Nextgen Choreolab

Supported by the Jerome Foundation

The ultimate goal of NextGen ChoreoLab
is to support emerging Minnesota-based choreographers
as they deepen and mature their own artistic process.

Ananya Dance Theatre’s NextGen Choreolab is a nine-month stipended mentorship in St. Paul, Minnesota for nascent generative dance artists working in non-Western/non-mainstream aesthetics. Artists will deeply investigate choreographic practice and structure, and create a work for invited sharing. BIPOC women/femme artists are strongly encouraged to apply.

MENTORSHIP

The cornerstone of ChoreoLab is the building of trust with experienced mentors and the dialogic process that supports the artists in refining their craft. Mentors model their skills as artistic leaders, ensuring that everyone involved in a project has full access to do their best work. We move beyond Western concert dance curricula, as we share a compositional toolkit and nurture sensibilities around coherent abstract structuring of movement.

tools

ChoreoLab participants engage with:

• discernment and awareness of detail and its relationship to the whole

• skills for describing their work in structured and legible ways to different audiences (other artists, producers, presenters, general public)

• strategies for articulating process and final product both verbally and in writing

• fostering accountability to themselves, to their collaborators, and to a practice of rigorous inquiry

We nurture each artist towards their own craft, their own aesthetic, methodology, approach, full readiness, and true voice.

Previous cohort members describe their experience:

• increased confidence in speaking from their artistic voices

• an experience of care from the mentors

• refined understanding of choreographic craft and artistic leadership

National mentors report that they observe artists’ growing ability to:

• stay with particular ideas and examine them from multiple angles over time

• reach new depths of inquiry

• grow their emotional tenacity within the creative process.