What makes (a) Kelley Donovan dance?

What makes Kelley Donovan dance? And what makes a Kelley Donovan dance? Find out a little of that below, and find out more on Friday, December 7, when Kelley Donovan & Dancers presents Entwined--an evening-length dance exploring connection and interdependence--at Gibney Dance Center.

From Kelley Donovan's Entwined (2012) Photo by Randall Collura

This new work has a greater emphasis on partnering and relationship, exploring the gray area between the extremes of purely classical modern dance and theatrical narrative. I am very interested, through this work, in exploring how abstract dance can be expressive. I am also interested in the musical qualities of the moving body, and in the energy the individual performer projects whether tentative, aggressive or somewhere in between and finding sounds that emphasize that person's energy so you see them as an individual. I am curious about the progression of that energy and how that can create a sort of organic or visceral movement narrative that emerges within the work simply from the range of dynamics and shifts of dynamics as the work progresses. -- Kelley Donovan

from Kelley Donovan's Made of Paper (2010) Photo by Di Zhang

I am most interested in dance that expresses the intimate self through movement, ranging from soft fluidity to athletic physicality. A non-linear series of images and serpentine movement gathers strength in its accumulation of details, gestures and exchanges of energy with one another. -- Kelley Donovan

Among other notable dance critics, Boston-based Marcia B. Siegel (The Phoenix) hailed an earlier work by Donovan: 

The piece transcended the ordinary… Donovan's movement…is lush and lyrical. Few choreographers today have such a clear sense of space and continuity.

Kelley Donovan & Dances in Entwined
Friday, December 7 (7:30pm)
For information, click here or call 617-388-3247.
 
Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway (at 19th Street), Manhattan (5th Floor)
(map/directions)

Creative modern dance with Kelley Donovan

Kelley Donovan & Dancers present
Creative Modern Dance Classes

Thursdays and Saturdays, Starting November 7th

Moving Body Resources

117 West 27th Street, Manhattan

Session Runs from November 7th –December 19th
Contact: kddcompany@yahoo.com

or call (781) 420-3893 for registration.   

6 Dance Classes Saturdays, starting November 7th   2-3pm
$95 total (6 week session)   

Nov. 7th – Dec. 19th (no class Nov. 21st)

5 Thursday Dance Classes Starting November 12th  7-8pm
&
5 Thursdays Choreography/Performance Workshop  8-9pm
(students are encouraged to attend the early Thursday class for warm up)

$80 /per Thursday class, both classes meet:

Nov. 12th, 19th, Dec 3rd, 10th, 17th

Kelley Donovan & Dancers will be holding Creative Modern Dance classes for adults starting November 7th on Thursdays and Saturdays.  Creative Modern Dance is an introductory level dance class blending dance technique and the fundamentals of choreography in a spirit of creativity, collaboration and play.  Classes will be held on Saturdays at 2pm and Thursdays at 7pm and 8 pm at Moving Body Resources on West 27th Street in Manhattan. Pre-registration required.

This class is for adult dancers with a little or no experience and is a great place to start if you are coming back to dance or trying it for the first time. Attention will be paid to developing strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, posture, expression in movement.  The class focuses on a deep understanding of the body and incorporates ideas from Limon, Cunningham and Release techniques. 

The class will move through a warm up that builds strength and clarifies alignment principals followed by fluid phrases with an emphasis on performance quality, focus and presence.  Participants will get a chance to create collaboratively and learn how to develop movement structures and invent dance that explores the basic elements of space, time and force.  Price: $80 total (5 week session) $95 for six weeks  Pre-registration required.  To register, call 781-420-3893 or e-mail kddcompany@yahoo.com.

Kelley Donovan has performed work by Liz Lerman and Ann Carlson and has taught dance at CasaNia, MIT, Springstep, Third Life Studio, Boston Ctr. For Adult Ed and currently teaches modern dance at Umass. Her choreography has been produced by World Music/Crasharts, MIT, Harvard and The Federal Reserve Bank in Boston and The Merce Cunningham Studio, Joyce SoHo, Movement Research and the 92nd St. Y in New York City. Kelley studied choreography with Mark Morris and Bessie Schönberg and other artists in Boston.