A yearly panel selects two companies for the Company Residency and four independent choreographers and eight dancers for the Bessie Residency. Recent selection panels have included Debra Cash, Lucinda Childs, Richard Colton, Blondell Cummings,Carmen de Lavallade, Naomi Goldberg Haas, Elizabeth Keen, Nicholas Leichter, Carla Maxwell, Gus Solomons jr, Linda Tarnay, Laurie Uprichard, Edisa Weeks, Nina Winthrop, and Elizabeth Zimmer. The residencies are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Capezio, the Scripps Foundation, and the Jerome A. and Estelle R. Newman Assistance Fund.

“The Yard experience was one of the best I had in my early years. The people I worked with there have been very influential in my career. The piece I made was my first real breakthrough in dance, so it was a really big summer for me.”
Susan Marshall, choreographer, MacArthur Award recipient