“Dancing Diplomat” joins the Yard

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In line with Bessie Schönberg’s collaborative and mentorship approach to the arts, the Yard’s 2019 Schonberg Fellows/Boston, “Dancing Diplomat” Aysha Upchurch and tap company Subject:Matter, led by Ian Berg, are joining the Yard for a two-week residency where they will work on expanding ongoing projects under the guidance of mentor and percussive dance artist David Parker, a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography and director of the celebrated Bang Group, a longtime company partner of the Yard. According to a press release, the artists will finish their residency by sharing the stage in a split-bill show celebrating “Boston-birthed dance with the Martha’s Vineyard community.”

The Yard’s Bessie Schonberg Legacy Choreographic Mentorship Residency (a.k.a. the Schonberg Fellows) is named after Bessie Schönberg (1906–97), a visionary dance mentor who helped shape generations of dancemakers, including at the Yard. The release states that Schonberg felt strongly that all the performing arts should work together as much as possible, given that all forms of art cannot exist without one another. She also succinctly expressed her vision of the creative process to those she worked with: “Be wild.”

The performance is planned for Saturday, August 31, at 7 pm at the Yard.