Dance Generators
1996-2006
YouTube | Facebook | Watch: Terra Incognita, 1999
Dance Generators is an intergenerational performance company whose work shatters stereotypes about aging. Our dancers range in age from their teens through their 80's and come together through a shared commitment to innovative theater making. Dance Generators promote the gifts, strengths, and life histories of elder and younger dancers while making compelling and dynamic performance work. Through their creative process, the company reclaims dance as an art form for diverse bodies. Through performance and community engagement, our work redefines audiences' expectations of dance.
Dance Generators are available for performances, workshops or interactive demonstrations at theaters, schools, colleges, senior centers, community events and other venues.
Current Director:
Liv Schaffer, aliviaschaffer@gmail.com
The Performance Project began September of 2000 as a theater and movement workshop at the Hampshire Jail and House of Corrections in Northampton, MA. Eight men incarcerated at the Jail collaborated with dancer/choreographer, Amie Dowling, and visual and theater artist, Julie Lichtenberg, to create a performance piece. The work was based on the group’s experiences, ideas, beliefs and themes that they chose to communicate.
From 2000 to 2004, The Performance Project collaborated with groups in the Hampshire Jail. Five workshops were completed; four resulted in the creation of original plays. The jail’s Visiting Room was transformed into a blackbox theater that included professional lighting and original music. There were three or four performances of each play, and up to 80 community members attended each performance.
Between 2000 and 2007, the Performance Project produced six original plays, piloted a bi-lingual soap opera at the Hampshire Jail, led theater workshops for women at the Hampden Jail in Ludlow and for youth correctional programs, and established an “outside” performance ensemble, comprised of people who have been incarcerated and other artists in the community.
American Dance Festival
1996-1999
Watch: In the Arc, 1996
Watch: Mic, 1999
From 1991-1998 Amie co-facilitated classes in Improvisation and Community Engagement and performed in the faculty concerts at the American Dance Festival (ADF).
Remaining true to the goals of its founding artists, ADF’s programs are developed based on its mission: to encourage and support the creation and presentation of new modern dance work by both established and emerging choreographers, to preserve our modern dance heritage through continued presentation of classic works as well as through archival efforts, to build wider national and international audiences for modern dance, to enhance public understanding and appreciation of the art form and its cultural and historical significance, to provide a sound scientific and aesthetic base for professional education and training of young dancers, and to maintain a forum for integrating and disseminating information on dance education.