Your #givingtuesday donations will support...

Our goal is $2000

We are raising money for our participation in the National Water Dance, a community performance and activism project that brings attention to the fragility of our waters.

National Water Dance is a Nationwide simultaneous dance event that will happen on

April 18, 2020 at 4pm est

Though nationwide, ECDC will organize a New Haven performance for non-movers and movers alike. All are welcome to participate. The project will be directed by Kellie Ann Lynch and Nikki Lee. Call for participants will happen in January.

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We BELIEVE dance has the power to inspire personal growth and social change; We BELIEVE in dance as a catalyst for building community and sharing experience; We BELIEVE dance teaches us values about life and being human; and We BELIEVE dance has the power to challenge the way we see; and We BELIEVE dance is for EVERYONE.

DONATE HERE

Community Performance Projects 2019

Trans Body: An Exploration of embodied history and corporeality through dance

Trans Body

An exploration of embodied history and corporeality through dance

Elm City Dance Collective and the New Haven Pride Center will partner on a month-long process workshop with a community of Trans dancers and non-dancers a like to explore meaning, making and movement within the context of transgender identity, history and corporeality.

The project asks, how do we embody and perform our own history? How do we tell stories about ourselves through movement? How can we express trans identity through dance?

The MARCH 2019 project participants will showcased their work, a movement piece, on Saturday, March 30th at 2:00pm. FREE — at United Church on the Green Parish House at 323 Temple Street, New Haven.

WANT TO PARTICIPATE THIS FALL?
We are looking for 10-15 Trans folx individuals to participate in the creation of the work and perform. Our next Trans Body project will be in FALL 2019. Please contact elmcitydance@gmail.com for more details.

The March 2019 project partnered with the Nasty Women Connecticut's exhibition Complicit: Erasure of the Body at Yale Divinity School.

New Haven Pride Center Project SPONSORS: Arts Council & City of New Haven, Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism

*Photo above by Joel Callaway

Art in Action

Raising awareness through dance

National Water Dance

ECDC’s Artistic Director, Kellie Ann Lynch, will serve as the Northeast Ambassador for the National Water Dance for 2020. The project has already begun…

National Water Dance is an artist-driven collective of dancers and educators confronting critical water issues facing the United States. Stretching from New York to Hawaii and from Alaska to Puerto Rico we create simultaneous, site-specific dance performances with movers of all ages and experience. Created and directed by Dale Andree, National Water Dance believes that our environment is the most pressing issue of this generation and as dancers we are using our bodies to create a community that reaches out for action. Conceived and directed by Kellie Ann Lynch in collaboration with the dancers. More information HERE

WANT TO PARTICIPATE? Contact us at elmcitydance@gmail.com

PRESS — ECDC’S NATIONAL WATER DANCE 2018 | PRESS HERE

*Photo above by Daniel Eugene

Featured Dancers | Lindsey, Kellie, Tara

Lindsey Bauer

Lindsey Bauer (Dancer, Programming Director, Co-founder, Graphic Designer) is a dance artist, teacher and choreographer. As Programming Director, Lindsey has been able to implement partnerships with community organizations providing after school movement experiences for children in the public schools and at the Eli Whitney Museum’s summer program. Her dance work has been presented in CT, MD and AZ. In addition to ECDC artists, Lindsey has worked with Olushola Cole, Adejoke Tubiyele, Rachel Bernsen, A. Beck and Nicole Manus. Lindsey teaches dance full time at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, mentors the seniors in their capstone projects and advises the National Honor Society for the Dance Arts Chapter.  She has a B.F.A from Towson University and an M.F.A. from Arizona State University.  Lindsey loves experiencing dance in new ways and witnessing that experience in others. She is grateful for each day that she spends moving with ECDC and thanks everyone that makes this possible.
 

"The making of If You Knew You Then has been an incredible experience filled with rich story telling, playful movement research and curiosity. Though the work is not narrative, IYKYT has a very clear dialect that grew out of the unfolding of each of our stories. It feels like we (the dancers) are not only revealing ourselves but our company’s language for the first time. In rehearsal I often think, “we are suppose to be making work like this” – work that weaves together all of our experiences to make a complicated and enchanting dance quilt."

