Indiegogo

390690

expandance Rock Om

Help us get to Boston in January, costumed, lit and with original music, to perform Rock Om!

  • Team:

    682413 648833 Img_8431 Cichon-jones 454640 see more »

  • Location:New York & Boston, New York, United States

  • Category:Dance

* To make a TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION right now, please go here and click on 'expandance' from the drop-down list.


Our Story

expandance the company was founded in Ireland in 2006 by choreographer Rachel Wynne, together with long-time collaborator Laurie Schneider and U.S. dancer Alicia Christofi-Walshe. We are a Trans-Atlantic contemporary dance theater company that works closely and simultaneously in Ireland and New York City to create honest, emotionally engaging work for both dance and non-dance audiences. We also have a healthy community outreach program and regularly teach Over 60's dancers, children, adults and teens to love and appreciate dance.

We've been developing (and personally funding) Rock Om, our newest piece by Rachel, for over a year. We've shown excerpts at Webster Hall (ROCK!) and at Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn (OM!) and now, with invitations to Boston's Oberon venue and to two theaters in Ireland in May 2012, we have developed it into an evening length work with an original soundtrack that uses electric guitar, bass, drums and Tibetan singing bowls. The piece is irreverent yet sacred. We do things with yoga mats that probably shouldn't be done. It's a personal piece with universal themes: being in control, flying out-of-control, feeling connection, feeling lost, alternating between chaos and peace.

Think air guitar as yogic mudras! Think mosh pits and shaking meditations! Think Rock! Think Ooohhhmmmmm


WE HAVE 30 DAYS TO RAISE $7,000 - please help us spread the word!


The Impact

The next few months herald a huge step in our performances as a company and our audience reach. We've been invited to perform at larger venues than ever before, and we're more than ready to step up to the plate. In one significant area - funding - we need your help.

Gone are the days of studio showings, where we could get away with dancers performing in rehearsal clothes, where 'studio lights' could be rationalized with "it's a work in progress."  With Oberon in Boston holding an audience of 300, this 50-minute, high energy, high quality piece now requires of us higher production values - our own music, actual lighting design, and costumes that aren't held together with twine!

The last 12 months have been a labor of love. We have torn the skin on our feet, spent precious rehearsal hours mopping flooded studio floors, and sobbed into our partners' arms.  We have marveled at all the little choreographic miracles that sometimes happen when we thought we'd hit a wall. Now, we've reached a point where cannot continue making this piece with a ''New York budget - i.e. zero'' (as James Light so eloquently put it). Dancers need to eat too.


What We Need & What You Get

We need $7,000 to get this piece from NYC to Boston and perform two nights there on January 22nd & 23rd.

This covers:

* Payment: lighting designer, costume designer, composer, and the dancers

* Very basic accommodation for the 6 of us for 3 nights in Boston

* Rehearsal space December 2011 and January 2012

* Return bus tickets for 5 dancers and 1 choreographer 

* Videographer for the Boston performances 

* Props: 12 red Yoga mats and a disco ball

* Costume material

* ... and the other little things that add up, like marketing costs, fiscal sponsorship fees, etc.


We're all too aware that if we don't reach the $7,000, the first things to go would be the dancers' fees, which would be a great shame, because they have put 12 months of their own time, love and money into this piece - more than anyone else on this project. Without them, there would be no piece. However - without costumes we'd be naked, without accommodation we'd be homeless for 3 nights, without documenting the performance we would have no way to get more performance dates for it in the future, and without yoga mats, it's just Rock without the necessary Om. 


If we don't reach our goal fully, the money raised will, go to - in this order: Transport, Rehearsal space, Yoga mat props, costumes, and accommodation. Only if we reach our goal does everyone get paid their modest fees, for the hundreds of hours they've put in so far. 



Note: The music in the video is not our original music, that's still being mastered. The music in the video is 'It's Natural to be Afraid' by Explosions in The Sky


What's in it for you


Awesome rewards! See our rewards!


Also: You'll be a part of something brilliant. Rock Om is on the verge of playing to hundreds of people (maybe thousands, who are we to limit the possibilities?!) on two continents, and you can be an integral cog in our CHI MACHINE!


And let's not forget, the eternal gratitude of dance artists. That is a gratitude that never dies.


If you would like to make a TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION* online, please go here and click on 'expandance' from the drop-down list.

If you would like to make a TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION by check, please e-mail rachel@expandance.com and I will e-mail you the mailing address.


* We are a part of the Sponsored Artists program at the Field. The Field is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501 (c) (3) organization serving the New York City performing arts community. Contributions to artists through The Field are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field contact: The Field, 161 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10013, (212) 691-6969, fax: (212) 255-2053. A copy of The Field's latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from The Field or from the Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.


Other Ways You Can Help


If you can't help with cash today, there are tons of other ways to be a part of the Rock Om movement! Maybe you're a yoga studio with a bunch of red yoga mats you'd like to give us. Maybe you have a couple of free apartments near Harvard Square where we could all stay for a weekend in January. Perhaps you live in Boston, and could spare a couple of hours in January to help out with stage management or taking photos for our website.

The absolute best way to support us is by embracing your inner rock star and MAKING SOME NOISE! Tell your friends about this indiegogo campaign. Please use the share buttons to tell people - on facebook, on twitter (@expandance #RockOm), on your blog...

And onwards...

If you can't help us at all right now because your run up to the holidays is manic, but you'd like to get on board in the spring and support us, please let us know! E-mail us at info@expandance.com

We've been invited to perform in two amazing theaters in Ireland in May 2012, and come March we'll be fundraising again to cover the costs of our flights and accommodation there. So maybe you have a bunch of air miles you're happy to part with! Maybe you have beds we can sleep on in Dublin or Carlow! Maybe you've always wanted to go to Ireland and see some dance made by an Irish choreographer who lives in New York, and you decide to come with us on the plane and support us by being in the audience!  ANY CONTRIBUTIONS OVER 7K GO TO THIS.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

Team on This Campaign:

  • 682413
    Rachel Wynne

    Choreographer, Bossypants, Cheesy-slogan originator: "Om is where the Art is!"

  • 648833
    Clare Cook

    Dancer, video editor for this campaign, marketing support. The rational approach to yoga mat unfurling.

  • Img_8431
    Hunt Parr

    Dancer. Rockin' yogi. Enthusiasm and faith-bringer.

  • Cichon-jones
    Matt Cichon

    Dancer. Rockin' yogi. Om.

  • 454640
    Erica Frankel

    Dancer. Bringer of connections, contacts and good ideas.

  • 977771
    Krista Jansen

    Dancer, rehearsal director, Rachel's brain whenever hers melts.