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DanceNow Silo

DanceNOW Silo offers urban dance makers an inspiring retreat away from the stresses of city life where these artists, mostly from NYC and Philadelphia, can enjoy rare, uninterrupted time to explore, create, process, rehearse and re-energize their artistic direction at historic Kirkland Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania which was home to ballerina Gelsey Kirkland in the 50s and has been owned by DanceNOW producer/director Robin Staff since 1999. 

An area known as the genius belt in the 1950s and inhabited by numerous visual and performing artists, Bucks County/Lehigh Valley is still bustling with cultural activity, particularly in the fields of music, theater and visual arts. With this in mind, DanceNOW has been partnering with DeSales University since 2007, and most recently the new ArtsQuest Performing Arts Center at SteelStacks to advance the presentation of dance in the area and provide New York City artists in residence at Silo with additional paid teaching, performing and commissioning opportunities.

Silo also has a following of local community members, including college and university students in the area, who come to participate on a weekly basis in the yoga, pilates and wellness classes taught at Silo by local community members and resident artists, as well as Silo’s Preview Performance series.  

In December 2010, Silo was embraced by the community with a new zoning permit to allow us to advance this vital component of what DanceNOW is offering the dance community and the constituents of Bucks County/Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. With our zoning status in place, we are working to significantly grow the residency program to be able to offerresident guest artists the financial resources they need to support their residencies, including travel, room and board expenses, and rehearsal salaries for their dancers.

 

Guest Artist Residency

 

A SPACE WHERE IMAGINATIONS OPEN

Now in its tenth year, the DanceNOW Silo Guest Artist Residency is a vital part of how DanceNOW assists urban dance makers by encouraging and supporting the creation of new work. In addition to offering artists free rehearsal space to work, Silo is opening doors for urban dance makers to develop important and new relationships with Bucks County/Lehigh Valley arts presenters and educators to help advance their careers and introduce the area to the vast spectrum of dance innovation. Just 76 miles from NYC and 56 miles from Philadelphia in the heart of Bucks County/Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, Silo is highly accessible to the dance communities in these cities, but serves artists all across the country. by providing unlimited and free use of two large and fully equipped rehearsal studios located in the farm’s renovated horse and bank barns. To offset the costs of maintaining the residency program, Silo offers housing in the Guest House at Kirkland Farm, which can accommodate companies of up to ten artists, for a very minimal fee of between $150 for a weekend residency to $350 for a two-week residency. The residency program is open to all artists on a first-come, first-served basis. 

For residency guidelines and availability: silokirklandfarm.dancenownyc.org

 

Master Class Series at DeSales Univerity and Muhlenberg College

“Great partnerships such as the one we have formed with DanceNOW [NYC] are forged out of mutual interests and a desire to perpetuate the vibrant originality that exists in dance today.” - Timothy Cowart, Director of the Dance Department at DeSales University

DanceNOW [NYC] partners with DeSales University and Muhlenberg College to bring emerging and established dance artists from NYC to Lehigh Valley, providing master class teachers with free rehearsal space to encourage the creation of new work, as well as paid teaching and performance opportunities in the area to offer the communities of Lehigh Valley the opportunity to experience a vast and diverse array of dance styles.  

 

Silo Wellness Classes

Located on Kirkland Farm in Lehigh Valley [10 minutes from the Bethlehem, Easton and Quakertown], Silo has developed a reputation for offering the most inspiring wellness classes in the area. Silo classes offer the communities of Bucks County and Lehigh Valley the opportunity to experience high quality yoga, pilates and other wellness/exercise classes on a regular basis. If you want to get in shape, stay in shape & maintain a healthy body at any age we hope that you will join the Silo Community of local and NYC based teachers at Silo.

See the class schedule here.

Silo Creative Process Series

Following the huge success of the Silo Dance Series in 2007, that previewed David Parker and The Bang Group’s ShowDown before its NYC premiere, Bridget Wingert of The Bucks County Herald wrote,  “It was like the old days of barn theaters when city dwellers brought their new productions to the country.”

 Silo offers informal creative process showcases and preview performances of New York City premieres to give the local community in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County the opportunity to experience first-hand the talent, creativity and innovation that thrives in New York City. 

Complete DanceNOW Silo residency, class and performance schedule silokirklandfarm.dancenownyc.org