Kellie Ann Lynch

Kellie Ann Lynch (choreographer) is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Elm City Dance Collective. Since 2008, she has been making dances, performing and teaching for ECDC. In addition to her work with ECDC, she has also been performing and creating with Adele Myers and Dancers since 2008. She has had the great privilege of working with Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc for a number of years; and is currently working with Kate Weare Company in NYC. Other recent artists Kellie has worked with include Saar Harari and Lee Sher, Annie Kloppenberg, and Nicole Stanton. Kellie’s choreography has been commissioned, produced and performed throughout the Northeast including at Bates Dance Festival as an Emerging Choreographer. As a Guest Artist, she has taught at several colleges and universities in New England. Kellie holds a BA in Dance from Rhode Island College and a MFA in Dance from Smith College. When she isn’t dancing, Kellie can be found teaching Pilates at the movement oasis, Aldrich Pilates, in downtown New Haven.
 

"Focused, warm, eye-contact, memory. These words describe a few sensations when I'm dancing inside this work. It wasn't always this way. I came into this process to cover someone's role, so the movements were not my own. It was like being in someone else's shoes and having to wear them a little while before they begin to form to your feet."

Tara Lee Burns

Tara Lee Burns (dancer) moved to New Haven, CT after living and dancing in NYC for seven years. She is honored to have recently started working with Elm City Dance Collective’s generous and exquisite performers and creators. Tara also has been performing, teaching and creating with Adele Myers and Dancers since 2006 and has performed throughout the US and Europe with various choreographers including Alexandra Beller, Kelly Drummond Cawthon and Marjani Forté. Mrs. Burns has taught at Jacob’s Pillow, Connecticut College and the formerly known Dance New Amsterdam in NYC to name a few and she currently teaches at Educational Center for the Arts in downtown New Haven. Her own work has been performed throughout Florida, Connecticut, NYC and in the UK. Tara received a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Florida (Summa Cum Laude) and an MA in Digital Performance from The University of Hull, UK.

Featured Dancers | Luis Antonio and Samantha Russell

Luis Antonio

Luis Antonio (Teaching Artist, Dancer) is a original dancer of Elm City Dance Collective, performing since 2008. Luis graduated from the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT in 2005, where he studied dance under Susan Matheke and studied ballet at New Haven Ballet under Noble Barker. Luis wrote, choreographed, and produced “Escapade: An Unusual Experience,” which premiered in October 2015 at Lyric Hall Theater in New Haven. Luis has performed with Nazorine Paglia (New Haven, CT); Full Force Dance Theater (Hartford, CT); and Salix Productions (Hartford, CT). Luis is a teacher and choreographer at Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School in New Haven, CT; New England Ballet School in Orange, CT; and Cross Drama at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, CT. Luis is excited to be dancing with stunningly talented dancers and is thankful for the opportunity to be able to do what he loves.
 

"My short spurt of time here in New Haven has seemed to be divinely linked with the IYKYT project. I came in right as it was beginning and will be moving away only 3 short months after it's premiere. It has been a most incredible honor to step into the shoes of an ECDC company member for one of their full length works. The way ECDC collaborates with each other and pours their lives and souls into their creative process is unlike anything I've been apart of before. This is the first full-length, evening work I've been a part of from start to finish and it has been an absolute joy ride! I have learned so much about myself (both past and present) through this process and have simply fallen in love with this company of magnificent creatures. I will miss each of them and this magical work most ardently!"

Samantha Russell

   Samantha (Sam), a dancer from North Carolina, has been with ECDC since June of 2014, right as the creative process for IYKYT was beginning. Although you won't see her physical self inside of the piece (due to maternity leave) know that many of her "isims" live inside of the work with her spirit embedded in its blueprint.
   
