Audition notice
***The following audition notice attempts to align with standards set forth by Dance Artists’ National Collective (https://danceartistsnationalcollective.org/audition-guidelines/). If you have questions about something not addressed in this notice, or in any of the associated links included, please email contact@chrismastersdance.org. We will do our best to amend this posting with responses to pertinent questions to ensure complete transparency. Revisions will be placed at the bottom of this post.***
ChrisMastersDance is currently looking for 3-5 new collaborators to join our organization as company members to participate in the creation and performance of a new work. This work is set to be presented in NYC and tour to various locations (TBD). Expected commitment is no less than 24 months.
All dance artists are welcome to apply, however, past successful collaborators have demonstrated:
Professional experience, including touring and presenting their own work
Deep interest in improvisation, contemporary movement, and hyper-physical partnering
Passion for collaborative environments, virtuosic dancing, and movement generation
Soft skills such as maturity, professionalism, respectfulness, openness, kindness, curiosity, empathy, compassion, and dedication
Strong sense of humor, clear communication style, and resilency
For the purpose of this project, our home location is New York City. All applicants should be able to reasonably and consistently commute to rehearsals in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Rehearsals will occur consistently in Manhattan or Brooklyn as follows:
Fridays/Mondays from 6p or 7p to 10p
Saturdays/Sundays for 4-6 hours
Rehearsals will also occur in 1-2 week long intensive blocks as dictated by cast availability and residency opportunities.
Rehearsals are held at the following (or comparable) venues, based on scheduling availability:
New York City Center
Martha Graham Dance Center
Movement Research
Compensation structure is as follows:
$30/hour for rehearsal (including studio, technical, dress, photo/video shoots)
$300/each performance
$100/day per diem when outside of NYC home base
$40/stipend each way for getting to/from airport
Economy travel and lodging while on tour (shared rooms)
Unfortunately, at this time, ChrisMastersDance is unable to provide health care, paid or sick time off, visa sponsorship, or any other benefit other than the compensation outlined above. In the event of illness or extenuating circumstances, CMD will look to find alternative working scenarios, typically requiring some sort of remote work, as available. While our organization continues to grow, we are prioritizing finding ways to be able to provide these additional benefits.
Additional details:
Payroll is sent electronically on the 7th and 21st of each month
All collaborators will receive 1099s and are considered independent contractors
All collaborators will be required to sign binding contracts with CMD and artist releases with photographers/videographers/installation artists
All collaborators are required to show proof of COVID vaccination and eligibility for US based employment via completed W9
Rehearsals all begin with a 30 minute self-directed warm-up (compensated) with the expectation we begin moving full-out at half past the hour for every session (if you require additional time to become prepared, most rehearsal venues have warm-up spaces or spaces that will accommodate, but this additional time is uncompensated)
Rehearsals 4 hours in length also include a 15 minute break (compensated)
Rehearsals 6 hours in length also include a 45 minute lunch break and a 15 minute cool down (both compensated)
Rehearsals 8 or more hours in length also include a 60 minute lunch break and a 30 minute cool down (both compensated)
Interested parties should send the following to contact@chrismastersdance.org, with the subject line “CMD AUDITION - {{YOUR STAGE NAME}}”
1-2 page resume in PDF format as an attachment, including your pronouns, contact information, emergency contact information, at least one professional reference from the dance field (with contact information), known allergies, recent relevant performance history (non-academic), recent relevant choreographic history (non-academic), additional non-dance skills (video editing, graphic design, administrative experience, grant writing, etc) and any formal dance education (note: a degree in dance is not required)
In the body of your email submission, you are welcome to include:
Any links to footage that helps us better get to know you. This can include choreographed work, performance work, improvisation, or reels.
Narrative about yourself
Level of familiarity with our body of work.
Zelle or CashApp handle
Links to dance footage do not need to be professional quality. If your links require passwords, please include those as well.
Incomplete applications will be disregarded, and—due to the volume of applicants—not considered or replied to. Please double check thoroughness before sending.
Submission deadline is rolling, and notifications will be sent by {{DATE TBD}}.
If you are selected, potential collaborators will be invited to a PAID 8 hour workshop occurring {{DATE TBD}}. Compensation will be sent within one week of the completed workshop in the amount of $240 via Zelle or CashApp. All potential collaborators must be available for the entire audition, no exceptions. There will be no callbacks. Cuts will not be made during the course of the audition workshop, as there are many elements that make for a successful CMD collaborator. Additionally, due to the nature of our work, video or virtual auditions are not possible.
