EMPAC – the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - announces the four recipients of the 2008 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission. Chosen from a short list of 28 projects by an international panel of dance-film practitioners, curators and producers, the projects range in format, style and emotional tone: from single-channel video installation to 16mm film, from the spectacular to the surreal.

The projects will receive awards ranging from $7,000 to $40,000 and will be premiered in the fall of 2009 at EMPAC.

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For a towering, incandescent presence and for raising the bar to celestial heights in her full-tilt performances; for her deep, unwavering commitment to the meaning and the soul of the choreography in Urban Bush Women's season at The Joyce Theater.

Nora Chipaumire Nora Chipaumire was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe during the Chimurenga Chechipiri, or second war of liberation. A self-exiled artist now based in New York, she investigates the collaborative process within cultural, political, economic, and technological identities of African contemporary life. Nora Chipaumire is a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) 2007-08 Choreographic Fellow. She is a recipient of National Dance Project (NDP) Tour Support in 2007-08. She also received a Jerome Travel and Study Grant to participate in the JANT-BI Diaspora Project in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal in May and August 2007. Nora was honored with the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts on March 10, 2007. She is featured in the documentary Movement (R)evolution and is the subject of the documentary-in-progress, Nora Chipaumire: A Physical Biography, directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, supported by a 2007 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission.

DEADLINE : MARCH 01, 2008

Online registration now available.

OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission supports the creation of new works in the field of experimental dance for the screen made by, or in collaboration with, a choreographer or movement artist based in the Americas.

Up to 3 commissions will be awarded in the range of $7,000 - $50,000. Artists may apply to create works in conjunction with the Artist-in-Residence program, taking advantage of EMPAC’s spaces, technology, infrastructure such as computer-controlled rigging or large-scale immersive studio environments.  

-- guidelines, application and info: empac.rpi.edu/commissions/DMC 
-- questions: dancemovies@rpi.edu or 1.518.276.3918
-- deadline: 3/01/08

Backed by the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts, the DANCE MOViES Commission supports experimental works for the screen including film, video, installation and other audio-visual formats.

The DANCE MOViES Commission 2008 PANEL:

-- Leonel Brum (Brazil)
-- Lynette Kessler (USA)
-- Christina Molander (Sweden)
-- Laura Taler (Canada)

Please visit the DANCE MOViES Commission website for full bios of the panelists.

About EMPAC
EMPAC – the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center – is a place and a program where the arts challenge and alter our technology and technology challenges and alters the arts. Founded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, EMPAC is an arts institution that draws strength from being part of a great research university. It operates nationally and internationally: attracting innovative artists, both renowned and emerging, from around the world; offering artists, researchers, and audiences opportunities that are available nowhere else under a single roof; providing unsurpassed facilities for creative exploration, and for research in fields such as visualization and movement capture; sending new artworks onto the global stage.
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www.empac.rpi.edu

http://www.empac.rpi.edu/commissions/DMC/workshop/

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November: DANCE MOViES Commission WORKSHOPS
led by EMPAC's Dance Curator Hélène Lesterlin

Free and open to artists interested in applying to the commission. No need to register, just come!

Topics covered: How to apply, what makes a strong proposal, information on the facilities of EMPAC, issues related to installation-based works, examples shown, followed by a Q&A and discussion.

BUENOS AIRES Thursday, November 8th, 2:30 - 4:30 pm
Videodanza Festival International de Buenos Aires
For information and location: http://www.videodanzaba.com.ar/t_produccion07.htm

LOS ANGELES Wednesday, November 28th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
18th Street Arts Center
1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
In the main gallery space.
http://www.18thstreet.org/

NEW YORK CITY Monday, December 3rd, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
Take the elevator to the third floor.
http://www.dtw.org/

EMPAC (the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) is now accepting proposals for its 2008 commissions. The deadline for the proposals is February 15, 2008.