This year-long residency program will take place at Danspace Project’s home at St. Mark’s Church beginning in August 2021. The residencies will continue all year with public engagement, artistic dialogue, research, and space support.

“As a maker, my choreographic impulses lean toward producing material that viewers can both see and feel, activating a sort of tension between the performers, the movement, and everyone witnessing,” explains Brooklyn-based dance artist Jordan Demetrius Lloyd.

“These days I find myself energized by my imagination, and am interested in exploring movement vocabularies that blur the lines between abstraction and storytelling. I hope to prompt viewers into an associative headspace, where they can begin to project, name, and place meaning on the things that they are seeing.”

“Right now I am doing a lot of listening, which feels more like my research than any sort of physical or choreographic practice I might be engaging in. I feel myself attuned to the shifts in my personal, and our collective realities. I find myself interrogating the structures in our field that are no longer serving artists today. I care deeply about honoring and protecting my artistry and sense of voice, and also respecting, engaging, and amplifying the communities with whom I interact. Much of my process, my identity, and my perspective on the world is shifting, and I’m grateful that Danspace is providing a physical container for this ongoing work.” 

The inaugural 2021-2022 Renewal Residency artists are Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Mina Nishimura, Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez and Gillian Walsh. This open and flexible program is an urgent and necessary response to the needs of these artists this year. Renewal Residencies emphasize: recuperation time to create work without the immediate pressure of production; renewed connection to creative process and artistic research; renewed connection to collaborators and fellow artists; and renewed connection to the Danspace Project community. Renewal Residencies attempt to make up for vital time lost, supporting the development of new work in dance.

Each artist will be invited to contribute to Danspace’s online Journal and to participate in Danspace’s virtual Conversations Without Walls series. Visit danspaceproject.org for more info and updates!