Guild Hall's artist-in-residence program is evolving, as evidenced by its newest iteration, recently established in honor of Billy Rayner, the noted watercolorist and travel writer who died in 2018, by his wife, Katharine Johnson Rayner. It's a program focused more on group work and collaboration than individual artistic development.
The first beneficiary of this reinvented approach was the Hamptons Dance Project, which wrapped up a two-week residency over the weekend at an estate owned by Mrs. Rayner. The house is said to sit atop the highest hill in East Hampton Village, its studio reminiscent of the one that Mr. Rayner opened to fellow artists for classes and other kinds of support.
Guild Hall has already served as an incubator of sorts for the Hamptons Dance Project, which debuted in 2019 on the John Drew Theater stage, but Jose Sebastian, its founder, said the William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence Program helped the dancers level up significantly.
It was "a layer of opportunity to be able to work, stay in shape, work on repertoire, and start prepping for season four" of the dance project, Mr. Sebastian said. "I believe that residencies like this are really beneficial."
Over the last two weeks, Craig Salstein set the dancers, Lauren Bonfiglio, Tyler Maloney, Catherine Hurlin, and Michael de la Nuez, in an acclaimed work by Justin Peck called "Chutes and Ladders." Ms. Bonfiglio and Mr. Maloney took on a classic Don Quixote pas-de-deux.
Mr. Sebastian, Mr. Salstein, and the other dancers, who are all performers with the American Ballet Theater, also had coaching sessions with Susan Stroman, a five-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer, who is a member of Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts. Anthony Madonna, the Guild Hall fellow who is overseeing the residency, held brainstorming sessions with Pat Sebastian, Mr. Sebastian's mother, who is a driving force behind the annual dance production.
"It's important that every project gets stronger and stronger and not settle for what meets regular expectations," Mr. Salstein said. "This way, Jose and Hamptons Dance Project put their best foot forward. The sky's the limit in regards to discipline and constantly recreating new ways to work for better results and a positive space for human beings."
Mr. Maloney said the Hamptons Dance Project "pushes us as dancers."
"This year the style is neoclassical, in the way it's put together, the dynamics, the way we're carrying our arms. Everything is always a little bit different from what we're used to, and it's a way to pull something new out of us, and when we go back to A.B.T., we have something new under our belts because we were able to experiment with it in this project."
At Ms. Rayner's house, Mr. Sebastian often started the days cooking oatmeal for his crew, helping them "set intentions" for the work they were about to commence. A warm-up class preceded several hours of rehearsals each day on a special dance floor that was brought into the studio. There were lunches and dinners together, and even a joint effort on a jigsaw puzzle at night. It concluded with a presentation for inner-circle Guild Hall members and donors.
The new program was preceded by the Guild House Artist-in-Residence Program, which was established about six years ago.
"Going forward, what we're really focusing on is artist collectives and collaborators," Mr. Madonna said. "That idea didn't come from Guild Hall -- it came from artists themselves. We saw this incredible potential with this house . . . We're super appreciative of Mrs. Rayner, and everyone who's here who is working and feeling that out with us. Our residency is really parallel to Guild Hall's future."
