Born at NYMF
Established in 2006 to bridge the gap between the worlds of dance and theater artists, NYMF’s commissioning program, BORN AT NYMF, develops one dance musical from concept to production each year. By providing a safe, funded opportunity for artists to experiment across disciplines and use innovative storytelling structures, the program encourages innovation and empowers choreographers to participate fully as musical theater creators.
Each spring, NYMF Executive Director Isaac Robert Hurwitz and Born at NYMF producer Melinda Atwood identify a general theme for the project and assemble a creative team. The team generally consists of 3-5 choreographers, a director, a writer and a composer, who are chosen from NYMF’s alumni artists and recommendations by outside industry professionals. In selecting artists, NYMF seeks a stylistically diverse group of distinctive artists who have shown an ability to work quickly and collaboratively.
The creative team meets regularly between April and July under the supervision of Isaac, Melinda, and an associate producer, to discuss and develop how the theme will be expressed in terms of narrative, character, structure, and style. After the writers present an outlined “script,” each choreographer focuses on a portion of the narrative or on specific characters; the director works to blend the disparate choreographic styles; and the writers develop the “script” and musical score. In the fall, auditions are held, designers are hired, and the work-in-progress is rehearsed and honed for 4 weeks leading up to the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it is presented for 4-6 performances.
Through its intensely collaborative framework, the program encourages innovation and cross-disciplinary exploration, providing a valuable experience for all the participating artists, from the writers to the performers. Because original full-length narrative dance works are so rarely developed and produced today, Born at NYMF is a particularly valuable addition — providing a much needed opportunity for choreographers’ creative development in the theater and creating a product that is innovative, exciting and not generally developed in more “commercial” theater settings.
The program’s 2007 production, Platforms, was hailed by Backstage Magazine as “an hour or so of the most intense and exciting dance you're likely to see on any New York stage this season and a smartly executed piece of theater as well.” The 2008 show, Wild About Harry, inaugurated the theater at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, where the 2009 show, Andy Warhol Was Right, was also performed. For more information about Andy Warhol Was Right, please click here.
