ImmerseATL affords mentorship, rigorous coaching and networking to rising modern dancers. (Photograph by Synapse Pictures)
The Windmill Arts Heart’s black field was almost darkish. One or two dim stationary spotlights barely and imperfectly illuminated fragments of the stage. Into the murky silence, a performer referred to as, “The place are we going?” One other cried out, “Good day, is anyone there?”
The multi-textured minimalism of Orchestral Drone C by the Paris Opera Home Orchestra expanded to fill the theater. ImmerseATL Artist Program participant Jazmyn Wright entered from downstage left, fumbled with a handheld highlight and — turning it on herself, squinting into its brilliant glare and smiling gamely — started, “Good day, I’m Jazmyn Wright, and I’m right here to audition for America’s Obtained Expertise. I can sing. I can dance. What would you like me to do? I can do all of it!”
Behind her, Georgia Rood, one other of the 2025 ImmerseATL cohort, led a line of fellows slowly throughout the stage. As they groped via the gloom, one of many dancers referred to as out once more, “The place are we going?”
This efficiency titled Iris is an ImmerseATL Artist Program showcase choreographed by director Sarah Hillmer and her co-educators, Anna Bracewell and George Staib, in collaboration with the dancers. The June 26 exhibiting was a capstone for the seven individuals following a seven-week intensive designed to acclimate them to the distinctive alternatives and challenges of Atlanta’s modern dance scene. It additionally marked a return of this system after Hillmer took an roughly 18-month hiatus to reimagine how greatest to assist rising skilled dancers, many who’re on or simply past the cusp of school commencement and hoping to construct a profession right here within the metropolis.
Hillmer based ImmerseATL in 2017, partially, to develop individuals’ horizon of expectations past a traditional understanding of success. Within the dance world, that normally means becoming a member of a longtime skilled firm, ceaselessly proper out of highschool, after which working one’s means via the ranks to change into a trainer or perhaps, and really sometimes (particularly for girls), a choreographer or firm director. “The individuals making change on the earth are many instances not those that comply with a cookie cutter pathway, and the identical is true for dance,” mentioned Hillmer, who has herself mapped a distinctive path to success within the trade.
Angela Harris, director of Dance Canvas, noticed via Dance Canvas’ DC Subsequent training program that rising artists who full their coaching in Atlanta typically transfer throughout the nation to New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. They might discover locations on Broadway or in firms reminiscent of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Invoice T. Jones/Arnie Zane Firm or Hubbard Avenue. In Atlanta, nevertheless, skilled modern dancers most of the time should piece collectively a dwelling from some mixture of part-time employment with an area dance firm, educating or administration, project-length gigs and festivals, and part- and even full-time work in one other trade or discipline.
In 2023, Georgia tied with Wisconsin for final in statewide funding for the humanities, spending simply 14 cents per capita, in comparison with surrounding states like North Carolina with 84 cents, Alabama at $1.28, Tennessee at $1.47, South Carolina with $2.16 and Florida at $2.71. Solely a fraction of the state’s arts funds goes to funding dance, with ballet taking the lion’s share.
These modern dancers who select to remain in Atlanta after finishing their coaching or faculty are subsequently ceaselessly in search of one thing greater than the predictability of regular work, even when they don’t know but what different choices may be out there. Additionally they face challenges connecting with skilled alternatives in each modern live performance dance and the blossoming business dance trade in a neighborhood the place collaboration, mutual support and DIY-grit rework scarce sources into high-caliber artwork.
Hillmer mentioned ImmerseATL’s mission has all the time been and nonetheless stays centered on serving to younger skilled dancers make these connections and discover the various different pathways to success that the Atlanta modern dance world affords, notably for these keen to take the trail much less traveled. The primary shift Hillmer determined to make was condensing what was an eight-month journey throughout the common August-through-June season into seven weeks throughout the summer time.
