NEW YORK, NY, June 14, 2018 – Exploring the Metropolis (EtM), the only nonprofit organization dedicated to analyzing and resolving the workspace needs of performing artists in New York City, today announced the recipients of the 2018-19 EtM Choreographer + Composer Residencies.

A panel of choreographers and dance professionals picked an eclectic group of New York City-based choreographers and composers. Each artist receives a three-month residency at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) plus a $1,500 stipend. Two collaborative teams and two individual choreographers will create and develop new work and present one free public program in coordination with Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning. Thanks to the generous support of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, each artist will receive an additional $500 upon completion of their public program.

“Suitable workspace is a crucial issue for New York City choreographers, from emerging and mid-career artists like Janessa Clark, I-Ling Liu and Joya Powell, to established masters like Doug Varone,” said David Johnston, Executive Director of Exploring the Metropolis.

“These artists demonstrate the need for our space-based residencies regardless of career stage and we are grateful to the Mertz Gilmore Foundation for their support.”

“New York City is in desperate need of proper working space for artists,” said Cathy Hung, Executive Director of Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning.  “JCAL is extremely proud to offer these spaces to this diverse group of world-class dance artists.”

“Outside of the elation I feel about being awarded an EtM residency, I am incredibly grateful for these precious resources. In order to deeply dive into my new project I need a stable and nurturing environment through which I can create,” said choreographer Janessa Clark. “These generous gifts of time, space, support, and community through EtM will make that possible.”

“We’re excited to be working on a new piece, Ballistics, that brings together all of our current company plus some alumni,” said choreographer Doug Varone. “Rehearsing at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning will add an extra dimension of community, as we invite local groups to join us for work-in-progress showings and Q & A with the company.”

The EtM Choreographer + Composer Residencies grew out of 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.

The recipients of this year’s residencies are:

JANESSA CLARK (choreographer)

JANESSA CLARK is a choreographer and performance maker. She holds an MA in Performance Practices and Research from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a BFA in Choreography from Arizona State University. Janessa directed the New York-based dance collective Janessa Clark/KILTERBOX from 2001-2012. In 2012 she dissolved KILTERBOX to form a new platform, nomadthenewcompany, which worked internationally from Stockholm, Sweden until 2017.   As a performer, Janessa has collaborated with acclaimed artists such as Tino Sehgal, Gina Gibney/Gibney Dance, Noemie Lafrance Sens|Production, Michael Cole, Laura Peterson Choreography, Lior Lerman, Christopher Matthews, and Disa Krosness among others. Janessa’s choreography has been widely presented throughout NYC, and at the Webber Douglas (London), Danscentrum (Stockholm), CounterPULSE (SF), and Teatro Victoria (Spain). She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including Harlem Stage’s Fund for New Work and Gibney Dance’s Women at Work Award. Her work was an official selection for the 2017 Stockholm Dansfilm Festival and she is currently a resident artist at THE CHURCH Artist Residency. Janessa has been a teaching artist at the College at Brockport, Montclair State University, the University College of Dance in Stockholm, Sweden and at Luleå Tekniska Universitetet.

I-LING LIU (choreographer) + SHIUAN CHANG (composer)

Originally from Taiwan, I-LING LIU is a senior member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. She received a BFA from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2005. I-Ling has been creating and displaying her own works as well as collaborating with visual artists, photographers, music composers, directors and actors in theater and film. She was a recipient of the 2011-2012 Dance in Queens Awardees: Space Exploration from Topaz Arts. Her works have been performed throughout New York City in festivals such as In-Sight Suite Summer Festival, Westfest Dance Festival, Queensboro Dance Festival, SoloDuo Festival by White Wave, Food for Thought at Danspace Project, and Dances by Dancers at NYU Tisch School. In 2017 her solo work Geng was nominated for the Taishin Art Award. In 2018 she founded Green Match Works. She is also a certified Zena Rommett Floor-Barre® teacher since 2016.

