You saw a need and you filled it. How do you navigate between presenting emerging dancemakers such as Camila Arana, who has made “For Better or For Worse,” Owen Scarlett, whose “Gasp” is a world premiere, and Sasha Marlan-Librett, with established choreographers like Teresa Toogie Barcelo, who’s presenting the world premiere of “Soundbody” with Joe Berry’s electronic band M83, and RGWW (Rosanna Gamson/World Wide), with her troupe unveiling a world premiere, “Clever Ideas for Smaller Rooms.” 

First timer Neaz Kohani [“She is my Sister”] was recommended to me, and I was immediately drawn to her exploration of the history of female healers, particularly the way she translates this material into movement and weaves it together with live music. I have also been following Camila’s work for some time and deeply admire her choice of personal subject matter, as well as her dance style, which is emotionally expressive, dynamic, and very engaging.

Sasha shared a video of her performances, “Tempest in a Teacup” and “I Feel Like You Don’t Trust Me,” two works in which movement and dance are central to the storytelling. Both pieces are inventive, humorous, and refreshing, with the dancer’s body not only performing the work but becoming its subject, as well as her dance style, which is emotionally expressive, dynamic, and very engaging. TAQ Dance will present her evening-length world premiere, “Cue,” a meta-theatrical dance-theater piece.

I try to give as much possibility to the emerging voices, but I also love Rosanna’s work and Toogie’s. I’m so happy they approached me and wanted to present something. The mix is also very good, because there’s a crossover and they bring in new audiences, making people aware of artists they haven’t heard of before. Hopefully, they get curious.

You’re also having three evenings—January 22-25—of award-winning dance films from Sarah Elgart’s acclaimed Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival (D2D). This is so cool, because audiences can experience dance in new environments that are no longer restricted to the stage or the studio. 

Sarah approached us two years ago when we had the summer festival planned, because she was looking for a venue for her festival. I said, “Why don’t you do it as part of our Dance Festival, and we share the audience. We would both have an advantage.” 

On Friday we’re screening, Sasha Waltz: A Portrait, by Brigitte Kramer, that draws a line from 2006 to today. On Saturday, it’s, Embattled Territories, a special program that redefines the idea of battle and territory, and includes films from politically embattled places such as China, Belarus, the Congo, and Iran, as well as films that explore the body and psyche as an embattled territory.

Wow, those sound terrific. And on Sunday, you’re presenting official festival selections and award-winning films from past festivals that explore what it means to be alive and human in the world today. We all need a dose of that. So, Barbara, what are the biggest challenges in curating a multi-week festival with so many distinct choreographic voices, money being the obvious one?

Money is a big one, yes, and the model is [that] we provide the space and marketing and tech support. Whatever the companies have to pay for their productions, whatever they bring, they have to pay for, and then we share the ticket revenue. This works, because we were mostly sold-out. The first years were crazy; we were completely sold out in a short amount of time. 

The pandemic changed a few things, unfortunately, in the audience behavior, but it’s coming back. Sometimes it’s difficult presenting from the East coast or Mexico City, because they don’t have followings here. But we’re going to change that in our marketing approach. We’re also applying for grants so that we can kind of guarantee a basic artistic fee for the companies.

Institutionally, I hope we’re going to get more funding, guarantee an artist fee and get better equipment. Dance asks for a lot: dance pieces ask for something special, with projections, lights. It’s a little different than the other art forms. We have old equipment; we don’t really have LED lights, and we have to borrow everything from good friends. We also had to borrow Marley for the second space.