Colleen Hooper's NYC Dance Map

This "map" is really a reference guide for contemporary dance in New York City. It will point you in the right direction, whether you are visiting the city or contemplating a move to NYC. The information listed is from organizational websites and my color commentary is interspersed in some cases. I welcome your questions, comments or additions at info@colleenhooper.org Enjoy!
--Colleen Hooper GWU '01
(presented at CAST Day on May 1, 2005)

Jump ahead in the article to:

First Stop
Where to Take Classes
Where to see Performances
Where to show your work starting out
How to start performing for other choreographers
Where to rehearse
Artist Servies

First Stop

http://www.dancenyc.org/ This website will give you a great overview, including a dance calendar, internship listings, auditions and job postings.

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Where to take class

Be sure to inquire about work study and internship programs where you can exchange work for free classes.

Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway, 2nd Floor (entrance on Chambers) |
New York, NY 10007 |
212.625.8369
Dance New Amsterdam (formerly Dance Space Center) is one of New York City's largest and most highly respected dance organizations, offering dance education of the highest caliber at all levels in a wide range of styles and techniques, as well as performance opportunities for artists at any stage of their development. Internationally recognized as a premier dance center, DNA was begun over 20 years ago by five dancers, who, like the dancers they currently serve, were searching for a school that would perfect their craft, nourish their spirit and help them to develop as artists in a nurturing, professional environment. Since that time DNA has become not only a dance studio, but also a home for dance deeply loved by its students. Dance New Amsterdam's comprehensive dance education program offers dancers at all levels of ability the opportunity to learn from some of the finest educators in dance today. Trained to appreciate the unique aspects of each student and to reflect the founders' beliefs in proper, injury-preventive principles, our faculty is dedicated to giving personal attention and individualized instruction. With over 40 faculty members and a rotating roster of over 140 guest choreographers and teachers, our diverse curriculum includes a range of over 125 technique classes in a variety of disciplines. DNA's acclaimed faculty includes teachers such as Jennifer Archibald, Sara Baird, Alexandra Beller, Ezra Caldwell, Erin Dudley, Jana Hicks, Katiti King, Kenny Larson, Oliver Steele, Teri Lee Steele and Lynn Simonson, as well as guest artists including Monica Bill Barnes, John Beasant III, Ron K. Brown, Gerald Casel, Daniel Charon, Sean Curran, Jeanine Durning, David Dorfman, Doug Elkins, Adriane Fang, Ori Flomin, Ashleigh Leite, Mariah Maloney, Juliette Mapp, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Nugent, Tere O'Connor, Stephen Petronio, Lisa Race, BJ Sullivan and Donna Uchizono.

Movement Research
Classes are held at different studios around the city- consult the website for locations.
telephone: (212) 598-0551
hotline: (212) 539-2611
email:info@movementresearch.org
Movement Research is one of the world's leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist and their creative process and vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike. Current instructors include Jen Abrams, Daria Faïn, K.J. Holmes, Barbara Mahler, Juliette Mapp, Jennifer Monson and RoseAnne Spradlin

Trisha Brown Studios
Located at 625 W. 55th Street, 2nd floor (between 11th and 12th Avenues) in Manhattan
The Trisha Brown Studio is the only center established to provide ongoing and comprehensive training in the repertory, movement aesthetic, and choreographic traditions of world-renowned artist Trisha Brown. The Studio is dedicated to educating pre-professional and professional dancers, and choreographers in the concepts and aesthetics of post-modern dance. The Trisha Brown Studio is composed of the following programs, creating a broad training for dancers and choreographers: " Winter and Summer Intensives: concentrated study of technique, Trisha Brown repertory, improvisation, and composition " Program of movement studies: Contact Improvisation, Klein Technique™, Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering®, Yoga, and more " Classes with Guest Artists: Former TBDC dancers and guest artists are invaluable members of the Trisha Brown Studio faculty, contributing their own movement investigations and styles to the Studio " Center for Choreography: A series of workshops with critically acclaimed dance makers The Trisha Brown Dance Company offers residency activities outside of New York educating communities in the movement aesthetic and choreographic process of Trisha Brown. Residencies are organized both in conjunction with and independent from TBDC's current touring schedule.
Call 212-977-5365 for more details.

