Filming by Muse Motion, Bandits Bend Studio, and Faux Reel Films

Dance Initiative’s Artist-In-Residency Program hosts national and international choreographers to create original work, hold open rehearsals, host workshops, and perform for the Roaring Fork community. Dance Initiative is honored to inspire, educate, and spark new (and renewed) appreciation for dance while adding rich and unique cultural experiences to the mountain towns from Glenwood Springs to Aspen, Colorado. This program also allows professional artists to focus intently on their work in a quiet and beautiful environment so that they may take their craft to the next level and generate new works to be seen around the globe.

Prospective artists inquiring about a residency, please complete the application materials by clicking the button below.

(by-yay & ae-suh)

Baye & Asa is a dance company creating movement art projects directed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington & Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt. Get a sense of who they are by watching this short clip. The duo has known each other since first grade; they met in a school dance program much like the one that Dance Initiative offers. They both elected to take African dance instead of PE and now, working together so many years later, their bodies are shaped by a shared education. Hip Hop and African dance languages are the foundation of their technique and the rhythms of these techniques inform the way they energetically confront contemporary dance and theatre. Through the personal dynamics of their relationship they address the larger political landscape of their upbringing, struggling to show a reality of violence while communicating a necessity for empathy. They use their choreography to create political metaphors, interrogate systemic inequities, and contemporize ancient allegories; they build theatrical contexts that celebrate, implicate, and condemn the characters onstage. Photo credits: Far left by Maria Baranova, center black and white by Steven Pisano, far right by Richard Termine.

During their residency with Dance Initiative, Baye & Asa will continue crafting their physical pedagogy and expand the technical movement practices that best prepare students for their work.  They'll also begin shaping their 2024 commission for the Baryshnikov Art Center and begin idea generation for their upcoming commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.