DANCE 2000 THE FELICE LESSER DANCE THEATER FOUNDATION INC
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Mission Statement
Felice Lesser Dance Theater is known for its "living movies" (Lesser’s multi-media form combining live dance with theater and a moving set of projected video & animation), its focus on contemporary issues, and its many collaborations with the best of today’s composers. The company has performed in New York, New Jersey, New England, and in Japan at the 1991 International Choreography Competition (where Lesser was one of 20 choreographers worldwide invited to participate). FLDT feels strongly that art should be available and accessible to all, and provides educational and outreach programs to students, seniors, and underserved populations.
About This Cause
ABOUT THE FELICE LESSER DANCE THEATER Trying to find innovative ways a small dance company could create large-scale, interdisciplinary works on a "non-profit-sized" budget, has led the Felice Lesser Dance Theater into technological experimentation and the melding of other art forms (such as drama) into its contemporary dance work. With just a personal computer, Lesser established her signature form, the “living movie” in which live dancers interact with moving sets of projected video and animation, as they confront important issues in today's world (such as global warming, artificial intelligence, racism, and diversity). FLDT has been a champion of contemporary music since its inception, commissioning new scores and presenting the works of composers including Seymour Barab, Richard Einhorn, Philip Glass, Stefania de Kenessey, Thea Musgrave, Nicolas Roussakis, and Charles Wuorinen. The company's performances have taken place at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, The Duke on 42nd Street, Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYLA, Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, Dixon Place, Jazz at Lincoln Center Theater, Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, Joyce SoHo; colleges/universities including Columbia, Rutgers, Bates, Wesleyan, Marymount Manhattan, NYU, UCONN/Stamford, LPAC, and at the 1991 Tokyo International Choreography Competition (where Lesser was one of 20 invited choreographers worldwide), among many, many other venues. In December 2022, FLDT premiered Lesser’s post-apocalyptic play, TRAP IST at New York Live Arts (with grants from LMCC’s “Creative Engagement” Program, and Dance/NYC’s Coronavirus Reopening Fund). With a disabled actress in its leading role, the company was profiled on FOX-Channel 5’s News at 6 in a live interview with Teresa Priolo on “Disability and Inclusion in the Arts,” and the company was also invited to present a reading of the play for the Dramatists Guild’s “Friday Night Footlights” Series. Lisa Jo Sagolla (The Dance Enthusiast) wrote of the production: “Felice Lesser’s Trap Ist is an important new work that really needs to be seen widely, and by multi-generational audiences…Her work deserves our attention.” Following the 2017 NYC premiere of LIGHTNING (Lesser’s response to the 2016 Presidential election, to a score by Slovenian composer, Borut Krzisnik), Lesser made a short film from one of its sections (A.I.), which was chosen for the 2019 Carson City International Film Weekend. FLDT also won two Accolade Awards for Lesser’s 2007 film I AM A DANCER. Most recently FLDT received a 2024 NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund Grant, and Lesser was invited to be the featured speaker at the Museum of Modern Art in a program for PrimeTime@MoMA (3/13/2024), where videos were also shown of her work. The company also began a monthly online “Dance Appreciation” class for anyone who wants to attend. On July 14,, 2024 the company presented an “Open Rehearsal” as part of the West Side Fest in NYC. Coming up next is FLDT’s milestone 50th ANNIVERSARY SEASON, with the World Premiere of I AM A DANCER 2.0 (about how dancers responded to the Covid pandemic), scheduled for June 2025. FLDT feels strongly that art should be available and accessible to all, and provides educational and outreach programs to underserved populations. (To spotlight just two, its 2000 collaboration with Project FIND brought the Seniors there into the “moving set” for FLDT’s Joyce SoHo performances, and in 2005-06 FLDT offered free weekly ballet classes to the “at risk”/homeless teens & young adults at Covenant House.) FLDT’s extensive array of educational programs bring students and the public into the creative process, and its educational residencies take place nationally (as Lesser is an Artist-in-Residence for the state of Nevada, & formerly, Idaho). The company’s use of technology has extended into programs such as Dancing on the Keyboard (in which elementary school students are taught how to choreograph both in the studio and on the computer screen). Lesser’s long affiliation with UCONN/Stamford Campus as an Adjunct Professor of Dance resulted in her developing the first ever joint “Dance Appreciation” course between FLDT, UCONN, & the Stamford Center for the Arts, and she was also involved in UCONN'S UPALS Program (for teens who were the first in their families to be college-bound) for the seven years of the program's existence. She was also a Mentor for the New York Foundation on the Arts' Immigrant Artist Program in 2017 & 2018. FLDT received 27 grants from The Harkness Foundation for Dance, grants from the Puffin, Bossak-Heilbron, & Joyce Mertz-GIlmore Foundations, and ongoing inkind support from Freed of London. The company was the recipient of three artistic residencies from LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s LPAC LAB Program (2011-14), The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning’s "Next Stage" Dance Residency (2014), and a Monira Foundation Residency (2022).