Hello! My name is Maisy Neill, and earlier this year I was awarded an emerging artist residency with the James Ray Residency and Touring Project through the Seattle International Dance Festival.

My goal is to raise $5,000 to support my dancers.

The work I am creating, To The Breaking Point, will be presented at SIDF on June 11. The piece explores the pursuit of lasting contentment—how we long for a life of ease and fulfillment, yet find ourselves caught in cycles of self-sabotage. Why do we get in our own way? Why do we return to situations we know are not good for us?

A driving force in this creative process has been the idea of collective effervescence—a profound sense of shared energy and connection that emerges when people come together for a common purpose. You feel a part of something larger than yourself. Dance has been a space where I’ve experienced this deeply, and I hope to bring that same sense of connection into the performance for audiences to become a part of.

I’m working with five incredible artists—Kate Henderson, Eva Crystal, Ally Elliott, Amanda Winterbauer, and Gavin Bestemen—who have contributed generously to this piece. This is a collaborative process, and their time, physical labor, and creativity are essential to the work. All funds raised will be split evenly among the dancers.

Dance is often underpaid, especially in emerging spaces. I want to do this differently. This fundraiser is about making sure the artists who are building this work are supported and compensated.

For me, To The Breaking Point has been a way to process emotional turbulence in my own life and transform it into something shared—something that can hold both struggle and beauty at once. It has required vulnerability from everyone involved, and what we’ve built together is rooted in trust, generosity, and a willingness to be seen.

If you’d like to attend the performance, you can get tickets here:

https://online.seattleidf.org/ticketing/0/823fde28-0e74-46f6-b062-44de1cc6039d

This project is deeply personal to me, but it’s also about something bigger: creating a more sustainable and equitable way of making dance. By contributing, you are directly supporting young artists and helping make that possible.

Thank you so much!

—Maisy <3

(Photos taken by the wonderful Trisha French!)