We are happy to present the panelists for the fourth round of the EtM Choreographer + Composer Residencies in partnership with the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning. These experts evaluated sixty applications for the four residency slots, and reviewed over 150 work samples from choreographers and composers.  Panels were conducted at Queens Council on the Arts (QCA) on May 3rd & 4th.

We are grateful for their time, talents, and their feedback to improve and refine our artist selection processes. Big thanks to QCA for letting us us their office for this year’s panels!

MARIA BAUMAN is a dance artist and community organizer, and current Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Her choreography for her company MBDance is based on physical and emotional power, insistence on equity, and fascination with intimacy. In particular, Bauman’s dance work centers the non-linear and linear stories and bodies of queer people of color onstage. She draws on her long study of capoeira, improvisation, dancing in living rooms and nightclubs, as well as concert dance classes to embody interconnectedness, joy, and tenacity. Bauman brings many of the same tenets to undoing racism in the arts and beyond with ACRE (Artists Co-creating Real Equity), the grassroots organizing body she co-founded with Sarita Covington and Nathan Trice. She is a Core Trainer with The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

MARY ANNE BODNAR is a dancer, choreographer and writer based in New York City. Her work combining standup comedy and modern concert dance has been shown throughout New England, most recently at the Estrogenius Festival in NYC. After graduating from Bates College, she trained with the Vertigo International Dance Program in Jerusalem, Israel where she performed works by Rina Wertheim and Shizuka Yamaguchi. Her current project is choreographing for Brouhaha Theater Project’s immersive experience in Prospect Park for August 2018.

PEPPER FAJANS is founder and director of Brooklyn Studios for Dance (BkSD). Awarded Most Outstanding Choreography at the Montréal Fringe Festival in 2015 for Co. Venture, US premier at Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2016. Personal assistant to Merce Cunningham, production staff and assistant to Cunningham Archivist, David Vaughan through final world tour. Presented by St. Ann’s Puppet Lab and JACK. Puppeteer in Hagoromo at BAM and The Windup Bird Chronicle at the Ohio Theater and has shown work through Movement Research at Judson Church, 92Y – Fridays at Noon, and DraftWork at Danspace. Member of the Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus and a board member of the Fort Greene Association. Sarah Lawrence College, BA.

LAURA PETERSON is a NYC-based dance artist creating works that challenge the limits of physicality and reframe performance spaces. Influenced by the visual art of the 1970’s, she simultaneously creates visually arresting installations and rigorous choreography, Her performances have included large-scale paintings, 1000 sq ft of living lawn, 16ft tall paper sculptures, and other giant structures. Peterson’s work has been performed at venues such as The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, and internationally. Laura has been awarded residencies and commissions including the HERE Artist-in-Residence program, a fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy, Marblehouse Project residency and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.