Artist Nick Mauss is seeking dancers with classical ballet training or strong foundation in ballet for a forthcoming exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, beginning this March 2018 through mid-May 2018. Additional training in modern and contemporary techniques is welcome. Ideal candidates will be comfortable with an improvisational choreographic process, and have an interest in the study of ballet history and in interpreting extinct ballet styles.

The exhibition at the Whitney will present daily performances by 3-4 dancers alongside artwork, and archival material, to consider the rich connections with ballet and the visual arts, theater, fashion, and new representations of the body. Focusing on New York’s role in a transatlantic exchange of ballet and surrealist aesthetics, the show presents a vision of American modernist ballet as an artistic catalyst, filter, and vibrant, shared vocabulary.

Dancers will develop a new work in collaboration with Mauss, through rehearsals at the Center for Ballet and the Arts, and visits to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library. The performance will consist primarily of short movement sequences made in response to archival footage of historic ballets, performance photographs, and artworks from the 1930s and 1940s.

How To Apply

Please email performance@whitney.org with the following materials by December 13 for audition option 1 and January 2 for audition option 2.

- CV and/or bio
- A link or copy of a video work sample
- A few sentences explaining your relationship to ballet and dance history and interest in this project
- Availability for audition dates (see below) and general availability from January-May 2018
- Individuals must be 18 years or older and be legally eligible to work in the United States

Audition dates

- Option 1: December 16–17
- Option 2: January 4–5

Auditions will be held at the Center for Ballet and the Arts. Time slots will be an hour in duration, multiple slots available each day.

Rehearsals

4 hour rehearsals, 1-2 times a week throughout January
2 week intensive (5-6 days a week, 4 hour rehearsals) in the last two weeks of February
TBD rehearsal availability the first week of March

Performance

Four hour performance slots, two to four days a week beginning the week of March 12 through mid-May (exact end date TBD).

Compensation

Hourly for rehearsals and performances.