Hi Artist is dancing their way into an entirely new kind of startup.
As a pop-up contemporary dance experience, Hi Artist is breaking the fourth wall of performance through the curation of intimate dance experiences around New York City. These lively, unpretentious gatherings set around rooftops, bars, and other off-the-beaten dance path are social, up close, and personal, allowing audiences to get to know both the dancers and other like-minded attendees at the event.
Hi-Artist’s ‘Venus’ event - taking place this Wednesday at Brooklyn’s 61 Local - is the celebration of women’s stories through contemporary dance and live music (presented in partnership with Airbnb Experiences).
As a preview, we’re bringing you an interview with Hi Artist founder, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Cooke. Born in New York City but raised in Portland Oregon, Lizzy began dancing at the Oregon Ballet Theater when she just six-years-old. After building an admirable portfolio with The Jefferson Dancers as a teenager (a reputable pre-professional dance company), she attended Emory University where she thought her dancing days were over. But her passion for entrepreneurship led her back to dance, and helped carve a path that would combine all her passions into the event you see before you today.
Get your tickets for Hi Artist’s Venus event here!
How did you combine your passion for dance with entrepreneurship?
My first taste of entrepreneurship came early. In elementary and middle school, I used to save up all my family’s old jeans to make purses. I’d stitch two large squares of denim together and use decorative ribbons as a handle. I sold one to my older sister’s friend—I think it was the only one I ever sold. I’m sure she was doing it as a favor, but I remember it feeling good and being fun.
After college, I didn’t think dance would play a role in my life, because I didn’t go to a “dance school” and it was never my plan to pursue dance professionally or continue performing. But when I found myself in a foreign country, on the heels of a messy break-up and not sure what I wanted to do for a career, dance was the first thing I turned to.
I dove into the local dance scene, performed in a Spanish language musical for eight months, and met a fellow American ex-pat dancer who eventually became my first business partner. We launched Narrative Tango Tours, an experiential tango company offering tourists an array of culturally engaging tango services, which she still runs today. That was my first time building a dance-related business, and it was an experience that served me well when launching Hi Artist.
What is Hi Artist? What is your mission?
Hi Artist is an arts and culture start-up creating pop-up contemporary dance experiences that are social, up-close, and personal. We produce events that are a mix between an intimate dance performance and a lively gathering, where we share stories behind the dance pieces being shown and the artists who made them. Our mission is to make dance performance more approachable to the culturally curious—people who like arts and culture but don’t have much experience with dance performance specifically.
What does a typical Hi Artist event look like?
The evening begins with a designated period for people to settle into the space, grab a drink if they want, and take a peek at the program. We view this as a necessary buffer between the hustle and bustle of a busy New Yorker’s day and the art they’re about to experience.
My business partner Xenia and I will welcome everyone and share information about the works and artists they’ll be seeing that evening. Our program is broken up into four or five short acts, and we introduce each act individually.
After the show, artists join the audience for drinks and conversation. We feature a completely different program each time, so no two events are ever the same.
How is Hi Artist different from traditional dance companies or events?
Our events are unique in a few key ways. We use non-traditional venues like bars, artists’ lofts, and rooftop recording studios as opposed to theaters with a typical “stage”. This makes for events that are inherently social and incredibly intimate—everyone usually gets a front-row seat, so they see the dancers every move and emotion while performing.
My business partner Xenia and I take great care to not only curate the programs but speak with the artists about their individual pieces and wider creative processes. We then share some of this information with the audience to serve as a context for what they’re about to see.
There’s also a personal element to it—after the show, the artists join the audience for drinks and conversation, giving guests the chance to both see the artists perform and converse with them in a relaxed setting. In a city full of theaters where artists retreat backstage after a show, this is a refreshing opportunity to create nuanced relationship-building opportunities between artists and audiences.
How do you see Hi Artist redefining the startup world’s relationship to dance/the arts?