Sam attended Purchase College, SUNY, as a student of their dance conservatory program and completed her BA in Dance at Appalachian State University in 2011. She co-founded the non-profit, NC based, dance company Defero Dance Collective back in 2009 and still works with them from afar. Sam also works for Aldrich Pilates as a Pilates, GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® instructor. She will be moving back home to NC this June; a bittersweet return.
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Featured Dancers | Nikki and Alicia

ALICIA WHITE

Alicia White (Dancer) is a Rhode Island Native and graduate of Rhode Island College (’10) where she earned a BA in Dance and a minor in Theater. She has been dancing with ECDC since 2012. Alicia is Founder, Director and Choreographer of Metamorphosis Dance Company based in Pawtucket, RI. She has had the pleasure of performing in works by Eva Marie Pacheco (Providence Ballet Company Member ’10-’14), Wanda Strukus, Michael Bolger, Keith Terry, and Gus Solomons Jr. Alicia is also a teacher/choreographer for studios and arts education programs through out the state of Rhode Island. Her main drive is to share the spiritual, cultural and community building aspects of her art with everyone she encounters. Alicia is grateful for the opportunity to be apart of this production, for the love and support of her family and friends, and the ability to share these moments of joy with all of you.

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"Collaborating with the dancers and Kellie to create IYKYT has been a long and satisfying process rich in exploration and discovery. Our stories are beautifully wound and woven together, and yet there is plenty of space for witnesses of the work to see their own lives as a part of this environment we are creating. I hope the audience is moved by the work in a way that is like how I have been moved in helping to make it."    

NIKKI CARRARA 

Nikki Carrara (Dancer) is a dance artist and educator living in Pawtucket, RI. Her choreography has been presented in theaters, studios, art galleries, and fields, produced by Island Moving Company, Frazier Festival, Perishable Theatre, Providence College, and The Dance Complex. Outside of ECDC, she has performed extensively in the works of choreographers Nathan Andary, Daniel McCusker, and Melody Ruffin Ward. For the past 7 years Nikki has developed and implemented RI’s only public, non-charter dance education program in Pawtucket Public Schools. Her students have gone on to major in dance at the Jacqueline M. Walsh High School for the Arts and have stepped into the professional RI dance community as performers and teachers. She is currently working on a new multi-disciplinary work with Providence-based poet and playwright Christopher Johnson. This fall, Nikki will be an MFA candidate and teaching fellow at Smith College. Nikki is also a photographer, and loves to help things grow.

Photography by James Lastowski

We need YOU for our upcoming premiere!

ECDC Event Sponsorship:

"If You Knew You Then"

In March and April 2017, ECDC will present the premiere of "If You Knew You Then" at LYRIC HALL.

WHY SPONSOR OUR PREMIERE? "If You Knew You Then" is an original ECDC production featuring 6 dancers in new choreography. ECDC’s audience is hip, active, involved, and interconnected. Sponsorship will provide visibility for your organization with ECDC’s audience, supporters and community. ECDC is a fixture in the New Haven community, and we have long standing relationships with many small and large businesses in and around the city.

Sponsorship Levels

FRIEND: acknowledgment in program (480 programs will be printed), logo and acknowledgment on website, hyperlinked logo and acknowledgment in newsletter and on ECDC Facebook page: $100.

FOLLOWER: All “friend”-level sponsorship benefits plus full-color half-page ad in program (5” x 3.75”). 480 programs will be printed: $200.

COLLABORATOR: All “follower”-level sponsorship benefits plus full-color full-page ad in program (5” x 8”). Digital banner. 480 programs will be printed: $300.

*Logo Images for Program Due to elmcitydance@gmail.com by Tuesday, February 28th, 2017. Images should be at least 300dpi.

Sponsorship payment due February 28th, 2017 by paypal (www.elmcitydance.org), or by check to ECDC, c/o the Grove 760 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510.

INTERESTED? CONTACT LINDSEY BAUER --ELMCITYDANCE@GMAIL.COM

Happy New Year 2017!

ECDC's 2016

"If You Knew You Then" by Kellie Lynch was in weekly rehearsals in New Haven and at the Dragon’s Egg for three weekend residencies in Ledyard, Connecticut. The dancers continued to develop and generate material based on experiences from their high school and college years.
SAVE THE DATE -- WORLD PREMIERE -- MARCH 31, APRIL 1, 7, 8!!

In April 2016, ECDC and the CT Capoeira & Dance Center brought the after school program, Girls In Motion to the students at Betsy Ross Magnet School. The after school dance program was a month-long and incorporated Capoeira and Contemporary dance. The culmination of the project was a final showing to family and friends at the end of the month.

ECDC led a community engagement project, People in Motion in which participants danced in improvisation classes and a weekend long workshop. The experience culminated in a public performance in June 2016.

