PEPATIÁN: Bronx Arts ColLABorative is a 40-year-old+ South Bronx-based non-profit organization dedicated to creating, producing and supporting contemporary multi-disciplinary art by Latiné/Latinx and Bronx-based artists. BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance creates, produces, presents, and supports the development of cutting-edge and challenging works in contemporary dance and all creative disciplines that are empowering to women, Latinos and people of color, and the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) community.

Pepatián and BAAD! share a dedication to the Bronx, and both organizations work in service and out of a deep love for The Bronx, a powerful creative incubator with dance practices sourced from a rich multiplicity of legacies. This unique collaboration is a powerful source that supports this residency.

• Pepatián was originally founded by visual artist and MacArthur Fellow Pepón Osorio, choreographer Merián Soto, and dance and puppet theater maker Patti Bradshaw as an artists’ collective in 1983. Pepatián strives to encourage audience understanding and appreciation of the diversity of contemporary Latiné arts in NYC, across the US, and internationally, but feels a special commitment to its home base in the South Bronx. Jane Gabriels, Ph.D. began working at Pepatián in 1999, and in 2018, Pepatián created a new model of collaborative leadership with Co-Director/Consultants Caridad De La Luz/La Bruja, Dr. Gabriels, and Ana “Rokafella” Garcia.
• BAAD! is an intimate performance and workshop space founded in 1998 by award-winning dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles and writer/activist Charles Rice-González. Every year, BAAD! welcomes thousands of attendees from New York City, specifically from the Bronx, to five annual festivals and a select number of special events, including public conversations and performance series. BAAD! brings a queer and dissident perspective to the socio-political dialogue and culture of their neighborhood, borough, and city through first-rate art. Through partnerships with other community-based organizations, grassroots organizing projects, and programming BAAD! gives voice to artists from underrepresented demographics and aids in dismantling paradigms of injustice such as sexism, racism, and homophobia in the Bronx and beyond.

Jerome Foundation supports Pepatián and BAAD!’s Dancing Futures Residency program. Dancing Futures supports early career New York City-based generative dance artists to create new performance work and also strengthens The Bronx as a creative home for dance and performance practices. Annually, three artists are selected from an open call to receive artist fees as well as additional resources, including access to free rehearsal space for up to 100 hours; mentorship; performance opportunities with technical and production support, documentation, and post-performance audience talkback facilitator; invitation to showcase at Pepatián’s annual APAP event for presenters and funders; professional development workshops and/or other support the artist feels would best support their practice; peer-to-peer engagement; and professionally copyedited and designed published booklets. An ancillary program offers another small group of artists—who apply and who are not selected for the residency—with peer support, artist fees, and access to free rehearsal space. Many residency alumni continue to participate in the program as members of the selection committee, residency coordinators/consultants, and/or co-curators.