CLASSES| PAST EVENTS| AVAILABILITY

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Abby Bender & Layla Childs, suited up for Cary Baker's Supper, at Mulberry St. Theater in 2000.

Photo by A.L. Steiner

MISSION & HISTORY

MISSION STATEMENT
Triskelion Arts has a two-fold mission as a 501(c)3, non-profit organization: To foster the development and presentation of the performing arts by providing quality, affordable, accessible rehearsal, class, and performance space to the general public and to provide opportunities to the arts community, including resident companies, for the creation and presentation of new work.

The founders of Triskelion Arts, KICK STAND DANCE (a.k.a., Cary Baker, Abby Bender, Layla Childs, Anna Luckey, and Sonya Robbins) met in the dance department at Bard College in the early 90s. In 1997 they reconvened, establishing themselves as a dance collective in New York City. KICK STAND DANCE opened the doors to Triskelion Arts in October of 2000, which soon became company quarters and an affordable rehearsal and performance space for hundreds of other working artists from Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. By sharing the roles of choreographer, dancer and administrator, each artist was provided with equal creative license and the opportunity to develop essential management skills. From 1997-2004, KSD enjoyed immeasurable growth as a dance collective. The company's journey was filled with hard work, patience, and indescribable fun. However, all good things give way to new good things and as such, the KSD Collective amicably parted ways in fall of 2005. Sonya Robbins & Layla Childs continue making and performing dance in NY and beyond as the collaborative partnership robbinschilds. Botanical studies, sculpture and an upstate fixer-upper beckon Cary Baker. Anna Luckey explores other shores and cities of the world. Abby Bender continues to cook up colossal group works known as "Schmantze Theatre" while running Triskelion full-time and expanding its services. Triskelion's Assistant Director and Technical Guru is her cousin and partner in crime, Andrew Dickerson, whose circus, Cirque This!, continues its residency at the studios.

The non-profit has been through a lot of changes, and it continues to face immense growth and new challenges. In 2000, the founding members of KICK/STAND/DANCE built a rehearsal studio in the then still somewhat sketchy, industrial part of Williamsburg. We received our non-profit status in late 2002. A year or so later, with the invaluable help of our friend Brian Adous, KICK/STAND/DANCE converted our original rehearsal space, now known as Studio A into a theater. In 2005, when KICK/STAND/DANCE disbanded, Abby Bender took over the administration of Triskelion Arts, in the hopes of helping the organization achieve its full potential through maximized, accessible rentals to artists while attempting to make a living doing so. A second studio, Studio B, was added in early 2006. Both spaces were quickly filled, and the demand for more studios continued. Andrew Dickerson, who had been the organization's work-for-hire tech guru for many years, came on board as an official part-timer in early 2009.

Between September '09 and February '10, Abby and Andrew have built 3 new studios, and Andrew has come on board as Triskelion's second full-time staffer. The theater has hosted over 100 different performances, and countless rehearsals and classes in these 10 years. Since its inception, the organization has survived its fair share of troubles yet has actually managed to expand throughout the recession under the grassroots and "do-it-yourself so it's affordable" approach of its management. Triskelion's renter base is in the thousands and our website receives over 10,000 hits per year. Needless to say, we are serving an enormous, and increasingly varied population with all these wonderful spaces. People need reasonably-priced, convenient places to create, practice and perform their craft. This will never change. There appears to be a constant shortage of affordable, quality, safe space in this city to accommodate the numbers of artists who need the kind of services Triskelion aims to provide. So, the organization will keep listening to the needs of the community it serves, and hopefully will meet their needs for a very long time!

Click here for more about KICK STAND DANCE's collective history