Alli Ross

By Peter DiMuro and Audrey MacLean

The Boston dance scene – which includes Cambridge, too –  is peppered with some great opportunities to study with master teachers but also offers the chance to dance with up and coming dancers and dancemakers.

How to Begin:

Join Boston Dance Alliance, www.bostondancealliance.org, our local service organization which often lists opportunities, produces a yearly group audition (so you can get seen by 60 – 70 choreographers all at once!) and also is the most comprehensive single source for information on classes, events and performances. You can sign up for their weekly emails and updates. You can also become a Work Study at the local professional studios, most of which of programs where you can work in exchange for class or space. It's a great way to meet and network in a community new to you.

Where to Train: 

There is an amazing variety of modern techniques, contact improvisation, ballet and many other dance styles offered at the following studios:

Boston Ballet      www.bostonballet.org

Brookline Ballet      www.brooklineballet.com

The Dance Complex      www.dancecomplex.org

Deborah Mason School of Dance      www.deborahmasonschoolofdance.com

Green Street Studios      www.greenstreetstudios.org

Jeannette Neill Dance Studio      www.jndance.com

Jose Mateo Ballet Theater      www.ballettheatre.org/

Urbanity Dance      www.urbanitydance.org 

Moving Target, https://movingtargetboston.wordpress.com, is a series of professionally geared Master Classes in residence at Green Street Studios (seasonal throughout the year) offered on Saturdays, with regional and international teaching artists.

Likewise, Electric Fish, electricfishstudio.com, roves in usage of studios, but the focus is on offering a roster of internationally renown teaching artists, more often versed in somatic based techniques and/or improvisational practice.

Most of the area studios bring in a number of guest artists year round, with Boston's proximity to the 5 Colleges (UMass Amherst, Smith, etc.) and NYC – a help in easily and affordably bringing in guests. 

Lorraine Chapman and Peter DiMuro

Where to rehearse:

The Dance Complex and Green Street Studios tend to be popular locations for professional modern/contemporary companies to rehearse, hold auditions and teach classes due to the number of studios available – seven at The Dance Complex and three at Green Street – and relatively more economical fees.  There are a number of other smaller studios which will rent space as well; those interested can check the Boston Dance Alliance website to see where else space may be available.

How dancers get performing gigs:

Every September the Boston Dance Alliance has a huge open call audition. Almost every local dance company of every imaginable genre sends a representative. Both new-to-the-area and veteran dancers attend the audition which is made up of four different sections (ballet, modern/improv, jazz, hip hop). Typically from that audition companies/choreographers will hold call back auditions and hire from there. 

Throughout the year the Boston Dance Alliance posts upcoming auditions and calls for dancers.

Another great way to gain performance opportunities is the same as in many other cities: go to class and get to know people. Go to performances and get to know the work of area companies. If you are drawn to the movement or the choreography, this signals an authentic connection to the work. Seek out the opportunity, introduce yourself, be present in their classes and at their performances. (This means you go to a lot of classes and a lot of performances to find out what appeals to you!)  And a little leap of faith won't kill you: even if you're not immediately drawn to someone's work, there's mountains to learn from how someone processes movement in class or within a rehearsal.

Opportunities for emerging choreographers:

The Boston Center for the Arts has a number of residencies for dance artists throughout the year. http://www.bcaonline.org/

The Dance Complex has two choreography programs: one is a tools based course and the other  for more established dance makers: aMaSSiT (a Make it, Share it, Show it creative lab) and the I-ARE (Integrated Artists Residency Exchange). Descriptions of both can be found at: http://dancecomplex.org/aMaSSiT.htm and http://dancecomplex.org/I-ARE.htm

(The Dance Complex and BCA are establishing a relationship for their residency programs. Stay tuned to their websites for more information in the fall of 2015.)

