Photo by Mike Amalfitano, @amalfiphotography
Trillium Arts Launches North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship Program:
Asheville Based Stewart/Owen Dance Selected As Inaugural Awardees!
Trillium Arts is delighted to announce Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, co-founders of Stewart/Owen Dance as the inaugural Awardees of Trillium's first annual North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship Award. Gavin and Vanessa will be joined by two other members of Stewart/Owen Dance and the group will be in residence at Trillium September 24-30, 2023. A Work-In-Progress showing with the artists will take place on Friday, September 29 in the Red Barn Studio at Odonata Farm. Proceeds from the Sept. 29 event will support the continuation and growth of the North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship program in future years.
THE NORTH CAROLINA CHOREOGRAPHIC FELLOWSHIP (NCCF), launched in 2023, provides established North Carolina based choreographers and their dancers with a full menu of resources and benefits including private lodging, rehearsal space, administrative mentorship and a $1,000 honorarium. If they so choose, NCCF awardees may opt to engage/interact with Trillium's growing cohort of regional and local artists. NCCF residencies are seven to nine days in length, providing space and time to deepen creative endeavors and rejuvenate in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains.
The inaugural 2023 NCCF awardees were selected via invitation.
For the 2024 cycle, an open call application process for North Carolina based choreographers will be announced in January 2024.
“Gavin and Vanessa were selected as Trillium's inaugural NCCF Fellows because they are at a catalytic point in their careers, and because of Stewart/Owen Dance's prominent position in Western North Carolina's contemporary dance ecology,” states Phil Reynolds, Trillium Arts President. "Trillium is honored to support these artists who enhance our region and the creative community for the entire state of NC."
MEET THE AWARDEES
Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, courtesy of Stewart/Owen Dance
STEWART/OWEN DANCE
Web: stewartowendance.com
Facebook: stewartowendance
Instagram: @stewartowendance
Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, a husband and wife duo, are the co-founders of Western North Carolina-based Stewart/Owen Dance. Their bespoke repertoire includes an exciting collection of contemporary choreography that is as “sensual” (Washington Post) as it is “humorous, elegant, and wild” (Seattle Dances).
Stewart and Owen's award-winning choreography has been presented by festivals and companies across the U.S., and their careers have taken them across the globe on fifteen U.S. State Department tours to teach, perform and choreograph contemporary dance with Washington D.C.-based Company E.
In 2017 Vanessa and Gavin made North Carolina their home base, where they began to set roots and work towards building a sustainable dance community while cultivating the craft of storytelling through movement. Their cross-genre collaborations include local dance artists, writers, musicians, and storytellers— even choreographing music videos for Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso, and Ben Phantom.
S/O Dance won the Audience Choice Award at the NYC's Dance Gallery Festival 2018, were commissioned as Dance Gallery 2019 Level UP Artists, are recipients of a McDowell Regional Artist Project Grant, a North Carolina Artist Support Grant and were voted "Artists Who Most Pushed the Boundaries with the Human Body" by 2020 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Throughout the pandemic, they focused on producing COVID-conscious dance experiences for live audiences, including drive-up performances and guided walk-along dance exhibits presented by Asheville’s Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in 2020.
S/O Dance received the first ever commission for a new work from the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in 2023, and in Spring 2024 they will be presented for the second time as a part of the Wortham’s season.
Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, courtesy of Stewart/Owen Dance
FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
During their residency Gavin and Vanessa will have unencumbered time to explore movement and choreographic concepts. They will be joined by two additional dancers from Stewart/Owen Dance. Their time together at Trillium will serve as an incubator for an all-new immersive dance experience premiering at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in May of 2024.
Trillium Arts co-founders Phil Reynolds and Heather Hartley will also provide administrative mentorship during the Fellowship, and work with Gavin and Vanessa on enhancing the organizational development and strategic planning goals for the company.