Year: 2024-2025
DanceForce Member: Robin Collen
Artist: Zoe Walders
Community Partner: SUNY Potsdam
Audience: 176
County: St. Lawrence
Choreographer Zoe Walders will be in residence at SUNY Potsdam to engage in 3 activities:
(a) Participate in creative process time to continue developing work which she began with her 2023 NYSCI grant on how mental health and neurodivergence affect the mind-body connection and the way that manifests in dance experiences. She will work with a dance partner, Zachary Frazee (2021 Western New York Choreographers Initiative Awardee).
(b) Teach 2 master classes—topics to be decided.
(c) Perform 3 earlier choreographic works and present her in-process work in concert. The free public concert will be March 19, 2025, 7:30pm in the Dance Theater of the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Potsdam.
The principal artists are Zoe Walders and Zachary Frazee.
This project is partnering with the SUNY Potsdam Department of Theatre and Dance.
The communities served will be the SUNY Potsdam campus, and the wider North Country.
Audience size is estimated to be 176.
This project is significant to Zoe Walders because the creative residency will give her time and space to explore her artistic process without worrying about the cost of renting space. Since Ms. Walders has been quite busy in graduate school, she is excited for the opportunity to have dedicated time for choreographic development. Also of significance to Ms. Walders is the opportunity to work with Zachary Frazee. They have known each other and worked together for many years, and to have a creative partner with whom to explore in the studio is quite special for Ms. Walders. This project has significance to SUNY Potsdam and the Department of Theatre and Dance. Ms. Walders received her BA in Dance from SUNY Potsdam in 2016, and she will be returning as an alumna guest artist.