A Place for Us is a 6-minute piece set to Leonard Bernstein’s iconic Prologue music from West Side Story. The cast is made up of 6 female members from Spielberg’s latest adaptation West Side Story. We took this opportunity to do a “gender swap” of the prologue, allowing women to dance to this glorious music, embodying their unity, power, and togetherness. Directed and produced by Leigh-Ann Esty from Gorham, Maine. 

Craving the Mystic represents the active pursuit to consume all that is divine and sacred. The concept was created in 2023 as a response to the discovery of all the places in which the sacred can be accessed in an anxious, technological world. In the wake of isolation, Kelsie Steil started to have a sharp understanding of deeply meaningful interactions with fellow humans and nature. This piece portrays the hunger we have for these pure exchanges. Produced and choreographed by Kelsie Steil from Biddeford, ME, and filmed by Jennifer Hoffer from Portland, ME.

Inspired by Alex Katz’s five-panel painting “Pas de Deux”, Opting To Be Pulled explores the push, pulls, and patterns of the five posed couples featured in the Katz source material, interpreted and expanded upon by the choreography Annie Kloppenberg. Annie is the Associate Professor and Chair of Theater and Dance at Colby College

Initiation– In Love Solidarity is a choreographic narrative exploring the embodiment of the Middle Passage, and the resilience and evolving identities of women in the African diaspora. Filmed in historic sites in New England related to the transatlantic slave trade and emancipation; the imagery of the cowrie shell is present throughout, chosen as an emblem of the transformative identity of the Black female body. The work is an invitation to enter a dialogue on the journey of African diasporic people, as it connects to the whole of humanity, through reflection, reclamation, and regeneration, moving from trauma to resilience in love solidarity.

Initiation– In Love Solidarity is a commission of the Harvard University Committee on the Arts and was made possible with the support of the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University. Additional support from Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. Videography, graphics, video, and audio editing by Christina Belinsky of Andover, Maine. 

The Keeping of Bees is a short informative dance film that brings light to one of the effects human behavior and climate change have had on a very important species; bees. Bees are responsible for pollinating a very large portion of our vegetation and food. It is estimated that 1/3 of every bite of food is a product of bee pollination. Utilizing audio from NPR Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, we learn through Frank Aletru the many struggles beekeepers are facing today by combining dance, humor, and education. Concept, choreography, videography, graphics, video, and audio editing by Christina Belinsky of Andover, Maine.