Senior Choreographers Concert: Point of Departure
Event Dates
Admission
FREE
Please note that the live stream is only available for the performances on Saturday, December 6.
Point of Departure is the junction of 15 emerging contemporary choreographers’ unique voices into one visionary show. These works are only the beginning for this next generation of dance-makers and movement artists. The audience is invited to watch senior choreographers blossom into their lives as professional artists. Sophomore, junior, and senior contemporary dance majors come together to perform works by choreographers Nora Augenstein, Eliana Balzano, Michael Braun, Grace Chaney, Nigel Clifford, Gabrielle Honoré, Emma Hourigan, Eliana LaBreche, Demetra Mutz, Ana Perez-Yudin, Aidan Robbins, Esme Stone, Brianna Sullivan, Kylah Walker, and Yadi Zhang of the 2026 senior class. The choreographers welcome you to see the world through their eyes, and allow yourself to become enveloped by thoughts, feelings, questions, and sensations as you slowly become entangled in and enthralled by the artistic expression showcased here.
Program Information
Welcome Note
Welcome to Point of Departure!
Point of Departure is the junction of 15 emerging contemporary choreographers’ unique voices flowing into one visionary show. These works mark the beginning of a new generation of dance-makers and movement artists. Our sophomore, junior, and senior contemporary dance majors come together to perform works by senior choreographers Nora Augenstein, Eliana Balzano, Michael Braun, Grace Chaney, Nigel Clifford, Gabrielle Honoré, Emma Hourigan, Eliana Lebreche, Demetra Mutz, Ana Perez-Yudin, Aidan Robbins, Esmé Stone, Brianna Sullivan, Kylah Walker, and Yadi Zhang. Allow yourself to become enveloped by thoughts, feelings, questions, and sensations as you become entangled in and enthralled by the artistic expression showcased here. Point of Departure is a culmination of four years of choreographic practice. These works are unique representations of each artists’ voice, vision, and identity. Key to this production, each choreographer works through a process of creating, producing, and designing their work from inception to completion. The process includes auditioning, marketing, costuming, and working closely with a full professional production crew. Point of Departure represents a compass of the times and view of the world as expressed by these unique young artists. We thank you for partaking in our point of departure! Enjoy!
—Dianne Arvanites, Producer and Artistic Director
The students are always at the center of our mission in the Dance Division, and our goal is to help them realize their fullest potential, not only as performers but also as creative and entrepreneurial artists. We guide and educate them, helping them grow as young adults, finding their way in the world, giving them opportunities to experience different points of view and ways of seeing the life around them. They learn how to be engaged citizens of the world in order to make the world a better place through the arts. I think you will agree that these young creatives and dance artists are inspiring, passionate, and deeply committed to what they love to do—dance.
—Tommy Neblett, Dean of Dance
Point of Departure is the junction of 15 emerging contemporary choreographers’ unique voices flowing into one visionary show. These works mark the beginning of a new generation of dance-makers and movement artists. Our sophomore, junior, and senior contemporary dance majors come together to perform works by senior choreographers Nora Augenstein, Eliana Balzano, Michael Braun, Grace Chaney, Nigel Clifford, Gabrielle Honoré, Emma Hourigan, Eliana Lebreche, Demetra Mutz, Ana Perez-Yudin, Aidan Robbins, Esmé Stone, Brianna Sullivan, Kylah Walker, and Yadi Zhang. Allow yourself to become enveloped by thoughts, feelings, questions, and sensations as you become entangled in and enthralled by the artistic expression showcased here. Point of Departure is a culmination of four years of choreographic practice. These works are unique representations of each artists’ voice, vision, and identity. Key to this production, each choreographer works through a process of creating, producing, and designing their work from inception to completion. The process includes auditioning, marketing, costuming, and working closely with a full professional production crew. Point of Departure represents a compass of the times and view of the world as expressed by these unique young artists. We thank you for partaking in our point of departure! Enjoy!
—Dianne Arvanites, Producer and Artistic Director
The students are always at the center of our mission in the Dance Division, and our goal is to help them realize their fullest potential, not only as performers but also as creative and entrepreneurial artists. We guide and educate them, helping them grow as young adults, finding their way in the world, giving them opportunities to experience different points of view and ways of seeing the life around them. They learn how to be engaged citizens of the world in order to make the world a better place through the arts. I think you will agree that these young creatives and dance artists are inspiring, passionate, and deeply committed to what they love to do—dance.
