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For over 20 years, I have been
teaching, creating and presenting dance/theatre in northern Vermont.
I collaborate with a variety of people (ages, skills, histories)
using many art forms (dance, music, video, visual, words) both
improvised and choreographed. I offer performance opportunity
to people who otherwise might never have the chance. I am one
of a small handful of Vermont choreographers making work for a
mixed ensemble of seasoned dance artists and fledgling performers,
who don’t necessarily fit the stereotype of "dancer/ performer".
Because of the site-specific work I do in the community, many
people in the audience will come to the theatre for the first
time, stepping through the door to see contemporary dance created
by accessible neighbors.
An important component of
my work has been exhibits of completed site-specific performance
projects that give the visual artists involved an opportunity
to re-design and show their components, and offers yet another
chance for the public to experience the project. Included in these
exhibits are photographs, set elements, video, texts and audience
responses. In March, 2001, the Flynn Center hosted a retrospective
photographic exhibit of my work spanning 12 years.
In
1991, I started my non-profit, Cradle to Grave Arts, an artist-initiated
organization dedicated to contributing to the community through
stage pieces and large site-specific projects, connecting with
people who ordinarily don’t have access to contemporary performance
art. Cradle to Grave Arts uses the creative process as a way to
educate, challenge our thinking, broaden our understanding, and
enhance our ability to be fully involved members of our community.
During
its ten years of operation, Cradle to Grave Arts has flourished
in its unique position, attracting a growing and varied audience.
In all presentations, it partners with civic organizations. Cradle
to Grave Arts has received community, state, regional, and national
recognition. As its artistic director, I was the recipient of
the 1995 Vermont Arts Council Citation Award; the American Association
for State and Local History Award in 1996 for "The Mill Project",
the first time a choreographer received this award; New England
Foundation for the Arts - Building Communities through Culture
four year fellowship starting in 1995; Vermont YWCA 1999 Susan
B Anthony award; and also in 1999, I was named to the "short list"
of artists across the nation who were considered for the National
Endowment for the Arts - Artists & Community: America creates
for the Millennium.
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Inside Moves, 2001, was a
dance/theatre stage piece inspired by non-verbal language
- gestures, sounds and impressions - arising from the personal
interior landscape. The movements are abstract images woven
together in mythic relationships to form a dream-like "story".
It was performed at the FlynnCenter for the Performing Arts
on June 17th as part of a residency for three Vermont Choreographers,
Outside Moves Inside, produced in partnership with the Flynn.
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The Bus Barns Project
was a site-specific dance/theatre performance event about
mobility and its effect on our lives performed June 9, 10,
11, 2000. It honored this 130 year old public transportation
site - Vermont Transit Bus Repair Barns - and opened the door
to its new incarnation as affordable rental housing and start-up.
This was produced in partnership with Burlington Community
Land Trust and Burlington’s Community and Economic Development
Office.
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The Neighborhood Project
was a trio of public art performance events during 1999 that
explored, through the lens of art, Burlington's urban places.
They focused on the city’s inhabitants, their homes, their
gathering places, the memories shared and those uniquely individual,
and addressed the question: What makes a vibrant neighborhood?
This was produced in partnership with Burlington Community
Land Trust and Burlington’s Community and Economic Development
Office.
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The Waterfront Project
was an art event designed for the first Sunday of every month
for entire year of 1997 that took place on the post industrial
waterfront of Burlington. It focused on offering alternative
perspectives for the re-integration of the abandoned buildings
and 45 acres of open, post industrial land. This was produced
in partnership with Burlington’s Community and Economic Development
Office and Burlington’s Planning Office.
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Running like mad with our eyes closed,
1996, an evening length dance/theatre piece created for and
performed by Working Ground that focused on aspects hidden
or partially obscured. It was part of a summer dance residency
at the Flynn which presented in partnership with Cradle to
Grave Arts.
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The Rose Street Bakery Project,
in November, 1995, addressed the basic needs of food and shelter
in a 10-hour weekend performance in an abandoned building
that became Vermont’s first artist cooperative in 1996. This
was produced in partnership with Burlington Community Land
Trust.
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The Mill Project, 1995, was
a 54 hour performance in a renovated woolen mill that focused
on the Winooski textile mills of 1900 and on the concerns
of past and present-day workers everywhere. This was produced
in partnership with The City of Winooski and The Woolen Mill.
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Gather, gather, hold your breath,
1992, was the first dance/theatre performance created for
my multi-generational ensemble of women, Working Ground. This
evening-length piece was performed in the Flynn’s On Stage
series in January, 1993 and the Flynn was the presenting partner.
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Financial support has come from Vermont Arts
Council (National Endowment for the Arts), Vermont Community Foundation,
New England Foundation for the Arts (Rockefeller Fund), The LEF
Foundation, Golub Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Burlington City
Arts, IDX Foundation, and many generous individuals and businesses
from the community.
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