Green Street Studios has a similar mentoring program called Green Works. Information about the program can be found on their website as well:

http://greenstreetstudios.org/wordpress/green-works/

Festivals:

• Winter Wonder and Summer Sizzle are annual mini festivals offered by The Dance Complex. 
• Massachusetts Dance Festival: http://massdancefestival.org/
• Dance for World Community, presented annually by Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, engages a mix of genres by design and does include contemporary and modern dance forms  www.danceforworldcommunity.org/
• Out on the Cape, there's The Cape  Dance Festival,  http://capedancefestival.com  and up north, the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, www.southernvermontdancefestival.com, – a car/bus trip but very do-able and great ways to study, create and get your work seen. Of the two, Southern Vermont features more regionally based artists as teaching artists and choreographers. 
• There are also a number of community/city/town sponsored festivals, many of which include dance stages for performance and instruction. Cambridge River Fest, Boston's Outside the Box, Harvard University's Arts Festival are a few – but there are many more. Honorariums are usually small, but huge audiences a pay off.

Venues where out of town artists perform and organizations that present them:

• Citi Wang Theatre, Citi Shubert Theatre (Celebrity Series of Boston) 
• Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA/World Crash Arts)
• Oberon (DanceNOW Boston)
• Cutler Majestic, Paramount, others (through Emerson Arts)
• The Dance Complex and Green Street Studios occasionally produce out of town artists but more often assist in regional (New England, New York, east coast) artists with production/presenting help.

Local Colleges and Universities:

There are a mix of types of academically related dance – from programs within the college or university, dance linked to drama/theatre programs and full blown dance departments in both liberal arts and conservatory settings. These include:

Boston College

Boston University

Brandeis University

Bridgewater State University

Endicott College

Harvard University

Emerson College

Boston Conservatory

Tufts University

Salem State University

Dean College

UMass Boston

Boston-based artists who have been featured on Life as a Modern Dancer:

Peter DiMuro

Alli Ross

Final thoughts:

Especially in economically challenging times, we seem to be a society that often imagines the grass is greener (or more danceable!) in other places. Boston, like other cities that are not NYC or a handful of designated "it" places for the field of dance, is maturing into a place where smart dance makers and dancers of any age are re-defining how they want to be "of" dance. Growing pains here? Sometimes. A place where opportunity for out of the box thinkers and creative types is possible, probable, and there for the taking? That's a yes.

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Note from Blog Director Jill Randall:

Only two Boston artists have been featured on the blog. If you would like to share your story and career path, please send an email of interest to randalldanceprojects@gmail.com.

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Peter DiMuro has woven a career as a choreographer, director, teacher, arts practitioner/engager and performer. His Performance Associates and his fifteen-year collaboration, including 5 years as Artistic Director, with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange laid the foundation for his current creative umbrella, Public Displays of Motion, a company that develops dance/theatre works and cultivates arts literacy, advocacy and engagement. Peter's work has been commissioned by leading presenters and universities, including The Kennedy Center/DC, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center/MD, Dance Place/DC, Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, AURAS Dance/Lithuania, The Boston Conservatory and Point Park University. He directed seminal community-inspired projects for Dance Exchange, and also toured his own works, many bridging the lgbt and AIDS-subject matter of his early dances as well as all-abilities inclusive work. Peter is the Executive Director of The Dance Complex. 

Audrey MacLean was born and raised in Bangor, Maine, where she trained and performed with the Robinson Ballet Company. She later went on to receive her BA in American Studies and Dance at Connecticut College where she had the privilege to study under and perform in work by Shani Collins-Achilles, Laura Dean, David Dorfman, Heidi Henderson, Adele Myers, David Parker (The Bang Group), Lisa Race, and Derrick Yanford. Since graduating, Audrey has had the pleasure of performing professionally in Boston, Providence, New York, and throughout New England. She is currently a member of New York-based griffindance, as well as Boston's Grant Jacoby & Dancers and Audra Carabetta & Dancers. She has also recently performed in work by Peter DiMuro, Michael Foley, Annie Kloppenberg, Betsy Miller, shovegentlydance, and Reject Dance Theater. Audrey's own work has been featured on CPTV's "Spotlight on The Arts," as part of Green Street Studios' New Works Program, and at a number of venues throughout New England.

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