PRIDE RESIDENCY

WADE, supported by the Department of Dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, presents the Pride Residency, Performance and Community Engagement 2025.

Created by WADE after a series of listening sessions with the LGBTQA+ artistic community, the project responds to the need for underrepresented and historically marginalized artists for free rehearsal space, professional production opportunities to create work plus logistics and financial support to interact and impact the communities that are important to them. The Pride Residency, Performance and Community Engagement is divided into Spring and Fall Session.

The Spring Session revolves around the creative process. Up to 4 (four) emerging LGBTQ2+ choreographers are awarded up to fifty (50) hours of rehearsal space to create a new work or finetune an existing one that amplifies their voices and experiences. The rehearsal process runs from January 21st to June 15th, 2025 for a total of 20 weeks and culminates with a performance, free to the audience in the Jack Crystal Theater on Wednesday, June 18th. A moderated conversation with the artists and informal mingling session will follow the performance. The choreographers receive mentoring feedback from WADE collaborators, professional photographs and videos for their portfolio and a small stipend.

The Fall Session is dedicated to help the artists create and execute a one-of-a-kind community based event for their chosen organizations. These events can range from movement classes, to lecture demonstrations, to informal performances, Q&As, to a combination of different practices. The choreographers will receive four (4) 2-hour virtual training sessions to create a clear curriculum with specific learning objectives plus two (2) in-person “vision sessions” in which the plans of each community based event are presented and finalized. The intention is to run the events in November and December 2025.

Photos by John Eng

ANNOUNCING OUR
2025 RESIDENT ARTISTS

JAY BEARDSLEY is an interdisciplinary dance artist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Their talent and commitment to dance has led them to train and perform across the United States and internationally. Jay's stage performance credits include Ballez, work by Merce Cunningham, Douglas Dunn + Dancers, PERFORMA, Johnnie Cruise Mercer, and their own performance project Katerina & Jay. They have collaborated with Sidra Bell Dance New York, GREYZONE, Cornfield Dance, and MICHIYAYA Dance.

Jay Beardsley
(they/them)

MAGGIE JOY (she/her) and CORINNE LOHNER (they/she) are dance collaborators and long-time friends. Both from Dallas, TX with a B.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, they currently freelance as performers and educators in New York City and make work that prioritizes queerness, play, and partnering.

Between the two of them, they’ve danced for David Dorfman, Dual Rivet, cullen + them, Douglas Dunn + Dancers, Yin Yue, and more. Their first collaboration was supported through InQUAD programming and was performed at the Jack in Brooklyn, NY.

Maggie Joy (she/her) and
Corinne Lohner
(they/she)

A thrower of parties on and off stage, heavily influenced by social dance and the human impulse to move, RYLAN JOENK is a movement artist interested in making work that dissects and challenges the expectations of contemporary dance performance. Inspired by metallics, loud sounds, and the queer experience, Rylan’s work resides at the intersection of camp and kitsch, and fervent sincerity.

Rylan Joenk
(they/she)

DYLAN RICHMOND is a dancer, writer, and “choreopoet” (after Ntozake Shange) currently based in NYC. He works as the company manager for New York Live Arts and the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company. Dylan graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Dance and English, where he received the President’s Award for his exceptional achievements and contributions to the college.