The Time Is NOW

“We’re definitely the less-is-more group,” says Robin Staff, artistic director/producer of [DanceNOW [NYC]], the busy and intrepid dance-presenting organization that gets the fall dance season off to an invigorating start with Festival Twenty Ten next week. Making big things possible with reduced resources is certainly a handy talent in this era of funding cuts and tightened budgets, and for a small organization, the 16-year-old DanceNOW does a large amount to nurture and support dance artists.

Next week’s annual festival, at Dance Theater Workshop, offers Staff and her co-producers what must feel like a vast space compared to Joe’s Pub, where they have been offering imaginative programming in the Dancemopolitan series for seven years on a postage-stamp-sized stage. Each of the four DTW programs presents 10 different choreographers, who are given a seven-minute time limit. They tend to be swiftly paced showcases of tightly focused work. And that is exactly the idea for this often sold-out festival, Staff asserts. “We’re asking the choreographers to ‘put your best foot forward, because people coming here haven’t seen you before.’ We have huge visibility, and there’s always a buzz.”

Staff explains further that “we believe in shorter is better. They can present a repertory work, or create a new work that is a concise, clear artistic message. They can do an excerpt, but it must read as a clear statement. It’s about editing. There are some artists I can talk to who want that commentary. But it’s often hard to say that. So this is quietly our way of challenging them a little bit more with their craft.”

DanceNOW’s presentations also include the Raw Festival, an April studio series created in partnership with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Thirty choreographers selected from 100 applicants presented their work. “The purpose is to really identify who the new artists are out there—artists who we haven’t yet seen or presented under DanceNOW,” Staff explains. Among those newcomers at this year’s festival are Khaleah London (Sept. 8), Iain Rowe (Sept. 9) and small apple co/Makiko Tamura (Sept. 10).

There is a great deal of synergy between the organization’s various projects. Choreographers who make a powerful case for their work at this festival may then be presented in the Joe’s Pub series. And about one-third of the slots for the annual DTW festival are held for the cream of the crop amongst what Staff and her colleagues see at Raw.

Another third of the 40 offerings are by artists who, Staff says, “have grown up with us.” These include Kyle Abraham (Sept. 8), Monica Bill Barnes (Sept. 11), Camille A. Brown (Sept. 8) and David Parker (Sept. 8), all of whom have been nurtured and presented with ongoing loyalty by DanceNOW. “We first presented Kyle in 2001, and Camille first came to us in 1999,” Staff recalls. Though Brown recently presented four evenings at the Joyce Theater, this festival gives her and the other mainstays “a chance to show something new and different, something she wouldn’t necessarily do at the Joyce. It’s a testing ground.” For Abraham, one of the most talented and compelling up-and-comers on the Downtown scene (who will open the Dancemopolitan series in February), it’s a chance to focus on a new solo work.

The final third of the festival roster consists of “people who are out there whom we’re watching and are interested in presenting, who aren’t necessarily with us every year. But we’re hoping that they will come into the fold of the DanceNOW family.”

A novel aspect of this year’s festival is The DanceNOW Challenge, which injects a note of competition. At the end, one choreographer whose work is deemed to best meet the challenge of creating a clear, concise and complete artistic statement will be awarded a week-long residency at Silo at Kirkland Farm in Bucks County, Pa., along with a $1,000 residency stipend, 20 hours of free rehearsal time at the new Gibney Dance Center and a paid teaching opportunity at DeSales University, with whom DanceNOW has partnered since 2006 to bring New York City-based choreographer/educators to Bucks County/Lehigh Valley.

Is DanceNOW trying to offer a Downtown equivalent of the ubiquitous competitive activity on reality TV, where everyone is striving to win something? Not exactly. “Part of the DanceNOW mission is, how do we challenge our artists?” explains Staff, whose primary residence is Kirkland Farm in Bucks County, where the Silo program offers artists creative residencies 75 miles away from the city. “We see that these artists need more resources than a one-time shot at the festival. We’ve started to deepen the connections between our three programs—this festival, Joe’s Pub and a residency here at Silo. We feel this challenge is our way to be able to support and encourage them, at a time when the funding is going down.”

DanceNOW’s own funding took a $20,000 hit this year, quite substantial, given that the annual budget is $100,000. But the plucky organization keeps making the most of what it has, doing all it can to support choreographers through inventive programs. And if the monetary rewards are minimal, Staff notes, “Part of the fun for us is watching them grow.”

[DanceNOW [NYC]] Festival Twenty Ten

Sept. 8-11, [Dance Theater Workshop], 219 W. 19th St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-924-0077; 7:30, $20.