Help Nicole & Justin Produce a Dance Film

I grew up with dance as my guiding light. Being surrounded by sweaty bodies, live music, and communal breath was part of my everyday life before the global pandemic made those ingredients a recipe for disaster. During lockdown, dance shifted into the virtual space, and I watched my favorite companies and choreographers navigate dance on camera. While watching dance online with my long-time friend and cinematographer, I realized that filming a dance and creating dance for the camera were two very different things.

We became inspired by the idea of creating a dance film that deliberately focuses on the synergy between dance performance and filmmaking technology. How can I choreograph a dance that cannot exist on a proscenium stage? How can we film movement outside of relative time and space? Many of our ideas are similar to the experience of isolation during quarantine; and so, Isolation Stories will be a dance film that examines the isolation experience of the pandemic and dives into the experience of grief, the manipulation of space, and the distortion of time, while subtly emphasizing the increasing presence of technology in our lives.

Who Are We?

I am Nicole Daniell, the choreographer and co-director of Isolation Stories. My creative partner and long-time friend, Justin Ayers, is the cinematographer and my fellow co-director for the project. We are both based in New York City, but we have known each other since we were kids growing up in York, PA — Justin was actually my first dance partner! Justin moved to NYC after high school to study and immerse himself in the film industry. He now co-owns Deverge, a video production company with soundstages in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I graduated from George Mason University, where I studied modern dance performance and choreography, while pursuing interdisciplinary research. Justin and I reconnected while I was on tour with Dakshina Dance Company, performing in NYC just before the pandemic. During lockdown, Justin and I watched dance shift into the virtual space, which inspired us to collaborate on the creation of our own dance film. We are so excited to be working together again after more than 10 years and can’t wait to share our work with you. But first... We need your help!

Why do we care about this project?

Justin and I both experienced a loss of work and a stagnation of our creativity when the pandemic was at its worst. This project is important to both of us because we have creative freedom to make a work of art that fulfills our vision. We can engage our curiosity and collaborate with other artists -- something we struggled to do during the pandemic.

Screen dance is also a rapidly growing industry in the dance world, so collaborations like this are incredibly important growth opportunities, not only for my career, but for the careers of other artists on the Isolation Stories team. I am really excited about creating opportunities for my fellow dancers to grow, while also pushing myself into new territory as an artist.

Justin and I are both donating our time for the sake of having a valuable creative outlet, but we do not ask the same for our collaborators. The dancers, the camera crew, and our musician are all people we will pay, especially after the last year when the pandemic made work for artists scarce. Fortunately, we applied for, and won, a small grant for initial funding!

YACP Grant

As an alumna of George Mason University, I recently received the Young Alumni Commissioning Project’s Creative Development Award from GMU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. For this award, I was one of five alumni chosen based on artistic excellence, the potential for career impact, and the promise of the submitted proposal. The award is an honor and gives us the opportunity to present the final film at a GMU venue while having the premiere marketed throughout the Mason community. The YACP grant also gives Justin and I $2,500 in commissioning funds to get us started. I am thrilled that my alma mater chose to support our project with this grant and I hope that it further shows the value in the work we are creating.

Why do we need your help?

I am proud to say that the YACP grant ensures that we can pay our fellow artists and collaborators a fair wage, as more often than not, dancers are under-compensated or unpaid for their work. We have allocated the entirety of the grant funds toward labor costs, which still leaves us with numerous production expenses we need to cover. Although Justin is able to fulfill many of our equipment needs through his company, we will need additional rentals for some specialty lighting effects. We also need to rent some support and control equipment to move the camera smoothly through space.

A project of this scope requires certain production supplies, as well. We will need to provide food and drink to our performers and crew and cover transportation and other logistical costs. We take Covid-19 safety very seriously and we’ve included PPE as well as daily rapid Covid-19 testing in our budget projections.

Production design is another considerable expense. We need help creating the world for our performers to inhabit. I would love to be able to hire a costume designer to build costumes that work well in slow motion. We are also looking into fabrication or rentals for some minimal furniture set pieces. These extra details will go a long way in telling a cohesive story and making our themes resonate with audiences.

In an effort to streamline our costs and maintain our artistic goals for the film, Justin and I are donating our time and resources for the project. Justin owns a studio space in Chelsea where we will shoot Isolation Stories. We are also cutting costs by hosting rehearsals primarily from home spaces over Zoom and using film equipment that we have on hand. Rehearsals have already begun! The grant covers our first priority (paying our collaborators) but we still need your help closing the gap to cover the remaining production expenses.

An Idea of Costs

While there is no donation too small, here is an idea of what your generous contributions will go towards:

$50 - Support our Covid-19 safety plan by providing PPE and rapid testing

$150 - Cover the cost of two dance film festival submissions

$250 - Feed the team on tech and shoot days

$500 - Rent set pieces and bring to life our vision for the solos

$750 - Costume all 3 dancers

$1000 - Rent all lighting equipment for tech and shoot days

Please know that there are many ways that you can support our work beyond monetary donations. Share this fundraiser with your friends, attend the premiere in Spring 2022, and follow us for regular updates on the project.

Thank you so much for your time and interest in our dance film - we can’t wait to share Isolation Stories with you!

Wishing you all the best,

Nicole Daniell