Merry Everything!

2011 Round up!

Dear friends of expandance,

Whoa - 2011 has been a busy year! We've worked hard, expanded and grown. Thank you, you who supported us by coming to see shows, by 'liking' and sharing videos and photos we posted on social media, by your kind donations, by giving up your time to help us out with events, and by generally being the wonderfully supportive and loving people that you are. 

This year, we performed new works at:

Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn, NY as part of SITE Fest
I.F.O.N.L.Y. Festival, Birr, Co. Offaly
Backstage Theatre, Co. Longford as part of LD Dance Fest
Fusion Dance Platform, Waterford, as part of Imagine Arts Festival
The Church Bar, Dublin (completely improvised performance)Back Loft, Dublin as part of Mamuska 
Block T, Dublin as part of TransversalCourthouse Arts Centre, Tinahealy, Co. Wicklow as part of Bealtaine

We hosted a dance talk at Riverbank Arts Centre as part of Culture Night 2011.

We gained a fiscal sponsor in the US, meaning you can now make tax deductible donations to expandance at any time through our 501(c)3 Non-Profit umbrella, The Field.

We volunteered our time to help raise awareness about Dance/NYC's census, the results of which were published last week. 

We took part in NACHMO - National Choreography Month.

We produced 4 short films:

* International Dance Day video for UNESCO I.D.D., edited by Lauren Auricchio and shot in Dublin, New York and Wicklow
* 'Úll' by Laurie Schneider (currently in post-production) 
* A video showing our Over 60s group Ré Órga, generously supported by The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, performing new work in Carlow. 
* A short dance film, 'Black Monday', made in collaboration with our Riverbank Arts Centre teenage group and film maker Joe Cleere.

We auditioned in Ireland and NYC for new dancers, and gained some new and lovely people to work with - two of those dancers - Irish Independent dance artist Ailish Claffey, and new Rock Om cast member Matthew Cichon, will be performing with us and Zoe Dance in Boston in the new year. 

We also turned 5! Founding members Laurie Schneider, Rachel Wynne and Alicia Christofi-Walshe managed to be in the same country, in the same city, and in the same bar on the same day we founded expandance 5 years ago. It was a special evening, and had some of been less jet lagged it might have gone on later than it did. I can't quite believe all that we've created and accomplished in those five years, it's remarkable, and I'm so grateful to all of you for your continued interest and enthusiasm in our work. 



The National Dance Archive in Ireland (University of Limerick) has begun a collection of expandance studio and choreographic notes, sketches, promotional materials and reviews from the last five years, and we're excited to continue to share our work with them. As a company, we're mad about documenting our process, so we were honored when the N.D.A. asked if they could archive some of our materials.

Thank you to The Field, Wickow Arts Council, Dance Ireland, Culture Ireland and all our donors for supporting us through our IndieGoGo campaign this year. 


We look forward to meeting more of you in 2012 - we have some exciting things coming up including performances in Boston, New York and Ireland, and more opportunities to meet the dancers in person.


Here's to a fabulous New Year for everyone!


- Rachel, Alicia, Laurie, Krista & co.

The singing bowls recording.

Happy (only slightly belated) Solstice everyone! Here is a wee video of Guy Yair Beider in Frank Spitznagel's New York studio while we recorded the singing bowls for Rock Om this week. It was a new and exceptionally beautiful experience for all three of us.

And your donations helped make it happen. 

Thank you all for helping us in this campaign. The IndieGoGo bit is officially over, and yet your generous donations keep arriving through the mail and through The Field website. Your faith in this work, your enthusiasm in Rock Om and in what we’re creating is heart warming, and we are all so immensely grateful.

Over the last 31 days, through IndieGoGo and The Field, we’ve raised $3,020. It's almost half our goal, and is a huge help.

Thank you!

We look forward to keeping you updated through our expandance mail-outs, with postcards / videos / mp3s for those of you who chose the perks, and we look forward to seeing you at a performance sometime soon.

- Rachel 

55 Hours left...

Update on the Rock Om fundraising...

We've done well so far, thanks to your help. As well as the $1,840 raised through IndieGoGo, we've raised $550 directly through tax deductible donations made possible through our fiscal sponsor, The Field.

However, we still need to pay our costume designer, lighting designer and dancers! If you have yet to make a donation to help us cover the production costs for our great new show Rock Om, please do so today! 

To get great perks directly from the dancers, donate through our IndieGoGo page within the next 55 hours and choose your perk! Or to make a tax deductible donation (it is that time of year!) click here anytime before midnight Dec 31st (for a 2011 deduction), and choose 'expandance' in the drop-down menu. 

The donor gratitude wall goes live on our website on Dec 20th. 

Again, thank you for everything you're doing to help us spread the word. We promise to use every dollar wisely and effectively.

12 DAYS LEFT TO RAISE $5,440

Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. We appreciate every dollar.

 

If you love our work, please consider telling 10 of your friends about our campaign to bring Rock Om to Oberon in MA in January. Help us get this piece, that we've been working on for over 12 months, out of the studio to the public! We're using every dollar wisely and effectively.

A note from Rachel: 

It's time to get personal, and let you all know what this means to us.

I've been personally funding the development of Rock Om for over a year. I've sourced and paid for hundreds of hours of studio rental, black and white clothes that could pass as costumes, and poured well over a thousand hours (yes) into developing this work for the company - all this while continuing to run the company, and all this outside my 'day job'. The dancers have given up paid work time and again in order to come into the studio and rehearse, because they believe in this piece and it's ability to enlighten and inspire. 

If we don't reach this goal, our lighting designer, our costume designer, I and the dancers don't receive our fee of $500 while we're in Boston. What this means for the dancers is, each of us will give up money we'd usually receive through our day jobs in New York in order to come to Boston and perform this piece. It's incredibly important that we reach our fundraising goal. Please help us by spreading the word. Thank you. 

http://www.indiegogo.com/Rock-Om

Help Matt bring Rock Om to Boston!

Here is one of the Rock Om dancers, Matt Chicon, talking this week about the piece, our rehearsal process and what it means to him. We have 18 days left on our campaign - please spread the word and donate today!

http://www.indiegogo.com/rock-om

 

If you'd like to make a tax deductible contribution, click here and select 'expandance' from the drop-down menu.  

 

The Field is our fiscal sponsor.

The Field is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving the New York City performing arts community. Contributions made to The Field and earmarked for expandance are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field contact: The Field, 161 6th Avenue, New York NY 10013, (212)691-6969, fax: (212)255-2053, www.thefield.org. A copy of The Field's latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from The Field or from the Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.