The Outlet Dance Project provides a performance opportunity for emerging women choreographers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. The Outlet is committed to supporting a variety of traditional and nontraditional dance forms and venues. Through performances and educational outreach programs we are inspiring the Central New Jersey community and enriching the lives of young people and adults through dance.
Jamuna Dasi
artistic director
Performer, Choreographer and teacher, hails all the way from Berkeley, CA. She began her dance training at East Bay Dance Center, Oakland Ballet and Berkeley High School. She has received a certificate in Dance Performance from The School of The Hartford Ballet and BFA in Dance from Florida State University.
Ms. Dasi has performed with Pennsylvania Dance Theatre, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Theatre, Acrodance Theatre, Opera Festival of New Jersey, New Jersey Opera Theatre and has danced five seasons with The Opera Company of Philadelphia.
Additionally she has performed professionally in works by Robert Boross, Ze’Eva Cohen, Jose Limon, Joanna Mendleshaw, Claire Porter, Ronn Pratt, Martial Romain, Mathew Neenan and Kathy Young.
Her choreography credits include ballets for Don Giovanni, L’enfant et les Sortileges, The Marriage of Figaro and Cheruban with New Jersey Opera Theatre.
Jamuna is the creator and director of The Outlet Dance Project which provides a performance opportunity for emerging women choreographers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York in central New Jersey. She has also taught in public schools and private studios in California, Florida, Central Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. She currently teaches dance at RWJ Hamilton Center for Health & Wellness in Hamilton, NJ and The Dance Corner Inc. in West Windsor, NJ.
Previous Outlet Choreographers: The Outlet 2005
Mary Barton
Susan Bienczycka
Jennifer Bourgeault
Jamuna Dasi
Shannon Dooling
S. Jean Lee
Kristin McClintock-LeBeau
Kelly Sortino
Theresa StrayerThe Outlet Dance Project 2005
October 1st, 8pm
Rider Universities, Yvonne Theatre
Lawrenceville, NJ
The Outlet 2006 Choreographers
Mary Barton
Tanya Calamoneri
Keila Cordova
Donna Scro Gentile
Maureen Glennon
Kathie Kececi
Lisa Marten
Kimberley Pinto
Kelly Ann Sloan
Alie Vidich and Nicole MahnckeThe Outlet is available for:
- Performances
- Residencies of varying lengths and individual specifications
- Master Classes and workshops
- Improvisation/creative movement
- Repertory classes
- Choreography classes
- Dance classes for children and adults
Current Rress Relase:
Press Release
Date: September 19, 2006
Contact Person: Lynn DeClemente
Event Coordinator/Assistant to the Registrar
609.586.0616
ldeclemente@groundsforsculpture.org
The Outlet Dance Project at Grounds For SculptureHamilton, NJ- Join Grounds For Sculpture on October 8, 2006 for a showcase for emerging female choreographers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. Performance will incorporate sculptural elements in the park with original choreographed dances. Each dance segment will take place in different locations throughout the park and in the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts starting at 2pm. Tickets: $12 at the door includes admission to the park and museum buildings; Grounds For Sculpture Members are free.
Performances in the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts building will include Donna Scro Gentile’s duet, Namaste; a large group performance, Are We Happy or What? by Kathie Kececi; a piece about aloneness by Lisa Marten; Kimberley Pinto’s duet, Be Still, an exploration of the division of self and Kelly Ann Sloan’s 7 minute duet, The Rest is Secret.
Performance Locations throughout the park include The Nine Muses, the Red Maple Alley, Garden State, and the grass filled field adjacent the Museum Building. Original choreographed pieces by Mary Barton, Tanya Calamoneri, Keila Cordova, Alie Vidich, Nicole Mahncke and a collaborative project by Maureen Glennon and Andrea Kramer titled Frugal is such an ugly word.