—Tommy Neblett, Dean of Dance
Program
Attaboy
Choreography: Nora Augenstein
Assistant to the Choreographer: Emma Jane Zaher
Music: Goat Rodeo (“Attaboy”)
Costume Design: Nora Augenstein
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Rehearsal Assistance: Emma Jane Zaher
Performers: Campbell Colimore, Emma Daniels, Kamryn Deangelis, Natalie Marlowe, Abby Osterink, Rachel Pizzurro
Choreographer’s Note: As a choreographer, my foremost goal is to create an environment that encourages the formation of meaningful relationships and community. I actively support collaboration in the creative process and engage the dancers’ artistic use of imagination and intentional play. These priorities build a connection between performers that is palpable from the audience and deepens the meaning of all movement. I aim to capture the freedom we feel when our sense of community is strong. Using this concept, this dance is a love letter to my childhood in West Virginia, in which I was most free.
Assistant to the Choreographer: Emma Jane Zaher
Music: Goat Rodeo (“Attaboy”)
Costume Design: Nora Augenstein
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Rehearsal Assistance: Emma Jane Zaher
Performers: Campbell Colimore, Emma Daniels, Kamryn Deangelis, Natalie Marlowe, Abby Osterink, Rachel Pizzurro
Choreographer’s Note: As a choreographer, my foremost goal is to create an environment that encourages the formation of meaningful relationships and community. I actively support collaboration in the creative process and engage the dancers’ artistic use of imagination and intentional play. These priorities build a connection between performers that is palpable from the audience and deepens the meaning of all movement. I aim to capture the freedom we feel when our sense of community is strong. Using this concept, this dance is a love letter to my childhood in West Virginia, in which I was most free.
Void
Choreography: Eliana Labreche
Music: Mort Garson (“Dead Tree”); K.U.K.L. (“The Spire”)
Costume Design: Eliana Labreche
Dancers: Dante Dhar, Grayson Gizdic, Audrey McNinch, Eliana LaBreche
Choreographer’s Note: My art is an outpouring of vulnerability, catharsis, devotion, and existence. Born through my selfhood in time, to be seen and, more importantly, felt. Muses take form anywhere and everywhere. Movement is the catalyst for truth and questioning. I create to connect to myself and the universe, being a human before I am a dancer.
Music: Mort Garson (“Dead Tree”); K.U.K.L. (“The Spire”)
Costume Design: Eliana Labreche
Dancers: Dante Dhar, Grayson Gizdic, Audrey McNinch, Eliana LaBreche
Choreographer’s Note: My art is an outpouring of vulnerability, catharsis, devotion, and existence. Born through my selfhood in time, to be seen and, more importantly, felt. Muses take form anywhere and everywhere. Movement is the catalyst for truth and questioning. I create to connect to myself and the universe, being a human before I am a dancer.
Utopia
Choreography: Yadi Zhang
Music: Yadi Zhang, Heting Yao, Xinyi Long (“Utopia: Discover”); Lucrecia Dalt featuring Camille Mandoki (“Caes”); Jiaji Gao, Yifei Ren, Yadi Zhang (“Utopia: Discover”)
Costume Design: Yadi Zhang
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Elvis Pietrzak, Brooke Zide, Demetra Mutz, Logan Monaco, Kylah Walker, Natalie Marlowe, Colette Walsh
Choreographer’s Note: As a contemporary dance artist, my work explores the emotional resonance within the human experience. I view emotions as both the pictures that shape our memories and an essential part of our shared existence.
Through movement, I seek to awaken deep responses in audiences—inviting them to feel, to understand, and to embody human emotions. Each of my works draws from individual stories, transforming into symbols that speak to collective humanity. By embodying desire, dreams, destruction, and vulnerability, I aim to reveal the universality of the human condition and connect us through the language of the body.
