Support Hallie, Aria, and Aviya's Creative Sojourn in France

I am raising funds to take three dancers to France to make a dance about Jewish lesbian modernists.

Hey there! Thanks for being here. I'm Hallie, and I'm a choreographer, performer, writer, archivist, and organizer. For the past three-ish years, I've been in the research and creation process for a new dance theater piece about famed modernist writer Gertrude Stein and her life partner Alice B. Toklas. I use the phrase "about" loosely - the piece is of and about Stein and Toklas, but it's also about the slipperiness of memory, the impossibility of "objectivity," and the search for meaning and clarity about our contemporary lives and concerns through the lens of our heroes (or anti-heroes?!)

Starting in September 2023, I've had the joy and honor of working with consummate artist collaborators Aria Roach and Aviya Hernstadt in the studio. We have been crafting movement and text inspired by and using Gertrude and Alice's life and work.

We have been offered a residency at Moulin/Belle in Mareuil en Perigord in southwest France in September 2024. For those of you who aren't modernist lit heads, or just need a refresher, Stein and Toklas (both Americans) spent their entire adult lives in France, including through both world wars. That's right, these lesbian Jews somehow rode out World War II in the French countryside.

It would be truly transformative to move our creative research from the stuffy, expensive, haphazard studio rehearsals of New York City and take them into the exact setting that Gertrude and Alice inhabited. We will spend a few days in Paris at the beginning of the trip walking the streets they walked, admiring the art they championed, and sipping little coffees on the sidewalk. Then, we'll head to Moulin/Belle for nine days of focused art-making. We will be supported by free studio space; an organic veggie garden; beautiful, pastoral surroundings; and relationships with our hosts, fellow artists on-site, and the local community. The outcomes of this process:

We know there are plenty of worthy causes you can be sending your money to right now. We all try to be active, generous members of our communities, and appreciate anything you can give to support this expansive, collaborative artistic journey.

Every penny of your donations will go towards making this residency a reality for us. For transparency, here is a breakdown of our budget so you know where the "goal" number comes from:

Everyone who donates to this fundraiser non-anonymously will be thanked by name in all future programs and postings about this piece. I plan to leverage this residency into performance opportunities in NYC, so hopefully it means you'll get to see the products of our labor and your contribution soon. We'll also send cute behind-the-scenes pictures and notes from France to our beloved donors <3

Here's us, for your consideration:

Hallie Chametzky (choreographer, director, writer) is a movement artist, writer, archivist, and organizer. Her choreography has been presented by University Settlement, Undiscovered Countries, The Craft, Spoke the Hub, and others. She was a 2023 Artist in Residence at MOtiVE and a 2021-22 University Settlement Performance Project Fellow.

Hallie performs with Bluebird Theatre Company. Previous performance includes Mystical Feet Company, BEATRICE (the cell theatre), The Final Veil (the cell theatre), Snap Soup Dance Company, and works by Stephanie Saywell, Merce Cunningham, Liz Lerman, Helen Simoneau, x, Karen de Luna, and Eric Rivera.

Hallie’s poems have appeared in Nimrod, Mouse Magazine, and Gigantic Sequins, and dance writings in The Brooklyn Rail, In Dance, and Culturebot, among others. She has held dance archiving roles at the Library of Congress, Jacob’s Pillow, and Dance/USA. She holds a BFA in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University.

www.halliechametzky.com

Aria Roach (performer, collaborator) is a dance artist, educator, and administrator based in Brooklyn. She’s had the pleasure of performing as a company member with Yehuda Hyman’s Mystical Feet Company, Eva Dean Dance, and The Moving Architects, alongside projects with Zoe Walders, Hallie Chametzky, The Yard, and Stephanie Saywell. She is a Teaching Artist with Mark Morris Dance Group and with National Dance Institute (NDI) in their public elementary school program. Administratively, Aria has toured the country as Company Manager for SW!NG OUT and General Manager for Caleb Teicher & Company; she’s also held positions at Jacob’s Pillow, Works & Process, and Mark Morris Dance Group. In her spare time Aria trains in flying trapeze at STREB, and is working toward her Master Composter Certificate from NYC Compost Project. She holds a BFA in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts (VCUarts), and a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification from The Shala.

IG: @aria.roach // Website: https://ariaroach.com/

Aviya Hernstadt (performer, collaborator) is a queer New York-Jewish performance artist working primarily in movement, autobiography, and comedy, bouncing between Brooklyn and Oakland. She deconstructs Jewish rituals, traditions, and stories and reimagines them in contemporary, diasporic contexts. Aviya’s creative work lives in symbiosis with her teaching practice with young people. She teaches Dance at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange and Jewish Studies at the School for Creative Judaism. In addition to performing her own work across venues in New York City, she has performed in collaboration with Carmen Caceres DanceAction, Yehuda Hyman’s Mystical Feet Company, The Yiddish Theater Ensemble, and The New Shul. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the EmergeNYC Fellowship and the residency at The Sable Project in Vermont. Aviya can also be seen creating and supporting fantastical explorations of queer joy and mischief in queer nightlife performance spaces.