LED / ALEXA ROSE FOUNDATION—ARTIST HAVEN AT THE DIXON WITH DANIEL OJEDA (08/01/26)

In January of this year, LED—in partnership with the Alexa Rose Foundation—launched a unique new residency called Artist Haven, designed for performing artists with momentum and a record of excellence who are poised to benefit from working on a solo project or collaboration in an inspired space. Hosted at The Dixon, the program offers time, space, mentorship from LED's artistic and creative director, as well as a cash honorarium and additional resources for artists to deeply engage in their practice. It culminates in sharing their progress with a live performance or presentation. Artist Haven is an exciting new platform that inspires risk-taking, bold experimentation, and sustained creative exploration among artists in our community or those meaningfully tied to it. 

Alex Davis, Director of the Alexa Rose Foundation, answered a few of my basic questions about the foundation’s mission and their collaboration with LED. Davis is a forward-looking leader who has invested in our region's arts and culture for twenty years. She brings inspiration and deep belief, working for a world where artists are embraced as leaders and must never apologize for their creativity.

  

A published author, Davis served as Board President of The Cabin literary center, ensuring generational diversification of audiences and a sustained legacy of exceptional board leadership. Originally from the south, Davis started her career with PBS and NPR stations in Atlanta, Georgia. With a commitment to the arts, stewardship of culturally significant sites—modern and historic—as well as joie de vivre in education, Davis helped build the foundation and clear the way for an historic Hyde Park cathedral's restoration and completion, now home to a youth arts institute with imaginative programming that breaks all the rules. 

Inspired by the creative genius and collaboration on display in our region every day, Davis is a strategic thinking partner and steadfast champion for artists, arts leaders and people who envision stronger, more vibrant communities everywhere. 

Daniel Ojeda & Lauren Edson.  Photo: © Michael Guillén.

One of the first three recipients of the Artist Haven residency is Daniel Ojeda, who in 2024 likewise received the Alexa Rose Foundation’s Light of Day Grant. Daniel is a freelance choreographer and artist based in New York City and former Ballet Idaho Soloist. He has choreographed over 15 original works during his time at Ballet Idaho. His work has been featured all over the US including New York, Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Detroit, and Dallas. And it makes me happy to say that I “knew him when”, which is to say that I have been aware of and engaged with his creativity since at least 2011 when I first relocated to Boise, Idaho from San Francisco, California. 

At that time, I fell in with a group of young dancers, designers, musicians, and filmmakers, all of whom were familiar with each other’s work, often in collaboration, and Daniel was among them. It felt good to be included in such a community of talent and it has been fascinating to watch his maturation as an artist. To witness such creativity fills me with an audience member’s spiritual sense of gratitude. What struck me right off was the brilliance of his range. There was one day in particular that I remember watching his participation in a piece of public street theater mid-afternoon, only to see him that evening spotlighted at a Ballet Idaho performance on a professional stage. I remember thinking, “Ah, he’s crossing worlds like me.” 

Daniel Ojeda.  Photo: © Christina Birkinbine.

I attended Daniel’s choreographed piece for Project Flux during last year’s edition of the Treefort Music Festival, but have not had an opportunity to watch him dance since LED’s 2019 Red-HARE event at The Modern, so I was anticipating the chance to see him perform, though shortly before the doors opened he cautioned me to manage expectations as he wasn’t really going to be dancing much and that what he would be sharing was more of a multi-media spoken word piece that he had developed with Annika Barlow. 

The premise was a simple (yet thoughtful) equation that childhood experiences that feel traumatic often lead to drama. When the trauma is recognized as misperceived, the drama, the acting out, becomes embarrassment. These embarrassments can then be processed into creative output. By extrapolating on process, Daniel and Annika revealed the process by which they developed the piece shared with their LED audience. Expressed through a textured mixture of memoir, stand-up comedy, audio-visual overlay, and a little bit of slapstick, my favorite moment in Daniel’s shared piece was when he and Annika sat in chairs and repeated the same choreographed movements to two different pieces of music. I found that fascinating. 

Though he seemed reluctant to do so (though I’m not sure if this was staged), Daniel did finally dance a bit. Mention was made that he had not actually danced in two years and I asked him if that was true? He admitted that he has mainly been choreographing though he did a turn last year in The Nutcracker and has had his fill of that scene. A photograph of himself in white tights in company with a young seventeen-year-old sealed the deal for him once and for all. 

At 72, that amused me but did remind me that dance is a circumscribed art form. The average career expectancy for a professional dancer spans roughly 10 to 20 years, with most performers retiring from the stage between their early 30s and mid-40s. Peak performance typically occurs in a dancer's 20s to early 30s, after which high physical wear leads to retirement, or a shift from performance to choreography. If it’s true that—despite modern techniques often allowing for more organic movement and greater anatomical flexibility—a heavy toll is exerted on joints and bones, I remain grateful to have witnessed Daniel in his prime as a performer, and anticipate his matured creativity as a choreographer. 

Via LED: “Throughout his residency, Daniel has embraced this process with curiosity, openness, and a willingness to explore the unknown. Watching him follow his ideas, investigate new possibilities, and shape his work in real time has been a beautiful reminder of the power of artistic discovery and the importance of creating space for imagination.”