DANCE ON THE LAWN, The Free Outdoor Dance Festival Has Gone Virtual

 

DANCE ON THE LAWN, Montclair, NJ's outdoor dance festival, will return this year with a virtual event in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Festival, celebrating its seventh year, will present "best of" Dance on the Lawn archival footage via their website, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo on Sunday, Sept. 13 from 4:30-6:30pm. The 2020 virtual Dance on the Lawn Festival will highlight compilation performance video dating from the Festival's inception in 2014. (Full lineup below.) The Dance on the Lawn Festival traditionally takes place every September on the front lawn of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 73 South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair.

In addition to compilation highlights, the Sept. 13 DOTL streaming event will include panel discussions by NJ School, NJ Professional and NJ Emerging Artistic Directors, as well as an additional panel discussion with Artistic Directors now rescheduled for DOTL 2021. The 2021 Artistic Director/Choreographer panel will include Amber Sloan, Dance on the Lawn's 2020 NJ Emerging Commissioned Choreographer, Rekha Srinivasan (Bhaarat Nritya Academy), Jessica Totaro (Movement Arts Project/Dance for Joy), Nai-Ni Chen (Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company), Megan Chu (Inimois Dance) and Nicole Philippidis (277dance project).

A premiere showcase and mentoring launchpad for NJ and NY's finest choreographic talent, Dance on the Lawn offers Montclair residents and neighboring communities a sneak peek at emerging and established artists from New Jersey and the New York area.

Dance on the Lawn was founded by Montclair resident Charmaine Warren in 2014, hoping to increase New Jersey's exposure to dance by bringing professional and emerging companies, plus students of dance from around the state, together to perform in a community setting. In addition to offering presentation opportunities, Dance on the Lawn created an "Emerging Commissioned New Jersey Choreographer" and mentor program to help support young, emerging artists.

"Like the rest of the world, especially in the arts, we knew that we needed to prepare for the repercussions of COVID-19. We had hoped that because our Festival falls in September and is outdoors that we could welcome our audience to the beautiful lawn of St. Luke's as usual. We stayed in touch with our DOTL artists, and shared updates in our monthly newsletter.

In July they planned for three possible iterations and the final one, online, is where we landed. A virtual DOTL 2020 will happen on Sunday, September 13. We are happy to announce that DOTL artists and directors, since our inception in 2014, will join us as we share video and talk about dance in New Jersey since moving to the online platform and more. We hope you will join us." - CHARMAINE WARREN, DOTL FOUNDER AND LAURA MARCHESE, DOTL MANAGING DIRECTOR

*THE 2020 DANCE ON THE LAWN VIRTUAL LINEUP:

NEW JERSEY SCHOOLS

Sharron Miller's Academy for the Performing Arts

DanceWorks & Co.

New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble

Grooves Unlimited Dance Studio

NEW JERSEY COMPANIES

Alborada Dance

Freespace Dance Company

10 Hairy Legs

Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company

MeenMoves

Mignolo Dance

Maurice Chestnut

DOTL'S EMERGING COMMISSIONED NEW JERSEY CHOREOGRAPHERS

Robert Mark Burke

Kyle Marshall

Lauren Connolly

Javier Padilla

Oluwadamilare "Dare" Ayorinde

2021 LINE UP ~ ARTISTS NEW TO DOTL

Bhaarat Nritya Academy

Movement Arts Project/Dance for Joy

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

Inimois Dance

New Jersey Ballet

277dance project

*Program subject to change.

MORE ABOUT DANCE ON THE LAWN:

Charmaine Warren, DOTL founder, is a recipient of a 2017 Bessie Award for "Outstanding Performance," as part of The Skeleton Architecture Collective. She is also winner of the Dance NJ's JETÉ AWARD, in honor of founding the Dance on the Lawn Festival. Dance NJ is the service organization committed to advocating the excellence of dance and dance education in the state. Ms. Warren, together with Laura Marchese, DOTL Managing Director, are the guiding force behind "Dance on the Lawn: Montclair's Dance Festival." Ms. Marchese is a recipient of a NJ Governor's Arts in Education Distinguished Teaching Artist Award. In 2018, Ms. Marchese received national recognition as a Master Teaching Artist in Dance by Young Audiences Arts for Learning.

The New Jersey State Arts Council has given four awards to Dance on the Lawn artists: Nancy Turano, Artistic Director, NJ Dance Theatre Ensemble, DOTL artist since 2014-2018; Kyle Marshall, DOTL 2016 "Emerging Commissioned New Jersey Choreographer" recipient; Lauren Connolly, DOTL 2017 "Emerging Commissioned New Jersey Choreographer" recipient; and Hillary-Marie, Choreographer/Director FutureSTEP Tap Company, DOTL 2017 participating artist.

Dance on the Lawn VIRTUAL Outdoor Dance Festival - 7th year!

Streaming on Sunday, September 13, 2020 from 4:30-6:30pm

 

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