Notes

Have you reviewed the Fresh Tracks Guidelines & FAQ's *
Yes, I have read and understood the Fresh Tracks Guidelines & FAQ's
I have reviewed the Residency Calendar found in the Fresh Tracks Guidelines and, *
I am available for all of the dates part of the residency calendar.
I am NOT available for all of the dates because of a conflict.
If you have any conflicts, please specify.
None as of now
Full Name *
David Guzman
Pronouns *
He/Him
Email *
[email protected]
Phone Number (with area code) *
443-900-7689
Current Address *
12140 Velvet Hill Dr, Owings Mills, MD 21117
Title of your work (if applicable) *
Working Title: Lichen as Land Dance
Length (current or what you project it to be if work is in progress) *
20 min - an hour
Names of performers in submitted video (if applicable) *
David Guzman
The ideal Fresh Tracks Artist is an emerging choreographer; a creator of experimental, risk-taking work; an investigator of new ideas and new aesthetics. Describing your creative process, how do you view your work as an artist within the context of these criteria? (150 words) *
I have a deep urge to widen and spread my bodily attention, past the immediate barriers that I am told are where dance ends. My work exists at the boundaries between language and movement, audience and performer, and around the very definitions of performance itself. I ask: what happens when these boundaries soften and dissolve? For me, dance making is an endless laboratory into unanswerable questions, a way of liberating stuck identities, confronting troubling observations, and most importantly shifting our relations to the world. I start by listening and slip into doing: improvisation is the vehicle through which I practice dance. Therefore there is always the element of unknown in my creative process; rarely do I find that I know exactly what I am doing or where I am heading. Rather than inhibiting or overwhelming me, this element of unknown excites and drives me onward, fueling my work and research.
Please tell us about the work you are making that will be developed during the residency. (150 words) *
In my performance work I plan to collaborate with lichens: communities of algae and fungi for which the term symbiosis was created. These abundant organisms grow on hard surfaces, from rock to glass, and are incredibly sensitive to air. How can an organism be so resilient, able to survive for hundreds of years without water, and yet so vulnerable at the same time? How are we, like lichens, in constant symbiosis with the ecologies that make and remake us? How might I cultivate lichen sensibilities and learn from the ways lichen practice living in this world? And finally, what happens when I start to perform beyond the gaze of humans, and engage with more-than-human sensibilities, performing to an extended audience of lichens emerging at the fringes of society? I extend my fascination for lichens to the land and ask: how does acknowledging the land become the dance, and reverberate beyond it?
How do you think you will benefit from all of the workshops and what are you most looking forward to learning from them? If selected, what are you hoping to learn and/or gain from the residency program? (100 words) *
In this residency, I hope to gain trust in my artistic process and to build relationships with dedicated artists that will nourish my dance practices and challenge me to ask better questions. I’m excited to take the workshops on grant writing, fundraising and business. As a recent graduate fortunate enough to have spent my college years not worrying about making dance that sells but that rather is true to my desires and questions, how do I now enter the world of dance industry and live sustainably without giving up the values of my work to the capitalist systems that exploit and commodify bodies?
Please indicate previous performance history within the last three years, including Title of Work, Year Presented and Presenting Venue & City *
another audience - Dance Residency at Black Hole Hollow Farm in which David practiced daily performance for the Abenaki land | Arlington, VT, Summer, 2021

Ghostly Body/ Dialogue between Two - duet with Mina Nishimura for her MFA thesis performance | Bennington College, Vermont, Spring, 2021

Everybody - a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. David played the role of Everybody. Directed by Kirk Jackson | Bennington College, 2019

I am a Watermelon, a Grasshopper, a Gallstone, Uranus or You - duet with Mina Nishimura, for her PS21 residency, | Bennington College, Spring 2020

Philosophy, Pillow, Cow: Words are Just Jokes Honey - Solo performance for Bennington Senior Dance Concert | Bennington College, Spring 2021

I Am In a Body - Selected to perform with Min Tanaka at the Japan Society, postponed due to COVID 19 | NY, NY 2020

Three small studies for a large space - SDVIG company improvisation performance for the premier of the film "Cunningham" | The New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2020

Now and Holding - Hilary Clark MFA Thesis performance | Bennington College, Fall 2019

Ripple - Group dance piece choreographed by Dana Reitz | Bennington College, Spring 2019
Please list any performances or creative residencies of your own work scheduled in NYC between September 2021 - May 2022. *
I will be working with Mina Nishimura for her residency at Dancespace Project for a few days in late September and mid October. Tentative to change if accepted to this program.

I have a work exchange dance residency from September 10-30 in Massachusetts, also tentative to change if accepted to this program.

Other work: Translating the book "Experiments in Choreology" from Russian to English, an ongoing project in collaboration with dance group Isadorino-Gore in Russia.

Please list your education (high school, college, etc.) *
High School: Carver Center for the Arts, majoring in Theatre and Dance | Undergraduate: Bennington College, concentrating in Dance, Drama, and Music
Please submit a 5-minute video excerpt via a video link (Vimeo, youtube, etc) of a recently completed work or a work-in-progress that best represents yourself as a choreographer. Do not submit a compilation of works. Please indicate the timecode if the video is longer than 5 minutes. Please make sure that the video is NOT password protected. *
Video link: https://youtu.be/COJK8cAXEBw?t=222 TImecode: Please watch video from 3:42-8:42