People in Motion participants. Photo credit: Jessy Griswold

Company members hosted a weekly master class series, “Meet the Company”, in May and June. Companies members Luis Antonio, Lindsey Bauer, Nikki Carrara, Kellie Lynch, Samantha Russell, and Alicia White shared their styles with our community, and we had a blast. 

We held 3 successful fundraisers: 1) The Great Give - it was our 3rd year participating and our most successful yet. We raised $6,141 out of our $8K spring goal in the Great Give; 2) Our Board of Directors hosted a Happy Hour at Barracuda Bistro & Bar. It was a social event, we engaged many new people who are now followers and friends of ECDC; 3) ECDC participated in #GivingTuesday, and we raised $3,070 out of our $5,000. Check out one of our Great Give THANK YOU videos below.

ECDC was commissioned to perform at DOT AIR: Experimental Music Festival in Pawtucket, RI; “Celebrate Our Fair Haven” for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas; and the Mayor’s Kickoff event for PRIDE New Haven. Check out our images on Facebook from DOT AIR (photos by James Lastowski) as well as images from New Haven Pride (photos by Chris Randall)

Photo of Kellie Lynch, Nikki Carrara and Luis Antonio. Photo credit: James Lastowski

Pride New Haven. Photo credit: Chris Randall

In August 2016, ECDC partnered with CT Capoeira & Dance Center to bring Amazon Adventure, a creative movement and capoeira program, to the Eli Whitney Museum Summer Program. The camp was designed for ages 8-12 years and involved mostly children who had never danced before. 

GAGA/DADA

SAVE THE DATE: Gaga/Dada

APRIL 2, 1pm Open Rehearsal | April 3, 2pm Performance

CLICK HERE FOR YALE DANCE THEATER PROCESS BLOG

Yale Dance Theater (YDT) and the Gallery have invited artists Saar Harari and Lee Sher to create a new choreographic work for YDT dancers and Elm City Dance Collective that incorporates Gaga, a movement language developed by choreographer Ohad Naharin. Gaga, which has become highly influential in international contemporary dance, is the focus of YDT’s spring semester project. On Saturday, April 2, YDT students have an open rehearsal within the exhibition Everything Is Dada. Then, on Sunday, April 3, they perform the new piece in the space, juxtaposing the 21st-century Gaga aesthetic with Dada works of art. Generously sponsored by the Lydia Winston Malbin Fund; cosponsored by Yale Dance Theater, Dance Studies Curriculum, and the Theater Studies Program. Open to: General Public

"The imagery in Gaga reminds me of the imagery used in Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais. It is so rich and descriptive that I can actually see the forces at work, changing the way that I move. Gaga asks me questions about my habits. I don’t have the answers yet, but I am exploring.” - Lindsey Bauer

"I’ve not had much exposure to Gaga in the past, but I have a lot of experience with improvisation and dance. For me, Gaga is bridging the gap between sensation based explorations and improvisation as a tool to make choices. It feels almost like a somatic practice by way of the language and imagery used, yet it asks you challenge your physical threshold; and it’s extremely rigorous, because Gaga asks you to explore movement pathways you didn’t realize your body was capable of finding. My body is feeling pushed, energized and sometimes exhausted. My whole self is deeply appreciative of the emphasis on organs, tissue, bones and deep bodily sensations. For me, Gaga is bringing together two aspects of dance I sometimes feel like I live in." - Kellie Lynch

ECDC is looking for participants

OPEN PERFORMANCE PROJECT -
CALLING ALL MOVERS and NON MOVERS A LIKE
ECDC is launching a performance project called "People in Motion" that will take place this spring 2016. "People in Motion" is a performance project for adults who are interested in exploring 1) movement and performance; 2) art making; 3) embodying presence; 4) building confidence; 5) community and connection with others and much more. TO BE A PART OF OUR PERFORMANCE PROJECT contact Kellie at elmcitydance@gmail.com. 

