MANCC Receives Inaugural Princess Grace Foundation Award

Co-Choreographer Miguel Guiterrez dances as he and MANCC Fellow Alex Ketley travel through the South. Photo by Alex Ketley

Collaborator Michelle Boule’ works with a local dancer along the Southern travel route. Photo by Alex Ketley.

MANCC is pleased to announce that they are the first recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation Choreography Mentorship Co-Commission Award. The funding will support Princess Grace and MANCC Choreographic Fellow, Alex Ketley in the research and development of a new work with MANCC Choreographic Fellow, Miguel Gutierrez and collaborators Michelle Boule’ and Sara Woods.

The project explores what dance and concert dance means to rural communities in the South and builds upon Ketley’s No Hero project, which was developed exploring the same questions in the Pacific Northwest.  No Hero Triptych, drawn from the evening length piece, was re-staged by FSU School of Dance Students in February 2013 while Ketley was a guest faculty member.  Additionally, No Hero was presented at the Historic Asolo Theater this past spring.

Research for the new work began last month with a three week tour of the South, from Texas to Florida to Georgia and North Carolina, and was documented through photographs and video. The choreographers and collaborating artists will return to MANCC next season to develop the new work at FSU, and the Ringling Museum’s Historic Asolo Theater will host the world premiere in 2015.

For more information about this project visit MANCC online.