The following is a growing list of Greater Hartford area artists and organizations whose original choreographic works build on modern and contemporary dance and performance traditions, and whose work is presented in professional contexts in Connecticut and beyond. [This page is intended to serve as an archive for The Invisible City Project website. While what follows is out of date, it is my hope that its contents will continue to provide a point of entry.]
Allongé Dance Variations
Allison Bogotay, Artistic Director
Allongé Dance Variations was founded in 2006 by Artistic Director Alison Bogotay. The Greater Hartford-based company performs, teaches and nurtures the art of dance in its many forms, providing education and inspiration through creativity and passion. The Company specializes in Spanish dance, Contemporary & Classical Ballet & Musical Theatre styles.
Beat City Beauties
The Beat City Beauties were born in the basement of a multi-family house in Hartford on October 31, 2010. The troupe was created for some sexy, smart, confident women to showcase their talent and tassels. The troupe has grown and developed into Hartford’s premier Burlesque troupe performing at many well known joints, such as Black Eyed Sally’s, Russian Lady, and Arch Street Tavern. The Beauties also perform regionally with troupe members traveling to New Haven and Northampton, MA as guest performers. In 2014, the Beauties partnered with Arch Street Tavern for a monthly dinner and a show on the first Sunday of each month. Follow the blog or like the Beat City Beauties on Facebook to stay abreast of the latest shows, photos, and special events.
CONNetic Dance
Carolyn Paine, Artistic Director
CONNetic Dance was formed in 2006 by dancers and choreographers in CT who wanted to challenge themselves as artists while exploring the lengths to which classical ballet can be taken with sensual, dynamic, and intriguing contemporary choreography. The chamber-sized company is compiled of a talented ensemble of professional dancers who are experienced performers and artists. CONNetic Dance is the current company is residence at Ballet Theatre Company.
Dance Connect
Chloe Carlson, Artistic Director
Dance Connect is a collaborative, contemporary, Hartford-based dance company that seeks to share its members’ passion for dancing through performances, events and teaching that showcase humanism, joy, humor and connection.
dancEnlight
Lorelei Chang, Artistic Director
dancEnlight is dedicated to fostering arts through excellence in dance, education and artistic collaboration in a tapestry of Eastern and Western culture & ideas. dancEnlight strives to enrich the community, enlighten audiences of all ages, and inspire cultural development, locally and globally. Founded by Lorelei Chang in 2008, currently in residence at Connecticut Concert Ballet in Manchester, dancEnlight is a professional modern dance company that performs in the US & Japan under the direction of Lorelei Chang (US) and Mai Nakanishi (Japan). Ms Chang draws inspiration from her Asian background and creates cross-cultural works with inventive ideas. Her combination of dance and the ancient art form of Chinese calligraphy have uniquely set the company apart from others. dancEnlight provides education programs for all ages, and is committed to serving the community through performances, outreach organizations and events. Through artistic collaboration, dancEnlight attempts to work with local and global artists to create lasting, high quality works of art that can be embraced by a wide range of audiences.
Equilibrium Dance Theatre
Jolet Creary, Artistic Director
Equilibrium Dance Theatre is a multicultural dance company based in Hartford, CT under the direction of Jolet Creary and is dedicated to fusing various dance forms traditional and non- traditional. Its mission is to create and share work through live performances and workshops with diverse audiences, and is committed to spreading knowledge of urban dance – past, present and future. This multifaceted company uses movement that ranges from African dance, modern dance to street styles to tell the stories of the inner city through innovative movement, music, and spoken word. Equilibrium is driven to spread unity, respect, our history and love through dance.
Full Force Dance Theatre
Katie Stevinson-Nollet, Artistic Director
Full Force Dance Theatre has presented modern dance to audiences of all ages, coast to coast since 1992. Originally formed in San Diego, California, it’s mission has been to promote the creative vision of its director and primary choreographer, Katie Stevinson-Nollet; to present high quality, creative and innovative work by both professionally distinguished choreographers as well as up and coming young artists to the community in accessible and affordable programs; to explore the creative process of dance making; to develop the collaborative process between dancers, choreographer, and musicians; and to provide professional experience, training, and performance opportunities to local Hartford dancers.
Judy Dworin Performance Project
Judy Dworin, Artistic Director
The Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble (JDPE) has been the core member and catalyst for the Judy Dworin Performance Project (JDPP), creating cutting-edge dance/theater performance work of the highest professional quality. JDPE has performed locally, regionally and internationally and is a uniquely qualified group of performers who are also committed and experienced teachers. The Judy Dworin Performance Project Inc. (JDPP) was founded in 1989 as a nonprofit umbrella organization based in Hartford, Connecticut, to provide support for individual artists. JDPP sees its role in the community as further building a diverse and innovative cultural mix of offerings at the highest professional level and giving voice to populations who have been silent or unheard. The work of the organization endeavors to reach the hearts and minds of those involved whether as audience or workshop participants in a process that reminds us of our collective humanity. Over the twenty years of JDPP’s history, we have developed a mix of programmatic offerings that all work towards our mission of innovative, inspiring, educational and collaborative art making rooted in the belief that the arts can be a powerful agent for change in our culture.
