Dance News: Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company Receives $10,000 Grant From Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has allocated a grant of $10,000 to the NYC nonprofit toward the creation of an interactive educational digital resource geared toward a general viewership.
The project, Dance With Us, seeks to bridge the divide separating dance from mainstream culture, underscoring the primacy, purpose, and possibility of dance in contemporary life. Combining the instructional with the performative, the resource aims to increase the public’s knowledge of dance and their dance literacy, to share the love of dance, and to introduce ways to view, speak about, and participate in dance with comfort.
This project is deeply aligned with the Company’s core values, pedagogy, and programming, which has consistently gained acclaim. This digital resource will be distributed widely and freely, contributing to the Open Educational Resources movement (OER), in which knowledge is shared without cost, providing access to all.
A teaching and performing organization celebrating its 20th Anniversary, Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company has demonstrated a commitment to education since its inception. The Company has stayed true to its mission of cultivating the creation of innovative art and presenting this to the public in interactive, accessible, and meaningful ways. The Company believes everyone can join the dance. Programs encourage audiences to be active participants, integrating communities into the dance-making and performing processes, and teaching how dance can play a meaningful part of one’s physical and overall health.
Our 20th Anniversary Season Intersections, produced this year by The 92nd Street Y, marks a continuum of two decades of dance production without pause. We’ve been known since the beginning for our playful virtuosity, accessibility and charisma.
“A troupe I’d follow anywhere.” The Village Voice
“A troupe of fabulous dancers.” Backstage.
“The dancers can’t help but smile.” The New Yorker
Reviewing the 92nd Street Y season OnStageBlog’s critic Natalie Rine writes: “Provocative, whimsical, and ethereal, the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company defies expectations of postmodern dance and soars, unafraid to take risks and dazzle with unflinching honesty.” February 2019, OnStageBlog.com. Read The Full Review
Annual New York seasons are augmented by national and international residencies, tours, and festival participation. This October the Company performs in Sheridan, Wyoming presented by The Whitney Center for the Arts’ 2019/2020 season. Students from the local community--elementary through high school, college, and older adults--will be incorporated into the event. The culminating program, Welcome to the World of Dance, an interactive narrated performance, has a rich history. It was recently produced by the 92nd Street Y as part of the anniversary season. At the time of its premiere in 2000 at The Flea Theater The New York Times wrote: “a delightful introduction...explaining what contemporary choreography is all about.” Gwirtzman and the Company present a range of acclaimed dances from the Company’s diverse, entertaining repertory.