The Center for Ballet and the Arts & National Sawdust Partnership is a collaboration that has, since 2020, supported 50 women choreographers and composers to help develop their skills, create and present new work, and build a community of artists with diverse training and perspectives. The program is committed to primarily supporting choreographers and composers who are historically underrepresented in the field, by gender, race, or ethnicity. A majority of the program participants are women of color.
Thank you to the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation for making this partnership possible.
About the Fellowship
Since November 2020, the program has supported more than 50 women choreographers and composers to help develop their skills, create and present new work, and build a community of artists with diverse training and perspectives. The program is committed to primarily supporting choreographers and composers who are historically underrepresented in the field
The 2022 Toulmin Fellowship provides six fellows financial support, time, and space to develop their work, as well as continued programming and infrastructure for the growing Toulmin alumnae community. The artists will have access to CBA’s community of fellows and alumni and the broad resources of NYU, immersing them in a community of scholars and a rich, intellectual environment where they can take risks, try new ideas, and receive feedback. National Sawdust’s artistic team provides expert mentorship to further inform the fellows’ work and feature their works-in-progress and/or performances through its Ideas Zone online platform and during its June The Future Is… Festival and Symposium.
CBA and NS will also provide programming for the growing Toulmin alumni community. The partnership will culminate in a two-day symposium designed for but not limited to composers, choreographers, dancers, and musicians working in innovating multimedia presentation, interdisciplinary work, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
2023-2024 Toulmin Fellows
Erica “Twelve45” Blunt, DJ, Composer, and Sound Designer
Ausia Jones, Artist, Dancer, Choreographer
Wang Lu, Associate Professor in Music, Brown University
Tiler Peck, Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet
2022 Toulmin Fellows
Adji Cissoko, Dancer, Alonzo King LINES Ballet
Val Jeanty, SoundChemist
Jihye Lee, Composer
Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Executive Artistic Director of EMERGE125 and Choreographer
Emily Wells, Composer
Kara Wilkes, Independent Dance Artist and Educator
2020-2021 Toulmin Creators
Holland Andrews, Vocalist, Composer, and Performance Artist | Eliza Bagg, Vocalist and Experimental Musician | Stefanie Batten Bland, Choreographer and Movement Director | Sidra Bell, Artistic Director, Sidra Bell Dance New York | Galya Bisengalieva, Composer and Violinist | Hope Boykin, Choreographer | Ayodele Casel, Dancer/Choreographer | Maria Chavez, Abstract Turntablist, Sound Artist and DJ | Helga Davis, Vocalist and Performance Artist | Dormeshia, Performer, Choreographer, Instructor | Izzi Eberstadt, Composer, Singer, Performer | Kate Eberstadt, Composer, Singer, Performer | inti figgis-vizueta, Composer | Gwendolyn Hope Gussman, Performing Artist, Choreographer and Movement Teacher | Samar Haddad King, Choreographer/Writer | Alicia Hall Moran, Mezzo-soprano and Composer | Francesca Harper, Choreographer | Hannah Ishizaki, Composer | JLin, Producer | Ausia Jones, Artist and Choreographer | Maurya Kerr, Choreographer, Educator, Performer, Poet, and Artistic Director of tinypistol | Bridget Kibbey, Harpist/Producer | Yaz Lancaster, Violinist, Vocalist and Steel-Pannist | Loni Landon, Dancer, Choreographer, and Movement Consultant | Amyra Leon, Musician, Author, Director, and Activist | Allison Loggins Hull, Flutist, Composer, and Producer | Aditi Mangaldas, Dancer and Choreographer | JL Marlor, Composer and Educator | Jessie Montgomery, Composer | Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Composer | Okwui Okpokwasili, Composer | Caili Quan, Choreographer | Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Artistic Director | Hannah Schneider, Conductor | Alesandra Seutin, Performer, Choreographer, and Teacher | Alice Sheppard, Choreographer | Valeria Solomonoff, Choreographer | Rajna Swaminathan, Mrudangam Artist, Composer, Scholar | Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, Composer, Singer, Healer, Scholar | Ogemdi Ude, Dance Artist and Educator
