Residency Dates: October 12, 2015 - November 01, 2015
Application Deadline: May 31, 2015
Reggie Wilson (Artistic Director, choreographer and performer) founded his company, Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group, in 1989. Wilson draws from the movement languages of the blues, slave and spiritual cultures of Africans in the Americas and combines them with post-modern elements and his own personal movement style to create what he calls “post-African/Neo-HooDoo Modern dances.”
His work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues such as Dance Theater (NYC) Workshop, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Lee, MA), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), UCLA Live (Los Angeles), The Flynn (Burlington, VT), Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans), Dance Umbrella (Austin, TX), Summerstage (NYC), Linkfest and Festival e’Nkundleni (Zimbabwe), Dance Factory (South Africa), Danças na Cidade (Portugal), and Festival Kaay Fecc (Senegal), The Politics of Ecstasy (Berlin, Germany).
Wilson is a graduate of New York University, Tisch School of the Arts (1988, Larry Rhodes, Chair). He has studied composition and been mentored by Phyllis Lamhut; Performed and toured with Ohad Naharin before forming Fist and Heel. He has lectured, taught and conducted extended workshops and community projects throughout the US, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. Wilson has traveled extensively: to the Mississippi Delta to research secular and religious aspects of life there; to Trinidad and Tobago to research the Spiritual Baptists and the Shangoists; and also to the Southern, Central, West and East of Africa to work with dance and performance groups as well as various religious communities. He has served as visiting faculty at several universities including Yale, Princeton and Wesleyan Universities. He is the recipient of the Minnesota Dance Alliance’s McKnight National Fellowship (2000-2001). Wilson is also a 2002 BESSIE-New York Dance and Performance Award recipient for his work The Tie-tongued Goat and the Lightning Bug Who Tried to Put Her Foot Down and a 2002 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He has been an artist advisor for the National Dance Project and Board Member of Dance Theater Workshop. In recognition of his creative contributions to the field, Wilson was named a 2009 United States Artists Prudential Fellow and is also the 2009 recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in Dance. His evening-length work The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn had its World premiere at the Walker Art Center and NY premiere on the Brooklyn Academy of Music 2009 Next Wave Festival. In 2012 theRevisitaton, New York Live Arts presented a concert of works, to critical acclaim. Most recently, he received the 2012 Joyce Foundation Award for his new work (project) Moseses Project, premiering 2013 as well as being an inaugural Doris Duke Artist. For more information please visithttp://www.fistandheelperformancegroup.org
Residency Statement
A call for choreographers, dancers, performers, scholars and researchers interested in physical/movement and verbal conversations on belonging and not belonging, esp. regarding citizenship and civic duty. My personal focus for this period will be in folk of the African Diaspora and their communities in the Trans-Atlantic as well as Paris, France. My new project on which I am focused is CITIZEN. This will partially be a research and developmental residency of my new evening-length work of solos and group work, CITIZEN that asks the questions, “What does it mean to belong,” and “What does it mean to not want to belong.” This is partially inspired by my continued interest in and research of the work and life of the folklorist, dramatist, Novelist, Anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston. With CITIZEN, I will be excavating universal statements of individuality my choices and their implications, and the complicated humanity inherent in black folks’ sense of belonging in America.
Application Requirements
All should be prepared to participate in sessions of various movement awareness and vocabularies. And may participate and perform in work-in-progress presentations.
1. All applicants should submit a resume/C.V
2. A brief letter of intent or statement stating why you are interested in the residency
3. Dance/performance applicants should be of varied backgrounds, ages and body types and submit video of their dancing in either their own or someone else’s choreography (identifying themselves) Please include separate document (.doc, .docx, .pdf) with links to online video documentation (YouTube, Vimeo, web site, etc.)
Residency Fee: $900
Includes a $100 administration fee, weekday meals and housing; does not include artist materials, transportation, or weekend meals.
Scholarships / Financial Assistance
Only accepted Associate Artists may apply for financial assistance. For details, please visithttps://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/master-artist-residence-program-details-0
Application fee: $25