,000 in funding to 21 organizations. The 21 grantees from 11 states were selected through a rigorous national review by a peer panel.  Since EDA’s inception in 2008, Dance/USA has awarded more than 70 grants and related assistance totaling over $5 million. EDA was established through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. See the list of grantees here.

Building on past rounds, the emphasis in this fourth round of EDA is on refining existing engagement programs that have shown success at reaching dance audiences and communities. EDA round four grantees feature projects that meet one of two objectives: 1) The projects refine an existing engagement program, focusing on the quality of the experience for the participating audience or community. 2) The organizations have a track record of engaging African, Latina/o, Asian, Arab, and/or Native American audiences, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, communities of faith, or incarcerated people and/or their families.

“We are very grateful to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s commitment to audience engagement practices in the national dance field,” said Dance/USA Executive Director Amy Fitterer. “I am enthusiastic that EDA Round Four will support a wide range of grantees and projects that continue to reach specific audiences and address important societal issues.  We look forward to continuing to share the learning of Engaging Dance Audiences with the broader field.”

EDA Round Four grantees include dance companies, presenters, and service organizations, and represent a range of budget sizes and business models, from those that are fiscally sponsored to multi-million dollar nonprofits. In order to engage with a wide range of audiences, grantees will partner with a range of organizations such as middle and high schools, community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, museums, churches, neighborhood advisory committees, city agencies, parks, senior centers, and cultural/community centers. The cohort of grantees represents a broad spectrum of dance forms and styles, including African, ballet, Bharatanatyam, hip-hop, Irish, Mexican folkloric, movement-theater, Odissi, physically integrated, samba, stepping, tap and other percussive forms, and a wide range of contemporary forms of expression.

EDA Round Four grantees and projects include the following:

• Abraham.In.Motion will combine multiple generations of the LGBTQ community in creative activities about love, around the tour of their piece Dearest Home, which was developed through a similar participatory process.
• Alabama Dance Council will build out its Community Forum Series, facilitated by guest and local artists who are Native American, Latina/o, African-American, Asian, and white, to take place in three cities around Alabama.
• Heritage Works will expand its Cultural Scripts program, exploring the role of the Black body within Detroit’s Muslim, African, and African-American contexts. Story circles, dialogue and performances will be facilitated by guest artists Nora Chipaumire, Lela Aisha Jones, and NDeye Bana NDiaye, in conjunction with Stephanie McKee.
• Holly Bass|360 will sustain its work with Black teen girls involved in the juvenile court system in Washington, DC through Liberation Labs, which explore movement and writing, culminating in performances both inside and outside detention centers.

“This new round of Dance/USA EDA funding reaches a robust mix of forms, geographies and communities of concern, vividly illustrating the variety of settings within which audiences can connect to dance,” said Maurine Knighton, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “We are pleased to support Dance/USA in sustaining and growing the vibrancy of dance in communities around the country.”

The $1,112,000 total grant support includes $876,000 in grantee project support and $236,000 in grantee core operating support.  The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation generously offers the core operating support to provide greater stability to the arts sector and to deepen its commitment to groups identified as leaders.

Visit the Dance/USA website for a full list of the EDA Round Four Grantees and the project descriptions, and information about the review panel.

The EDA Project Manager is Suzanne Callahan, founder of Callahan Consulting for the Arts, who has managed EDA and other re-granting programs for Dance/USA and other organizations.

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The Arts Program of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation focuses its support on contemporary dance, jazz, and theatre artists, and the organizations that nurture, present, and produce them. For more information, please visit www.ddcf.org.

About Dance/USA
We believe that dance is essential to a healthy society, demonstrating the infinite possibilities for human expression and potential, and facilitating communication within and across cultures. We are committed to honoring, nurturing and advancing dance through the lens of diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity in all aspects of our programming, services and organization.

Dance/USA is the national service organization for the professional dance field. Established in 1982, Dance/USA sustains and advances professional dance by addressing the needs, concerns, and interests of artists, administrators, and organizations. By providing national leadership and services, Dance/USA enhances the infrastructure for dance creation and distribution, education, and dissemination of information. Learn more about Dance/USA by visiting our website, www.danceusa.org.

December 30, 2016

Laurie Carlos, 1949-2016

Laurie Carlos (r) and Ananya Chatterjea, 2011 • Photo V. Paul Virtucio

Laurie Carlos was introduced to Ananya Dance Theatre through workshops she conducted in 2001, and was credited as co-creator, collaborator, and performer for the productions of “Kshoy!/Decay!” (2010), “Tushaanal: Fires of Dry Grass” (2011), and “Moreechika: Season of Mirage” (2012).

A native of New York City’s Lower East Side, Carlos became a seminal American theater artist and original player in NYC’s avant-garde performance scene, and developed new characters and aesthetics for the stage for more than 40 years.

A gifted writer, her oft-anthologized pieces, including “White Chocolate,” “The Cooking Show,” and “Organdy Falsetto,” represented daring and successful forays into abstract aesthetics.

She received an OBIE Award for Lady In Blue, the role she created in Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.” She won two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessie Awards) as choreographer of “White Chocolate” and “Heat.”

Her work as a collaborating poet, dramaturg, and performer with the Urban Bush Women is the stuff of performance legend. She was a unique director, who helmed the premieres of new work by writers Sharon Bridgforth, Carl Hancock Rux, Lourdes Perez, Sue Lori Parks, Zell Miller III, and Daniel Alexander Jones.

