SMUSH Dance Fellowship + Spring Dance Series
The SMUSH Dance Fellowship and accompanying Spring Dance Series, happening Spring 2024, are the latest iteration of dance programming at SMUSH Gallery. This comprehensive program combines elements of our successful and innovative Curatorial Fellowship in Dance with traditional concert presentation in a flexible, nontraditional gallery space. Having grown out of conversations with working dance artists, the Fellowship and Series support artists with a robust suite of resources and presents their work to audiences eager for creative connection.
2024 Artists
Friends Who Dance
Mamiko Usuda
morgaine de leonardis + Regina Ippolito
This program is made possible by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division of the Department of State, and administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Craig Guy, Hudson County Executive & the Hudson County Board of County Commissioners.
SMUSH Gallery Curatorial Fellowship in Dance (2020-2022)
The Curatorial Fellowship in Dance is an artist-centered dance program created by SMUSH Gallery in Jersey City, NJ. It has so far operated for two successful seasons, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, and will resume with sufficient funding. The Curatorial Fellowship hosted a cohort of dance curators across each season, all of whom participated in community-building practices and produced a dance event of their own imagining - concerts, immersive events, durational works, virtual projects, community involvement, educational experiences, and more. Events in season 2 were produced from January - May ‘22 and took place at SMUSH Gallery. Events in season 1 were produced from January - May ‘21 and took place virtually and in a private outdoor location. The Fellowship cohorts engaged in mutual support, skill shares, and professional aid throughout the program. Produced in the first season by Katelyn Halpern, and in the second season by Katelyn Halpern and Miranda Dahl.
The Curatorial Fellowship is intended to increase support for, and grow the presence of, dance - a consistently under-supported and under-produced art form - here in Jersey City. This Fellowship was administered in line with our Mission, Vision, and Anti-Racist and Equity Commitments. All participating artists were asked to agree with, or make recommendations to improve, our Equity Statement.
2021/22 Curatorial Fellows
Olga Rabetskaya
Olga Rabetskaya is an artist from Belarus, based in the USA and currently living in Jersey City. She is a director, photographer and choreographer whose work spans across film, choreography and photography. Olga’s artistic research focuses on how to share our emotional experience, memories and body intelligence through movement. Artist in the Residence YCM Moscow, SVA, Gallim, Kunstraum gallery. @olga_rabetskaya
About Olga’s Project: “A curatorial fellowship will give a home for my body of work, an opportunity to share with Jersey City’s diverse population a voice that sees the importance of being here with freedom of expression. I am interested in what binds humans together. What does home mean in our bodies? Our Souls? Our hearts? How do we physicalize our experiences and hold them into our bodies?”
Visual Arts Opening @ SMUSH: January 28th, 6-9pm. Performance at 7pm
Performance Dates: February 18th & 19th, 8pm
Sarah Rose
Sarah Rose (she/her) earned her BA in Classics from Princeton University and her MFA in Choreography and Performance from Florida State University. She is based in NYC. She experiments, explores and shares through the modes of movement and performance. She also makes interdisciplinary performance works in collaboration with Ross Daniel (DanielRose Projects). @sorosey
About Sarah’s Project: “During the pandemic I took my artistic practice outside, participating in the macro choreography of bodies navigating shared space. I am curious about how the layers of our identities influence the ways we move through shared spaces. How is this linked to safety, to power, to embodiment? These inquiries are the jumping off point for my fellowship at SMUSH.”
Performance Dates: March 26th & 27th, 2pm
Brooke Rucker
Brooke Rucker (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based artist and arts administrator, specializing in dance. She earned her BFA in Dance at Florida State University in 2018 and has performed with Charles Anderson’s dance theatre X (2018-19) and Louis Gaspard’s Gaspard & Dancers (2019). Brooke is a member of TheREDprojectNYC’s Movement Ensemble and the Development/Visioning Partner Assistant at Urban Bush Women. @brookerucker
About Brooke’s Project: “It’s a salon-styled event dedicated to supporting artists and local businesses through the curation of informal showings and the selling of local goods. The function will provide space for artists and non-artists to be in community with one another with the hope of attendees making connections that will promote interdependence and sustainability for their community.”
Curatorial Statement: “My curatorial practice is a bridge for my existence as a dancer and arts administrator. As a curator, I construct and organize with an artist’s mind. Every participant plays a part. The entire event is the performance. The flow is the dance. The schedule is the choreography. The performers are everyone.”
Performance Date: May 21st, 2-6pm