Audition structure:
Working sessions will be devoted to movement generation and performance including solo work, partnering work, ensemble work, task-based devising, and improvisation
All potential collaborators should be comfortable with weight sharing (giving and taking), and are expected to participate in weight sharing partnering work
All potential collaborators should wear comfortable clothing that is not prohibitive to movement or partnering; please be mindful of jewelry that could injure others
The auditions will be videotaped for the exclusive purpose of review by existing collaborators with the director—none of the recorded audition footage will be published to social media or used for any other promotional purposes; participation in the workshop constitutes implied consent to video recording
Work generated through the audition process will not feed into the creation of this or any new work
No early preparation will be required for the session—all readings, writings, and generation will occur at the audition
All potential collaborators should not bring any substances that could trigger an allergic response, including wearing strong scents or bringing certain foods like nuts/nut products
Follow up 30 minute interviews for finalists will be scheduled based on availability {{DATES TBD}} and will be conducted in person or via Zoom. All audition participants will be notified of the final outcome by {{DATE TBD}}.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to contact@chrismastersdance.org.
ChrisMastersDance, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization registered in the state of New York.
In order to fulfill our mission, CMD is dedicated to building and sustaining an organizational culture grounded in diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging. We are committed to hiring and advancing collaborators who reflect and represent the rich diversity of NYC.
ChrisMastersDance provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
Select history of work below:
Trailer for Mausoleum, featuring music from Ex-Fiancée and words from Jayson P. Smith.
Visual art by Robert Flynt, documentation photography by Elyse Mertz.
Trailer for ChrisMastersDance’s dance film collaboration with composer Ex-Fiancée, A Feast That Never Comes
Behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsals for Mausoleum can be found on ChrisMastersDance’s Instagram and Ex-Fiancée’s TikTok.
Some samples: Teaser with description, Duet from 4 angles, Perspectives of filming simulcast, Perspective from the inside, No-touch duet, Camera operating #1, Camera operating #2
Chris Masters (Concept and Direction)
Chris Masters has been making dance work for over twenty years, and is currently director of ChrisMastersDance (CMD). His work has been presented at Judson Memorial Church, Salvatore Capezio Theatre, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Danspace Project, 100 Grand, Triskelion Arts, Irondale Center, and Dixon Place in NYC, as well as Detroit Opera House, Music Hall Performance Space (Detroit), Boll Theatre (Detroit), Iron Factory (Philadelphia), Fengchao Theatre (Beijing), and CMD has held creative residencies at Public Space One (Iowa City) and 555 Gallery (Detroit).
Masters has performed the work of Martha Clarke, Colleen Thomas, Stephanie Liapis, Keith Thompson, Doug Elkins, and Jan Erkert, among others. Additionally, Chris performed with Third Rail Projects' Then She Fell, recipient of a 2013 New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award. As an educator, Masters has served on the faculties of University of Michigan, Wayne State University, University of Iowa, Albion College, American College Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, 100 Grand, Gibney Dance Center, Mark Morris Dance Center, and Peridance Capezio Center. Chris completed a MFA in Choreography from University of Iowa, where he was awarded an Iowa Arts Fellowship.
Ex-Fiancée/Sven Britt (Composer, Camera Operator)
Sven Britt is the resident composer for ChrisMastersDance, completing scores for several works, including Exit Strategies (Triskelion, 2014), Mausoleum (Work-In-Progress) (Danspace, December 2014), and A Willful Host (La MaMa Moves!, May 2014). His compositional work for dance has been shown at Iron Factory (Philadelphia), University of Iowa, University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and the Fengchao Theatre in Beijing (with an immersive dance theatre work created with CMD). He accompanies all dance classes taught by Chris Masters (among others), at Peridance Capezio Center, Mark Morris Dance Center, Gibney Dance Center, and University of Iowa.
He has played, produced, and toured professionally with Stranger Cat (Joyful Noise Recordings [Son Lux, Kishi Bashi, of Montreal]), a duo with Cat Martino (The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon van Etten), playing at Bonnaroo, as well as opening for Son Lux, Patrick Watson, Sebadoh, Natalie Prass, Night Beds, Indians, Emmy the Great, Yoni Wolf, Serengeti, Reptar, Surfer Blood, and Porches.