It is difficult to quantify the positive impacts of art in capitalist terms. The arts tend to not be profitable, or not focused primarily on profitability. Most arts organizations are 501c3 non-profits, and most start-ups are profit-driven. We are an LLC, and we decided to form ourselves this way for two reasons. Firstly, it was the fastest way for us to become operational, get the idea out on the market, and test it. Secondly, we wanted to find a way for an arts company to be self-sustaining instead of relying on grant funding or individual donors.
I have a lot of issues with the current non-profit structure in our country because I think it incentivizes people to give for the wrong reasons and breeds toxic philanthropy. This is in no way intended to invalidate the important work that many nonprofits do, but it’s a broken system. I attended a talk last week with Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder of Kickstarter, and he summed it up nicely by saying that “charity as a form of apology for capitalism is not a good model.” I view the arts as essential to society but am also aware that we live in a capitalist world. I’m constantly thinking about how to reconcile these two facts.
Hi Artist has only been going for short time, but you’ve been able to attract some notable partners. What types of relationships have you been able to build.
We’ve had a few really great partners and sponsors within our short life span, from alcohol sponsors like Sixpoint Brewery (for a private event we did for NYU Stern) to co-producing an evening with Collabarét and Ace Hotel, New York. We also produced a guest set at a Sofar Sounds event, which was a lot of fun.
For VENUS, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Good Move, a fantastic new movement studio in Williamsburg, providing ticket giveaways for their customers and free class passes for ours. And of course, Spinster! VENUS is our first time having a full event sponsor, which is exciting.
Venus is your annual all-women showcase. Why choose to focus on women each year?
The decision to create an all-female program last year came organically. My business partner and I are both women, and after a few early events we realized we were presenting a lot of male artists.
We started questioning why that was, and the natural continuation of those conversations was a decision to devote a full evening to female artists. We wanted to celebrate some of the amazing women in our community creating important work.
Last year it was more of a challenge than we expected to find pieces that were both choreographed and performed entirely by women, a fact that Xenia and I were both surprised and frustrated by (it). Since then we’ve worked harder to program an equal number of men and women for each event, and it became a no-brainer that we wanted to make VENUS an annual thing.
What kinds of stories are the Venus dancers telling? Does the political climate influence the types of dances you see?
Current events will always impact art because so much of what artists create is driven by their life experiences. That rings particularly true for this batch of artists as well. All the pieces on the VENUS program touch on the human condition and/or the female experience in some way.
Kelly Todd—a really talented artist who performs with Sleep No More—will be showing the New York City premiere of the solo version of Riding Red. First created as a trio, the piece plays on the childhood folklore Little Red Riding Hood to explore the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Suku Dance Lab, the creative project of Belinda Adam and Talia Moreta, will be sharing a new work in progress. Guided by a beautiful piece of music by Brazilian artist Elis Regina, the work speaks to universal feelings of loss, loneliness, and a desire for belonging.
Matilda Sakamoto’s A general clutter of female belongings is about acknowledging boxes, confronting them, and then totally disregarding them (a notion we love). Sakamoto was drawn to this not only because of its dismissiveness to the female existence and their things, but because it applies to the dance (itself).
Holly Ledbetter will be sharing the latest installment of her ongoing Get Well Soon solo project. It fuses movement and spoken storytelling to explore the chronic nature of many parts of our lives in a society that would rather we all get well, and soon. We presented the early stages of this work at last year’s VENUS show.
Dancer Gwendolyn Gussman and musician Hallie Spoor will be sharing You Follow, I Lead, an ongoing exploration into what happens when the roles of follower and leader dissolve. This is our second time presenting live music alongside dance and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
What should womxn (and men) expect from attending the Venus event?
Guests should come ready to experience an evening of fantastic, thought-provoking performances and fun. Our venue, 61 Local, serves local craft beer, great wine, and delicious food, all available from the bar downstairs. We also have an extra special perk for VENUS attendees: a free class pass at Good Move, a calming studio in Williamsburg teaching all-levels dance, yoga, and Pilates. All in all, an evening that shouldn’t be missed!
Ready to watch the show? Get your tickets for Hi Artist’s Venus event here!