Music: Yadi Zhang, Heting Yao, Xinyi Long (“Utopia: Discover”); Lucrecia Dalt featuring Camille Mandoki (“Caes”); Jiaji Gao, Yifei Ren, Yadi Zhang (“Utopia: Discover”)
Costume Design: Yadi Zhang
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Elvis Pietrzak, Brooke Zide, Demetra Mutz, Logan Monaco, Kylah Walker, Natalie Marlowe, Colette Walsh
Choreographer’s Note: As a contemporary dance artist, my work explores the emotional resonance within the human experience. I view emotions as both the pictures that shape our memories and an essential part of our shared existence.
Through movement, I seek to awaken deep responses in audiences—inviting them to feel, to understand, and to embody human emotions. Each of my works draws from individual stories, transforming into symbols that speak to collective humanity. By embodying desire, dreams, destruction, and vulnerability, I aim to reveal the universality of the human condition and connect us through the language of the body.
Altar
Choreography: Emma Hourigan
Music: Original composition by Zack Thomas
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Costume Design: Emma Hourigan
Dancers: Nora Augenstein, Kevin Higgins, Eliana LaBreche, Aidan Robbins, Brianna Sullivan, Sarah Swoope, Emma Jane Zaher
Choreographer's Note: Dance is a place inside myself where I am free. Where things that are cold and inscrutable to me soften, opening up to be understood. Living as a woman, a life contorted by concepts, I want to escape the lens through which I look at myself. This is the catharsis of exertion, tearing away what is unnecessary in the moment. This feeling is one of living, of being awake in each second. Heat that moves the air around my skin, and myself within it. This sensation envelops me, something all-encompassing yet calm, something like myself except fully autonomous.
Music: Original composition by Zack Thomas
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Costume Design: Emma Hourigan
Dancers: Nora Augenstein, Kevin Higgins, Eliana LaBreche, Aidan Robbins, Brianna Sullivan, Sarah Swoope, Emma Jane Zaher
Choreographer's Note: Dance is a place inside myself where I am free. Where things that are cold and inscrutable to me soften, opening up to be understood. Living as a woman, a life contorted by concepts, I want to escape the lens through which I look at myself. This is the catharsis of exertion, tearing away what is unnecessary in the moment. This feeling is one of living, of being awake in each second. Heat that moves the air around my skin, and myself within it. This sensation envelops me, something all-encompassing yet calm, something like myself except fully autonomous.
Linea
Choreography: Ana Pérez Yudin
Music: Arcana (“The Nemesis”)
Costume Design: Ana Peréz Yudin
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Eliana Balzano, Halley Campo, Cheyenne Carrington-Greene, Nigel Clifford, Emily Crone, Karina Jimenez, Tess O’Riordian, Lauren Smith
Choreographer’s Note: I create work open to interpretation, with the intention to invigorate and uplift viewers. Dance has always been a physical escape for me. My work explores the limits and possibilities of movement on the dancers I collaborate with. A central question in my process is how can physicality, with directed focus, impact an audience the same way a film does? Finding inspiration in the music and allowing the dancers to express themselves solely through movement pushes the dancers, not just as actors but as the athletes they truly are.
Music: Arcana (“The Nemesis”)
Costume Design: Ana Peréz Yudin
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Eliana Balzano, Halley Campo, Cheyenne Carrington-Greene, Nigel Clifford, Emily Crone, Karina Jimenez, Tess O’Riordian, Lauren Smith
Choreographer’s Note: I create work open to interpretation, with the intention to invigorate and uplift viewers. Dance has always been a physical escape for me. My work explores the limits and possibilities of movement on the dancers I collaborate with. A central question in my process is how can physicality, with directed focus, impact an audience the same way a film does? Finding inspiration in the music and allowing the dancers to express themselves solely through movement pushes the dancers, not just as actors but as the athletes they truly are.
I Awoke from My Cyclical Existence to Find Myself Enlightened
Choreography: Aidan Robbins
Music: Alain Goraguer (“Strip Tease”); Alain Goraguer (“La femme”); the Mars Volta (“Vicarious Atonement”)
Lighting: Paul Marr
Costume Design: Aidan Robbins
Dancers: Emily Adie, Siena Hill, Emma Hourigan, Eliana LaBreche, Rebecca Leed
Choreographer’s Note: The only thing certain in life is change. In today’s world, we find ourselves stuck in repetition, going through the motions of the day—fighting between routine and habit vs. change, spontaneity, and growth. Change is as necessary as it is daunting. It is time to pull the sheets out from over our eyes and look to the uncomfortable. The cycle between monotony and rebirth is infinite; a concept so uniting and yet equally isolating. The dichotomy of these human experiences is the heart of all growth ... if you can push fear to the side for long enough to let it change you. Let’s wake up, get back in the driver's seat, and welcome the unknown in pursuit of the core of our being.
