Sugar Salon

SUGAR SALON Applications - DEADLINE: APRIL 30, 2008! Click on the links below to download an application for this incredible opportunity. Applications must be RECEIVED by 5pm at the Barnard College Department of Dance OR POSTMARKED by Friday, April 30, 2008. NO EXCEPTIONS. DO NOT SEND or DROP THEM AT THE WAX OFFICE.

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Sugar Salon in the news:

-An intriguing interview of Mary Cochran, Chair of the Department of Dance of Barnard College and luciana achugar on Eva Yaa Asentewaa's Blogspot: InifiniteBody.
-Lisa Jo Sagolla of Backstage magazine writes about the program: click here

Click here to visit our 2007 Archive:
Mentor Donna Uchizono; Participating choreographers luciana achugar, Renee Archibald and Heather McArdle.
Click here to visit our 2006 Archive:
Mentor Susan Marshall; Participating choreographers Ivy Baldwin, Yanira Castro and Dana Ruttenberg.

About the Sugar Salon Program

Historically, modern dance has been populated by powerful female artists. Its pioneering choreographers shaped a visionary continuum, from Katherine Dunham's Afro-Caribbean celebrations to Martha Graham's dramas about the realm of the feminine unconscious. Still today, modern dance stands as an incredible resource for girls and women to recognize and be inspired by American cultural heroines. However, though modern dance is the only American art form originated by women, contemporary male choreographers have far surpassed their female counterparts in grants and patronage, media attention and professional opportunities.

One unfortunate outcome of cycle is the public misconception that women make work of lesser value or quality than their male counterparts. Sugar Salon seeks to address that misconception and shift this dynamic by creating new, lucrative career opportunities for high caliber female choreographers and by educating the public about the unique genesis of modern dance within American art.

Sugar Salon addresses this gender imbalance creating career building opportunities for women: commissioning the work of emerging and established female choreographers in a context that encourages mentorship, resource sharing, enhanced self-promotion, and long-term planning. Sugar Salon recognizes that in order to develop and flourish, women choreographers need to enjoy the same exposure and fiscal encouragement that their male counterparts are being offered. Additionally, Sugar Salon believes that through aggressive marketing and public dialogue, audiences and artists can recognize and tackle gender-based inequity in the dance field.

Sugar Salon matches an established mentor choreographer with three women in varying stages of their career. Potential participants are targeted through recommendations from that mentor choreographer, invitations from the producers, and a general call for proposals. Participants are selected through a competitive review process, and receive a three month rehearsal residency, a creative stipend, open rehearsal / panel / lecture demonstration opportunities for the work in progress, full presentation in a professional performances of completed work, and a subsequent, additional opportunity for an adjunct faculty position with Barnard College to set work on their student body.

Sugar Salon was developed in tandem with independent choreographers Tami Stronach and Kate Weare. Program development was made possible in part through the support and partnership of The Barnard College Department of Dance of Columbia University under the leadership of the Department Chair, Mary Cochran, and through funding from Saul and Mary Sanders, Molly Heinz, and the Harkness Foundation.