HeARTbeats: Adam McKinney’s Nat’l Artist Teacher Fellowship

Following a National Artist Teacher Fellowship residency, a residency at the School for American Ballet, and a busy schedule of guest artists within the Dance Department, NMSA Dance Department Chair Adam McKinney and the rest of the department faculty are gearing up for Winter Dances 2016, NMSA’s sixth annual January performance of contemporary and classical dance!

In July, McKinney completed a two-week National Artist Teacher Fellowship residency in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. His project, focusing on the effect of borders and border technologies on communities (particularly relevant in these two cities, separated by the U.S./Mexico border), aimed to “engage both communities through the artmaking process.” Through a partnership with the U.S. Consulate General, McKinney was able to host collaborative panels – involving, among many, community members and local artists doing similar work – sparking a dialogue about youth advocacy, arts & human rights, and arts & social justice.  He taught free dance classes at University of Texas El Paso (30 participants), the El Paso Conservatory of Dance (5 participants), and the Compania de Ballet Clásico de la Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juárez (10 participants). Class participants were “really excited about engaging in the conversation,” reports McKinney. The classes allowed him to expand local awareness around the border project and the effect on class-goers’ own communities, as well as promote the work other artists are doing regionally, and create artwork across and through the border. The project was deeply collaborative, and benefited especially from the help of S. Paola Lopez (pictured here with McKinney) of in2improv.

His work was preceded by a “border awareness” training, held in the Annunciation House 

in El Paso, where he was given hands-on training in immigration. The workshop “personalized the experience,” he says. “As part of the training, we were engaged with people caught in the immigration process…it gave me more choreographic impulses interms of my own personal research.”  He channeled this experience into improvisational border dance performances, collaborating with Laura Bustillos, Daniel Banks and Miles Tokunow.  “It was a particular conversation with technology and the body. How can these border technologies be used to start a conversation about healing and subvert ideas that border technologies push people apart?”  In the end of this complex and ongoing project, McKinney affirmed his mission as an artist to “bring people closer,” and to suss out the government structures that deny that access. Researching the border and its impact on El Paso and Ciudad Juárez “confirmed [his] idea of people just wanting to be together and willing to be arrested for it.”

Following this project, McKinney is excited to continue work with his project partners, hoping to bring elements of their work to life in NMSA’s Dance Department. In the upcoming Winter Dances performance, he choreographed “The Other Side,” which nods to the theme of borders – this time in regard to the Syrian refugee crisis. “We’ve been looking at the crisis worldwide – the porous nature of borders, the imporous nature of borders.”  Along with the influence his residency had on “The Other Side,” students in the department have benefited from learning about the possibilities of the professional dance world – for example, the fellowship as a whole – “the students understand professional development, the importance of professional artists to continue challenging themselves – as artists we must be continually challenged or else growth is not possible.”

You are cordially invited to NMSA Dance Department’s

6th Annual Winter Dances! 

With four world premiere works, and two company premiere works, including Talley Beatty’s “Mourner’s Bench” Winter Dances 2016 is sure to be a hit! 

Learn about Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks’ organization DNAWORKS here!