MATTHEW WESTERBY COMPANY
Matthew Westerby Company is based in Upper Manhattan, founded in 2009 & become a non-profit organization in 2017 with a mission of building community through dance, working in diverse communities in New York City and beyond. MWC creates access to performing arts for all, regardless of age, experience level or ability to pay, engaging communities as participants and audience specifically in Upper Manhattan. The Company is motivated to create projects that foster community, building works that are accessible to all as participants and audience. Westerby’s choreographic approach is inclusive yet challenging by nature, asking each performer for unique contributions to the process, ensuring the work has the imprint of each participant.
In 2016, Matthew Westerby initiated The Harlem Project, a community dance project that brings together a multi-generational cast of performers each summer to work alongside MWC’s professional dancers, including youth & teen dancers from Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
MWC 2 was formed in 2022 as an outgrowth of the main MWC group of dancers, creating essential opportunities for younger professional dancers to gain practical work experience within a professional dance company setting as well as building a wider and more diverse community of dancers who work with and learn from one another.
The Company has presented four New York seasons, at University Settlement (2011) and at the Hudson Guild Theatre (2014, 2017, 2019). The Company has been presented by Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn, and was in residence at CUNY York College (Queens) through the CUNY Dance Initiative from 2017-19.
The High Line presented MWC’s The Piers Project in 2022, inspired by life on Manhattan’s west side - the gay scene that grew there and the men who found freedom within the crumbling relics of the Piers. Through the photos and writings of the Piers at the time, the work imagined the moments and movements that occurred there, creating a dance work that evoked the freedom, the exuberance, the anonymity and the dangers of the Piers scene. The Whitney Museum will present The Piers Project & Life/Space in June 2023.
The Company was Dance Company in-residence for Project Poetry Live! in partnership with Litchfield Performing Arts from 2009-2017, working with public school children across Connecticut. The Company works extensively in education, providing year-round dance programs at the Far Brook School (NJ), and with public & charter schools in NYC.
The Company has been collaborating with the Hudson Guild Theatre Company and producer/director Jim Furlong since 2012, creating works in the realm of dance, opera and music. During the pandemic, MWC produced three dance films: Notes From Afar (2020), Remember Me (2020) and A Mind’s Descent (2021).
The Company has received grant support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, CUNY Dance initiative, O’Donnell Green Foundation and Dance NYC.
vision & values
VISION
Matthew Westerby Company envisions a world where we can engage communities with dance to promote dialogue, understanding and social justice. We seek to create space for our communities to participate, with free and low-cost opportunities for everyone to take part in arts learning and appreciation. We strive to create programs that engage people through professional performance, work in public schools, partnerships with community organizations and dance education programming to continue to make dance accessible for all.
VALUES
We believe that at the heart of our work is the creativity of our programming and opportunities for inclusivity. The integrity of our approach means that we value engaging everyone – age, experience and socio-economics should not be barriers to participation. We believe that when we engage in the arts together we are able to create bonds and find common ground with one another, building responsive and caring communities. Our organization values the authenticity we can find in ourselves, and each other, through creative expression in dance.