Mary Barton is a Soloist and Principle dancer with the Washington Ballet, Oldenburg Staat, Ballet Joffrey Ballet, Cleveland Ballet and the American Repertory Ballet as well as many guest appearances around the United States. Tanya Calamoneri, received her MA from NYU's Gallatin School, for which she wrote a curriculum to teach Butoh dance in American higher education, and helped found Studio 111 in Brooklyn. In New York, she is a primary collaborator in Fifth Floor and is a co-director at the arts service organization, The Field. Keila Cordova is a choreographer, performer and writer based in both New York City and Philadelphia. She began her dance training in California with Stefani Berger in San Francisco and at UC, Berkeley. Alie Vidich, Alie Vidich was born in New York, NY and raised primarily in North Plainfield and Plainfield, NJ. Most recently, she has presented her work at The Brick Theater (Brooklyn, NY), The Studio Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) and Bearnstow (Mt. Vernon, ME). She holds a BFA in Dance from Rutgers University. Nicole Kristina Mahncke recently graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts with a BFA in dance this past May. She has performed in the works of Jeanine Durning, John Evans, Randy James, Cleo Mack and many emerging choreographersand a collaborative project by Maureen Glennon is a dancer, choreographer and dance educator. Glennon’s choreography has been presented extensively throughout the tri-state area including The Field, Soundance at the Stable, The Cathedral Arts Festival, The Hatch Series at Jennifer Muller/The Works Studio, WaxWorks at University Settlement House and Great Events at Montclair State University. Andrea Kramer graduated in 1991 from Montclair State University with a BFA in Dance. She has performed with such companies as Melanie Stewart Dance, Inner City Dance Ensemble, Wendy Perron at Jacob’s Pillow, The Long Island Ballet, Princeton Ballet and New Jersey Dance Theatre Guild.
The Outlet Dance Project provides a performance opportunity for emerging women choreographers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. The Outlet is committed to supporting a variety of traditional and nontraditional dance forms and venues. Through performances and educational outreach programs we are inspiring the Central New Jersey community and enriching the lives of young people and adults through dance. For additional information please visit www.TheOutletDanceProject.com.
Grounds For Sculpture, is a public non-profit organization consisting of a 35-acre sculpture park, two indoor museums and Rat’s Restaurant, located on the site of the former New Jersey State Fairgrounds. Grounds For Sculpture is located at 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, NJ 08619. For additional information on programs and events visit our Web site at www.groundsforsculpture.org.
Lynn DeClemente
Events Coordinator/Assistant to the RegistrarGrounds For Sculpture
18 Fairgrounds Road
Hamilton NJ 08619
609.586.0616
www.groundsforsculpture.org
Please read below, a review of the 2005 performance from the Trenton Times, October 15, 2005
The Outlet is a showcase with passion and promise
Saturday, October 15, 2005
By ANNE LEVIN
Staff Writer
The Trenton Times
Opportunities for fledgling choreographers to show their work don't come up often, especially in locations other than large cities and cultural centers. But a new showcase called The Outlet, which debuted at Rider University's Yvonne Theater in Lawrence on Oct. 1, gave a group of emerging female choreographers from the region a chance to show some of their works.
Solos and ensemble works dominated this concert, which also included a curious bit of filmmaking. Most of the dancing was of high quality. And more than a few of the 10 pieces shown were impressive in their professionalism.
The concert began on a high note with Kelly Sortino's "Family Portrait," a quartet about family dynamics. To music by Nelly Furtado, Sortino has constructed a tight little drama that begins with a series of camera poses, struck to the sound of a loud shutter.
After solemnly crossing themselves at the dinner table and beginning to eat, Mom, Dad and the kids start to argue. A brawl develops before the family returns, tempers intact, to the table. Princeton University students Silas Riener, Margaret Furher, Trisha Snyder and Zach McKinney, all accomplished dancers, put forth this slice of life with conviction.
A stilted kick was a recurring motif in "Control . . .," Susan Bienczycka's solo to music of Yann Tiersen. Bienczycka, who also danced the piece, knows how to vary steps and repeat certain themes without growing monotonous.
In another solo titled "Strong, Lost . . .," created and danced by Jean Lee to music of Ani DiFranco, the most effective moments were when Lee responded directly to the pulsating beat of the music. She began and ended the piece sitting, frustrated, in front of a computer screen.
The best solo was that of Mary Barton's "Minuet," to Beethoven's Opus 2 No. 1 "Menuetto." As one member of the audience was heard to say, this brief piece of magnificent dancing alone was worth the $20 price of admission.
Barton, a longstanding member of New Jersey's American Repertory Ballet, teaches at the Princeton Ballet School. At a stage of her career where many ballet dancers consider calling it quits, Barton has instead turned to dancing that is more about artistic maturity than demanding technique. Barton was exuberant and eloquent in this piece of intelligently constructed choreography, conveying as much with her facial expressions as with her gestures and leaps.
Jamuna Dasi is the central force behind The Outlet and her solo "Don't Cry," sung by Etta James, showed her to be a choreographer of considerable merit. Her full-bodied, lush style suited the music as she sank into deep knee-bends and stretched her supple back.
Another impressive solo, "Facade," was danced and choreographed by Kristin McClintock-LeBeau to music of Yann Tiersen. The solo explored different levels and timings as well as the roles of coquette, soldier and mother.
Dasi and her colleagues are planning additional "Outlet" choreography showcases in the future. Judging from the Oct. 1 performance, the program's future is worth pursuing.
home | calendar | inside the outlet | participate | gallery | links | contact
