Photo by Cola Gaeta
Andrew Harper is a freelance dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. Most recently, Harper was awarded a residency at the UNCSA Choreographic Institute and Hicks Choreographic Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. His choreography has appeared at Lincoln Center, Green Space, the USS Intrepid Air, Sea, and Space Museum with Exit 12 Dance Company, Austin Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, and Columbia Ballet Collaborative at MMAC. Since beginning to create dance for film, his work has been featured in music videos for Daniel Emond and Violet Sands (a Vimeo Staff Pick) and his films have been screened at 92Y’s Mobile Dance Film Festival, Portland Dance Film Fest, Kinetoscope International Screendance Festival, and Film Fest by Rogue Dancer. His four part short film series in collaboration with Katherine Henly (including Circulate) will screen in 2021 and the final installment of the series premiered at the ADF Movies by Movers Festival this summer. He has performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Ashley Bouder Project, Ben Munisteri Dance Projects, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Bordeaux, Theatre du Capitole, and Washington National Opera. Harper was a Kenan Fellow at Lincoln Center Education and holds a BFA in ballet performance from UNC School of the Arts.
For more information visit https://www.andrewharpernyc.com
IG: @andrewharperchoreography
Jeremy McQueen is an award-winning choreographer, dedicated to story-telling rooted in experience and social engagement. His work aims to create spaces of comfort, solace, and connection through reflection—a sharing of observations of what is going on around him.
Born and raised in San Diego, California, McQueen is a graduate of The Ailey School/Fordham University, B.F.A. in dance program. McQueen is a 2019 recipient of the Bronx Council on the Arts’ BRIO (Bronx Recognizes It’s Own) Award for Excellence in Choreography, a 2013 recipient of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s Choreographers of Color Award [Winning Works] and a two-time finalist of the Capezio Award for Choreographic Excellence. The film adaptation of McQueen’s ballet A Mother’s Rite received a 2020 Emmy® Award nomination from The New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. A Mother’s Rite has been nominated for Outstanding Arts: Program/Special, for excellence in a program or special that focuses on the arts – fine arts, literature, philosophy, and the performing arts.
His work has appeared at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, SummerStage in Central Park, Jacob’s Pillow Dance’, Dancers Responding to AIDS’ Fire Island Dance Festival, and has been commissioned to create works for organizations including American Ballet Theatre’s Jacquline Kennedy Onassis School, the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, and The Ailey School, amongst others. As a performer, McQueen has appeared in the Broadway national tours of Wicked and The Color Purple in addition to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, and The Metropolitan Opera’s productions of Die Fledermaus, Aida, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Don Giovanni.
In 2012 McQueen was deeply inspired during a period when his mother was battling breast cancer. Upon a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he fell in love with Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting, “Black Iris III” (1926). Struck by the beauty, his mother’s resilience, and the work of the many Black women who helped raise him, Jeremy began creating his first en pointe ballet. Black Iris came to life at Joffrey Ballet in March 2013, and served as a catalyst to new ideas on diversifying the dialogue within classical ballet.
Since 2016, Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project (BIP) is an annual choreographic project that includes a spring creation/residency period, followed by summer touring. Each year, one new work is presented alongside existing repertory. The BIP highlights the accomplishments of Black professional ballet dancers, jazz and classical composers, and other creative artists through educational outreach efforts and the public presentation of new works inspired by Black heritage. The BIP has been awarded generous support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation, New Music USA, BET, CUNY Dance Initiative, amongst others. The BIP has been featured in publications such as; New York Times, Elle Magazine, Village Voice, and Out Magazine.
For more information please visit www.blackirisproject.org
Amy Foley is a dance-maker, performer, teaching-artist, and the Artistic Director of Bellwether Dance Project. She is a long-time, active member of the San Francisco Bay Area dance community, working with numerous companies and independent choreographers, among them: Nol Simonse, ODC/Dance, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, KAMBARA+DANCERS, Garrett+Moulton Productions, RAWdance, project b., Shift Physical Theater, and for over a decade, Robert Moses’ KIN.
She is on faculty at ODC Dance Commons and Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA) and has taught master classes/workshops for Axis Dance Company, Alonzo King’s LINES Dance Center, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Academy of Ballet, and at universities across the U.S.
In 2015 Amy created Bellwether Dance Project in order to gather and further her choreographic interests of collaboration and meaning-making. In 2017 she co-created the concert and program SEAM (Support and Elevate Artist Mothers), to support women’s leadership in the fields of choreography and dance. Amy and Bellwether Dance Project have received support from SAFEhouse for the Arts, Dancers’ Group, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and community partner Eaze. She is a 2018 recipient of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company’s CHIME mentorship award and recipient of an Opportunity Fund Grant from ODC and the Rainin Foundation, toward her 2019 home season at ODC Theater.
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IG: @bellwetherdance_SF
FB: @Bellwetherdanceproject