92nd St. Y
1395 Lexington Ave.
NY, NY
The Harkness Dance Center is committed to serving the professional and pre-professional New York City dance community. With a program that offers a full selection of classes, workshops, choreographic space and performance opportunities, the Y serves the dance artist who seeks a mature and focused community in which to grow. For further information about professional programs at the Harkness Dance Center, contact director Renata Celichowska at 212.415.5555 Programs: New Techniques Laboratory Sundays At Three… Dance Previews Dance Education Laboratory Harkness Space Grant Program Fridays at Noon 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival

Studio 5-2 (then click on Studio 5-2)
890 Broadway,
NY, NY
Teacher Christine Wright teaches a Monday-Friday 12-2 PM ballet class that is excellent for modern dancers. Jocelyn Lorenz is also a great ballet teacher and her class is 10 AM-12 PM Monday through Friday.

City Center
Zvi Gotheiner is a wonderful ballet teacher for modern dancers as well. Always check his website to see if he's teaching because he travels a lot.

City Center
130 West 56th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues)
212-869-7429
Monday - Friday: 10:00am - 12:00pm Saturday: 11:00am - 1:00pm

Alvin Ailey Dance School
The Ailey School
The Joan Weill Center for Dance
405 W. 55th Street
New York, NY 10019
Learn Horton technique and African dance from world-class dancers

Djoniba Dance and Drum Centre
One of the best places for African and Caribbean based dance, Djoniba also offers Dunham technique, Martial arts and Hip-hop. Djoniba also offers classes for kids ages 3-16.
Address & Phone: Djoniba Dance and Drum Centre 37 East 18th Street, 7th Floor
(212) 477-3464

Mark Morris Dance Center
3 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Daily advanced ballet classes, intro to tap and west African dance and advanced modern in the Mark Morris style

For a listing of dance schools not above, visit http://www.ny.com/dance/ This site has information about schools that offer tap dance, Graham, Taylor and other classical modern techniques.

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Where to see performances

(You can usually call theaters in advance and volunteer to usher performances for free admission)

Dance Theater Workshop-
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church
P.S. 122
BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange
Chez Bushwick Shtudio Show
Movement Research Series at the Judson Church (FREE!)
Dixon Place
BAAD!
The Chocolate Factory
The Kitchen
The Joyce and The Joyce SoHo
Brooklyn Academy of Music (Same day student rush tickets for ages 25 and under)

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Where to show your work- getting started out

Movement Research Open Performance Series
Sign-up first come, first served what is open performance? Monthly non-curated shared evenings of experimentation and work-in-progress showings with moderated audience discussion, for artists at all stages in their development. how to particpate: Artist participation is free and on a first-call, first-served basis. For Winter/Spring 2006, all spots have been filled. To be put on the waiting list, contact Rebecca Brooks with the date you are interested in (see schedule; Open Performance takes place Wednesdays at the DTW Studio, 3rd Fl March - June) at openperform@movementresearch.org (email preferred), or call her at 212.598.0551 x3.

Dance New Amsterdam- Works in Progress
One of our longest-running and most rewarding series for artists and audiences alike, Works in Progress provides choreographers with the opportunity to make a professional 10-minute presentation of new work in any style and at any stage of development. Audiences are asked to take notes (paper and pencil come with event programs) and to contribute to a freewheeling commentary at evening's end. Works in Progress is currently presented once a month on Tuesdays at 8:30 PM (schedule subject to change). Admission is a suggested donation of $10.

