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For Immediate Release

Contact: Cassandra Hartblay
CEC ArtsLink
(212) 643-1985 x17
chartblay@cecartslink.org


International residency participants share their choreography, and more

“It may be called the American Dance Festival, but it is no longer strictly an American affair,” wrote the New York Sun last June, in reference to the contribution that choreographers from around the world make to the renowned festival in Durham.

This year again, a strong Russian presence will be felt at the festival. Four contemporary dance choreographers from Russia will attend a two week residency as part of the Open World Cultural Leaders program, hosted by CEC ArtsLink. This is the third year that ADF and CEC ArtsLink will partner to host choreographers, an endeavor of the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition, ADF’s International Choreographers Residency (now in its 25th year) will include several Russian participants.

This year’s Open World choreographers are Leonid Glukhov (PRO-dvizheniya Dance, Novosibirsk), Natalya Podkovyrova (Acid Rain Dance, Chelyabinsk), Maria Samsonova (OKNO Dance Project, Saint Petersburg), and Olga Zimina (The Center of Contemporary Dance, Krasnoyarsk).

During their two weeks at the festival, they will attend master classes and performances, participate in a round table conversation about contemporary choreography around the world, meet their international peers, and have the opportunity to perform their own work for festival participants and the public.

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of their stay at the Festival is the potential to establish long-term collaborative relationships with dancers and choreographers from around the world. For instance, Ivan Estegneev (Dialogue Dance Company), a 2007 participant in the program, went on to host ADF faculty member Ming-Lung Yang for a two week teaching residency at Dialogue Dance School in Kostroma, Russia.

“Dance is an art form that easily transcends language barriers, becoming an effective medium for cross-cultural communication” said Masha Pyshkina, director of the Open World Program at CEC ArtsLink. “Every year, it is incredibly fulfilling to watch our Russian participants immersed in the world of American modern dance: sharing, learning, and collaborating. When at the end of a residency we see them on stage in a new piece co-created with their American counterparts in the course of two weeks, we know that we are seeing something special, something that is, in fact, one of the main goals of the program.”

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Founded in 1934 in Bennington, Vermont, the American Dance Festival remains an international magnet for choreographers, dancers, teachers, students, critics, musicians, and scholars, drawing them together to experiment, explore, learn, collaborate, and create in a supportive environment. Students and community members interact directly with luminaries in the field, learning first-hand from those who define modern dance. ADF’s wide range of programs includes performances, artist services, humanities projects, publications, community outreach, educational programs and classes, archives, media projects, and national and international projects. ADF has been presenting the best in modern dance for 76 years and has been called “the world’s greatest dance festival” by The New York Post.

CEC ArtsLink, through a multi-faceted program of cultural exchange, serves to create and sustain constructive, mutually beneficial relationships in the arts between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Working with contemporary artists, arts organizations and community-based groups, CEC ArtsLink provides an essential structure for ongoing dialogue, contributing to a culture of openness and trust between nations. In addition to contemporary dance choreographers, CEC ArtsLink hosts Open World Cultural Leaders residencies for Russian independent filmmakers, folk musicians, poets, and prose writers.

With years of experience as a leader in cultural exchange between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, CEC ArtsLink has long been a behind-the-scenes player in numerous esteemed cultural events, as a supporter and facilitator of residencies, projects, and networks for artists and art managers at venues across the U.S. and around the world. Today, we are pleased to bring an on-going series of cultural events to the public through our partnerships in New York, around the United States, and abroad. Visit our homepage for more about upcoming events and on-going projects.

Open World is a unique, nonpartisan initiative of the U.S. Congress. Over 13,000 Open World participants have been hosted in all 50 U.S. states since the program's inception in 1999. Open World’s Cultural Leaders Program aims to forge better understanding between the United States and Russia by enabling emerging Russian leaders in the arts to experience America’s cultural and community life, and to work with their American counterparts. Support for the cultural program is provided through partnership and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Open World Leadership Center funds the administrative portion of the program.

For more information, please contact Cassandra Hartblay, Program Coordinator, CEC ArtsLink, at (212) 643-1985 x17 or chartblay@cecartslink.org. To learn more about the artists mentioned here, and opportunities for artists and arts organizations administered by CEC ArtsLink, please visithttp://www.cecartslink.org.

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