Music: Alain Goraguer (“Strip Tease”); Alain Goraguer (“La femme”); the Mars Volta (“Vicarious Atonement”)
Lighting: Paul Marr
Costume Design: Aidan Robbins
Dancers: Emily Adie, Siena Hill, Emma Hourigan, Eliana LaBreche, Rebecca Leed
Choreographer’s Note: The only thing certain in life is change. In today’s world, we find ourselves stuck in repetition, going through the motions of the day—fighting between routine and habit vs. change, spontaneity, and growth. Change is as necessary as it is daunting. It is time to pull the sheets out from over our eyes and look to the uncomfortable. The cycle between monotony and rebirth is infinite; a concept so uniting and yet equally isolating. The dichotomy of these human experiences is the heart of all growth ... if you can push fear to the side for long enough to let it change you. Let’s wake up, get back in the driver's seat, and welcome the unknown in pursuit of the core of our being.
Whir
Choreography: Eliana Balzano
Music: Marsen Jules Trio and Marsen Jules (“Éclipse” feat. Roger Döring); Celer (“(06.23.17) From the Doorway of the Beef Noodle Shop, Shoes on the Street in the Rain, Outside the Karate School”); Hildur Gunadóttir and Jóhann Jóhannsson (“Erupting Light”)
Costume Design: Eliana Balzano
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Kayenne Charles-Pierre, Nigel Clifford, Sophia Cobo, Cammie Coleman, Emily Crone, Lilly David, Karina Jimenez, Derek Lee, Ana Perez Yudin, Maddox Stott
Program Note: Worlds are envisioned through my work, choreographed to create an escape from the constant whirring. I work to make setting tangible for viewers and artists to explore and question within. My work is strongly based on the artists involved in the process and the unique, inimitable energy created within the space. I am drawn towards visual coordination, and exploring within the human body’s physical architecture to create it. Viewers can either focus on the fine details of the piece or loosely view the cause and effect of movement that takes place. To me, resonating with visual effects is comparable to accomplishing emotional effect. My main goal is clear: Escape. Escape for viewer and artist alike. I endeavor to create space for our own questions to blossom in the other … away from all the noise.
Music: Marsen Jules Trio and Marsen Jules (“Éclipse” feat. Roger Döring); Celer (“(06.23.17) From the Doorway of the Beef Noodle Shop, Shoes on the Street in the Rain, Outside the Karate School”); Hildur Gunadóttir and Jóhann Jóhannsson (“Erupting Light”)
Costume Design: Eliana Balzano
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Kayenne Charles-Pierre, Nigel Clifford, Sophia Cobo, Cammie Coleman, Emily Crone, Lilly David, Karina Jimenez, Derek Lee, Ana Perez Yudin, Maddox Stott
Program Note: Worlds are envisioned through my work, choreographed to create an escape from the constant whirring. I work to make setting tangible for viewers and artists to explore and question within. My work is strongly based on the artists involved in the process and the unique, inimitable energy created within the space. I am drawn towards visual coordination, and exploring within the human body’s physical architecture to create it. Viewers can either focus on the fine details of the piece or loosely view the cause and effect of movement that takes place. To me, resonating with visual effects is comparable to accomplishing emotional effect. My main goal is clear: Escape. Escape for viewer and artist alike. I endeavor to create space for our own questions to blossom in the other … away from all the noise.
Imago Hynorum
Choreography: Gabrielle Honoré
Assistant to the Choreographer: Emma Jane Zaher
Music: Traditional French carol arr. Mack Willberg (“Sing We Now of Christmas”); Ivo Antogini (“Come to Me”)
Costume Design: Gabrielle Honoré
Dancers: Nora Augenstein, Muna Blake, Michael Braun, Mackenzie Campbell, Emilia Cohen, Campbell Colimore, Emma Daniels, Caitlin Eswein, Kevin Higgins, Ashlee Holloway, Logan Monaco, Joelis Martinez Santiago, Chloé Wasser, Emma Jane Zaher, Rebecca Zigmond
Choreographer’s Note: I am an artist who finds great power in dance’s relationship to music. Melodies and rhythms are enticing, and the exigence behind why movement is created is simply to create the complex colors and patterns that occur in my mind when I am captured by what I hear.
