Multi-disciplinary artist, choreographer and community organizer MARIA BAUMAN founded MBDance in 2009. MBDance centers both the non-linear and linear stories and bodies of the Global Majority onstage and in non-proscenium artworks, using dance as the wheel whose spokes are multiple other genres including visual art, text, and song. After dancing with Urban Bush Women (UBW) as well as serving as UBW’s Director of Education Community Engagement and then Associate Artistic Director, Bauman had been creating dance works as a freelance choreographer. She formed her company to further amplify her unique creative perspective and to support dancers in honing the particular blend of physical risk and athleticism, Capoeira-esque floorwork and spatiality, emphasis on Black pride and racial equity, and willingness to investigate intimacy in various forms that Bauman’s work excels within.
The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) is a transformative incubator that secures two vital yet scarce resources—rehearsal time and performance space—for New York City choreographers and dance companies. Housed within the City University of New York (CUNY), the nation’s largest public urban university system, CDI is a residency program that supports local artists, enhances the cultural life and education of college students, and builds new dance audiences at CUNY performing arts centers. Snug Harbor has partnered with CDI since 2018, when it came on board as CDI’s first non-CUNY host site.