“CHIME LIVE!” FREE PUBLIC SHOWINGS THROUGHOUT DECEMBER - SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 11/12 - This December, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (MJDC) will present CHIME LIVE!, a series of free public showings with 2009 CHIME artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hosted by program founder and MJDC Artistic Director, Margaret Jenkins, these presentations will take place over the course of three days, on December 4, 11 and 19, 2009 at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab (MJDL) in the South of Market district.

The 2009 CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area artists are (in alphabetical order with the mentors listed first): Yannis Adoniou, Artistic Director of KUNST-STOFF, and choreographer and solo-artist Folawole Oyinlola; Zenon Barron, Artistic Director of Ensembles Ballet Folklorico, and Joti Singh, Founder/Artistic Director of Duniya Dance; choreographer, dancer and educator, Molissa Fenley of Molissa Fenley and Dancers, and Hope Mohr, Artistic Director of Hope Mohr Dance; Joe Goode, Artistic Director of the Joe Goode Performance Group, and Erika Chong Shuch of the Erika Shuch Performance Project; and Alex Ketley, Co-Founder/Artistic Director of The Foundry, and choreographer Kara Davis. Each pair of choreographers received financial stipends totaling $10,000 and 100 hours of cost-free studio time at the MJDL over the course of the year.

CHIME LIVE! is as diverse and exciting as our program artists and has been an integral part of the CHIME program since its pilot year in 2004. To support their mentorship, these showings were organized by the MJDC to include discussions and lecture/demonstrations with the mentorship pairs, as well as informal showings of the work developed by the mentees during their grant year. The MJDC’s singular goal for producing CHIME LIVE! is to enhance community awareness of CHIME and the mentorship process.

MJDC RECEIVES MAJOR FUNDING FOR CHIME - SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 07/10 - MARGARET JENKINS DANCE COMPANY
RECEIVES TWO MAJOR GRANTS FROM THE IRVINE AND MELLON FOUNDATIONS FOR THE CONTINUATION AND THE EXPANSION OF CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange)

The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (MJDC) is pleased to announce that it has received a $400,000 grant from The James Irvine Foundation to support CHIME in Southern California for three years. In addition, the Company has received a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that over 18 months allocates $155,000 to support CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Southern California, as well as support the launch of CHIME Across Borders, an exchange among national choreographers.

Conceived by Artistic Director Margaret Jenkins, CHIME's primary goal is to encourage and enrich the development of choreographers. CHIME is a unique mentorship program allowing for self-selected pairs of professional choreographers – mentor and mentee – to receive financial support for 12 months in order to establish and explore a working relationship that includes, but is not limited to, work in the studio. The program seeks to formalize the exchange and feedback mechanisms between established and emerging California choreographers. Since its inception in 2004, more than 65 California choreographers have received funding and have established new relationships with fellow community artists, all for the sole purpose of elevating the choreographic experience.

Coinciding with the program's fourth year in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008, CHIME completed a successful pilot year in Southern California, with grants and cost- free studio time allocated to three pairs of artists in Los Angeles County. With the award of these two new major grants from the Mellon and Irvine Foundations, CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area and CHIME in Southern California will continue with new program years beginning January 1, 2010.

January 1, 2010 will also mark the beginning of the pilot year of CHIME Across Borders. This program brings choreographers of renown to mentor a group of local choreographers in San Francisco over the course of one year. Developed along the valued principles which have guided both CHIME in the Bay Area and CHIME in Southern California, CHIME Across Borders will create the opportunity for interaction over a duration of time between an established master choreographer and area mentees. CHIME Across Borders intends to bring mentors of great vision and experience to San Francisco and to introduce our working artists to the national and international masters of dance.

"I am deeply grateful for this significant commitment and acknowledgement of the importance of CHIME and the work of my Company. The awarding of these far-reaching grants in a time when most artists are feeling the restrictions of a strained economy provides the financial platform upon which many choreographers can continue to work fully and inquisitively. To expand CHIME 'across borders' makes a broader conversation possible that can only help to enliven and enrich the field," says Jenkins.

The 2010 guidelines and applications for CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area and CHIME in Southern California will be available online at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company website, www.mjdc.org on August 1, 2009, and the deadline for the submission of applications will be October 1, 2009. Grants will be announced in December 2009 for work commencing January 2010.

Funding to complete the budget for CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area has been provided by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, LEF Foundation, Bernard Osher Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation and generous individuals.

About Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
Founded in 1973 the MJDC has been a part of the cultural fabric of San Francisco for over three and a half decades—dedicated to the making and touring of new work, international exchange and programs that support process, choreographic mentorship and performance opportunities. The MJDC performs regularly in San Francisco and has toured extensively in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. The MJDC is known for programs that serve to expand the health of the dance field like Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME) a mentorship program for emerging and established choreographers. CHIME is now in its sixth year and has served over 65 artists in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. The MJDC operates a studio devoted to creative research, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab, which hosts MJDC creative activities, CHIME and other long- and short-term artistic residencies. For more information on the mission, history and activities of the MJDC please visit www.mjdc.org.

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grant-making foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, inclusive, and successful society. The Foundation's grant-making focuses on three program areas: Arts, Youth, California Perspectives and Youth. Since 1937, the Foundation has provided more than $1 billion in grants to more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations throughout California. With $1.4 billion in assets, the Foundation made grants of $78 million in 2008 for the people of California. www.irvine.org

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private philanthropic institution that makes grants on a selective basis to institutions of higher education, independent libraries, centers for advanced study, museums, art conservation, and performing arts organizations. The foundation's Performing Arts program focuses on achieving long-term results by providing multi-year grants to leading organizations in the disciplines of music, theater, and dance. Annual giving in the area of the performing arts has averaged approximately $28 million per year since 2005. In 2004 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was awarded a National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government. www.mellon.org

For CHIME information, please visit www.mjdc.org or call 415 861 3940.

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Press Contact:
Jackie Bendzinski, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
415 861 3940
jackie@mjdc.org