With an upbringing in a musical household and life in the grand opera proscenium theater, I seek to pay homage and explore memories of my childhood that are very near and dear to my heart through gestural and purposeful movement. The power of grandeur with en masse movement I find particularly influential and commanding, allowing for the viewer to dig deeper into what is being heard, rather than settling with the main melody on top of powerful layers beneath it.
Assistant to the Choreographer: Emma Jane Zaher
Music: Traditional French carol arr. Mack Willberg (“Sing We Now of Christmas”); Ivo Antogini (“Come to Me”)
Costume Design: Gabrielle Honoré
Dancers: Nora Augenstein, Muna Blake, Michael Braun, Mackenzie Campbell, Emilia Cohen, Campbell Colimore, Emma Daniels, Caitlin Eswein, Kevin Higgins, Ashlee Holloway, Logan Monaco, Joelis Martinez Santiago, Chloé Wasser, Emma Jane Zaher, Rebecca Zigmond
Choreographer’s Note: I am an artist who finds great power in dance’s relationship to music. Melodies and rhythms are enticing, and the exigence behind why movement is created is simply to create the complex colors and patterns that occur in my mind when I am captured by what I hear.
With an upbringing in a musical household and life in the grand opera proscenium theater, I seek to pay homage and explore memories of my childhood that are very near and dear to my heart through gestural and purposeful movement. The power of grandeur with en masse movement I find particularly influential and commanding, allowing for the viewer to dig deeper into what is being heard, rather than settling with the main melody on top of powerful layers beneath it.
And Stretch One’s Eyes
Choreography: Esmé Stone
Music: Toulouse Low Trax (“Non Giudicare”); Mahalia Jackson (“Summertime/Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”)
Costume Design: Esmé Stone
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Halley Campo, Cheyenne Carrington-Greene, Kayenne Charles-Pierre, Emily Crone, Lilly David, Aidan Robbins, Chloé Wasser
Choreographer’s Note: To me, creation of movement is the vulnerability of both the mind and the body. Not only for the choreographer, but for the dancers who can be given an idea and then proceed to transform it with their own qualities. Bringing together a room with what can start as a singular, fleeting thought, that then is woven into a tapestry of feelings and experiences, and translated into movement. Seeing your ideas brought to life in a unique way, never quite danced the same, but also somehow entirely unified.
Music: Toulouse Low Trax (“Non Giudicare”); Mahalia Jackson (“Summertime/Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”)
Costume Design: Esmé Stone
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Halley Campo, Cheyenne Carrington-Greene, Kayenne Charles-Pierre, Emily Crone, Lilly David, Aidan Robbins, Chloé Wasser
Choreographer’s Note: To me, creation of movement is the vulnerability of both the mind and the body. Not only for the choreographer, but for the dancers who can be given an idea and then proceed to transform it with their own qualities. Bringing together a room with what can start as a singular, fleeting thought, that then is woven into a tapestry of feelings and experiences, and translated into movement. Seeing your ideas brought to life in a unique way, never quite danced the same, but also somehow entirely unified.
Vessel of Devotion
Choreography: Grace Chaney
Music: Floating Points (“Fast Forward”)
Costume Design: In collaboration with the dancers
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Kamryn Deangelis, Anna Keklak, Taylor Moxey, Morgan Thompson
Choreographer's Note: As a choreographer, I aim to create an experience for the dancers, the audience, and me to witness and utilize the relationship between movement and music. Dance and music are similar in the way that they are an art form that is used not only as a type of entertainment, they’re a feeling, an experience, a resource, and so much more. How many different ways can movement coincide with the music? And how can we as a choreographer and dancers, express a feeling to be experienced not only on stage but in the audience?
Through intense listening and noting of my chosen music, I like to create dance that touches on as many sounds I hear in the music as possible, while also coinciding with the importance of dance for people, or a community. This idea comes from the scientific fact that dance provides physiological and psychological benefits to healthy and medically compromised populations; something I strive for the audience to feel just by watching. As an artist, I am interested in exploring these broad ideas in movement as well as experimenting with music, and seeing how I can combine the two.
