Featured Dancers | Nikki and Alicia

ALICIA WHITE

Alicia White (Dancer) is a Rhode Island Native and graduate of Rhode Island College (’10) where she earned a BA in Dance and a minor in Theater. She has been dancing with ECDC since 2012. Alicia is Founder, Director and Choreographer of Metamorphosis Dance Company based in Pawtucket, RI. She has had the pleasure of performing in works by Eva Marie Pacheco (Providence Ballet Company Member ’10-’14), Wanda Strukus, Michael Bolger, Keith Terry, and Gus Solomons Jr. Alicia is also a teacher/choreographer for studios and arts education programs through out the state of Rhode Island. Her main drive is to share the spiritual, cultural and community building aspects of her art with everyone she encounters. Alicia is grateful for the opportunity to be apart of this production, for the love and support of her family and friends, and the ability to share these moments of joy with all of you.

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"Collaborating with the dancers and Kellie to create IYKYT has been a long and satisfying process rich in exploration and discovery. Our stories are beautifully wound and woven together, and yet there is plenty of space for witnesses of the work to see their own lives as a part of this environment we are creating. I hope the audience is moved by the work in a way that is like how I have been moved in helping to make it."    

NIKKI CARRARA 

Nikki Carrara (Dancer) is a dance artist and educator living in Pawtucket, RI. Her choreography has been presented in theaters, studios, art galleries, and fields, produced by Island Moving Company, Frazier Festival, Perishable Theatre, Providence College, and The Dance Complex. Outside of ECDC, she has performed extensively in the works of choreographers Nathan Andary, Daniel McCusker, and Melody Ruffin Ward. For the past 7 years Nikki has developed and implemented RI’s only public, non-charter dance education program in Pawtucket Public Schools. Her students have gone on to major in dance at the Jacqueline M. Walsh High School for the Arts and have stepped into the professional RI dance community as performers and teachers. She is currently working on a new multi-disciplinary work with Providence-based poet and playwright Christopher Johnson. This fall, Nikki will be an MFA candidate and teaching fellow at Smith College. Nikki is also a photographer, and loves to help things grow.

Photography by James Lastowski

People in Motion

Elm City Dance Collective invites you to a viewing of our community performance project, People in Motion, on June 5th, 2pm, Trinity Lutheran Church.

New Haven, CT -  Elm City Dance Collective (ECDC) presents People in Motion, an Afternoon Showing of Dance, performed by ECDC and Friends. The showing will consist of three performances: “People in Motion”, performed by members of the New Haven and surrounding areas community; “If You Knew You Then” (in process), performed by ECDC; and “borderland” performed by Chloe Carlson. People in Motion will take place on Sunday, June 5th at 2pm, Trinity Lutheran Church | 292 Orange Street, New Haven. The showing is FREE and open to the public.

Over the last few months, ECDC has been working with community members from New Haven and surrounding areas on a performance project called People in Motion. Through a series of dance improvisation classes and a weekend-long workshop, ECDC’s People in Motion, community of non-dancers and dancers alike, focused on the process of creating a dance, as a community, in the moment. People in Motion engaged their creative sides through physical explorations and collaborative movement play. The community worked on building confidence and trust in themselves and each other; and cultivated a collective awareness with the intention of composing a dance in the moment. The guidelines and movement structures used to inform this project came directly from the process of “If You Knew You Then”, ECDC’s latest evening-length work (in process). “If You Knew You Then” will premiere in 2017.

People in Motion (the community performance project) is generously supported by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven through a community engagement grant. ECDC demonstrates the importance of having contemporary dance be more accessible in New Haven by offering experiences like People in Motion. We believe appreciating the art can come from welcoming others to participate in the act of making. Come out and support ECDC and Friends! We hope to see you there.