Trust Art

project overview

The Dance-Lab Project began as an effort to expose underprivileged young women to dance as a creative outlet while simultaneously empowering Propel-her’s collective model. Propel-her offers an alternative to achieving success in the dance world by disenfranchising the need for cut-throat competition and instead utilizing the combined power of the group.

Chapter 1 of Dance-Lab, The Group Solo Project, is comprised of two parts completed in tandem in May 2009. One aspect of Chapter 1 brought Propel-her together with ten young women from the Harlem Children's Zone's TRUCE Media Center. Through sharing their process by way of interaction and inclusion, Propel-her successfully exposed aspiring female artists to not only dance, but to the process behind a performative pursuit. The second component of Chapter 1 included staging Propel-her's third evening-long New York City production, "The Balancing Act", which featured original dance works by seven emerging female choreographers. Show participants were comprised of people with a wide array of professional dance experience, from the green, to those with some years of experience such as Propel-her members, to others with fifteen plus years of professional choreographic experience. The evening of performances exposed the irony of what an ""emerging artist"" means, especially in relation to funding new or experimental dance.

Chapter 2 includes the launching of Propel-her's blog, Dance-Lab, as a way to share the collective's collaborative process and experiences, demonstrating to the online arts community that success can be achieved through group support, exchange, experimentation, and audience interaction. In addition to leading as an example, the blog provides a forum for engaging and bringing new audiences into the dialogue surrounding dance-making, collaboration, and arts funding.

For more information about the dance collective visit: http://propelherdance.com and the Dance-Lab blog at http://propelherdance.wordpress.com