Music: Floating Points (“Fast Forward”)
Costume Design: In collaboration with the dancers
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Performers: Kamryn Deangelis, Anna Keklak, Taylor Moxey, Morgan Thompson
Choreographer's Note: As a choreographer, I aim to create an experience for the dancers, the audience, and me to witness and utilize the relationship between movement and music. Dance and music are similar in the way that they are an art form that is used not only as a type of entertainment, they’re a feeling, an experience, a resource, and so much more. How many different ways can movement coincide with the music? And how can we as a choreographer and dancers, express a feeling to be experienced not only on stage but in the audience?
Through intense listening and noting of my chosen music, I like to create dance that touches on as many sounds I hear in the music as possible, while also coinciding with the importance of dance for people, or a community. This idea comes from the scientific fact that dance provides physiological and psychological benefits to healthy and medically compromised populations; something I strive for the audience to feel just by watching. As an artist, I am interested in exploring these broad ideas in movement as well as experimenting with music, and seeing how I can combine the two.
the Middle of it All / the End of it All
Choreography: Demetra Mutz in collaboration with the dancers
Music: Moses Sumney (“before you go”), Ibrahim Maalouf (“Introduction”), Erik Truffaz and Murcof (“The Eye”)
Music Editor: Derek Lee
Composition Advising: Angela Hamlin
Performers: Cammie Coleman, Derek Lee, Brianna Sullivan
Choreographer’s Note: My search as a creator of dance is to discover how to use bodies in space to communicate my own curiosities. Dance, to me, is a universal language, and I find something fascinating about how written or spoken language can translate into movement. I value improvisation when generating material because the body inherently holds the knowledge to produce movement infused with depth and emotion. As someone driven by collaboration, I appreciate the intelligence of the creatives in the room with me and utilize their unique physicality and imagination to influence my own compositional expression. The only constant in my artistic voice is change.
Music: Moses Sumney (“before you go”), Ibrahim Maalouf (“Introduction”), Erik Truffaz and Murcof (“The Eye”)
Music Editor: Derek Lee
Composition Advising: Angela Hamlin
Performers: Cammie Coleman, Derek Lee, Brianna Sullivan
Choreographer’s Note: My search as a creator of dance is to discover how to use bodies in space to communicate my own curiosities. Dance, to me, is a universal language, and I find something fascinating about how written or spoken language can translate into movement. I value improvisation when generating material because the body inherently holds the knowledge to produce movement infused with depth and emotion. As someone driven by collaboration, I appreciate the intelligence of the creatives in the room with me and utilize their unique physicality and imagination to influence my own compositional expression. The only constant in my artistic voice is change.
L I N G E R.
Choreography: Kylah Walker
Music: Michael Wall (“Maquina de Humo”)
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Costume Design: Kylah Walker
Dancers: Muna Blake, Grace Chaney, Campbell Colimore, Amelia Otte, Ella Shoreder, Rachel Pizzurro
Choreographer’s Note: I create from the spaces between hesitation and release, where the body hovers, questions, and surrenders to motion. Gestures shift in texture, swelling and receding, carrying both delicacy and sudden force. I explore how small actions can grow into expansive phrases, how tension and release reveal the body’s complexity, and how collaborating with other dancers and the space allows presence, vulnerability, and resonance to extend beyond the individual.
Movement circulates between quiet intimacy and sudden eruption, folding back into itself and stretching forward, tracing cycles of reflection, instinct, and shared energy. In performance, these thresholds, the pauses, the hesitations, the bursts, become a landscape in which bodies, gestures, and attention meet and transform together.
Music: Michael Wall (“Maquina de Humo”)
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Costume Design: Kylah Walker
Dancers: Muna Blake, Grace Chaney, Campbell Colimore, Amelia Otte, Ella Shoreder, Rachel Pizzurro
Choreographer’s Note: I create from the spaces between hesitation and release, where the body hovers, questions, and surrenders to motion. Gestures shift in texture, swelling and receding, carrying both delicacy and sudden force. I explore how small actions can grow into expansive phrases, how tension and release reveal the body’s complexity, and how collaborating with other dancers and the space allows presence, vulnerability, and resonance to extend beyond the individual.
