EmmaGrace Skove-Epes
Brooklyn, NY 
emmagrace3@gmail.com

EDUCATION

Sarah Lawrence College class of 2015

MFA, Dance

Bard College class of 2008                                                            

BA, Dance, Religious Studies (double major)

TEACHING

Third Root Community Health Center                                                                                                                                                                                               September 11- October 30, 2017

Current teaching focuses on visualizing and exploring the anatomy of the sensory organs for inspiration into balancing modes of communication and finding restorative movement and visualization practices amidst a screen-driven and visually over-stimulating culture, with hopes that we can retrain ourselves to empaloy our vision as a collaborating rather than dominating sense. 

New York Live Arts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       March-June 2017

I co-taught movement classes to kids ages 6-12 incorporating choreography/composition, collaboration, improvisation, and facilitating dialogue around how to give constructive feedback.

Bard College                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             March 2017-May 2017

Taught intermediate level modern/contemporary dance to undergraduate college students, including both technique and improvisation.

James Baldwin High School                                                                                                                                                                                                                         October 2016-January 2017

Worked as a teaching artist through New York Live Arts with 9th-12th grade students at James Baldwin School. I taught technique and improvisation as one component of a movement and writing composition class that focused on the study of dance as a form of oral history. 

Brooklyn Studios for Dance                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     May 2016

Taught drop in somatic classes centered around eyes closed movement meditations and explorations as well as a single day 4.5 hour long workshop looking into the anatomy of sensory perception and incorporating somatic explorations and movement scores.

Stella Adler/NYU Tisch School of the Arts                                                                                                                                                                                                  January 2016-March 2016

Taught improvisational movement and directed an evening length ensemble devised movement project for 3rd year NYU Tisch Drama students at Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

Movement Research                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          October 2015

Taught morning class: open level drop-in classes incorporating contemporary technique and improvisational forms.

Barnard College                                                                                                                                                                                                                                September 2015- November 2015

Taught as a substitute teacher for Jodi Melnick’s Intermediate and Advanced Beginner level Modern Dance technique classes. 

NYU Tisch School of the Arts                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 June 2015

Taught modern/postmodern dance technique, improvisation scores, and repertory from Jodi Melnick’s “Moment Marigold” as a part of the Tisch Dance Summer Residency Festival.

Nothing Space (Brooklyn, NY)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         June-July, 2014

Taught classes in role of sensory perception in performing and witnessing dance as well as how to incorporate meditations involving sensory perception into compositional practices.

PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE

I have performed in and collaborated on the work of Edisa Weeks, Kathy Westwater, Jodi Melnick, Jon Kinzel, Meredith Monk, Dianne McIntyre, Nadia Tykulsker, Mor Mendel, Jesse Philips- Fein, Peniel Guerrier, Noemie LaFrance, Maria Simpson, and Sondra Loring, among others, at venues including BAM Fisher, BAM Harvey, the American Dance Institute, Gibney Dance Center, Judson Memorial Church, chashama’s “Anita’s Way”, and Snug Harbor Cultural Arts Center. I have performed nationally as a vocalist with the band SCHOOL.

PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE (SELECTIONS)

Kathy Westwater                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               April 19-22, 2017

“Extemporaneousness”, performed at Brooklyn Studios for Dance.

Edisa Weeks                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  November 28, 2015-present

“THREE RITES”, performed at Snug Harbor Cultural Arts Series, as a part of the PASS Salon Series, and excerpts at Judson Memorial Church and Dixon Place. THREE RITES, will be performed at Gibney Dance Center in 2018.

“To Begin the World Over Again”, performed at Gibney Dance Center, Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center June 30-July 2, 2016.

Nadia Tykulsker                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            January 11, 2010- May 2017

Work-in-process performed at the Estrogenius Festival at the Kraine Theater, May 13, 2017.

“Saw You Yesterday” performed at Standard ToyKraft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn September 2016 and at the Jam Handy in Detroit, MI, February 2017.

“Sheathings for a Steep Slope” performed at Triskelion Arts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, April 15-17, 2014.

“Running Time” performed at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, November 30th-December 1st, 2012.

“This is An Act of Passion” performed at Triskelion Arts, March 16th- March 18th, 2012. Performed at Dixon Place in May 2011, as well as October 2011.

“Delivering Sling” performed at RoofTop Dance in Brooklyn, NY in July 2011, and MOVE festival in Petoskey, MI in August 2011.

Jesse Philips-Fein                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          August 11, 2010- April 2017

“nottitled#blur” performed at Theater for the New City April 14-16, 2017.

“zone” performed June 13, 2013. 

“Own/Owned” performed at Chashama’s “Anita’s Way” September 2012 and at Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival, August 2011.

Jon Kinzel                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 October 21- 31, 2015

“COWHAND CON MAN”, performed at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center.

Jodi Melnick                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           September 2013-October 2014

“Moment Marigold”, performed at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space, as a part of the 2014 Next Wave Festival, October 8-11, 2014.

“all electric future near at hand”, performed at the Bessie Schonburg Theater for Dance at Sarah Lawrence College, December 15-16, 2013.

Dianne McIntyre                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         January- May 2013

“Memories of an Us”, performed at the Bessie Schonburg Theater for Dance at Sarah Lawrence College, May 18-19, 2014.

Dana Salisbury                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         December 1, 2010- June 2012                                                                                                  

“Field” performed June 11, 2012 at Dixon Place, New York, NY.

“BARK” performed June 13th- June 18th, 2011as a part of a company residency at University Street Settlement. All performances for blindfolded audiences.

