BUILT ON STILTS
Martha's Vineyard's Homegrown Dance & Performance Festival

DVDS of individual night's of 2005-2009's fest as well as our 10 year anniversary retrospective video are available. DVDs are $20 each. Please email shakes9999@​yahoo.com to place your order.

Built on Stilts' thirteenth Annual Dance Festival was a smashing success--our most diverse season yet--packed to the rafters for 6 nights in a row! Over forty works were presented Wednesday, August 12th through Monday, August 17th, 2009. Each evening's program featured a different arrangement of dances including modern, ballet, bellydance, salsa, hip hop, improv, poetry, jazz, comedy, theater and much more. Thanks to all the performers and choreographers and the incredible outpouring of support from our audiences!

The Martha's Vineyard Built on Stilts project was spearheaded by Abby Bender and Anna Luckey in 1997 in the hopes of creating an all-inclusive, grassroots performance venue for island artists. The pair are two of the five founding members of the former New York City-based collective dance company KICK STAND DANCE which enjoyed a long partnership from 1998-2005. The group cooperatively ran the Brooklyn based studio and theater, Triskelion Arts, a highly active rehearsal and performance center for theater, dance and circus arts, now under Abby's direction.

Built on Stilts has grown substantially since its inception, and what began in August 1997 as a magical one-night performance of the works of seven choreographers, has evolved into an enormous festival of the island's remarkable artistic spirit. The event now runs between 6 and 8 nights and features more than forty original dance or other performing arts pieces presented by dozens of performers from near and far. Interested visiting artists are encouraged to bring their work to the island for the festival.

Built on Stilts is a creative playground for both children and adults, from beginners to professionals, representing diverse stylistic backgrounds. Over the years, the event has showcased ballet, modern, hip hop, jazz, tap, breakdance, bellydance, tai chi, movement theater, circus arts, pilates-based dance, mime, improvisation, spoken word and, of course, a bit of stilting. Each performance opens with an improvisational drum circle open to all willing musicians. The rhythms bouncing down Circuit Avenue draw in passersby, who flood the gates of the historic Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs, which has housed the festival since its inception.

As included in the program handed out to audiences each year, the founders write:

"The title of our project has a bit of history to it, which in its telling may help you to understand what it means to us. In the summer of 1997, we got hooked on the idea of creating a summer forum for dance here on the Island. It had been two long years since our graduation from Bard College, where we had experienced a unique dance education. It was this experience that we were seeking to recreate in the working process of that first summer's production. We had a short six weeks, very little means and just the beginnings of the incredible network of Island dancers and artists that we have now. That first season of the project instilled in our small group a remarkable faith in the unknown. We named our festival based on the theme of a dormitory project at Bard. The dorm was simply a highly sophisticated tree-house built on stilts over a ravine, constructed on a slightly shaky ground but inside of which the magic of creativity took place.

And so each summer, we join together to make new dances in a few fleeting weeks, juggling our work schedules to dance with parks and backyards as our training grounds. Built on Stilts has found its home in this beautiful performance space and has made possible the discovery of friends and fellow artists who might otherwise remain strangers. Collectively, we have built a inimitable summer dance community so that we may ALL share our love of dance with you.

We are endlessly grateful for the efforts of everyone involved in this project. Built on Stilts becomes increasingly important to us with each passing year, both as artists and members of a larger community. As we stand in awe of the festival’s growth over its ten years, we are so proud to have spawned an annual island tradition. Our doors are always open and we are thankful that we have been able to nourish our roots here. We encourage any of you who wish to be involved in the project to give it a go. We certainly are glad we have.

--Abby and Anna