The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Announces 2007-2008 Choreographic Fellows

For Immediate Release
August 3, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Choreographers Luciana Achugar (NY), Yannis Adoniou (CA), Nora Chipaumire (NY), Kate Weare (NY) and Nami Yamamoto (NY) have been awarded Choreographic Fellowships by the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at Florida State University for the 2007-2008 academic year.  The recipients were selected through a national screening process, and will each receive approximately $11,000 to conduct choreographic research in the dance and technology facilities at Florida State University.

The five finalists successfully articulated how the Center’s laboratory environment would advance their creative development through choreographic research, and detailed innovative ways of sharing their creative process with MANCC’s target audiences.  This year’s research agendas include Nami Yamamoto’s investigation of the commonalities between puppeteers and choreographers, Nora Chipaumire’s exploration of identity with fellow exiled Zimbabwean musician/composer Thomas Mapfumo, and Luciana Achugar’s inquiry into the relevance of making dance today given the current state of affairs in a war torn world. Common to all projects, is the intimate and engaging nature of their proposed student and community involvement with the research topics being explored.

MANCC fellows are selected through a highly competitive nomination, proposal and review process. The 2007 national panelists were Jennylin Duany, Miami Dade College (FL); Anna Glass, 651 ARTS (NY); Benjamin Johnson, University Musical Society at the University of Michigan (MI); Carla Peterson, Dance Theater Workshop (NY) and Michele Steinwald, Walker Arts Center (MN).  

The mission of MANCC is to raise the value of the creative process in dance by (1) providing a model of support for professional choreographic creativity within a Comprehensive Research University, (2) providing choreographers access to a stimulating environment where experimentation, exploration and life-long learning are both valued and encouraged, and (3) providing opportunities for the students, staff and faculty, the community of Tallahassee and the national dance field at large to engage with the creative process in dance.

MANCC (pronounced man-see), is located in Tallahassee, Florida.  MANCC shares the dance facilities of Montgomery Hall with the Department of Dance on the Florida State University campus.  Montgomery Hall includes six large dance studios, a 400-seat theater, black box, audio lab, recording studio, computer and media lab, classrooms, offices, dressing rooms and conditioning studio for dancers.  

In the 2006-07 season, MANCC hosted Tania Isaac (PA), Miguel Gutierrez (NY), Yanira Castro (NY), Monica Bill Barnes (NY), David Neumann (NY), AXIS Dance Company (CA), Shinichi Iova-Koga (CA), Alex Ketley (CA), Isabel Croxatto (Chile), Kate Weare (NY) and Urban Bush Women (NY) with Compagnie JANT-BI (Senegal).

Read more about each fellow's MANCC residency.