Dance Lab New York Grants Choreographer Yoshito Sakuraba One Week Of Choreographic Incubation In The Lab

Just prior to the New York City shelter-in-place orders due to COVID-19, Dance Lab New York (DLNY) Spring Lab Cycle Choreographer Yoshito Sakuraba completed his lab cycle, and photos from inside the rehearsals are now available.

"Yoshito Sakuraba represents the type of promising emerging choreographer that DLNY aims to support through access to the best dancers in the city," said DLNY Artistic Director, Josh Prince. "It was a pleasure introducing Yoshito to a whole new group of collaborative artists and sharing his beautiful work with our supporters in our first ever virtual gala on March 30th."

"When I found Dance Lab New York (on Instagram) and saw the choreographers who have worked with them, I wanted to be a part of that," said Yoshito Sakuraba. "Dance Lab gave me everything I needed: Space, time, dancers. I had the full trust of Josh (Prince) and the dancers. I'm really happy with what we created."

Dance Lab New York provides grants to choreographers and dance makers in the form of a creative lab with a company of 12 professional dancers, 20 hours of incubation, studio space, a rehearsal director, insurances, and administrative support from DLNY staff and Founding Artistic Director, Josh Prince.

The company of dancers, cast by Jason Styres, CSA, include: Audrey Marinda Borst, Stephen Dibiase, Elijah Dillehay, Kyle Dupree, Larissa Gerszke, Ramona Kelley, Akina Kitazawa, Francis Lawrence, Lauren Leach, Bradley Schlagheck, Jeff Sykes, Latra A Wilson and rehearsal director, Phil Orsano.

"We are especially grateful to our spring Lab Cycle dancers for their open-hearted dedication during those uncertain days when the health crisis was only just emerging. The dancers fulfill an essential need for our choreographers like Yoshito, and I couldn't be more grateful for their positivity and optimism during this challenging time " added Josh Prince.

The DLNY Spring Lab ended early due to COVID-19, and the DLNY 2020 Gala was cancelled. Yoshito's work debuted instead in the DLNY Virtual Gala on Monday, March 30. Dance Lab New York has ceased all in-studio operations, but looks to reopen its doors to dance makers when it is safely advised by the State of New York. Follow @dancelabny on Instagram and Facebook for new digital content over the coming months.

Yoshito Sakuraba is an award-winning choreographer and the founding artistic director of Abarukas. His work has been seen in Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and the U.S. He won the International Choreographic Competition at NW Dance Project and Choreographic Shindig at Whim W'Him in the U.S. He's commissioned to create a work from PCDC, Bayerishes Staatsballet, Ballet Arkansas, Ballet Des Moines II, Nimbus, Litvak, Graham II, Alvin Ailey/Fordham BFA, Peabody at Johns Hopkins University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, many dance festivals, and more.