Springboard Danse Shifts Stateside Thanks to a New Partnership With Point Park University
Following a two-year hiatus, Springboard Danse’s signature summer program is springing back into action. Formerly based in Montreal, Springboard’s Summer Project is now ensconced at Pittsburgh’s Point Park University, with which Springboard has begun a five-year partnership. The inaugural U.S. edition runs May 25–June 13 at Point Park’s downtown campus.
Springboard Danse’s objective is to directly connect professional-track contemporary dancers with companies and choreographers. During the three-week Summer Project, its primary initiative, dancers are assigned to work with specific choreographers. The 120 dancers selected for this year’s edition will be cast with one of the 10 participating principal companies—including Kidd Pivot, Kyle Abraham, and chuthis—in addition to one of the 10 resident, fellow, and emerging choreographers. “There are no understudies and no second casts,” says artistic director Alexandra Wells, who co-founded Springboard with Susan Alexander.
The not-for-profit organization attests to directly connecting more than 900 dancers with paid employment since its 2001 founding, but Wells believes the number to be much higher: Even artists who do not walk away from the program with contracts make connections that may subsequently lead to jobs.
Springboard operated continuously in Montreal from its inception until its pandemic pause from 2020–21. “We pulled it together for 2022, but things were rocky with dance all around the world,” says Wells. “We realized we needed a new home.”
In 2023, at a Point Park–sponsored event in New York City, an alumnus of both the university and the Summer Project suggested that Garfield Lemonius, dean and artistic director of Point Park’s School of Dance, get acquainted with Wells. They clicked.
“Events like this highlight Pittsburgh as an arts-center city,” says Lemonius, who regards the partnership as a win-win. The influx of Springboard participants will become aware of the university and its offerings, he says, while currently enrolled dance students will have opportunities to work with two Springboard choreographers during the academic year. In addition to 10 large studios, Point Park is providing use of its Pittsburgh Playhouse, a downtown venue housing multiple performance spaces.
Currently, tuition for the three-week program is $1,975. Springboard distributes $39,000 among 40 percent of each summer’s participants based on financial need. Wells says the ultimate goal is a tuition-free program, and hopes that public or foundation funding may become part of the picture in the future.
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