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Published on February 3, 2022

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced two major awards to the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival, including an American Rescue Plan award of $150,000 designed to help the festival recover from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The second award of $40,000 is for general support to the festival, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and will be used to support artists.

Shoshona Currier directs the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival. (Photograph by Heidi Kirn)

The $150,000 award is part of a nearly $58 million assistance package the NEA is distributing to 567 arts organizations nationwide. All recipients can use the funding to save jobs, fund operations and facilities, purchase health and safety supplies or use the money to fund marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation.

Director of the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival Shoshona Currier said the American Rescue Plan award will be invaluable as they prepare for the summer festival. Currier learned of the $40,000 grant earlier in January. It’s one of 15 awards, totaling $265,000, designated for Maine groups by the NEA.

Nationwide, more than 1,800 organizations applied for these grants. Currier said the funds will be used for artist fees for performances this summer. Some of the upcoming festival鈥檚 artists originally planned projects for 2020 that were postponed because of the pandemic.

鈥淭his recognition by the National Endowment for the Arts is very welcome and richly deserved,鈥� said President Clayton Spencer. 鈥淪honi has provided leadership for the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival that has been creative and inspired from an artistic point of view, and remarkably pragmatic in adapting to the challenging realities of producing live performances during the pandemic. This funding is particularly timely as we look forward to bringing the festival back to campus in person this summer, with exciting and wide-ranging programs for dance students, performing artists and audiences alike.鈥�

Appearing in the photographs are Justin Moriarity, technical director for the 乐播传媒 theater and dance department, who is serving as the BDF production manager, and psychology major Jamarhi Amrham '22 of Fontana, Calif., who is interning with the BDF this summer.EMILY JOHNSON/CATALYSTProcessions Toward, Being Future Beingwork-in-progressJuly 17-18, 6:00pmKennedy ParkEmily Johnson/Catalyst鈥檚 newest work in development, Being Future Being delves into the power of creation to build a visual, aural and ancestral landscape of Indigenous power. Featuring a newly commissioned soundscore by Raven Chacon and a cast of more-than-human creatures, this work-in-progress connects audiences to land and imagines new ways to be together. By (re)building new visions of the forces that brought this world into being, Johnson brings forth new futures with the potential to reshape the way we relate to ourselves, and to the human and more-than-human cohabitants of our world.BDF audiences will experience a work-in-progress of an outdoor section of this work that is still in development. Audiences will walk through areas of downtown Lewiston throughout this piece. Please do not bring blankets and chairs. Bring only what you are comfortable carrying. For accessibility questions, please contact bdfboxoffice@bates.eduEmily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. She is a land and water protector and an activist for justice, sovereignty and well-being. Emily is a Bessie Award-winning choreographer, Guggenheim and United States Artists Fellow, and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award. She is based in Lenapehoking / New York City. Emily is of the Yup鈥檌k Nation, and since 1998 has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as portals and care processions, they engage audienceship within and through space, time, and environment 鈥� interacting with a place鈥檚 architecture, peoples, history and role in building future
Creativity was the watchword during last summer鈥檚 pandemic-modified 乐播传媒 Dance Festival, which featured alternative locations, both indoors and outside, due to pandemic restrictions. During a rehearsal last July for a performance of a work in development, Being Future Being, in Kennedy Park, choreographer Emily Johnson works with a dancer swathed in quilts. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Currier, who took over the position of director of the festival in 2017 after the retirement of longtime director Laura Faure, also noted how vulnerable performers were to the setbacks of the pandemic. 鈥淭his pandemic has been especially cruel to artists, gig-workers, and so many essential participants in our creative industries,鈥� Currier said. 鈥淩elief funding for organizations is so essential in creating stability in the field in the future. And hopefully we鈥檝e learned from these years and are creating better systems than what were previously in place.鈥�

After a canceled 2020 season, the festival 鈥� with limits on the number of students and performances 鈥� returned in 2021. Currier put her creativity to use, coming up with alternative locations, both indoors and outside, to adjust to visitor restrictions on the 乐播传媒 campus. She turned the side of Schaeffer Theatre into a movie screen to show films outside. For a performance by a land and water protector and activist for justice, Emily Johnson, Currier turned to Kennedy Park in Lewiston.

An at L/A Arts Gallery invited participants in, one at a time, for 20 minute interactions. At Simard Payne Park Amphitheater, live salsa music inspired dancing by audience members and also served as a venue for Vanessa Anspaugh鈥檚 audience-interactive.鈥�

Artists and dancers 鈥渁dapted constantly” last summer, said BDF Director Shoni Currier, offering a 鈥渢estament to what can happen within a creative practice in the most desperate of situations.鈥� Here, viewers sat on College Street 鈥� helpfully closed for the occasion 鈥� to view a film, Communion, projected on a screen on the porch of Schaeffer Theatre. The film was created during the height of the pandemic lockdown by Janessa Clark, who asked each of 40 dancers to submit a video of themselves dancing. Each video was then combined with another dancer鈥檚 video to create 20 鈥渄istanced duets.鈥� (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The festival also commissioned writing by dancers, to offer opportunities while theaters were closed. The next season of , an anthology curated by choreographer Raja Feather Kelly for the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival, will be released this month. The anthology was a project born out of the pandemic, meant to engage dancers while they were separated physically. It features 16 artists responding to prompts in essays, interviews or other prose over the course of a year. 

鈥淲e will continue outdoor events and writing projects and finding multiple ways to support artists,鈥� Currier says. 鈥淏ut our hope is we鈥檒l be primarily back on campus in 2022, where the festival started. No matter what happens though, this funding from the NEA is going to make all the difference. I think it鈥檚 safe to say, we鈥檙e all dancing for joy 鈥� and relief 鈥� about this.鈥�  

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