Movement circulates between quiet intimacy and sudden eruption, folding back into itself and stretching forward, tracing cycles of reflection, instinct, and shared energy. In performance, these thresholds, the pauses, the hesitations, the bursts, become a landscape in which bodies, gestures, and attention meet and transform together.
EcoAnxiety
Choreography: Michael Braun
Assistant to the Choreographer: Gabrielle Honoré
Music: Kensuke Ushio (“the door”); forworn (“i was born to be alone”); ASKL hon and SoulFusi (“Horizonte de Diamante (Super Slowed)”)
Lighting: Paul Marr
Costume Design: In collaboration with the dancers
Dancers: Cammie Coleman and Angela Hamlin
Assistant to the Choreographer: Gabrielle Honoré
Music: Kensuke Ushio (“the door”); forworn (“i was born to be alone”); ASKL hon and SoulFusi (“Horizonte de Diamante (Super Slowed)”)
Lighting: Paul Marr
Costume Design: In collaboration with the dancers
Dancers: Cammie Coleman and Angela Hamlin
Choreographer’s Note: I’m curious. Everything I do centers around that curiosity. I have to explore. I have to experience. I have to wrap my head around things. I have to respond to it, and dance has become my lens to do that through.
Nature often appears in the forefront of my thoughts. It’s an integral part of my life and views that’ll never wane. One of the biggest threats to our natural world is the fear that we can do nothing about the climate crisis—nothing to change the outcome and help save our planet. That notion of fighting for something, in the face of helplessness, is what drew me to create this piece.
exhausted
Choreography: Nigel Clifford
Music: Vladislav Delay (“Avanne”); barcode | noun (“Pocket Orchestra”); Clark (“Exhausted”)
Costume Design: Nigel Clifford in collaboration with the dancers
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Dancers: Eliana Balzano, Kayenne Charles-Pierre, Sophia Cobo, Lily David, Grayson Gizdic, Ava Gregg, Karina Jimenez, Derek Lee, Natalie Marlowe, Demetris Michaelides, Logan Monaco, Ana Perez Yudin
Choreographer’s Note: In my dance world, every element is interconnected; nothing exists in isolation. I treat each aspect with equal importance to create balance between movement, creation, and the space they inhabit. This approach allows me to transform abstract feelings into tangible experiences, inviting others to connect and explore thoughts and emotions they may not have previously recognized.
Dance is a living, breathing conversation between body, sound, emotion, and space. Throughnthis life, I aim to touch something universal and human that resonates beyond words.
Music: Vladislav Delay (“Avanne”); barcode | noun (“Pocket Orchestra”); Clark (“Exhausted”)
Costume Design: Nigel Clifford in collaboration with the dancers
Lighting Design: Paul Marr
Dancers: Eliana Balzano, Kayenne Charles-Pierre, Sophia Cobo, Lily David, Grayson Gizdic, Ava Gregg, Karina Jimenez, Derek Lee, Natalie Marlowe, Demetris Michaelides, Logan Monaco, Ana Perez Yudin
Choreographer’s Note: In my dance world, every element is interconnected; nothing exists in isolation. I treat each aspect with equal importance to create balance between movement, creation, and the space they inhabit. This approach allows me to transform abstract feelings into tangible experiences, inviting others to connect and explore thoughts and emotions they may not have previously recognized.
Dance is a living, breathing conversation between body, sound, emotion, and space. Throughnthis life, I aim to touch something universal and human that resonates beyond words.
Yearning Out Loud
Choreography: Brianna Sullivan
Music: The Beatles (“I Want You (She’s so Heavy)”
Costume Design: Brianna Sullivan
Lighting: Paul Marr
Dancers: Cheyenne Carrington-Greene, Audrey Curdo (Saturday/Sunday evening), Angelina Curtin, Angela Hamlin, Becca Leeds, Demetra Mutz, Electra Nearey, Sayler Nguyen, Amelia Otte, Esmé Stone (Saturday matinee), Mckinley Tolliver, Kylah Walker, Chloé Wasser, Brooke Zide
Choreographer’s Note: I explore, discover, and share the experience—creating to provoke feelings and invoke sensations. Like bones swimming in our granting flesh, let’s groove to the beat, wiggle for yummy food, and squirm and unfurl to rejuvenate. There is no answer; it evolves.
