Marya’s Speech: March 25th Gala | Celebrating 25 years of BAX’s Artist in Residence Program & Founding Executive Director Marya Warshaw
Thank you so much Mikki and Sheila (Mikki Shepard and Sheila Lewandowski ) and Thank you to everyone for joining us. It’s exciting to see all the current AIR’s, so many former ones, our staff, our board, our friends and supporters in one room!
It’s been quite a road to get to tonight. If you know me, you know that I’ve been doing quite a bit of reflection and while reflection is rewarding and informative it also brings you to unexpected places. Over the past number of months walking to BAX, or walking in the park, or in speaking with others, I believe that I’ve thought about each and every artist who has ever been in residence or been part of BAX. I’ve reflected on 25 years of memories, of break downs and break throughs and I am more grateful that I could have ever imagined for all of it.
Twenty seven years ago, when I started this organization I was 39 years old. I had two young children, and the performance world was largely in Manhattan. I was NOT. And so BAX got born, but the idea for BAX and the AIR started a long time before that.
I have come to understand that I was standing on the shoulders of my dance teachers, specifically Aileen Passloff and June Finch. They believed in me and taught me to say yes- what I mean is NOT- yes but... or yes but not now . JUST YES... They taught me about how all the singular, seemingly unimportant moments add up to developing a practice, , to making room for new ideas and new people. They refused to let me get in my own way. So that’s what I brought to the table when I invited George Emilio Sanchez and Reggie Wilson and then Dean Moss and Martha Bowers to be in residence. That’s what’s behind this program. That’s what all these relationships are born from.
So in a changing Brooklyn, in a changing city, in a complicated world.. those relationships are still my guide. AIR’s have deeply influenced all of who I am and all of what BAX is! My ideas and experiences of gender, race, power, point of view, biases and aesthetics have been deeply influenced and expanded upon . Every AIR cohort has had a distinct personality and vibe and both Individual artists and groups have made such significant impact. I am deeply grateful for the tears, and the hugs, the excitement and the joy, the transformations and the honesty that make up all these years. It is of special note to me that so many artists have developed extraordinary projects at BAX , and have found a home with us , including Ballez, Needing It, Dancing While Black & Dance to the People to name just a few. And I can honestly say that every year, I have fallen in love with atleast one new piece. How many people can say that? I am really lucky, I love my work.
And in return it Is gratifying to hear from artists that their time as AIR’s and my relationship to them and their work and lives has made a difference.
There are a few special thank you’s I’d like to make that stand out for me.
To Dean Moss, who has trusted me to partner in so many adventures and gives the best hugs in the universe.
To Nia Love and Abby Browde who as artist advisors have brought so much to the program and to me.
To my love and my partner Jane-Cole Raftery who’s language I steal, who’s insights are invaluable and who I can always count on.
And to Vanessa Adato who I have worked with every day for the past seventeen years and I cannot imagine having done this otherwise.
So it may seem an unnatural segway that tonight I am announcing that at the end of this calendar year December 31, I will retire from BAX. I am leaving to try and give myself and those in my life a kind of less structured flexibility that will lead to “who knows”? What I will leave is a strong and vibrant organization with a powerful and skilled staff, a strong and committed Board, beautifully developed programs, a community of artists & students, and a promising future. My legacy is that future. It is who else will lead, who else will create, who else will sustain. BAX has a wonderful and rich next chapter ahead of it and due to the deep support of so many of you in this room I know will continue to provide for generations to come.
I love you and thank you.
