Upcoming Projects

 

OPEN CALL FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCERS

Clare Cook is seeking advanced contemporary dancers for a new project in development in Lafayette, Louisiana to premiere at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in September 2024, with additional performance opportunities in New Orleans, La. 

Dancers should be trained in classical and contemporary forms and have experience and/or an openness to a collaborative choreographic process, both between dancers, with the choreographer, and with other artistic mediums. Vocal exploration and text (writing & speaking) will be utilized as part of the creation process. 

APPLY ONLINE HERE: https://forms.gle/dQzU7t5A9vVDGcjbA

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

Clare Cook is making a new dance titled, Rounding the Edge. This new dance navigates formal structures (like the Fibonacci Sequence) and explores personal and collective connections to roundness, softness and ease. It is inspired by personal studies of repeated patterns (like a child’s bedtime routine), external systems (like patriarchy and capitalism), and the round respite space in the center of chaos (like the eye of a hurricane). Asking, how can softness be a strength?

The dance will feature original music performed live by Lafayette native turned Brooklynite, Hillary Bonhomme, include a set design collaboration with UL Architecture professor, Ashlie Boelkins, and costumes by Paula Calderon, a South American dancer/designer recently transplanted to Lafayette.

Rounding the Edge will premiere as part of Dance/Splits at the Acadiana Center for the Arts and produced in partnership with Basin Arts. More info about the show: https://acadianacenterforthearts.org/events/dance-splits/?occurrence=2024-09-13

Rehearsal Schedule:

June 17, Monday / 9:30am - 12pm (space available at 9am for warmup)
June 18, Tuesday / 9:45-11:15am modern class (optional, free) / 11:30am-3:30pm
June 19, Wednesday  / 9:30am - 12pm (space available at 9am for warmup)
June 20, Thursday / 9:45-11:15am ballet class (optional, free) / 11:30am-3:30pm
June 21, Friday / 9:30am - 1:30pm (space available at 9am for warmup)
June 25, Tuesday / 9:45-11:15am modern class (optional, free) / 11:30am-3:30pm
June 26, Wednesday / 9:30am - 12pm (space available at 9am for warmup)
June 27, Thursday / 9:45-11:15am ballet class (optional, free) / 11:30am-3:30pm
June 28, Friday / 9:30am - 1:30pm (space available at 9am for warmup)

August 2, Sunday / 11:00-4:00pm (warm up class 11am-12pm)
August 18, Sunday / 11:00-4:00pm (warm up class 11am-12pm)

Performance Week: Times subject to change as tech schedule is refined
September 8, Sunday / 11:00-4:00pm (warm up class 11am-12pm)    
September 9, Monday / 12:00-6:00pm (warm up class 11am-12pm    )
September 10, Tuesday / 12:00-8:00pm warm up class 11am-12pm)    
September 11, Wednesday /12:00-8:00pm (warm up class 11am-12pm)
September 12 - 14 / Performances in Lafayette and New Orleans    

Dancers would need to be available for all rehearsal dates and rehearsals will take place in Lafayette, La at Basin Arts (113 Clinton St. Lafayette, La 70501). 

Dancer Compensation: Hourly rehearsal rate of $15. Total project compensation estimate is $1000-$1500 per dancer. Dancers outside of the Lafayette area are encouraged to apply! Additional travel and housing support can be discussed. Dancers will also have access to free classes and an allocation of rehearsal space for personal use at Basin Arts during rehearsal periods. 

APPLY ONLINE HERE: https://forms.gle/dQzU7t5A9vVDGcjbA

APPLICATION TIMELINE:

  • Round One / Dancer Online Application due April 19, 2024 (11:59PM)

  • Round Two / Select dancers invited to attend an audition class on April 30th or May 7th (9:45-11:15am)

  • Casting Complete by May 15, 2024

  • Rehearsals begin June 17, 2024

About the Choreographer:

Website: https://www.claremcook.com/
Culturalyst Profile: https://culturalyst.com/claremcook
Instagram: @claremcook / @basinarts

Clare Cook is a Louisiana native, and after a decade in NYC, returned to Lafayette, La in 2016 with an MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts inspired to invest her time and talent in her hometown’s burgeoning arts community. She is the Founder & Creative Director of Basin Arts, a non-profit arts incubator focused on supporting Louisiana artists towards a sustainable creative practice. Clare has jumped into recent dance projects with NOLA based choreographer, Elana Jacobs, visual artist Hagit Barkai, Paige Barnett’s A Song of Visions, Ten Tiny Dances - Lafayette, and the NOLA International Dance Festival.

Artistic projects from a past life include presenting choreography at Joe’s Pub/DanceNOW Festival, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Triskelion Arts, Opera Slavica, Columbia University, NYU, and the New School for Drama. She has performed across NYC at Dance Theater Workshop, St. Mark's Church, Joyce Soho, La Mama, Duo Theater, Webster Hall, Bushwick Starr, Dumbo’s John Ryan Theater, and The Tank, among other venues. Clare was the choreographer for the First National Tour of Bullets Over Broadway, re-setting Susan Stroman’s Tony-Nominated choreography, and traveled to Bulgaria with the Drama League of NYC to choreograph the Sofia Puppet Theatre of Bulgaria’s American Musical Theatre Showcase. 

She has been on the dance faculties of LSU, UL-Lafayette, NYU Tisch Dance, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She is an ArtSpark recipient (2016 & 2019), the 2017 ABC Icon “Rising Star” honoree, a 2019 Trailblazer by Acadiana Profile magazine, and a member of Leadership Lafayette Class XXXVI. She continues to evolve her hyphenate existence as a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and arts administrator throughout Louisiana and beyond.

Questions? email clare@basinartslafayette.com and let's connect!