His upcoming album A Feast That Never Comes—directed by Chris Masters—is accompanied by a dance film that has received 500+ festival awards and selections in the most competitive festival season in history.
Eva Yaa Asantewaa (Lead Dramaturg)
Eva Yaa Asantewaa (she/her) is a veteran writer, editor, curator and community educator. She won the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance.
Since 1976, she has contributed dance criticism and journalism to Dance Magazine, The Village Voice, SoHo Weekly News, Gay City News, The Dance Enthusiast, Time Out New York, her arts blog, InfiniteBody, and other publications and podcasts (Body and Soul; Serious Moonlight).
In 2016, for Danspace Project’s Lost and Found platform, Ms. Yaa Asantewaa created the skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds, an evening of group improvisation featuring 21 Black women and gender-nonconforming performers, a cast that won a 2017 Bessie for Outstanding Performer. In 2018, Queer|Art named one of its awards in her honor, the Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant for Queer Women(+) Dance Artists. In 2019, Yaa Asantewaa was a recipient of a BAX Arts & Artists in Progress Award. She is Founding Director of Black Diaspora and founder of Black Curators in Dance and Performance.
From 2018-2021, Ms. Yaa Asantewaa served as Senior Director of Curation as well as Editorial Director at Gibney and now continues some of that work as an independent consultant directing and curating some of the programs she initiated for Gibney--Black Diaspora, Imagining journal, Deeper Lectures, Deeper Duets, and WORD!
She was a member of the inaugural faculty of Montclair State University’s MFA in Dance program. She has also served on the faculty for New England Foundation for the Arts' Regional Dance Development Initiative Dance Lab 2016 for emerging Chicago-area dance artists as well as the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography's inaugural Forward Dialogues Dance Lab for Emerging Choreographers.
Ms. Yaa Asantewaa was a member of the New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards committee for three years and has been a consultant or panelist for numerous arts funding or awards organizations including the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
As a WBAI radio broadcaster (1987-89), Ms. Yaa Asantewaa worked with the Women’s Radio Collective and the Gay and Lesbian Independent Broadcasters Collective (OUTLOOKS) and co-hosted the Tuesday Afternoon Arts Magazine with Jennifer Bernet as well as producing her own specials.
Ms. Yaa Asantewaa was born in New York of Barbadian immigrant heritage and makes her home in the East Village/Lenapehoking.
In addition to her work in the arts, Ms. Yaa Asantewaa maintains a private practice in Tarot counseling. From January 2001 to January 2005, Eva published DancingWorld, a monthly email newsletter devoted to Tarot, psychic and spiritual development, and creativity. She is an ordained minister (ULC, Modesto, CA) and legally registered with the City of New York as a marriage officiant with special interest in neo-pagan and secular-humanist ceremony.
While studying at Fordham University--where she received her B.A. in Communications in 1974--Ms. Yaa Asantewaa was introduced to Jungian psychology and the "mind games" techniques created by Robert Masters and Jean Houston. She also studied Community Health Education at Hunter College School of Health Sciences and received the Hunter College President's Award for HIV/AIDS Creative and Scholarly Work, First Prize, 1992.
Through Radical Magick (which she founded in 1992), Ms. Yaa Asantewaa produced and facilitated workshops and special events sponsored by over sixty health and social service, spiritual, feminist, people of color, and LGBTQ+ organizations in the New York metropolitan area. Among these are the New York Open Center’s Womanspirit Journey program, New York Theosophical Society, College of New Rochelle, Healing Works, New York State Conference on Women’s Health, Riverside Church Wellness Center, Women’s Health Education Project, and Women’s Rites Center.
Her poetry appears in The Zenith of Desire: Contemporary Lesbian Poems about Sex (ed., Gerry Gomez Pearlberg, Crown, 1996), Does Your Mama Know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories (ed., Lisa C. Moore, RedBone Press, 1997), Queer Dog: Homo Pup Poetry (ed., Gerry Gomez Pearlberg, Cleis, 1997), Isis Rising: The Goddess in the New Aeon (ed., Denise Dumars, 2000), Brooklyn Review, Kuumba, Starfish, WV, Tempus, The Isis Papers, and the Pegasus Dreaming, Star Leaper, and Pedestal Magazine Web sites. She was also published in An Eye for An Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11 (Regent Press). She has read her work at numerous venues including the Brooklyn Museum, the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, A Different Light Bookstore, Bowery Poetry Club, and Cornelia Street Cafe.