WAX/Williamsburg Arts Nexus- WAXworks
WAXworks is an inclusive performance showcase that offers new and experienced artists the opportunity to present their work on a professional stage with substantial and versatile lighting, sound and technical systems. Any kind of stage work is welcome - we invite dance, theater, music, video, performance art, poetry, comedy, juggling, singing, puppetry, acrobatics, monologues or anything else that can be performed on a stage. There is no audition process and few technical limitations. WAXworks is designed to help artists advance their creative process by viewing their work through the objective eyes of a live, enthusiastic audience: guided by the WAX staff, audience members are invited to share their constructive criticisms, reactions and ideas with the artists in an anonymous written format. For a nominal fee, artists receive a half hour tech slot and a split bill performance opportunity for work up to 12 minutes in length; in addition to the performance, participants receive the audiences written feedback forms, and a video documenting their performance. NEW AS OF 2006: in addition to performance services, we are now able to offer constructive criticism on press-kits and artists statements submitted as a part of the WAXworks application. By engaging in this process, artists take part in a "learn-by-doing" method of preparing and refining materials which they will need for other, forward looking opportunities. WAXworks will conclude its residency at Arts at University Settlement in May 2006; many thanks to Arts Associate Eva Silverstein and Technical Director Emma K. Rivera for making the 2005 season WAXworks Phase II possible. In the Fall of 2006, WAXworks will move back home, to Williamsburg, Brooklyn! With the support of our colleague, Abby Bender. WAX launches its new WAXworks season out of the Triskelion Arts Theater, located at 118 North 11th Street, 3rd Floor (between Berry and Wythe); L Train to Bedford Avenue For more information, please download new application and contact WAXworks Production Director Jaclyn Moynahan at: 718.599.7997 or jackie@wax205.com.

SWEAT-Modern Dance Series in Hoboken, NJ and SWEAT Outdoors in Frank Sinatra Park
Now in its fifth season, the SWEAT-Modern Dance Series is a stimulating series of modern dance showcases presented and produced here at The Center for Performing Arts. The series presents a variety of evolving as well as established choreographers from the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and demonstrates the many styles of choreography within modern dance. Now in its third year, SWEAT Outdoors is a FREE, three-hour outdoor dance festival presented by The Center For The Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium in conjunction with the City of Hoboken's "Summer Enchanted Evening" Series. The performance will be on Sunday, August 6, 2006 from 4-7pm (with a rain date of Sunday August 13, 2006 from 4-7pm). The location for the festival is Frank Sinatra Park - a large brick paved outdoor, sunken amphitheater right on the Hudson River with a breathtaking view of lower Manhattan. Connected via the Hoboken waterfront promenade, this is an easy and picturesque walk along the Hudson River from the PATH train.

WOW Café Theater
WOW Cafe Theater is located at 59 east 4th street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue in New York City. A woman and woman-identified collectively run theater where you can produce your own show in exchange for working on other people's shows. The best way for a woman, and/or a transgender person, to get involved at WOW is to come to our weekly business meeting. It is there that jobs are volunteered-for and policies decided. It is also the best way to get a feel for what WOW is, how our anarchist collective functions, and who these people are that you might be working with. As of this date, WOW meetings and most performances can be reached only by climbing 3 flights of stairs. This lack of accessibility will be corrected during our renovation, through the installation of a 24hour selfservice elevator. We deeply rue this long-time omission and it is a priority of the building renovation. We meet every Tuesday at 6:30pm in our performance space at 59-61 East 4th Street, between the Bowery (3rd Ave) and 2nd Avenue. Ring buzzer number 6. You will be buzzed in, come on up to the 4th Floor. Pull up a chair: As soon as you enter the circle, you can count yourself a member of the WOW collective. There are no membership dues, nor trial periods. Just show up! As the meeting begins, it's good to let that week's facilitator know you are new. Someone will give you a brief history/summary of WOW, we'll ask you what part of the production process you'd like to be involved in (lights? publicity? acting? directing?), and we'll probably encourage you to staff a show. Staffing is basically ushering. You show up an hour before the show begins, help to sweep the floor, fold programs, greet the audience, etc., and when the show starts, you can take any empty seat and watch the show for free. Even if this is all you'd like your commitment to WOW to be we can always use staffers, and it's a great way to get to know the people, the space, and to see some performance!

