#InTheLoop | Queens Theatre Streams New Performances By Female-Identifying Dancers
BY QEDC It's In Queens
The COVID pandemic has challenged dancers to find ways to connect with audiences without performance spaces, tours, and in-person classes.
Luckily, there’s technology…and Queens Theatre. The Flushing Meadows Corona Park-based arts organization is currently screening a film on seven emerging, female-identifying choreographers and female-led dance companies.
Turning In Place, which features original compositions staged for the camera, will run on Queens Theatre’s YouTube channel until April 9.
These young choreographers — Hannah Garner from 2nd Best Dance Company; Joy-Marie Thompson; Mackenzie King from Moonwater Dance Project; Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth from Dual Rivet Dance; Emilee Pratt from Spare Change Dance; and Emily Kessler from POGO Dance Projects — explore issues of race and gender while never forgetting the sheer joy and beauty of movement and the human form’s expressiveness.
All the performers have BFA degrees from SUNY Purchase, except Ainsworth, who graduated from The Juilliard School. Here’s more information on the talent.
Garner has worked with Doug Varone & Dancers, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, and Megan Williams Dance.
Thompson was a resident at The McKittrick Hotel in NYC before COVID. In 2018, he founded issadancelook, an Instagram/blog that archives the clothing styles of dancers from around the world.
King danced professionally in New York before moving to Chicago, where she founded Moonwater Dance Project. In 2019, she co-founded Take Up Space, a dance festival celebrating female artists.
Smith is a member of Vim Vigor, ZviDance, and Sleep No More NYC. She studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and London Contemporary Dance School.
Ainsworth is with ZviDance and The Bang Group. She’s also Executive Director of Arts On Site NYC, which she co-founded.
Pratt has trained in such styles as Classical Ballet, Contemporary, Cunningham, Limon, Graham, Improv, and Composition. In 2019, the entrepreneur also founded the Queens-based Spare/Change Dance Company.
Kessler is a member of Bryce Dance Company who also works with Debbie Mausner and appears as a guest artist with A-Y/Dancers. She has completed choreographic residencies at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, Neuberger Museum of Art, and Peaceable Barn.
Image: Queens Theatre