Robert Flynt & David Fishel (Photography and Video Art)
Robert Flynt’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad since 1980. It has been shown in major museums, galleries, and alternative spaces, as well as in collaborative performance and dance projects.
In 1992 he was included in “New Photography 8” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where his work is in the permanent collection, as well as in the Metropolitan Museum, The International Center of Photography (NY), and L.A. County Museum, among many others His notable one-person exhibitions have been at Witkin Gallery, Wessel+O’Connor Gallery and ClampArt in New York, the Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, the G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, and the Gomez Gallery in Baltimore. He has been included in over 50 group exhibitions since 1980. He had a solo exhibition at Heartgalerie in Paris in March, 2009, followed by group exhibitions in Berlin, Tel Aviv, and Chicago, among others. In 2012, his work was featured in “Naked Before the Camera” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Flynt’s collaborative projects include commissions from Brooklyn Academy of Music with choreographer Bebe Miller in 1989, and the L.A. International Arts Festival with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Dennis Cooper in 1990, and with Yoshiko Chuma on The Yellow Room, Daghdha Dance Company (Ireland) in 2003. Body-Scan, a image/performance project with choreographers Benoit Lachambre and Su-Feh Lee, premiered at Le Quartz in France in March, 2008 and toured internationally in 2009. In March 2009 he collaborated with Pavel Zustiak/Palissimo on Weddings and Beheadings, premiering in New York at the Ailey Center Theater. The pair received a Baryshnikov Arts Center residency in 2010 and premiered their new collaboration, Amidst, there in June, 2011. This continues as Part 2 of Palissimo’s The Painted Bird trilogy, which premiered at the Wexner Center for the Arts in September 2012. His recent collaboration with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, Love Story, Palestine was presented at La Mama ETC in New York in May of 2012.
Along with numerous visiting artist and residency engagements throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Flynt has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Light Work, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Art Matters, the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy. Most recently he was a resident at Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain.
Flynt’s work has appeared in numerous photo publications, anthologies and artist’s books. His 1996 monograph, Compound Fracture (Twin Palms Publishers) received a Best Books of the Year award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
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David Fishel is a filmmaker and video artist based in New York. His film and installation work (including that which he has created in collaboration with ChrisMastersDance and Robert Flynt for 2014’s Exit Strategies), has screened at numerous festivals internationally. His music videos, promos, and shorts are routinely broadcast globally.
Fishel is one of the founding members of Chapman Steamer Arts, an artist-in-residency program that operates out of a 110-year-old firehouse situated in NY's Hudson Valley.
Oana Botez (Costume Designer)
Ms. Botez is a Princess Grace Recipient, NEA/TCG Career Development Program Recipient and NEA/TCG Round of Global Connections Program. Nominated for The Lucille Lortel Award, The Theatre Bay Area Awards, The Henry Hewes Design Awards, The Barrymore and Drammy Award. Oana walked away recipient of both The Barrymore and Drammy Award.
Her designs have raised critical acclaim in New York’s: BAM Next Wave, Bard SummerScape/Richard B.Fisher Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, The Glimmerglass Festival,Soho Rep, LCT3, The Public Theater, 59East59, La MaMa, The Kitchen, PS122, HERE Arts Center, The Joyce Theater, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, BRIC Arts Media, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center and The Classic Stage Company.
