ABOUT

Bennett Dance Company (BDC) is a not-for-profit organization committed to dance as a positive, empowering and collaborative art form. Our performances blend modern dance with sculpture, photography, martial arts and original music, and challenge dancers to push both physical and mental boundaries. Through visceral, athletic movements in non-traditional settings (on stilts, tangled in nets, encased in boxes), BDC dancers discover and reveal a sense of poetry and power beyond mere technique or physicality.

The Company is further committed, through its outreach and educational activities, to bring the vital themes of collaboration to teens and young adults, to celebrate the diversity and vitality of our communities through positive, culturally-inclusive projects, and to support and nurture the health, strength and self-image of women everywhere.

Andrea Blesso & Ingrid Schatz in "Well" – photo by Vital Albuquerque

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Performances

Bennett Dance Company is a group of women reaching out to larger audiences in the Northeast and nationwide. Led by choreographer and Artistic Director Christine Bennett, the group focuses on collaborations with artists working in other media. For example in Moving Still, a collaborative project with photographer Liz Linder, the dancers remain enclosed in 6’ x 4’ frames in a fusion with the projected images. In Bound, the dancers use stilts to become 10’ tall in relation to gigantic fabric columns by visual artist, Beth Galston. In Inner House, the dance centers in, on, and around a 6 x 6 x 8' yellow ochre house with silver tiled interior by visual artist Michael Dowling. The Net, a recent project, relies on the use of a large rope net (18' high x 26'wide) designed by Dutch visual artist Pieter Smit. The choreography of Bennett Dance Company requires that its dancers continually push boundaries by learning new physical skills.

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Educational programs

Bennett Dance Company's YouthWorks outreach program offers young people an opportunity to work closely with a company of professional dancers, which helps participants build confidence while learning new physical skills. Our workshops expose young people to the process of artistic collaboration, and encourage them to broaden their vision of dance, the visual arts, and their own potential. By creating a safe environment for experimentation, we aim to build collaborative and risk-taking skills, and foster self-empowerment.

In a recent educational program BDC members taught dance and performance art to fifteen South Boston teens enrolled in Medicine Wheel Productions' No Man's Land Project Youth Program summer workshop. The workshop, conceptualized by artist Michael Dowling, targeted at-risk and troubled youths and centered on building self-confidence, team-work and artistic skills through the development of an original score. The program culminated in the high profile performance of a multi-media play, Turf, which was presented by the youths to an audience of over 200 at No Man's Land facilities in South Boston. In addition to being publicly supported by Congressman Stephen F. Lynch and Senator Jack Heart, the City of Boston presented participants with a Peace Award.

"Well"   photo by Vital Albuquerque

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Community Impact

Silent Spring Institute (www.silentspring.org) is an organization dedicated to finding links between the environment and women's health, particularly breast cancer. Artistic director and choreographer Christine Bennett, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, is committed to supporting women's health causes through the arts, and established Bennett Dance Company's association with Silent Spring at the Company's inception.

BDC holds an annual fundraising benefit, and donates 15% of proceeds to Silent Spring Institute. The event includes live music, art auctions, a raffle, catered food, and a performance by the Company. Bennett Dance Benefit contributes annually to Silent Spring Institute and continues to grow, despite the challenging economic climate for arts organizations.

BDC supports Silent Spring Institute year-round by including information about the organization in programs and announcements at each performance. Performers, staff, and board members wear pink ribbons in support of breast cancer awareness at BDC events. By exposing large, diverse audiences to the importance of women's health causes, BDC demonstrates the many ways in which the arts can impact social and scientific issues.

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Annual Summer Dance Workshop

Bennett Dance Company offers Summer at The Dance Complex, a two-week workshop of classes in Modern Technique, Chinese Martial Arts, and Improvisation for advanced-level dancers held in Cambridge, MA. The faculty includes senior members and past BDC collaborators. These skilled performers introduce students to the Company's athletic and visceral movement vocabulary and its creative and collaborative process. The workshop culminates in a sold-out weekend performance featuring Bennett Dance Company alongside student guest performers.

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Artist Residencies

Master classes in modern technique and improvisation challenge students to move from the core out to the extremities, while increasing awareness of underlying nuances and "in-between" moments in movement. Bennett Dance Company provides students with new tools to explore movement, enabling them to push boundaries of their own. Company members also teach original choreography and existing Company repertoire to students for performances. BDC has held workshops and residencies at Mt. Holyoke College, Fitchburg State College, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, & Roger Williams University, among others.