SPRINGBOARD FELLOWSHIP
Our Fellowship program is designed to provide equitable support to choreographers.
THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Amidst the 2020 cancellations, we devoted our season to identifying critical areas throughout our infrastructure and practices where we could do more to support our community. Leading with integrity, creativity, equity, diversity, inclusion, and mentorship, the Fellowship Program is just one of the many steps we have committed to take in an effort to move contemporary dance forward.
Springboard’s Fellowship Program is designed to provide support, residency, mentoring, and networking resources within our global network to choreographers. The program supports the artists’ practices as part of the Springboard Emerging Choreographers Program, and strives to uplift the Fellow’s artistic endeavors throughout their Fellowship year and beyond.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
5+ years of choreographic experience
Experience working with large groups
Summer Project cast of 17+ dancers
Experience working with professional and professional-track dancers
Ability to work and thrive in the fast-paced, pressurized, and dense environment that is Springboard Danse
Prepared to take on commissions and guest teaching engagements with a professional company, apprentice program, or university program
HOW ARE THESE ARTISTS CURATED?
Springboard’s family reaches far and wide. We reach out to our extended web of choreographers, stagers, performers, curators, company directors, and mentors, in addition to esteemed individuals within the field, to understand whose trajectory may be most harmonious with and supported by our program offerings. We seek career choreographers with 5+ years of experience and striking creative capacity.
It is our utmost priority to invite an artist who is able to succeed within the framework of the Springboard Danse and leverage the opportunity to launch their choreographic career. We consider it our responsibility to ensure that the curated individual is prepared to take advantage of each opportunity and thrive within each setting, during and beyond Springboard Danse.
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Photos (top to bottom):
2019 SBDM_Principal Choreographer, Ohad Naharin_©Michael Slobodian
2017 SBDM_Principal Choreographer, Aszure Barton_©Michael Slobodian
2018 SBDM_Emerging and Resident Showing_©David Gonsier
OUR 2025 SPRINGBOARD FELLOW
photos by Mark Mann @Markmannphoto
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Alexander Anderson (@zanderander) is a choreographer, stager, dancer, producer, and teacher based in New York City. A graduate of The Juilliard School (BFA, 2014), Alexander has built a distinguished career in both choreography and staging, alongside his performing work with leading dance companies.
As a choreographer, Alexander has received commissions from prominent companies including Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, Peridance Youth Ensemble, Ballet Austin II, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Buglisi Dance Theater, SFDanceworks, Alvin Ailey BFA Fordham, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (Create Summer Intensive), and Owen/Cox Dance Group. His early choreographic works earned him selections for Choreographic Honors at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater from 2010-2014. He was the recipient of the 2012 Dizzy Feet Foundation Scholarship Award and the 2013 Princess Grace Foundation Scholarship Award.
In 2022, Alexander premiered a new work as the inaugural Choreographic Fellow at Gibney Company, where he had previously served as an Artistic Associate since 2020. He has also staged critically acclaimed works such as Edward Clug and Marco Goecke’s productions, including Goecke’s award-winning “Midnight Raga,” which won the 2017 Gouden Zwaan for Most Impressive Dance Production.
Alexander’s performance career includes time with Nederlands Dans Theater 2, where he advanced to Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in 2017. His performance in Crystal Pite’s “Solo Echo” earned him critical acclaim, and in 2019, he was named Dance Europe Magazine’s Critic’s Choice for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer.
In March 2024, Alexander self-produced his own performance, “Falling Elsewhere,” in New York City, showcasing his unique artistic vision. He is also featured in the Paramount feature film Smile 2.
As a teacher and mentor, Alexander has taught at several prestigious institutions, including Ailey Fordham BFA (Professional Division), Peridance, Steps On Broadway, Gibney Dance, School of American Ballet (SAB), and ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.
OUR 2022 INAUGURAL FELLOWS
photo by Patrice Mathieu
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Artist, performer and choreographer based in Canada, known for her radical works at the edge of dance and performance. At the young age of 26, she had already won two awards for her choreographies. She was a double prizewinner at the Prix de la danse de Montréal, winning both the Prix du CALQ for Best Choreography of 2015-2016 for her choreographic installation When the Ice Melts, Will We Drink the Water?, and the Prix Découverte de la danse, presented by Agora de la danse and Tangente, for Unrelated (her first choreography). Also Daina was named by the prestigious German TANZ magazine as one of 30 promising artists for the year 2017 and named one of 25 to watch by the American publication, DANCE in 2018. In 2019, she won a New York Dance and Performance Award, Bessie, for Outstanding Choreographer.
Recognized as one of the most promising young choreographers of the next generation, since 2015 her work has been presented over one-hundred times in 15 countries and over 31 different cities. Her work being presented in some of the most prestigious festivals (The Venice Biennale, Oktoberdans, MONTPELLIER DANSE, and the Munich Dance Biennale) and on the stages of the world (Canada, France, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Greenland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Mexico).
Daina is the artist-in-residence at Agora de la danse in Montreal until 2023. In 2018 she returned to the Venice Biennale to teach at the Biennale College, whilst creating a group-piece for 15 students. She continued to tour in Norway, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic and Canada. In 2019 she toured Europe, Canada and the United States, meanwhile creating a new group piece (J’ai pleuré avec les chiens) and a solo (Laborious Song). In 2021 Daina looks forward to presenting 5 of her works at Montpellier Dance Festival, her retrospective in Montréal, at Usine C, continuing to tour all of her works and finally premiering J’ai pleuré aves les chiens (Time, Création, Destruction), her first original group piece.
photo by Bobby Rodgers
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Dancer – Choreographer – Educator – Artist Organizer
Brooklyn native and Saint Paul-based artist excavating cultural retention and fragmentation within their Caribbean diasporic identity. Morris (formerly Morris-Van Tassel) was a performer with TU Dance from 2007-2017, featured in works by Kyle Abraham, Gioconda Barbuto, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Greggory Dolbashian, Katrin Hall, Francesca Harper, Dwight Rhoden, and Uri Sands. In 2020 she served as the company’s Artistic Associate and is a founding Teaching Artist at The School at TU Dance Center since 2011. In 2018 they were named Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch!” and is currently an Artistic Advisor to Springboard Danse Montreal. Morris was named Minneapolis’ City Pages Artist of the Year in 2019 and Best Choreographer for their solo, “Yam, Potatoe an Fish!” Alanna is the Artistic Director of AMVTP, founded in 2017 to produce dance, education and community-building initiatives. She is a 2015 McKnight Dance Fellow, a graduate of The Juilliard School and LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts. Morris’ choreography has been commissioned by Minnesota Dance Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Children’s Theatre Co.; and the Dance Department at Carleton College. They are currently developing a collaborative solo performance art project, Black Light_mysteries and manifestations of the creative life force, which explores the nobility of black-ness, the divinity of the feminine energy, and the harnessing of sensual expression. Its second iteration is being presented by The Great Northern Festival, The Cowles Center for Dance and Northrop in February 2022.