Photo by Dennis Deloria

Photo by Dennis Deloria

Sally Nash

Where other foundations pick and choose on the basis of choreographers’ past achievements, Workspace “lets you come without regard for your previous success . . . (and) doesn’t require when you leave that you’ve done a certain amount of work.” As set forth in the foundation’s guidelines, “The criteria in choosing which artists to support should remain free of considerations of previous success or lack of it. Anyone can come to the Workspace who will use the support to explore something that is new to him or her.”

“It’s meant to be whatever they need it to be,” she said.

Ms. Nash said the construction of her home-studio has had an unexpected influence on her own creative process. “It’s changed my way of working a great deal. It’s made me able to work more quickly, and I didn’t expect that. I’m able to come down and try out something whenever I get the idea. ”

Artists who have made use of Workspace recently include Jeff Bliss, a New York choreographer who spent all of last August there. Ms. Nash said he “spent a lot of time in the woods. ... He came up with the beginnings of a piece having to do with his family roots." Another New York choreographer, David Alan Harris, spent two weeks at Workspace and developed a piece about child abuse that has since been performed. Artists don’t have to leave with an “end result”: Catherine Sands used the time she spent at Workspace “noticing her choreographic process.”

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The foundation is almost finished getting IRS approval for tax-free status, and Ms. Nash has solicited advisory members for the board. While she is alive, Ms. Nash will be the sole board member, and the advisory panel will take over at the time of her death.

Members of the advisory board have two things in common, she said: insight into her vision and an ability to criticize “in ways that didn’t make it their vision,” and several have contacts in the dance community that are different from hers. Some board members are from the business community, and will provide advice. “It is artist-run and we don’t think we know everything about business and administration,” she said.

Woodville choreographer Sharon Wyrrick has made ample use of the facility already, and has found it invaluable to her creative process. “It’s been just absolutely imperative for me to have as a part of my creations in the past couple of years,” she said.

“It’s such a supportive place to do creative work, because of the setting and Sally’s been very supportive,” said Ms. Wyrrick.

“The artists’ retreats I know about, there are very few for choreographers — they’re more for visual artists,” she said.

A member of the advisory board, Ms. Wyrrick said it is “exciting to me because I believe in the idea and I’m very honored to be a part of it.”