The aMaSSiT Mentoring Lab is a four-month long multi-session course of class “labs” which focuses on choreographic skills and tool building. aMaSSiT welcomes dance makers from all dance genres in any stage of their career to revamp or kick start their choreographic journey and challenge their creative process.
The Dance Complex first introduced aMaSSiT in the fall of 2013, and has since received recognition among dance professionals both locally and nationally, including praise from Dance Magazine. Since its creation, aMaSSiT has invited a variety of dance makers to join the lab, including those specializing in tap, burlesque, musical theater, contemporary ballet, and modern.
For the past three years, Kristin Wagner has been the Project Lead for aMaSSiT where she works closely with Peter DiMuro, the Dance Complex’s Executive Artistic Director, to develop the curriculum of this season’s goals and objectives, as well as the guest facilitators. Kristin has been working directly to provide oversight on the general operations of the course for the eight artists who are currently enrolled in aMaSSiT. This season, six of those artists are working independently, and two are working in a collaborative relationship.
The program continues to focus on choreographic development through showings with critical feedback, but this season, there have been some changes to provide more tools and resources for the artists.
To start off, the application process this year has doubled in length of time to allow applicants more time to submit top-quality work and immerse themselves in their proposed projects. Applications opened in the beginning of December and closed mid-January. The program has also added more elements, such as workshops aimed at building choreographic tools (i.e. movement generation, adapting/adopting new choreographic processes, etc), and peer dialogues, as well as critical feedback from guest artists. Even the process of inviting “mentors” has transitioned to inviting facilitators to assist with peer dialogue, so artists are actively giving feedback as well as receiving it from a variety of voices.
The structure of the program itself has remained consistent, but this year with generous support from Boston Moving Arts Productions, the program has added four additional workshops emphasizing administrative process. As Kristin states “the focus of aMaSSiT has always included a heavy focus on defining and refining each artist’s creative process, and continues to do so, by offering movement workshops in generation, structure, and resolution”. This season, the program has paired the development of creative process with workshops focused on administrative practice, such as giving/receiving feedback, marketing, grant writing, and developing relations with producers. With the partnership of Boston Moving Arts Production, the program has been able to offer “four administrative workshops, three movement workshops, five showings with peer and facilitator feedback, and an informal showing of work at the conclusion of the program” for a very affordable price, creating accessibility for all artists.
By Kimberly Romero
For more information on aMaSSiT, please visit http://www.dancecomplex.org/amassit-mentoring-lab/
The aMaSSit Thinking Workshops are open to the public. You can sign up for the Grant Writing Thinking Workshop on March 11th here. You can sign up for the Producer Relations Thinking Workshop on April 8th here.
