Dance Alum Premieres Work at Capezio A.C.E. Awards
January 27, 2020
On Friday, Jan. 17, Mary Grace McNally BFA ’15 (Dance) performed at MOVES at The Montalbán in Los Angeles for the 2020 Capezio A.C.E. Awards. Aspiring choreographers had four minutes to exhibit their work in front of a celebrity panel of judges, and a chance to win $15,000 and put on their own full-length show. This annual celebration of movement showcases the top 28 emerging choreographers in the U.S. and as the 2018 Capezio A.C.E. Award winner, McNally was invited to present the world premiere of her contemporary piece When it Falls.
In this evening-length production, McNally “examines the way in which we navigate our changing selves, in an ever-shifting world, through movement and an original sound score.” With broad knowledge and experience from working with prominent contemporary choreographers like Jermaine Spivey and Medhi Walerski, it is no surprise that she has presented her work at over 15 venues in the past four years, including the Dance Gallery Festival, WiseFruit NYC, Young Choreographer’s Festival, Salvatore Capezio Center, Centre National de la Danse in France, deSingel in Belgium and most recently, The Joyce Theater in New York City.
Based in Brooklyn, McNally is the founder and artistic director of MG + Artists, a project-based dance collective, which includes UArts Dance alumni Haley Sung BFA ’17 and Catie Leasca BFA ’17. Titled Not For Picking, McNally’s first evening-length work premiered at Theaterlab in New York in June 2018 and won her the 2018 Capezio A.C.E. Award. Previously, she was named American Dance Awards’ 2016 National Choreographer of the Year.
In 2017 and 2018, she was featured in March/April issues of Dance Studio Life Magazine, in which she discussed contemporary and improvisational studies in the competitive dance studio setting. She has studied with artists such as Tilman O’Donnell, Adi Salant, Spenser Theberge, Jesse Zaritt, and has performed the works of Tommie-Waheed Evans, Emma Portner, Katie Swords-Thurman, Doug Varone and Netta Yerushalmy. McNally continues to teach and choreograph at studios and workshops across the country, most recently in Salt Lake City with Divinity Dance Company.