We are so excited to announce that Invertigo has been selected for a New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project Production Grant. It will provide project-specific funding and general operating support for Invertigo Dance Theatre to further develop and tour the work, Formulae & Fairy Tales.
NEFA’s National Dance Project is widely recognized as one of the country’s major sources of funding for dance. NDP grants support the creation and touring of new works and engagement activities that will impact communities across the U.S. A panel of national dance artists and presenters selected 20 projects out of 148 competitive applications. Invertigo Dance Theatre is proud to be one of 20 recipients to receive this award.
“Invertigo is thrilled and honored to be selected for this grant,” says Tara Aesquivel, Invertigo Dance Theatre’s Executive Director. “Our incredible fans, donors, staff and board members in Los Angeles have supported the company for ten years, and we are very excited to be able to share our work with other cities and communities across the country through this award from NEFA.”
Formulae & Fairy Tales places the cold, high-stakes world of mathematics alongside a vivid, twisted fairy tale palette of romanticized beauty. These worlds come together in Alan Turing’s story—father of the computer and artificial intelligence—encompassing nuanced themes of queerness, injustice, technology, and fantasy. The work features cryptography, codes, hidden meanings, and the apple as a symbol of forbidden knowledge and forbidden love. Performances will be complemented by Invertigo’s signature community engagement activities, which could include complementary and interactive workshops, discussions, demonstrations, talkbacks, and more. The work is set to begin touring in late 2019.
“Invertigo strives to tell stories that resonate with a wide variety of people, understanding that each person experiences our work through a unique perspective,” says Laura Karlin, Invertigo’s Founder and Artistic Director. “With Formulae & Fairy Tales, we are hoping to draw people into the piece through interactivity, spark their curiosity and empathy, and provide them with a lush, rich experience.”
Invertigo Dance Theatre was founded by Karlin in 2007 and is an institution at the forefront of Los Angeles dance, connecting people to story and community through a blend of dynamic contemporary movement and compelling theatre. Invertigo has created and performed more than 40 original works in Los Angeles and other west coast cities including The Music Center, Seattle International Dance Festival, Ford Theatres in Hollywood, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, San Diego’s White Box Live Arts, Palm Springs Dance Festival, and more.
Providing accessible dance programming is at the heart of Invertigo’s mission, and the organization operates two year-round community engagement programs: Dancing Through Parkinson’s offers donation-based classes to people living with degenerative conditions, and the Invert/ED program provides a range of dance education and performance opportunities to local students. Throughout all company initiatives, Invertigo is committed to paying fair wages to all artists, teachers, and staff.
NDP has a robust twenty-year history of funding new dance projects with the goal of strengthening arts infrastructure across the nation to create a society in which the arts are intrinsic to the health of society and accessible to all. The organization has invested more than $37 million in funding to artists and organizations to strengthen partnerships and bring dance into communities across the U.S. To view the official list of all 2019 grantees and learn more about their projects please visit www.nefa.org.
NEFA's National Dance Project is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with funding for special initiatives from the Barr Foundation, the Boston Foundation, and the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.
For more information about Formulae & Fairy Tales and Invertigo Dance Theatre, please click here.
Photo credit: Joe Lambie.