Audition Notice

CONTEMPORARY BALLET/MODERN DANCERS WITH INTERESTING STORIES TO TELL

needed for

FELICE LESSER DANCE THEATER’S

I AM A DANCER 2020

Ballet & Modern Dancers of major company calibre, of all races, ethnicities, & genders, are sought for the World Premiere of Felice Lesser’s  I AM A DANCER 2020, at New York Live Arts, the week of June 23rd. Paid rehearsals begin in March in NYC, and go through the premiere. (Due to the dearth of affordable rehearsal studios left in New York, dancers must be able to be flexible with rehearsal times and days, so please do not apply if you have many other conflicts, as we will not be able to accommodate them.)

Using live dance and projected video, I AM A DANCER 2020 will focus on how dance workers navigated and responded to the Covid pandemic. Set in the politically turbulent years of 2020-22, it will examine how dancers tried to maintain their lives in a period in which they just couldn't dance, persevering and in some cases, completely reinventing themselves and their art. We'll look at young dancers thinking themselves impervious to disease, taking risks as they continued rehearsing and performing; dancers in mid-career contemplating complete career and life changes; and older dancers isolating themselves to prevent illness, while trying to maintain a place in a field so centered on youth. (We also hope to include a dancer who might have been seriously ill with Covid, and what it took to come back.) Illuminating what dancers dealt with to survive the pandemic, once it took away their livelihoods and almost their reason for being, I AM A DANCER 2020 will attempt to convey how the isolation, fear, and illness of Covid, affected and changed us all.

All performers must be based in the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) area, and must be legally able to work in the United States. We cannot offer visas.

Please send pix, resumes, and links to recent online dance videos to: flincny@aol.com (FLDT AUDITION and YOUR NAME in the subject header), as well as a cover letter briefly telling us your “Covid story” and why you should be included in this work.  If the company is interested you will be invited to a dance audition. (If we find we cannot offer you a place in the company, but find your story compelling enough that we want to interview you and include the interview in the work, you may be hired for the projected video alone.)