Dance For PD Launches The Lucy Bowen Award For Inclusive Choreography

The Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD program has launched a new award that aims to support choreographers who want to create a new dance in collaboration with and publicly performed by people living with Parkinson's.

The annual Lucy Bowen Award for Inclusive Choreography will offer up to $10,000 towards the creation of an original work of choreography and the associated production costs of a performance that shares that choreography with the public.

The award honors the ongoing work of choreographer and teaching artist Lucy Bowen McCauley, whose artistic vision always placed community engagement front and center. As the Artistic Director of Bowen McCauley Dance for 25 years, Bowen McCauley created a vast repertoire of work, ranging from lyrical ballets to highly physical contemporary pieces set to rock music. Washingtonian Magazine named her among those "who have helped transform Washington into one of the nation's liveliest centers in performing arts."

"This award reflects Lucy's continuing commitment to invite and welcome the Parkinson's community into the world of dance," said David Leventhal, Program Director of Mark Morris Dance Group's Dance for PD program. "This award also reflects Lucy's passion to nurture the next generation of choreographers and encourages them to embed the values of inclusion, accessibility and collaboration into their work just as she did as artistic director of the company she led for 25 years."

The inaugural award has been granted to NYC-based Argentinian choreographer, dancer, and teaching artist Valeria Solomonoff, an NYU Tisch Tango instructor and research associate at Harvard's Partnering Lab. Solomonoff, who uses her tango roots to reimagine new possibilities of partnering, will create a new piece with members of the New York City Dance for PD community, who will also premiere her new work accompanied by live music in October 2022.

A call for proposals for subsequent years of the grant will be released May 15, 2022. Award applicants must be emerging or established choreographers whose body of work reflects quality, craft, creativity, and innovation and who are proposing a collaborative partnership with a specific, established Dance for Parkinson's class community anywhere in the world. A selection committee chaired by Bowen McCauley will review applications on artistic merit, as well as on the feasibility of the performance dimension of the project. Funds may be used for such expenses as choreographer fees, space rental, theater rental and production costs, and marketing.

A single recipient for the 2023 season will be announced in October 2022 at the Mark Morris Dance Center as part of Dance for PD in Performance.

More information online at www.danceforpd.org.

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