“In 2017, eight months felt proper,” mentioned Hillmer. “However as this system matured, I spotted how shortly peoples’ lives change as they’re simply graduating faculty. At present’s younger adults have additionally been via the Covid shutdown, they usually’re beginning their careers at a time of big monetary uncertainty,” she continued. So she retooled this system into an intensive, an expertise that might be “simply as impactful,” and provide the identical degree of rigor, however could be a shorter-term dedication — an intervention delivered at a pivotal second of downtime to present the artists a much-needed jump-start.
Along with Wright and Rood, the cohort taking part on this iteration of ImmerseATL’s Artist Program included KSU graduates Autumn and Skie Justice, KSU rising senior Amber Solana, and Brenau rising seniors Grace Darden and Zoe Otto. Wright additionally graduated from KSU, and Rood left the College of North Carolina College of the Arts just some credit shy of a performance-focused diploma in dance to be able to switch to the College of North Carolina – Greensborough the place she can be a senior finishing a level in choreography and motion evaluation.
Talking with these seven people allowed an image to emerge of a gifted, devoted group with different creative and tutorial pursuits. All of them have taken a “sure, and” method to their dance coaching and their training. Every of them, in their very own means, mirrored on how the ImmerseATL program has helped them discover autonomy and reframe a profession in dance as making a sequence of selections for oneself moderately than leaping via hoops on the route of others.
This fall, for instance, the Justice twins are heading to Chattanooga to pursue their affiliate’s levels in radiology, and Solana and Darden are double-majoring in dance and advertising. For them, an organization contract would imply placing different academic and profession targets on maintain whereas pursuing a profession in dance. ImmerseATL helped them to see how they could carve a center means in Atlanta or elsewhere, persevering with to develop their artistry whereas making progress in different fields.
“It was so validating to listen to from, Andie [Knudson] and Patsy [Collins, two of the ImmerseATL ‘guides’ Hillmer hired to work with the cohort artists], that it’s okay to do one thing else,” mentioned Skie Justice. “If something, it’s inspired. It doesn’t make you any much less of knowledgeable or a dancer to need extraordinary job safety whilst you’re pursuing your artwork.”
Wright want to make her technique to Los Angeles or New York, however needs to maintain her choices open in each live performance and business dance. Rood is “counting the times” and planning a return to Atlanta to be able to embark on a profession as a choreographer. Rood, who grew up learning primarily ballet, described the ImmerseATL expertise as each a “homecoming” and a “reprogramming,” including, “I discovered to let go of the self-judgment and expectations that different individuals positioned on me in order that I may exist in an area of curiosity and studying, the place I may put money into myself and my work.”
In Iris the dancers embodied their ImmerseATL journey. After more and more frantic repetitions of her self-introduction — for America’s Obtained Expertise, for the function of a scientist in a TV pilot, for a spot as a dancer in a Beyoncé present — Wright ultimately turned the highlight on her fellow dancers after which — after becoming a member of the ensemble to display on her phrases her technical versatility as a dancer — the viewers. Gaining confidence, Rood led others into the sunshine and, with a fluidly-articulated motion vocabulary that was each progressive and appeared uniquely Rood’s personal, initiated a sequence of solos. All through, Iris featured technical talent and moments of promising artistry from your complete ensemble.
Whereas Atlanta audiences might have to attend a yr or two to see members of the 2025 cohort on stage, a number of ImmerseATL Artist Program alums are nonetheless working within the metropolis and can be performing in or creating new work within the coming months.
Raianna Brown, founder and director of Komansé Dance Theater, not too long ago debuted a brand new work, Nina, and the corporate ceaselessly performs in Atlanta. Knudson, who additionally works as a videographer for native performing arts organizations such because the Atlanta Opera, will be part of Emory’s resident skilled firm staibdance within the premiere of Staib’s between canine and wolf in October, and alternate endings, a brand new work by one other ImmerseATL alum, Jacqui Hinkson, for her firm EXCAVATE BODY, premiering in December. Collins, who can also be a advertising and PR advisor offering companies to Atlanta-area artists and nonprofits, heads again to the studio this fall to work on the choreographic means of a brand new piece to premiere within the winter or early spring.
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