Skeleton Architecture is a Bessie Award winning collective of Black women and gender nonconforming artists rooted in the rigor and powerof the collective in practice and improvisation. They create, organize,advocate, gather, curate, perform, play, challenge, and teach through the depth of their ancestral knowledges toward the liberated future of our worlds.

The artists of the Skeleton Architecture are: Maria Bauman, Davalois Fearon, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Melanie Greene, Kayla Hamilton, Jasmine Hearn, Marguerite Hemmings, Nia Love, Paloma McGregor, Sydnie L. Mosley, Grace Osborne, Leslie Parker, Angie Pittman, Samantha Speis, Charmaine Warren, Edisa Weeks, Marýa Wethers, and Tara Willis.

The Skeleton Architecture was originally formed by writer Eva Yaa Asantewaa as a guest curator for Danspace Project’s Platform 2016: Lost & Found as a singular evening of performance titled the skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds.

Each Modern Lab session features a different guest artist teaching a master class and sections from their repertory. This panorama of the contemporary dance field is presented to broadenthe students’ awareness of potential career possibilities. Each guest artist conducts a 30-minute technique class/warm-up and then teaches repertory that is performed by the class. In the final 15 minutes, faculty coordinator Bill De Young conducts a Q & A with each artist, discussing theircareer; their recommendations for transitioning from student to professional, and what they look for when they audition dancers for their projects.