National Choreographers Initiative Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Founded by Molly Lynch to promote the development of choreographers from all over the United States in the professional ballet world, the National Choreographers Initiative (NCI) is celebrating its 20th anniversary (2004-2024). The three week intensive workshop began on July 8, 2024 culminating with a performance on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre at 8pm. Tickets are on sale now HERE.

Molly Lynch has had an illustrious career with over 35 years of experience creating, producing, and presenting dance. She is currently a Professor in the Dance Department at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the NCI and she was the Artistic Director for Ballet Pacifica from 1988-2003. During her tenure, she established Ballet Pacifica as Orange County’s leading professional dance company and one of the area’s top arts organizations.

Just a week away from the beginning of the NCI, Lynch took time out of her very busy schedule to be interviewed on Zoom and as always, she was very gracious with her responses to my questions.

Because this is the 20th anniversary, I asked Lynch if she was doing anything differently this year.

“Not tremendously, no,” she said. “Every year is always different because you have different choreographers that come in and half of the dancers are different. So, the mix is always new and fresh.”

Since its inaugural workshop, 76 choreographers (notably 31 of them women), and 169 dancers hailing from 54 national dance companies have participated in NCI. Thirty-three of the works created during the three week intensive workshop have had premieres and performed by major dance companies providing NCI with a national prominence and influence within the dance community, especially that of the ballet world.

“So, I haven’t really found the need to try and make dramatic changes,” Lynch said. She noted that it would be wonderful to have an extra performance at the end of the workshop and to be able to invite more choreographers, but that costs more money and time. “It’s just not feasible,” she added.

Like every organization or venue, audiences are just beginning to return to live performances, which affects ticket sales and donations. Part of Lynch’s work this past year has been focused on making the audience that she built over 20 years to feel comfortable about returning to live performances. Before Covid, their performances were selling out.

“I’m just glad that we’re still going,” Lynch said. “I think that making it to 20 is a feat and I decided that we’ve come this far and worked with so many different choreographers who have gone on to continue their choreographic work and take on directorship of a company is really tremendous. I’m happy that we’ve been able to participate with our dance community and to support it.”

This is the first time that the 2024 choreographers have participated at NCI. Lynch said that she was excited that they are all new and due to their diverse backgrounds and experiences, she believes that they will prove to be a diverse group with a potential to bring new and interesting ideas to the table and the studio. She is also excited to see what they develop with the dancers. The four choreographers’ names are Charles Askegard, Cherice Barton, DaYoung Jung, and Donna Salgado.

When asked if this is the first time that three of the four choreographers are women, Lynch answered, “It’s been a goal of mine to support women choreographers. Being one, I feel like we could use more women being supported choreographically. This year it ended up being three, which is exciting.” Lynch later looked up the statics and found that there has been three years with three women choreographers and eight years with two women. The remainder of the years had only one female choreographer at NCI.

I noted that many of the choreographers who participate are not new to creating dance works and some have experience as artistic directors of established companies. Lynch noted that here have been five NCI dancers that have returned as choreographers: Nicole Haskins, Ben Needham-Wood, Suzanne Haag, Christopher Stuart, and Julie Feldman; ten of the past NCI choreographers are now artistic directors of companies: Ma Cong, Olivier Wevers, Brian Enos, Melissa Barak, Tom Mattingly, Christopher Stuart, Amy Seiwert, Edwaard Liang, Graham Lustig, and Ben Needham-Wood.

“I think a lot of times there’s a certain unofficial networking that goes on,” she began. Most of the time when a company commissions a guest artist, they are the only one in residence. It is unique to have four choreographers in residence at the same time. This gives them the opportunity to speak with other choreographers about their process and about what other companies they have worked with. “I also found that the dancers network within the dancers so they sometimes switch companies or go to a company that they know,” Lynch said. “Also the dancers are networking with the choreographers. Dancers that maybe work with a choreographer here will go back to their home company and say you might want to consider looking at this company where the dancers have come from.”

There are several examples, but the biggest that Lynch cited was choreographer Ma Cong who was dancing with Tulsa Ballet when he came to NCI in 2008. There he created a work titled French Twist that later got picked up by Smuin Ballet in San Francisco. There were two dancers who were part of the project in that year at NCI who were from Richmond Ballet. They returned to their home company and mentioned to the artist director, Stoner Winslet, that she might want to take a look at Cong’s work because it was very interesting. “Stoner invited him to go to Richmond Ballet and create a piece, and as we’ve seen over time, Cong is now the artistic director of Richmond Ballet.”

“So, it’s that connection, the dancers going back to their company and that director, and then the choreographer gets invited, and then that works,” Lynch said. “It’s not necessarily my doing. It’s just that I’ve made contacts with people and they’ve made those connections and work together. I look at that and think that’s how the dance community works.” Lynch believes that this is NCI’s prime success story. “That’s what happens. You can’t force that in a way,” she added.

It is a great reflection on what Lynch has built up over the years that choreographers continue to apply to NCI and some even return another year. The same holds true for the dancers, but Lynch said that she tries to not have the dancers return more than three times. “I think that it needs new blood coming through, keeping it fresh and not having people feel that this is their summer gig and that it will always be there,” she said.

Lynch has had great support from UC Irvine, their Dance Department, the Irvine Barclay Theatre, and the Irvine community. This support, she believes, also comes from the dancers and the dance community. When Lynch started NCI in 2004 she was not on faculty at UCI and the department was already letting her use their studios for the workshop. She joined the faculty in 2006 . “They were very supportive in allowing us to use their studios because space is Premium.”

Very importantly Lynch has an Advisory Board that helps raise money, approximately $120,000 a year, and to get  things organized each year. Income from ticket sales covers maybe ten percent of the cost of the three week intensive. She thinks of the Advisory Board as a partnership and they are Bobbi Cox, Sophie Cripe, Diane Diefenderfer, Gale Edelberg, Joanne Keith, Molly Lynch, Sally Anne Sheridan, Jenny Szabo, and Lynn Weiser. Over the past twenty years they have raised approximately 2.5 million dollars. “Which to me is about supporting dance,” Lynch said. “It’s about developing choreography. Giving opportunities to dancers and choreographers and providing dance to the community.”

To see a full list of the choreographers, dancers and others who make NCI a success, click HERE. http://nchoreographers.org/chordanc.htm

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About the performance:

WHAT: National Choreographers Initiative annual performance featuring new works by four different choreographers.
WHEN: July 27, 2024 at 8:00 PM.
WHERE: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Dr, Irvine, CA 92612
TICKETS can be purchased by clicking HERE.

For more information about Molly Lynch and the National Choreographers Initiative, please visit their website.

To learn more about the Irvine Barclay Theatre, please visit their website.

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Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.

Featured image: National Choreographers Initiative photo from prior year – Photos courtesy of NCI.