Music: The Beatles (“I Want You (She’s so Heavy)”
Costume Design: Brianna Sullivan
Lighting: Paul Marr
Dancers: Cheyenne Carrington-Greene, Audrey Curdo (Saturday/Sunday evening), Angelina Curtin, Angela Hamlin, Becca Leeds, Demetra Mutz, Electra Nearey, Sayler Nguyen, Amelia Otte, Esmé Stone (Saturday matinee), Mckinley Tolliver, Kylah Walker, Chloé Wasser, Brooke Zide
Choreographer’s Note: I explore, discover, and share the experience—creating to provoke feelings and invoke sensations. Like bones swimming in our granting flesh, let’s groove to the beat, wiggle for yummy food, and squirm and unfurl to rejuvenate. There is no answer; it evolves.
Artist Bio
Diane Arvanites, producer and senior choreographer artistic director, teaches core curriculum modern partnering, composition, and somatic techniques. She is an associate professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, on faculty since 1994. She is a body activist, a movement educator, and a creative artist. Honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Boston Conservatory in 2002, Arvanites has had an extensive history as an award-winning choreographer, educator, and the co–artistic director of Prometheus Dance with Tommy Neblett. Arvanites received her BFA from the Boston Conservatory in 1980.
Production Credits
PRODUCTION STAFF:
Director of Performance Services – Hanna Oravec
Assistant Director of Production – Rebecca Donald
Assistant Director of Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Stage Manager – Joel Butler
Assistant Stage Manager – Emily Pascucci
Mainstage Technical Director – Taylor Kaufman
Assistant Technical Director – Caleb D. Harris
Costume Shop Manager – Alison Pugh
Wardrobe Manager – Natasha Newcomb
Costume Production Assistant – Jackie Olivia
Stock Manager/Draper/Stitcher – Kathy Scott
Drapers/Stitchers – Sam Martin, Evan Petrow
Wardrobe Assistant – Lindsey Weaver
Lighting Supervisor – Jacob Inman
Production Electrician – Nate Morrissey
A1/Sound Engineer – Maddy Poston, Andrei Radu
Properties Manager – Hannah Spangler
Performance Technology Technicians – Goran Daskalov, Sara Pagiaro
Senior Ticket Operations and Patron Services Manager – Kelley Brennan
STUDENT PRODUCTION STAFF:
Student Assistant Stage Manager – Maisie Doerr Student Crew – Cecilia Lihn, Martin Florez- Saavedra, Ky Davis, Justin Lowenhar, Alana Smith
Director of Performance Services – Hanna Oravec
Assistant Director of Production – Rebecca Donald
Assistant Director of Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Stage Manager – Joel Butler
Assistant Stage Manager – Emily Pascucci
Mainstage Technical Director – Taylor Kaufman
Assistant Technical Director – Caleb D. Harris
Costume Shop Manager – Alison Pugh
Wardrobe Manager – Natasha Newcomb
Costume Production Assistant – Jackie Olivia
Stock Manager/Draper/Stitcher – Kathy Scott
Drapers/Stitchers – Sam Martin, Evan Petrow
Wardrobe Assistant – Lindsey Weaver
Lighting Supervisor – Jacob Inman
Production Electrician – Nate Morrissey
A1/Sound Engineer – Maddy Poston, Andrei Radu
Properties Manager – Hannah Spangler
Performance Technology Technicians – Goran Daskalov, Sara Pagiaro
Senior Ticket Operations and Patron Services Manager – Kelley Brennan
STUDENT PRODUCTION STAFF:
Student Assistant Stage Manager – Maisie Doerr Student Crew – Cecilia Lihn, Martin Florez- Saavedra, Ky Davis, Justin Lowenhar, Alana Smith
Special Thanks
To the entire production crew who make our shows on the main stage safe, professional, artistically cohesive, and possible. To the staff and my colleagues in the Dance Division, each day I am grateful for the environment of support, friendship, and stimulation. To the students who support their choreographers and each other throughout this process. Finally, to all of the choreographers who share their thoughts, concerns, and vulnerabilities through these works. We see you beautifully. Thank you.
Boston Conservatory thanks audience members for viewing this program information online. This paperless program saved 600 sheets of paper, 63 gallons of water, and 54 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.
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