Dixon Place
258 Bowery, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012
All the work at Dixon Place is selected and presented (we do not rent out the space for shows), and the artists are remunerated. Dixon Place has performances 5-7 nights a week, and performers are generally allotted one shared evening. Most of the presented work is new and developing. Dixon Place is committed to maintaining an intimate yet relaxed environment, while providing a serious laboratory for performing and literary artists.
7 People, 7 Minutes (formerly Open Performance Night) On the first Wednesday of every month, artists working in theatre, performance art, puppetry, clown, corporeal mime, dance, music, poetry and fiction can sign up to present 7 minutes of their newest work to an adventurous audience. 7 People brings together artists and audiences by encouraging public participation - anyone is welcome, no experience is necessary. In addition, emerging artists who have some performance experience use this forum to test new pieces or begin working in a new discipline. It gives these emerging artists exposure to an audience at a stage where feedback is vital to the development of the work and to their development as artists. Because 7 People, 7 Minutes is such an accessible program, the events have been well attended by audiences and performers of color, and the recent age of performers has ranged from 17-75, with approximately 30% of performers being seniors. This makes for diverse evenings of performance which are well-grounded in the community, and speaks to the success of the outreach Dixon Place has accomplished with this program.
Dance Series The Dixon Place dance programs seek to encourage discovery of new ways of moving for both emerging and established choreographers. Choreographers and dancers can test their new ideas and get the immediate feedback from the audience which is so important to the development of new work. All four of the current curators are working choreographers and performers who draw from their own wealth of experience as artists, their expertise in their field, and their cultural backgrounds when they choose dancers to present work. This ensures a diversity of programming that no single person could offer. Over 40% of the choreographers and dancers that present work in the series are representative of minority constituencies. Artists interested in submitting to one of the dance series should indicate in their proposal which series they are submitting to, and then send the proposal to Dixon Place. We will then forward it along to the appropriate curator. Note: We accept submissions only from artists based in the NYC area. To help us be more efficient in the reviewing of submissions, please read about our ongoing series below and submit proposals directly to a series you are interested in showing with. Keep in mind that you are sending an idea or proposal for a performance; it does not need to be a polished piece both when you submit the work, and if selected, when you perform it. Remember to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with each submission that you want returned. Send submissions to the address below. Performers are provided an honorarium, rehearsal time, calendar mailing costs and technical assistance. If you have any questions, please email submissions@dixonplace.org. Send submissions to Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10012
Underexposed Series curated by Shannon Hummel and Monica Bill Barnes This series provides an opportunity for choreographers who are either beginning or evolving in their careers. Recently established as a semi-annual festival, twelve new works over three nights are shown in development from choreographers who are not often given the opportunity to show work in the larger venues which demand more "finished" visions. Choreographers Shannon Hummel and Monica Bill Barnes curate.

Dance Theater Workshop Fresh Tracks Series
219 W. 19th St. NY, NY
Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Program DTW is committed to providing a platform for new artistic voices to gain professional experience and recognition in the field. The Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Program will provide opportunities for the artists to engage directly with DTW staff, artists and arts professionals about their work within the context of the professional contemporary dance and performance field. In the fall, DTW will hold auditions to select six choreographers for a year-long program that begins with nine hours of studio rehearsal time leading up to performances at DTW as part of the Fresh Tracks Series. In the spring, this group will receive 50 hours of studio space for research and development, an informal work-in-progress showing and free workshops in grant writing, development and marketing.

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How to start performing for other choreographers

Where to rehearse

Dance rehearsal space in New York generally runs from $10-15 an hour. Some studios offer work study to cover rehearsal costs (usually cleaning the studio). $10-15/hr. is a subsidized rate, so you should always identify yourself as an independent artist and request a subsidized rate. Studios in Brooklyn and Queens can be as low as $5 hour (namely, Chez Bushwick) and you should check bulletin boards at NYC dance studios for new rehearsal space deals popping up all the time.

Best overall search site for rehearsal space: www.nycDanceSpaces.org /
BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange
Triskelion arts
Union St. Dance
Chez Bushwick- 304 Boerum St, Apt 11 Brooklyn, NY 11211 (Email me at info@colleenhooper.org if you need the phone # because it's unpublished)
Soundance, Inc. at The Stable
Joyce SoHo
Dance Theater Workshop
Movement Research
Trisha Brown Studio

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Artist Services

The Field
161 Sixth Avenue 14th Floor
New York, NY 10013
(212) 691-6969
For performing artists who create work, The Field is a gold mine of information for independent artists. They will walk you through finding rehearsal space, finding venues to perform and workshops are available in everything from grant writing to making a budget.

Medical Insurance for Dancers
The Woodhull Medical Center has a new program called Artist Access Health plan that you can read more about at http://www.dancenyc.org. It allows artists to trade creative services, like teaching dance classes in a hospital, for medical care. All medical care is also given on a sliding scale according to income. It's a truly revolutionary program and it's a great opportunity for dancers and other freelance artists.

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