Laurie Carlos, 2010 • Photo V. Paul Virtucio

Carlos, along with Robbie McCauley and Jessica Hagedorn, formed the performance group Thought Music in the mid-1980s, producing the revolutionary performance work “Teenytown.”

With Ananya Chatterjea and Marilyn Amaral, Carlos created a dance poem, “Marion’s Terrible Time of Joy,” in 2003.

Laurie Carlos, 2010 • Photo Virtucio

Carlos worked as co-artistic director with Marlies Yearby at Movin’ Spirits Dance Company, as an Artistic Fellow at Penumbra Theatre, curated the “Non-English Speaking Spoken Here” series at Pillsbury House Theatre, and served as project manager for The Naked Stages series at Intermedia Arts.

Carlos received financial grants and awards for her work from the New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Theatre Communications Group. The Bush Foundation named her a Bush Fellow in 2004.

She served on the Jerome Foundation board of directors for nine years.

December 8, 2016

Joyce Foundation awards O'Shaughnessy $50,000 grant to produce new work from Ananya Dance Theatre

Ananya Chatterjea • Photo by V. Paul Virtucio

The O’Shaughnessy is one of two Minnesota organizations awarded a $50,000 grant to support collaborations with artists of color from the Joyce Foundation‘s annual awards competition. The Minnesota Center for Book Arts was also an award winner.

The Joyce Awards is the only program supporting artists of color in major Great Lakes cities. The Chicago-based foundation has awarded nearly $3 million to commission 55 new works since the program started in 2003.

The O’Shaughnessy will commission Ananya Chatterjea, artistic director of Ananya Dance Theatre, to develop and stage a new production called “Shaatranga” in 2018. Meaning “seven-colored” in Chatterjea’s native Bengali, the work will celebrate women’s labors as community sustainers and change agents, using blue jeans as metaphor for shared humanity and the multifaceted and different journeys of women of color to achieve justice. The 18-month collaboration will include students from St. Kate’s and refugees living in the Twin Cities.

“This support from The Joyce Foundation will broaden the collaboration that The O’Shaughnessy and Ananya Dance Theatre began in 2012 to share women’s stories through performance and inspire passion for justice around the globe,” says Kathleen Spehar, executive director of The O’Shaughnessy. “The ‘Shaatranga’ collaboration – deepening dialogue with St. Catherine students and our community – will amplify the collective voices of women.”

A distinctive feature of the Joyce Awards is that a winners’ work must include the process of engaging community members to inform and shape their art. Community forums, workshops, panel discussions, social media input and one-on-one conversations will help influence each artist’s final presentation.

“It is exciting to see such a powerful focus not only on the creative aspects of these works, but also on how the artists plan to involve diverse communities in their development and presentation,” said Ellen Alberding, president of The Joyce Foundation. “We are confident these productions will do a great job of telling stories that can foster civic participation and cross-cultural understanding, and we are proud to support them and showcase the artistic talent of the Great Lakes region.”

​Additional 2017 award winners

The Cuyahoga Community College Foundation in Cleveland won a Joyce Award to commission new jazz work by Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer, Terence Blanchard. The Free State Theater in Chicago will commission a new play, Meet Juan(ito), from playwright Ricardo Gamboa. Finally, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music will commission Quantum Music/Englewood from musicians Ernest Dawkins and Rahul Sharma.

December 6, 2016

National Performance Network's Creation Fund will co-commission ADT's "Shyamali"

The National Performance Network (NPN), including the Visual Artists Network (VAN), is a national organization supporting artists in the creation and touring of contemporary performing and visual arts.

The NPN has made a FY2017 Creation Fund Award to Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT) for the production of “Shyamali: Sprouting Words,” co-commissioned by the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Kahului, HI, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, and The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN.

The Creation Fund Award to ADT is $19,000.

Photo by James Davies

“Shyamali” is an evening-length dance work created by ADT and inspired by the ways that women across the world repeatedly talk back and embody dissent against injustices, despite daunting consequences.

“Shyamali” will receive its world premiere performances at The O’Shaughnessy in September 2017.

Weaving movement with text, speech, breath and song, “Shyamali” will create a rich, multi-lingual performance celebrating the histories and stories of women’s courageous acts that may have slipped through the bonds of public memory. The metaphorically staged, juxtaposed stories in this work will be choreographed in Yorchha, the company’s unique vocabulary of contemporary Indian American dance, and will be produced through collaborations with several design artists.

The creation of “Shyamali” will proceed through a community-engagement process and will incorporate several strategies for audience engagement during the performance.

Support for the research and development of new performances is rare, and funding sources often require artists and presenters to define new works before that process has even begun. The Creation Fund was established to provide direct and unencumbered assistance to the process of creation and to encourage others to do the same.

The NPN Creation Fund contributes a minimum of $13,000 directly to artists toward the commissioning of new work. NPN Partners apply for Creation Fund support for projects by artists who live either outside or inside the initiating NPN Partner’s community. This flexibility encourages NPN Partners to work with emerging artists in their own communities while introducing and promoting these artists’ work to the NPN Partners at large.

Click here for more information about Creation Fund Projects.

“Shyamali: Sprouting Words” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, in partnership with the Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA, the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Kahului, HI, the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN, and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org.