Her collaborators in theater, opera, film and dance include: Robert Woodruff, Les Waters, Richard Foreman, Maya Beiser, Richard Schechner, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Janos Szasz, Andrei Serban, Blanka Zizka, Daniel Ezralow, Todd Eckert & Marina Abramović, Denyce Graves, Jeffrey Page, Saheem Ali, Daniel Kramer, Jay Scheib, Brian Kulick, Eric Sean Fogel, Zelda Fichlander, Annie-B Parson &Paul Lazar, Doug Elkins, Ken Rus Schmoll, Michael Sexton, Daniel Alexander Jones, Will Davis, Lee Sunday Evans, Megan Sandberg-Zakian, , Mary Birnbaum, Lileana Blain - Cruz, Awoye Tiempo, Tea Alegic, Jenna Worsham, Geoff Sobelle, Kristin Linklater, Zishan Ugurlu, Rebecca Taichman, Eric Ting, Alec Duffy, Razvan Dinca, Karin Coonrod, Kristin Marting, Evan Ziporyn, Eduardo Machado, Gus Solomon Jr.&Paradigm, Carmen DeLavallade, Jackson Gay, David Levine, Dusan Tynek, Rania Ajami, Gisela Cardenas, Pavol Liska & Kelly Copper, Igor Golyak, Matthew Neenan, Molissa Fenley, Parallel Exit, Pig Iron Company, Play Company, Charles Moulton, Ripe Time, among others.
Ms. Botez is a graduate of Bucharest Art Academy (Romania) and received an MFA in Design from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Ms. Botez was a major contributor for the first Romanian theater design catalogue, called Scenografica. She taught costume design at Colgate College, Brooklyn College and MIT. Ms. Botez is currently an Associate Professor Adjunct in the Design Department at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. She resides in Manhattan, New York.
Maruti Evans (Lighting Designer)
Maruti has received the Drama Desk Award in 2013 for the designs of Tiny Dynamite and Pilo Family Circus, and Drama Desk nominations for: Deliverance, In the Heat of the Night, Slaughterhouse 5, and Blindness.
Real Enemies (BAM), Epiphany (BAM), Else Where (BAM), LEIDERABEND (BAM), Witness Uganda (ART), Big Apple Circus (2015), Big Apple Circus (2016), Cool Hand Luke (59e59), Deliverance (59e59), Café Society Swing (59e59), Alice vs Wonderland (ART), Mouth Wide Open (ART), Much Ado About Nothing (ART and McCarter Theater), Master and Margarita (Summer Scape), An Oresteia (Classic Stage Co), Crowns (Goodman Theater), Ballad of Emmett Till (Penumbra Theater), Owl Answers and the Dutchman (Penumbra Theater), Le Nozze Di Figaro (L.I.O), Ofero (L.I.O), Turn of the Screw (L.I.O), and Sweeny Todd (V.O.C).
Jayson P. Smith (Writer)
Jayson P. Smith (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, & curator, currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Primarily working within language, sound, and movement, their work is interested in Black performance/interiority, collaboration, & somatic practices.
Jayson has received support from New York Foundation for the Arts (Poetry, 2017), The Poetry Project, Poetry Foundation, Callaloo, and The Conversation Literary Festival. Their writing appears in html.review, West Branch, boundary2, The Poetry Project’s Recluse, Gulf Coast, & The Offing, among others.
Jayson’s performance work has been featured in numerous venues throughout the U.S., such as Guggenheim Museum, MOMAPS1, Loft Literary Center, The Home School, & Ace Hotel NYC.
J founded & curates NOMAD Reading Series in Brooklyn, & elsewhere.
Vidya Ravilochan (Dramaturg)
Vidya Ravilochan is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York who specializes in Heidegger, Ancient Greek philosophy, classical American pragmatism, and the practical philosophy of Kant & Hegel. Her dissertation offers a Heideggerian approach to understanding musicality, and her undergraduate thesis (“The Song Itself: The Musical Legality of the Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus”) explores the indomitable irrationality—the music—behind every rational attempt to order the universe.
Her multifaceted musical background spans the early (especially baroque) music, jazz, musical theatre, and Carnatic (South Indian classical) genres. She has performed operatic roles including Casilda in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers at Indiana University, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Narnia Festival, and Novizia/Conversa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica at the Tuscia Opera Festival. Among her accolades are First Prize in both the classical and musical theatre divisions at the Colorado-Wyoming NATS Competition and Outstanding Soloist at the UNC Greeley Jazz Festival. She holds a Certificate in General Music Studies from the Berklee College of Music, where she studied jazz theory.
Vidya is a recipient of The Onassis Foundation Fellowship in Ancient Greek Studies (2021–4), and has had her work has been published in the Women in Philosophy Annual Journal of Papers, and accepted to the 52nd North Texas Philosophical Association Conference and the 25th Annual Philosophy Conference in Pennsylvania. She will be teaching at Iona University and The New School for Social Research in Fall 2022.