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.