Synapse Arts, founded in 2004, strives to provide artists with the resources to create art without worrying about cost or location. Particularly, Synapse values the collaborative process

Located in Loyola Park, Synapse Arts is not far from Loyola’s campus, and, like Loyola’s dance program, has a social justice mission: “Synapse Arts creates, performs, and educates to nurture individual identities and challenge social norms by engaging artists and audiences in the making of dance-theater.”

On Thursday, April 18, and Friday, April 19^, Synapse Arts presented New Works, an opportunity for up and coming dance artists to receive the necessary resources to create and present new pieces.

Rachel Damon, co-founder and director of Synapse Arts, also presented a piece in four parts. Damon said her goal for the performance was not for dancers to present a completely polished work but rather for their creative process to continue.

“It’s a slightly different approach that we have where we try to give the artist time in the studio to experiment and explore and put less pressure on what the final product looks like because we treat the performance as part of the process,” Damon said. “It’s all in service of trying to work with people who want to be doing that process-based reflection and not come into it with an exact idea of what the final piece is going to look like, so they have an openness about what might happen throughout having an extended rehearsal process.”

Artists LOUD BODIES (Maria Blanco and Yariana Baralt-Torres), Amanda Ramirez and Nora Sharp all believe that this opportunity was not just a chance to present work, but a chance to learn more about the artistic process and receive guidance regarding other aspects of dance performance, such as the administrative responsibilities.

The opportunity to begin a new artistic process is what drew in LOUD BODIES to submit work to Synapse, but once they had a phone interview with Damon, they realized how much they would get to learn from the opportunity.

“It was an opportunity for emerging artists to create, and they were going to support us, whether that was financially, or with time, or mentorship, or helping you gain skills in other aspects of art making, marketing and social media, and grant writing,” Blanco said. “I think it’s a community that has been really great to be a part of.”

Ramirez, an ensemble member for Synapse Arts, said she has never felt more supported as a choreographer. She explained that Damon asked what each artist hoped to learn as a choreographer and helped answer all the choreographers’ questions.

“It really allows us to learn who we are as choreographers because, whenever we are choreographing, a lot of times you have to also focus on fundraising and you have to focus on finding dancers. You have to focus on so many things,” Ramirez said. “Here I really got to focus on creating work.”

Sharp had not choreographed an ensemble piece in a long time and was excited to work with Synapse to create a collaborative piece again.

“The last two times I made ensemble pieces, I ran up significant credit card debt because I wanted to give the performers at least something,” Sharp said. “So, I gave them out of pocket to the extent that I could, which had negative impacts on my financial fluency. When I heard about the Synapse opportunity, the fact that they cover the other costs that are traditionally associated with producing work, all of these ways in which the program has a lot of support to it, I was just like, ‘Wow, this is just a great opportunity.’”

Overall, Synapse Arts has provided participating artists with assistance in multiple ways, supporting a holistic approach to art while celebrating the choreographic process.