Feedback and iteration are crucial to innovation and fully-developed creation. However, with local funding often prioritizing new and/or finalized work, and with rising costs of living and artistic resources, dance artists are often pushed to focus on product, letting incubation fall by the wayside. This leads to underdeveloped work, limiting artists' ability to fully hone their creative voice and vision. Over time, this can impact artists' access to funding and performance opportunities, limiting their potential for success and career longevity, especially for BIPOC, low-income, and other marginalized artists. Long-term, this cycle shrinks and homogenizes our local field, depriving us of cultural and creative diversity, not to mention equity.
Midday Movement Series ("MIDDAY") launch Rough Drafts, a process-focused program that seeks to address these issues by offering a platform supporting early (1-4 yr) and mid-career (4-10 yr) contemporary dance-makers to deepen their understanding of their own choreography through a three-pronged approach:
- A teaching residency for artists to learn to use their class space as a laboratory to deepen their relationship to their own material, and to learn to communicate their values to collaborators;
- An in-studio informal showing with a moderated post-show discussion, where the artist can show up to 15 minutes of a work-in-progress at any stage of development to glean audience feedback, build audience relationships, and view their material in a low-stakes environment for the purpose of re-investigating, deepening their research, and continuing to develop their piece; and
- Two culminating low-tech showcases for the artists to see their works-in-progress in a black box theater with slightly more production quality, informing deeper and continued development of their work while continuing to build their audience and visibility.
NEW THIS YEAR: We are thrilled to partner with the Boston Center for the Arts in our 2025 season to offer each Rough Drafts artist up to ten hours of free rehearsal space at the BCA's Studio 414. Program artists will also receive high-quality photos and video from the final showcases to use for their own promotional materials, grant applications, and more. Up to six artists/companies will be selected to participate in the 2025 program cohort. Application deadline: Sunday, November 10th at 11:59PM.
NOTE: This program is meant to supplement artists' current plans to create, continue developing, or re-investigate a choreographic project. Rough Drafts is not a choreographic residency and does not provide funds or extensive rehearsal space; rather, it is a professional development opportunity intended to support artists in optimizing their current projects as a tool to reach current and future artistic goals.
Eligibility
Contemporary/modern dance-makers with 1-10 years of professional experience are invited to apply to this program. Artists may apply alone or with collaborators, although all members of the choreographic team must have a minimum of one year of professional choreographic experience. Choreographers must be at least 20-years-old and based in the Boston area (inside of the 495 loop). Applicants may propose a solo work or group work with up to 8 artists, including the choreographer(s) if performing. Proposed works may be at any stage of development. Work shown in this program may not exceed 15 minutes, although this may be an excerpt of an evening-length work.
PROGRAM DETAILS
Teaching Residency + Informal Showings
MIDDAY will host one selected artist/company per month from January - June, 2024. Each choreographer/company will lead up to 3 weekly open, advanced-level classes, receiving coaching from MIDDAY Director Marissa Molinar to hone their movement vocabulary, identify and/or clarify their artistic values, and improve their ability to communicate these principles to others. Class fees will be $12 and artists will earn 60% of their class fees. Artists are encouraged to invite their project/company dancers to take their classes for free so they may deepen their training in the artist’s movement. Classes will take place on Mondays from 6:00-8:00 PM.
In the final week of their program month, the artist will host one in-studio, informal showing, presenting up to 15 minutes of work-in-progress. MIDDAY staff will moderate a post-show audience discussion for the artist to obtain feedback. MIDDAY Director Marissa Molinar will consult with each artist to process this information, helping them apply their learnings artistically and/or administratively in a highly individualized strategy.
Informal showings will take place the final Monday of each month from 7:00-8:00 PM.
Rough Drafts Showcases
The program will culminate in July 2024 with two Rough Drafts Showcases (one afternoon and one evening showing on the same day). Program dance-makers will have the opportunity to show the work-in-progress material from their informal showing in a low-tech, black box theater setting, with a focus still on process: rather than showcasing finalized works, MIDDAY’s goal for the showcases is for artists to see their works with slightly more production quality so they can continue deepening their creative incubation while continuing to cultivate their audiences and visibility. Anticipated date for the Showcases is Saturday July 12th, with tech/dress on Friday July 11th (times TBD).
History
The Rough Drafts program was developed based on our learnings from Movement Under Development (MUD), a process-driven choreographic lab developed in partnership with Eventual Dance Company (directed by Caitlin Canty), facilitated by Daniel McCusker (Boston-based choreographer, dancer, current Professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and Senior Lecturer Emeritus at Tufts University), and held bi-weekly from January - May 2023.