GUILFORD — Vermont Performance Lab (VPL) is one of 895 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works grant.
VPL says in a press release it was recommended for a $10,000 grant to support research and development residencies and the presentation of new works in 2014 by three nationally and internationally known choreographers: Sara East Johnson of Brooklyn, N.Y., Alex Ketley of San Francisco, and Thierry Thieû Niang of Paris.
In May, VPL will partner with the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA) to bring Niang, a French Vietnamese choreographer, to New England for a three-week workshop and residency. Here he'll work with 25 local participants to stage a powerful re-imagining of Stravinsky's “Rite of Spring.”
In June, VPL will embark on a composer-choreographer residency with Johnson and her company, LAVA, to support the creation and development of “Ancestors,” a full-length hybrid circus/dance work in collaboration with DJ Tikka Masala and Mamie Minch.
In August, Ketley will arrive in Vermont for a five-week residency with VPL, where he aims to become acquainted with rural communities through dance and story, all of which will inform a dance film, “No Hero Vermont.”
NEA notes it received 1,528 eligible Art Works applications requesting more than $75 million in funding. Of those, 895 are recommended for grants for a total of $23.4 million. For a complete list of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, visit the NEA at www.arts.gov.
VPL, a laboratory for creative research and community engagement, brings artists of regional, national and international stature to the grange halls, studios, and classrooms of rural Vermont through its innovative artist residency program. Visit www.vermontperformancelab.org.