As a choreographer, I frequently make subject-matter dances. I have specialized in making dances for groups that include old and young dancers, and groups that integrate community members with professionals. Very special to me are the community arts projects I have done, relating the arts to everyday life and focusing on cross-cultural connections. My work has been influenced by Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange.
From 1990 through 2001, I co-directed Back Porch Dance Company with Victoria Solomon. The company, in which Vicki and I also performed, was an interracial, cross-generational ensemble of 15 women who performed throughout New England. Members of the Massachusetts and New England Touring Rosters, the Company specialized in evening-length works that focused on themes relevant to women’s lives and frequently included oral history as text, spoken or sung. The Company included professionals and community dancers. Strong relationships developed among the members; this had a powerful impact on our performances.
As co-choreographers for Back Porch Dance Company, Vicki and I received multiple grants from the Cambridge Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation and the Boston Foundation. “Senior Revue:STILL MOVING” (1997) was a song and dance show I created with two other members of Back Porch Dance Company and eight community elders from Cambridge, Somerville, Medford and Arlington. The subject was elder health empowerment and the show, commissioned by Somerbridge Community Health Partnership, was performed in numerous elder venues in Cambridge and Somerville. Outreach work – bringing dance into the community, and particularly the elder community -- was an important part of the company’s work. I have taught more than 100 dance workshops to elder and intergenerational groups. I continue to teach dance with elders in Elderly Housing Projects through the Tennant Assistance Program of Mass Housing, and to teach Dancing Outside the Lines, a continually evolving workshop in Improvisation and Choreography, which I began in 1992.
In June, 2008, I shared a concert with two other choreographers. THREE HERE NOW, featured my choreography as well as that of Lise Brody and Melody Ruffin Ward, and had two sold-out shows in Cambridge at the Dance Complex. I revived two works that I had premiered in my 2007 concert (Dance on Paper, Dance on the Floor): A Closer Walk, a duet for splendid veteran dancers Ann Brown Allen and Andy Taylor-Blenis, and Branch, a work for seven women who ranged in age from seven to 84 years. Since 2005, I have performed with the Elder Ensemble of Prometheus Dance Company, under the direction of Diane Noya and Tommy Neblett, a company of post-professional dancers who perform to elder and general audiences in a variety of venues.
My career in dance has included teaching and choreographing for many populations. I co-founded the Cambridge Performance Project (www.cambridgeperformanceproject.org) and taught and choreographed primarily for 9-14 year olds in two yearly concerts from 1985 through 1996. I have been a Resident Artist in many different schools -- elementary, middle and high schools -- and was on the registry of artist-teachers of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
My choreography has been commissioned by the Dance Complex, Somerbridge, and this fall, by the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Dance Company. I have performed the choreography of Diane Noya and Tommy Neblett, Liz Lerman, Danny McCusker, Rozann Kraus, Victoria Solomon, Lise Brody, Paula Josa-Jones, Bonita Weisman and others.