New York based Taiwanese composer SHIUAN CHANG’s music has been described as “a tapestry of extraordinary sound and idea; not word of painting or sound landscape, but rather a psychological meditation.” – by Malcolm Peyton, Professor of the New England Conservatory. Shiuan’s music has been performed nationally and internationally at Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Bartok Hall, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Royaumont, Jordan Hall, Merkin Hall, and ODC Theater. He has worked with Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Civic Symphony Orchestra, Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, Princeton Singers, TANA Quartet, Quartett Asasello, Atlas Ensemble, Ensemble Multilaterale, Ensemble Musicatreize, Earplay Ensemble, Ensemble Signal, Antico Moderno, Orkest de Ereprijs, and Alter Ego. Shiuan attended New England Conservatory for undergraduate studying with Malcolm Peyton. He has also studied with Stefano Gervasoni and Péter Eötvös. He’s the founder of Innuan, an organization dedicated to promoting classical and contemporary music to the general public by combining art, music, and space.

JOYA POWELL (choreographer)

A native Harlemite, JOYA POWELL is a choreographer and educator passionate about community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. Hailed by The New York Times as a “radiant performer,” throughout her career she has danced with choreographers such as Katiti King, Neta Pulvermacher, Marcea Daiter and Marsha Parrilla. In 2005 Joya founded Movement of the People Dance Company, dedicated to creating Socially Conscious Contemporary Dance Theater. Her work has appeared in national and international venues such as: BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, Lincoln Center, SummerStage, La MaMa, Symphony Space, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Dance Complex (Cambridge), The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), Movement Research @ Judson Church, among others. She has choreographed such plays as: The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Luna Stage, NJ), Fit for a Queen by Betty Shamieh (The Classical Theatre of Harlem), Ducklings by Amina Henry (The National Black Theater + JACK), Job by Thomas Bradshaw (The Flea Theater). Joya has been a guest artist at various colleges, conferences and festivals and has taught and studied internationally in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Israel. Awards and recognition include: 2016 Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Bessie Award, 2016-2017 Dancing While Black Fellow, 2017-2018 Women in Motion Commissioned Artist, and 2017 SDC Observership Program. Joya shares her passion for dances of the African Diaspora, activism, and contemporary choreography as a teaching artist with MOPDC, as well as through various community engagement activities. She received her M.A. in Dance Education from NYU, her B.A. in Latin American Studies and Creative Writing from Columbia University, and has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hunter College, SUNY Old Westbury and SUNY Stony Brook.

DOUG VARONE (choreographer) + DAVID VAN TIEGHEM (composer)

DOUG VARONE is a choreographer and director of contemporary dance for the concert stage, as well as opera, Broadway, regional theater, and film. He is the Artistic Director of Doug Varone and Dancers, which he established in 1986 as an opportunity to explore and process his particular choreographic vision. His company has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for over three decades. On tour, the company has performed in more than 100 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. In addition to his own company, Varone has created a body of works globally.  Commissions include the Batsheva Dance Company, Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, The Limón Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Rambert Dance Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, among others. Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the President’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Numerous honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award, two individual Bessie Awards and the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2015. He is also the recipient of the American Dance Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

DAVID VAN TIEGHEM has composed dance scores for Twyla Tharp, Doug Varone, Pilobolus, Michael Moschen, Boston Ballet, Elizabeth Streb and Elisa Monte. He has performed his solo percussion-theater work throughout the USA, Europe and Japan, in venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, BAM, the Knitting Factory, The Kitchen, Town Hall, Jacob’s Pillow, the New Music America Festivals, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, and the Venice Biennale. Van Tieghem has composed music and designed sound for over 100 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Doubt, Wit, and How I Learned to Drive, as well as The Gin Game, Heisenberg, Romeo and Juliet, The Normal Heart, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nurembeg, Reckless, The Grey Zone, A Man for All Seasons, Woman Before a Glass, Crowbar, Glengarry Glen Ross and the Heart is a Lonely Hunter. His video collaboration with John Sanborn, “Ear to the Ground,” wherein he literally “plays” the streets of NYC, is an international favorite. As percussionist, he has worked with Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Robert Ashley, Arthur Russell, Talking Heads, Duran Duran, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pink Floyd, Nona Hendryx, Jerry Harrison, Adrian Belew, Merce Cunningham, Lenny Pickett, Michael Nyman and Peter Gordon’s Love of Life Orchestra, among others.