DANSPACE PROJECT CELEBRATES 25 YEARS.

NEW YORK CITY--Danspace Project marks its twenty-fifth anniversary with the Silver Series, celebrating the spirit in which the organization was conceived with three weekends of shared performances featuring films, storytelling, improvisation, and memories. The series, curated by Danspace pillars Carol Mullins, Dan Froot, and Cynthia Hedstrom, will take place December 18 to 20 (Volume One), March 26 to 28 (Volume Two), and June 18 to 20 (Volume Three).

"Passing along this history before it's too late--that I think is important," says Laurie Uprichard, Danspace executive director. "I don't want to be sentimental and nostalgic about our twenty-five-year anniversary, but there was a lot of incredible energy then, and it's nice to recognize that, and recognize the artists. Because you never get recognition when you do it the first time."

December's program includes Ishmael Houston-Jones, Bill T. Jones, David Dorfman, Jennifer Monson, Wendy Perron, and Mary Overlie. Froot will emcee, and Sarah Skaggs will lead a postpeformance dance party. Future Silver Series volumes will include Stephen Petronio, Dana Reitz, Yoshiko Chuma, Channel Z, Deborah Jowitt, and Sara Rudner, among others. Additional anniversary events include Meredith Monk's A Celebration Service, in January: "It incorporates a lot of vocal music from her whole oeuvre/history, as well as readings from different spiritual traditions," says Uprichard. In May Douglas Dunn will re-create his Lazy Madge, performed at Danspace in 1976, and Steve Paxton will perform three pieces, old and new. All events take place at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, where services are still held twice a week. The church, Danspace's home for the past twenty-five years, is renowned for its unique architecture and light, which affect and shape performances in both form and mood.

Danspace was created in 1974 as a means of continuing the exploration of movement, space, the body, and media that started with the Judson Dance Theater. "I think the founding spirit was much more a cooperative artist community spirit," says Uprichard. "On the other hand, you can't stay there. So my aim/goal/search/strategy is to keep it supportive for artists--warm, hands-on ... but to have enough of an organizational structure to make it work well."

In the six years Uprichard has led Danspace, its budget has increased from $200,000 to nearly $1 million. She describes three major hopes for the future: One is to continue the "Dance in the Square" project--weekly free performances in Union Square--as a means of "putting dance in an outdoor community environment. The other is to become more a part of the neighborhood, and our Arts Partners program with Yoshiko is about that ... being accountable to the neighborhood and the community." Uprichard also would like to help create dance-lab style situations to bring together midcareer artists from the United States with their peers from abroad, as well as to provide opportunities for artists to work without the pressure of having to complete projects just to pay the bills. "There's a different sense about being a choreographer now," she says. "If you want to make a living by dance, you have to go teach and you have to go on tour. I think that makes for kind of a scattered feeling sometimes."

Through these efforts, Danspace hopes to continue its tradition of providing a space where dancers simply can dance.