Leslie Frye-Maietta
Dynamic performer, educator and maker of art, Leslie Frye Maietta holds a BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at The University of the Arts, honored with a Promising Artist Award Scholarship and The Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance Award. Her versatility as an artist has allowed her to work in a variety of genres of dance and theatre and has most recently lead to completion of her MFA in Dance from Hollins University|The American Dance Festival. Her solo research continues to expand recently premiering a dance film, Talking to the Falx at Mobius Experimental Film Festival in Boston, and presenting her thesis work this past summer at The American Dance Festival in Duke University’s Reynolds Industries Theatre. Leslie was a featured artist in Jennifer Muller’s presenting series HATCH in NYC this past fall and will be presenting work this spring as a part of The CURRENT SESSIONS Volume IV issue I at Wild Project in the East Village, NYC. Outside of her own research endeavors, Leslie has performed the work of Adele Myers, Mary Cochran, Mia Michaels, Brian Sanders, Ronen Koresh, Daniel Gwirtzman, Katie Stevinson-Nollet and Jen Polins… she also collaborates with Scapegoat Garden and The Garden Center for Contemporary Dance to create performance and curate programming for local dance artists and enthusiasts.
Nicole Stanton
Nicole Stanton is a choreographer and dance educator who serves as Associate Professor in the Dance Department at Wesleyan University. To her her roles as and choregraphic brings professional training in modern dance techniques, African techniques, improvisation, choreography, somatics, history and theory of dance to Wesleyan. She studied contemporary dance at the Center for New Dance Development in Arnhem, Holland; African dance and drum at the Leopold Sedor Senghor Cultural Center in Dakar, Senegal; and received two bachelor of arts in dance and foreign civilizations and languages at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio; and earned a master of fine arts in dance from Ohio State University. Prior to joining the faculty in the Department of Dance, Stanton spent 10 years as a faculty member at the Ohio State University. There, she served as chair of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Dance; chair of the Dance Education Committee; chair of the Technique Area Committee; and member of the College of the Arts and Sciences Honors Committee; and the University Undergraduate Faculty Admissions Committee. Cuban Dance Group; the Idrissa Dance Retrospective West African Inspired Dance Company; and the Thoissane West African Dance Company.
Salix Productions
Lacey Byrne, Artistic Director
Salix Productions strives to bring to the stage the story of women from various backgrounds and experiences. Too often women’s experiences are marginalized. By giving a voice, giving movement, and creating space to explore; we can move women’s experiences from the margin to the center. Salix Productions pushes boundaries through movement. Most recently, Salix Productions partnered with Ras Mikey C, Education Director of F.I.V.E. Productions to create a full-length concert of contemporary dance that explores issues of masculinity; titled Maskulinity: Unfolding Codes of Gender.
Scapegoat Garden
Deborah Goffe, Artistic Director
Scapegoat Garden is a collaborative dance theater based in Hartford, Connecticut, driven to create daring, interdisciplinary performance that goes in through the nose, eyes, skin, ears and mouth to stir those who witness or participate. In the quest to create original performance works built on a commitment to artistic integrity, the company conjures lush worlds where movement, music, sound, video, costume, set and light design are brought together to engage, inspire, inform and transform. These works walk the line between technique, form, process and a genuine expression of our human experience. Scapegoat Garden was founded by Hartford-native Deborah Goffe in 2002, and established as a non-profit 501(c)(3) arts organization in 2004.
Sonia Plumb Dance Company
Sonia Plumb, Artistic Director
Sonia Plumb Dance Company was founded in 1989, and for the next twelve years over thirty pieces were created for the company by its founder and director. From the intense quartet “Denial” to the full-length “The Wanderings of Odysseus” Sonia Plumb Dance Company intrigued and captivated audiences. The company performed throughout New England and in New York in self-promoted concerts and numerous adjudicated showcases including International Festival of Arts and Ideas, New Haven, Special Olympics, New Haven, Connecticut Choreographers’ Showcase, First Night, Sono Arts Festival, to name a few. “Discover Dance,” an educational outreach program was also established to bring dance to underserved communities, seniors and minority populations. In 2002 Sonia took a hiatus. In 2011 she returned to her passion, bringing exhilarating and thought provoking contemporary dance to the public with “Water Wars.”
Spectrum in Motion Dance Theatre
Olivia Ilano-Davis, Artistic Director
Spectrum in Motion is a dance theater ensemble dedicated to People of Color and the American experience. Spectrum in Motion was founded in 1982 in the Pioneer Valley/5 College Community of Western Massachusetts. Its premise is that dance should once again be part of everyday life. Dance should help us to tell and share the stories of our lives. Dance should embrace all peoples. The company’s director, Olivia Ilano-Davis, originally gathered people from all walks of life: those who danced professionally and have moved on to other things; students of dance; instructors of dance; those who supported dance; those who never danced. The second generation of dancers was launched in the fall of 2003 at Charter Oak Cultural Center and comes from Spectrum’s ensemble of student dancers called The Youth Dance Performance Project.
TNMoT AZTRo
Arien Wilkerson, Director
TNMoT AZTRo creates performance and installation works which blend dance, fashion and visual media by engaging collaborations with artists from throughout Connecticut and beyond. The Hartford-based company expresses its passion for originality, color, purpose and freedom through film/video, photography, DJing, projector installations and multimedia performances.