SPEAKING AND CURATION

Movement Research Fall Festival 2017                                                                                                                                                                                        November 27th-December 3, 2017

I will be co-curating a week of performance, workshops, and panels at venues including Danspace Project, Eden’s Expressway, and Abrons Arts Center with co-curators Jonathan Gonzalez and Zavé Martojarhono for the Movement Research Fall Festival.

Panelist at American Realness Festival 2017                                                                                                                                                                                                              January 7th, 2017

I was an invited speaker for a panel put together by Jaime Shearn Coan titled “Aesthetics live within the structure of whiteness, just like we do”, that took place at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY as a part of the American Realness Festival. Remarks were specifically on topics including practices of individualism within dance, the invisibilizing of Africanist and other influences within postmodernism and other primarily white movements that are often framed as either being derivative of or reactive against solely or primarily Euro-centric aesthetics, discussions of the complexity of appropriation outside of a Miley Cyrus model/brand/commodity, the complexity of tracing and crediting influences within improvisational practice, and alternate ways of tracing and crediting influences within a structurally racist society.

DanceWave works-in-process series 2016                                                                                                                                                                                                                              April 2016

Curated work of 3 artists at DanceWave in Brooklyn, NY (non-traditional studio/garage space) and facilitated a talk between artists and audience after the showing. 

CHOREOGRAPHY (SELECTIONS 2011-PRESENT)

“in search of mirrors, and catch the light just right”                                                                                                                                                                                     October 2016- April 2017

Solo and duet iterations performed at Brooklyn Studios for Dance in October 2016, at Roulette Intermedium in February 2017, and to be performed at Theater for the New City in April 2017.

Work-in-process                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  June 16, 2016    

Duet collaboration with Jonathan Gonzalez performed in the studios at New York Live Arts as a part of the Fresh Tracks Residency program. 

“prayers, pies, and pilots

patience, patience, done.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                 February 12, 2016-March 5, 2016

Performed at Standard ToyKraft as a part of The Bunker Series, curated by Nicole Loughler-Gladstone (March) and at Roulette Intermedium as a part of the DanceRoulette Program (February) curated by Jennifer Lafferty.

“i’d give you bodies”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          February 5 and 6, 2016

Collaborative duet with Jonathan Gonzalez, performed at New York Live Arts.

“for you, potatoes”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         August 31, 2015

Performed at Tonight Will Be Determined (TBD) at Brooklyn Studios for Dance.

works created for MFA degree at Sarah Lawrence College                                                                                                                                                                    December 2013-May 2015                                                         

“this and this and this is when i start”, “this is when i start”, “White Watered”, and “A Map, A Portrait”, performed at the Bessie Shonburg Theater for Dance, Sarah Lawrence College.

“of milk, of fresh snow, of the margins of this page”                                                                                                                                                                                   August 22 and 24, 2014

Performed at the wild project, New York, NY, as part of the Current Sessions: Issue IV, volume ii. Earlier version performed at the Bessie Shonburg Theater for Dance at Sarah Lawrence College, May 13th and 15th, 2014.

“Bathtime Studies”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        November 2012- June 2013

A series of related studies performed at venues throughout NYC including Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Harborlore Festival, the Center for Performance Research, Westbeth, Arts@Renaissance, Gibney Dance Center, and The Uncanny Valley.

“Rounds and Other New Works”                                                                                                                                                                                                                         November 17-19, 2011                                                                            

An evening of 3 works (“Rounds”-evening-length, “Run On”,  and “A Lesson in French” presented by Spoke the Hub at the Gowanus Arts Exchange in Brooklyn, NY.)

AWARDS, GRANTS, AND RESIDENCIES RECEIVED

New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Artist                                                                                                                                                                                                         October 2015-June 2016

In collaboration with choreographer Jonathan Gonzalez, I have received a residency, space grant, and commission for new collaborative duet work by New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks program.

Brooklyn Arts Exchange Research Period Space Grant                                                                                                                                                                                        June-August, 2012

Space grant awarded for research and rehearsal that lead to creation of “Bathtime Studies” 

Spoke the Hub Space Grant and Residency                                                                                                                                                                                           January 2011- November 2011

Space grant and residency awarded for development of new work. Fully produced evening length show “Rounds and other new works” presented November 17-19 at end of residency.

Carter Towbin Prize                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 May 2008

Awarded for creativity, versatility, and overall contribution to the work of the Dance and Theater Departments at Bard College.                                                                                              

ACTIVISM/ORGANIZING

People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s “Undoing Racism” Training                                                                                                                                           January 2015 and July 2015   

Training lead by María I. Reinat-Pumarejo, Justin Freitas, Diana Dunn, Ron Chism, and Dr. Kimberly Richards                                                                                                                                                                        

*I am currently involved with three antiracist caucus groups, all of which are made up of participants who are interested in continuing activism through the antiracist lens of the work started by doing this training:

Artists Co-Creating Real Equity, is a group of multiracial artist-activists brainstorming how to dismantle institutionalized racism within the arts while supporting each other in the various other strands of anti-racist activism and art-making that participants engage in. 

Breaking White Silence, is an action in which white antiracist activists engage other self-identifying white people in one on one conversations about ways that white people are often conditioned to perpetuate aspects of structural racism, and how we can subvert and challenge our participation in a structurally racist society. I am currently a facilitator for BWS, as well as a contributing writer and editor for the group’s printed and online materials.

European Dissent, is a group of white-identified antiracist organizers affiliated with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond who gather to plan antiracist actions and talk about how to most effectively be accountable to antiracist organizers of color.