A movement for dance.
Join our statewide community of dance artists
CONNECT
Use our directory of dance and tech professionals to find collaborators, and see upcoming events.
DANCE
Add more dance to your life with classes or performances.
CREATE
Find the funding, space, and production resources you need to bring your vision to life. Apply for our micro-grant program!
Signature Partnership Events
Middlebury College Dance
Alumni Takeover Movement Matters
Mahaney Arts Center
72 Porter Field Road
Middlebury, VT 05753
March 18 | 4:30-6:00 pm
Graham Shelor- Making Noise
A deep practice of listening informed by Graham Shelor's '23 research for his most recent dance project - NOISE REDUCTION. In this session, participants are guided through somatic listening practices designed to tune their internal awareness of the moving body. We will expand our gaze outward, engaging in group improvisational scores that challenge our understanding of what it means to be in community. Together, we will investigate: How can we communicate through our bodies? How do we make space to speak and share space to listen? Expect to sweat, to collaborate, to celebrate, and to engage with your body and mind. Open to all bodies and abilities.
Sonia Hsieh- Creating a Small Daily Practice
Sonia will guide participants through a gentle series of breathwork and relaxation techniques to help you develop your own simple, sustainable daily practice. The session will emphasize that effective daily rituals do not need to be complex, highly technical, or rigidly structured to help your body feel nourished and at ease. We will focus on learning how to release stagnant energy and excess tension, opening the way to greater inner flow, creativity, and vitality. All levels and abilities are warmly welcomed—no prior experience required.
Middlebury College Dance Department: Body/Mind/Funk/Time
Mahaney Arts Center
72 Porter Field Road
Middlebury, VT 05753
March 18 | 7:30-8:30 pm
“Under Earth” Octavio Rose Hingle ‘17 presents under earth, a ritual of devotion inspired by the gardening memoirs of queer English filmmaker and AIDS activist Derek Jarman. Through movement, song, and poetic monologue, the performance maps a personal ecology of pleasure, grief and erotic transformation across the landscapes of the San Francisco Bay.
“Carry-On” Graham Shelor ’23 expands upon a solo originally developed during his junior year at Middlebury College. The work began as an inquiry into the shaping of identity by place and the shifting performativity required to inhabit new spaces. Using the airplane as a central metaphor, the dancer embarks on a journey toward an unknown destination, navigating the tension between who they have been, who they are becoming, and what must be left behind. Today, the movement vocabulary evolves to reflect the passage of time and the lived reality of post-graduate life. Through intentional shifts in composition, dynamics, and aesthetics, this expansion asks: What does the body now value?
“Journey to Soul” Sonia Hsieh will guide the audience through a 20-minute shamanic journey often referred to as a “Soul Retrieval” process in indigenous traditions. This guided experience draws inspiration from variations commonly used in iboga journeys by the Bwiti tradition from Gabon, Central West Africa. By shifting brainwave patterns from beta to theta states, audience members will have a taste of reconnecting with their souls at the level of the subconscious mind. Participation is highly encouraged!
Featured News
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Auction Season!
Now taking donations!
We’re now collecting items for our Annual Auction, going live this April in support of Vermont Dance Alliance! This special event helps fund VDA’s year-round work connecting, supporting, and uplifting the dance community across Vermont. From unique experiences and handmade goods to gift certificates and services, every donated item makes a meaningful impact. Join us in celebrating the power of dance—your contribution helps keep Vermont moving!
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Choreographer's Seed Applications
Now open!! applications for our Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grants are currently open. Applications due 3/15. Our Micro-Grants were developed to help a wider range of artists receive funding and support in the initial stages of creating a new work. Selected applicants will receive funding support, help with securing rehearsal space, and present an excerpt of their work at Vermont Dance Alliance’s Gala September 26!
Our Alliance
Our Alliance is comprised of dance artists, arts organizations, businesses, institutions, and patrons from across the state who are united under a shared love for dance and a recognition of the important role it plays in Vermont’s creative economy. Vermont’s natural beauty and quality of life attract great talent—but its rural nature and limited public funding for the arts make it challenging to keep talent here. Rather than losing talent to better opportunity elsewhere, the Alliance is working to help Vermont reach its full potential as a dance destination.
Join the Movement
Our progress serves your progress; our success is your success. While dancers have long been conditioned to believe that creating art at their own cost and sacrifice is normal, it’s time to change the status quo. Art is central to community connectedness, livability, and resilience. It gives community members a sense of belonging to their communities and helps increase the visibility of marginalized groups. It connects people and places in new ways. It’s also a major economic driver for Vermont. Join our movement to ask our policy makers to recognize the value dance (and the arts as a whole) bring to Vermont. Your membership comes with benefits such as discounts on classes and studio space, fiscal sponsorship, networking, and the opportunity to promote your events and classes.
