DITD 2020 is a series of professional development workshops, master classes, and showings of works-in-progress that will take place through fall 2020. Twenty choreographers and dancers will be invited from the following Arizona communities: Tucson, Douglas(US)/Agua Prieta(MX), Phoenix. DITD master classes will be free and open to the Douglas/Agua Prieta community. DITD addresses systemic deficits in dance in the Southwest by providing a space that redresses geographic isolation and centers local expertise.
Dance in the Desert 2020 Open Events
Dance in the Desert 2020 will offer a series of free professional development webinars that are open to the Latinx and Arizona dance communities. Watch this space for more opportunities to come.
Video Work Samples for Dancemakers: What are Grant Panels Looking For?
Presented by Kristin Gregory and Cheri Opperman of New England Foundation for the Arts
Presented on April 30, 2020
Telling Your Story: A Beginner’s Guide to Arts Marketing, PR, and Artist Statements
Presented by Mariclare Hulbert
Presented on Friday, April 3, 12:00 pm
About Dance in the Desert
2020 marks the third iteration of DITD, with previous gatherings taking place in Phoenix (2018) and Tucson (2019). The successes of previous gatherings are palpable with preliminary impacts on the field. Montoya (founder, co-organizer) has been honored with two national fellowships, in part because of her work on DITD. DITD also served as a catalyst for participating dancemakers. After the 2018 gathering, Douglas, AZ-based dancemaker Adriana Harris was selected for the Molly Blank Fund Teaching Artists Program where she was trained in the Kennedy Center arts integration method at Arizona State University Gammage. Harris learned of the opportunity after meeting ASU Gammage staff at DITD. In 2019, “Menudo” a piece by Phoenix-based choreographer Angelina Ramírez that was incubated at DITD, was selected to be performed at Blaktinx in Phoenix and Los Angeles, increasing the visibility and status of an Arizona-based dancemaker. For the most part, these opportunities would not have occurred without DITD providing the resources to incubate new works and the opportunities to build, nurture relationships across communities and geographies.
Dance in the Desert 2020 Partners
DITD collaborating partners are Yvonne Montoya, Erin Donohue, Kesha Bruce, Anna Needham, Safos Dance Theatre, Liz Lerman LLC, and AZArtWorker, a program of Arizona Commission on the Arts funded by the Tremaine Foundation.
DITD is made possible by (Flinn Foundation, Ford Foundation, WESTAF) .
I believe Arizona is poised to be a leader in the field of Latinx dance. The Latinx community is the second largest ethnic group in the state of Arizona and growing; audiences are changing and so are the dancers. Additionally, as a border state, Arizona could be a gateway to dance exchanges with Latin America and beyond.
Yvonne Montoya is the founding organizer of DITD. She is a Nuevomexicana/Xicana/Latina dancemaker, binational artist, consultant, independent dance scholar dancemaker and working artist mom who continues to work as a co-organizer and thought leader for Dance in the Desert. Her goal is to continue to build dance communities across the large expansive geographies of the Southwest deserts. Montoya is a process-based dancemaker who creates low tech site specific and site adaptive pieces for non-traditional dance spaces. Her work is grounded in and inspired by the landscapes, languages, cultures, and aesthetics of the U.S. Southwest. Her choreography has been staged throughout the Southwest and her dance films screened in Tucson, North Carolina, the University of Exeter (UK). She is currently working on “Stories from Home” a series of movement vignettes based on her family’s oral histories. 2017-2018 Montoya was a Post-Graduate Fellow in Dance at Arizona State University where she founded and organized Dance in the Desert: A Gathering of Latinx Dancemakers. Montoya is a 2019-2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, a 2019-2020 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, and a recipient of the 2019 NALAC POD grant.
Safos Dance Theatre is a non-profit modern dance company founded in Tucson, AZ in 2009. We are committed to creating dance that represents the unique aesthetics of the Southwest and the US/Mexico borderlands region. http://safosdance.wixsite.com/safosdance
Liz Lerman, LLC
![Attention Arizona dancers:
Are you or someone you know in the dance community experiencing dire financial emergency?
You may be eligible for a one-time grant of up to $3,000, which can help pay for essential expenses including housing, food, transportation, and healthcare.
The deadline to apply is this Friday, December 1.
The Rauschenberg Dancer Emergency Grants program is administered by NYFA and funded by @rauschenbergfoundation.
Full details at nyfa.org/RDEG or via the link in @rauschenbergfoundation bio.
📷 Detail: Robert Rauschenberg, "Untitled [Cunningham dancers]," 1961, Copyright Robert Rauschenberg Foundation](https://azarts.gov/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)