Steffi Nossen Dance to Present Choreography Showcase on Sunday
The Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation will present “A Curated Collection of Dance Works,” a choreography showcase, this Sunday, Dec. 10 at 4 p.m. at Mamaroneck’s Emelin Theater.
Featuring the work of emerging and established choreographers selected by audition and commissioned by the foundation, it will include a post-performance conversation with the artists. This performance brings Westchester professional and pre-professional artists together with artists from the tristate region for an exciting afternoon of dance.
Featured on the program will be new work by Westchester choreographer Caitlin Trainor and area choreographers Natalia Sanchez, McKenzie Brewer, Lisa Peluso, Sarah Kramer and the partners Olivia Passarelli and Sophie Gray-Gaillard.
The Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation had awarded commissions to Kramer and choreographer Gabriella Mittenthal who are creating work on the Steffi Nossen Dance Company and Steffi Nossen Dance Theater Group that will be premiered.
AnnMaria Mazzini is working with the dance company to recreate a section of her “Lincoln Park (After Dark),” originally commissioned by the foundation in 2012.
About the Choreographers
Trainor, named by Dance Magazine as “One of 25 to Watch in 2016,” is a dancer, choreographer, entrepreneur and the artistic director of Trainor Dance. Driven by music and imagination, Trainor creates and performs highly physical, intensely human dances. She has made dance for site, game-based audience interactive work and extravagant group dances for the concert stage.
Trainor is also the founder of www.Dancio.com, which provides world class-on-demand dance classes and is in use in 175 countries. She lives in Rye with her husband and daughter.
Brewer’s choreography has debuted at Montclair State University’s DanceMakers Show 2022 and 2023, along with Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts Emerging Choreographer Show 2022.
Kramer’s work has premiered in several venues and festivals in and around New York, notably the 92nd Street Y’s Dance Up! Emerging Choreographers series and the KoDaFe International Dance Festival. Her most recent works, “Tylwyth Teg” and “Beginning” premiered in May at the Martha Graham Studio Theater in New York City.
Sanchez, born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, is a visual and movement artist who explores and plays with dance, photography and graphic design. She credits the Martha Graham School, Universidad de Monterrey, Comunidad de Danza Urbana and The Certificate Program at Peridance Center for her artistic education.
Peluso, choreographer for moe-tion dance company, has been commissioned to create work by several companies throughout New Jersey. Choreographic highlights include the International Dance Festival in Hawaii, the American College Dance Festival Gala concert in Virginia, Bryant Park, Merce Cunningham Theater and the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, UK.
Passarelli and Gray-Gaillard will be showing work for the second year at the showcase; they have collaborated since 2021 to form five two Dance Company. Most recently, five two was awarded the Directors’ Choice Award at the Spring for Spring Dance Festival. Their work has also been seen at White Wave’s SoloDuo Dance Festival, KoDaFe International Dance Festival, American Dance Guild Performance Festival and other venues.
The company appeared in Kai Tsao’s “Red” music video Anything You Want and has been collaborating with the women-led, global, sustainable fashion brand Hope Sews, and participated in the SharedSpace Program at Mark Morris Dance Group in 2023.
Mazzini, a principal dancer with Paul Taylor Dance Company for 12 years, is currently the artistic director of Mazzini Dance Collective and Choreographer in Residence for American Modern Ensemble.
The Steffi Nossen Dance Company, a group of pre-professional young dancers, selected by audition to the storied performance group and representing nine Westchester communities, will present a new work by Mittenthal. Recently Mittenthal ‘s work “LOLA” was featured at the 92Y virtual Future Dance Festival run by Harkness Dance Center and has been seen at the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women 2022 Gala, Earl Mosly’s Dancing Beyond 2023 and the 2023 NYSDEA/NDEO conference.
The Paul Taylor Teen Ensemble, a pre-professional performing company that offers young dancers an opportunity to perform excerpts of Taylor’s diverse choreography, will complete the program in a section of his A Field of Grass, “Daydream.”
Jessica DiMauro, the event’s producer, will wrap up the event by leading choreographers, dancers and the audience in a post-performance discussion, an opportunity to learn about choreographers’ inspirations, process and more.
For additional information, call 914-328-1900 or visit www.steffinossen.org. Tickets are available at $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors at https://choreographyshowcase2015.eventbrite.com/
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