PROJECT TIMELINE 2016:
Sunday, Feb 28, 10am-11:30am “People in Motion”: Recruit participants
*This is NOT the start of the project, but COME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED :)
Sunday, Mar 20, 10am-12pm “People in Motion” (project BEGINS)
Class #1: Community and skill building
Sunday, Apr 24, 10am-12pm “People in Motion”
Class #2: Making dances in the moment
Sunday, May 15, 10am-12pm "People in Motion"
Class #3: Making dances in the moment

June 4-5, 2016
*TENTATIVE DATES*, times TBD, likely late morning into early afternoon)
Saturday, June 4, 3-hour workshop: We will spend the day rehearsing improvisational scores (guidelines); they will learn how to make a dance in the moment as a community.
Sunday, June 5, 3-hour workshop: 2hrs will involve rehearsing with the participants to get them comfortable with making a group dance in the moment. The last hour will involve a 30-minute “People in Motion” improvisational dance in front of an audience *FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. ECDC will then perform a work in-progress, “If You Knew You Then”, which will demonstrate how making dances in the moment is a wonderful creative process and method of "setting" choreography. We will close out the day with a conversation.  Photo above by Cecilia Trebisacci 

People in Motion is supported by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven's Community Engagement initiative.

We'd like to thank the following TINY SHORTS sponsors

These wonderful businesses keep our city (and surrounding areas) interesting, and they support the arts! Thank you friends, in and around New Haven, for believing in the power of dance and supporting ECDC! We are forever grateful.

Get your TINY SHORTS tickets now. Seating is extremely limited.

TINY SHORTS

reimagines the Elm City Dance Festival for 2015.
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
The performance series will feature work by a range of artists from the Northeast region and seeks to celebrate the diversity and vitality of dance in adventurous, short bites. TINY SHORTS challenges it's audience, choreographers, and performers alike to reconsider the physical boundaries of dance, and invites them to indulge in rapid washes of eclectic performance.

November 6th: TINY SHORTS, 7pm and 9pm 

Audience members will convene in the beautifully restored Lyric Hall to enjoy drinks, light fare and a program of colorful dances made for a TINY space.
- - - -
November 7th: ECDC's Annual Gala, 6-11pm
Join us as we celebrate 7 years!
Proceeds will support ECDC's 2016 programming.

The evening will consist of....
6-7PM Cocktails
7-8PM (Group 1): TINY SHORTS, Lyric Hall Theater
7-8PM (Group 2): Hors D'Oeuvres and a special ECDC performance, Lyric Hall Gallery
9-10PM (Group 1): Hors D'Oeuvres and a special ECDC performance, Lyric Hall Gallery
9-10PM (Group 2):TINY SHORTS, Lyric Hall Theater
10-11PM Dessert

Dress Code - Fancy





 

FALL CLASSES BEGIN ON SEPTEMBER 8th

Click HERE for ECDC'S FALL CLASS schedule 2015 and descriptions

SAVE the DATE || AUG 23rd || ECDC Fundraiser

Sunday, Aug 23rd 5-7pm 
Barracuda Bistro & Bar
http://www.barracudanewhaven.com
1180 Chapel Street, New Haven

ECDC's Board of Directors would like to invite you to Barracuda Bistro & Bar for an ECDC Happy Hour Fundraiser! Join us for music, dancing, raffle prizes, and Happy Hour food and drink specials. Get to know ECDC, who we are and what we do. Help keep dance alive in New Haven by coming out and supporting the only professional, non-profit, contemporary dance company in New Haven. Bring a friend!

TICKETS: 
Pre-sale/online $10
Make your payment at 
http://www.elmcitydance.org/support/
Scroll to the bottom of page, click on the "DONATE" button. Make your $10 Donation through PayPal. Pre-sale ends on August 21st.

Door: $15

Spring/Summer classes begin MAY 17th!

Join us for our 6-week SPRING/SUMMER session! Click HERE for class descriptions, times and prices.

Master Class Series kicks off this Sunday, May 17th with Annie Sailer. 

NEW CLASS!! Beginning Contemporary, Tuesdays, 6-7:30pm taught by Luis Antonio.

Beginning Club Fusion, Thursdays, 6-7pm taught by Luis Antonio.

READY. SET. GIVE! May 5th @ 8am - May 6th @ 8pm

This 36-hour, on-line giving event is a perfect way to support your favorite local non-profit. MARK YOUR CALENDARS...The Great Give will BEGIN on May 5th at 8am and END on MAY 6TH at 8pm. Help ECDC reach it's fundraising goals for 2015. Giving is easy.  For more information visit: givegreater.org

*The Great Give is supported by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven