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MARGARET
JENKINS DANCE COMPANY Ralph Lemon is Artistic Director of Cross Performance, a company dedicated to the creation of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary performance and presentation. Lemon's projects expand the definition of choreography by crossing and stretching the boundaries between Western, post-modern dance and other art forms and cultures. His most recent work, How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?, a four-part project consisting of live performance, film, and visual art, will be presented at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco from October 7 - 10, 2010. As Chair, Ralph Lemon will design a series of mentorship activities, structured over the course of a full year, for a group of local dance-makers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Lemon will work hands-on with mentees for a total of four weeks during 2011 at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab (MJDL), in addition to designing a curriculum of assignments and activities for mentees to work on at the MJDL before and after his visits. The intensive sessions will be held in April, July and November 2011. Coinciding with his one-on-one and group work with program artists, Mr. Lemon will participate in a series of public activities at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab, the creative home to the MJDC and CHIME. During the first year of CHIME Across Borders, currently underway in 2010, choreographer and director David Gordon is serving as the first CHIME Across Borders Chair. Responding to the current year of the program under David Gordon, Artistic Director Margaret Jenkins writes, "It is a remarkable opportunity for me, as witness, to be mentored as well, to let go of assumptions about what works for me, to allow myself to not know the answers to the questions posed, to surrender and to be a student. For those of us who might be considered established choreographers, it is incumbent on us to recognize the unique opportunity that CHIME Across Borders provides—the opportunity to shed, or temporarily put aside, what we think we know and make room for the experiment that comes from being mentored. I look forward to this next year, this new challenge with Ralph.” Developed along the valued principles that have guided both CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area and CHIME in Southern California, CHIME Across Borders creates the opportunity for a sustained and intimate exchange between an established master choreographer and area mentees. CHIME Across Borders intends to bring mentors of great vision and experience to San Francisco and to introduce local working artists to national and international masters of dance. For the second year, local choreographers are invited to submit a Letter of Intent to apply to work with Ralph Lemon, postmarked by September 1, 2010. Letter of Intent instructions and program guidelines are available online August 1, 2010 at www.mjdc.org. The final selection of 2011 artists will be made by Mr. Lemon, in consultation with Margaret Jenkins, and will be announced in early December 2010. About CHIME CHIME is a mentorship program in which professional choreographers – mentors and mentees – receive significant support over one year to establish and explore a working relationship that includes, but is not limited to, work in the studio. CHIME seeks to formalize the exchange and feedback mechanisms between established and emerging choreographers, and is available to all professional choreographers of all dance styles. In 2011, CHIME will include these interrelated programs: • CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area, for Bay Area choreographer mentorship; • CHIME in Southern California, for Los Angeles County choreographer mentorship; • CHIME Intercity, for exchange between Bay Area and Southern California CHIME choreographers; and • CHIME Across Borders, for exchange between Bay Area choreographers and national and international choreographers. 2011 guidelines and applications for CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area and CHIME in Southern California are currently available online. About Margaret Jenkins Dance Company The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private philanthropic institution that makes
grants on a selective basis in the areas of Higher Education and Scholarship,
Scholarly Communication and Information Technology, Conservation and the
Environment, Museums and Art Conservation, and Performing Arts. The foundation's
Performing Arts program focuses on achieving long-term results by providing
multi-year grants to leading organizations in the disciplines of music,
theater, and dance. Annual giving in the area of the performing arts has
averaged approximately $28 million per year since 2005. In 2004 the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation was awarded a National Medal of Arts, the highest
award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government.www.mellon.org
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