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ALMA DANCE
Company
About
About
Alma Dance Company shares women's stories and voices through dance, discussion and workshops, connecting with communities globally to spark change and engage in building a more equitable world.
Portfolio
Artistic Director
Photo by AK47 Division
Heather Robles is a nondisabled queer Latinx cis woman of Indigenous Mexican descent who lives on the stolen land of the Lenape and Canarsie peoples in what is now called Brooklyn. She is Founder and Artistic Executive Director of Alma Dance Company. As a choreographer and performer, she has worked with many artists including Yvonne Rainer, Sidra Bell, Pavel Zuštiak, Nathan Trice, DANCENOISE, André M. Zachery, Buglisi Dance Theater, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance, The Equus Projects. She is also the Executive Director of the New York Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, and a certified birth doula at Our Birth Doula. Heather is also a dance educator, teaching artist, producer, and advocate for mental health in the dance field.
The Company
Natalia Munoz is a Brooklyn based Interdisciplinary Artist Educator, Theater Practitioner, Mover, Dancer and Artivist. She has trained in Afro-Brazilian, Haitian, Capoeira and several Afro-Colombian rhythms. Natalia is passionate about using the power of the arts to transform oppression into a source of power and creative awareness. Her framework focuses on using the power of devised theater, improvisation, dance, storytelling and visual arts to unlock the potential of young people to develop their creative competencies. Natalia has participated in multiple projects using arts as a vehicle for social change, healing and self-expression. She has performed at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, Drom, Terraza 7, Museum at Eldridge street, Barbes, Chelsea Market Studio and Lincoln Center.
Photo by Rael Cruz
Cecilia Mitchell grew up in Montclair, NJ, where she devoted her time training at Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts and performing around her community. For four years Mitchell was a part of the Performance Workshop Ensemble, a chosen group of qualified dancers who gave back to the community through the art of dance in educational concerts. Mitchell recently graduated with a BA in Dance performance from Stockton University in May 2022 and is currently teaching, choreographing & free lancing on the east coast. She has trained in many styles including modern (Horton, Graham, and Limón), Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theater, Hip-Hop, Umfundalai, West African, Jazz, Contemporary and Improvisation. At her university, she was heavily involved in the Stockton Dance Company where she had the opportunity to work with faculty and guest artists Caroline Fermin, Tiffany Mills, Meredith Rainy, Salena Pettaway and Lauren Putty White. Recently, she studied abroad in Thessaloniki, Greece and performed at the Early Jewish Agricultural Settlements Exhibition. Mitchell has had many experiences with choreographing and teaching, and she continues to expand her personal repertory as well as a growing passion for dance performance and education. Mitchell attended the Bates Dance Festival in July 2022 and has performed professionally at the Koresh Artist Showcase, Putty Dance Project and Alma Dance Company.
Roberta Samet, she/her, lives in Brooklyn, on Lenape land. She is a long time dancer, psychotherapist, practitioner of Maitri Breathwork and an anti racist organizer. She originally studied dance with Alwin Nikolais/Murray Lewis and Charles Moore in New York City and performed with Tuffy Finley in San Francisco. She is currently performing with The Equus Projects and Alma Dance Company. A lover of water and sky, she built and paddles her own kayak.
Photo by Flash Rosenberg
Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens, a South Carolina Gullah Sea Islands descendant, is a dance historian, educator, linguist, and performing artist. She is proud to be the Artistic Director for Girl Be Heard, an all-female pre-professional multidiscipline arts ensemble for young social activists. With a Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a focus on Francophone dance history from New York University, Gittens has a BA in French from Oberlin College and an MA in African Studies from Yale University. She has been recognized and has won awards for her cultural and historical research in the Senegambia, South Africa, France, and Mexico.
Mireicy Aquino, 13 years old, is a student at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in NY. Mireicy has had the opportunity to perform in works created by artists such as Savion Glover, Nasha Thomas, and Hope Boykin, and performed on stages such as Lincoln Center, Off-Broadway, Prudential Center, and NJPAC. At a young age, she started dance training at Sharron Miller’s Academy For The Performing Arts. Heather Robles was the first to Introduce and train Mireicy to modern and contemporary dance, which soon become her favorite genre. Alongside dance, she has a passion for acting and spoken word.
Photo by Agi Aquino
Collaborators
Edith Boucher-Hazelton is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer from Montreal, now based in New York City. A New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music graduate, she studied with some of the most renowned vocalists in today’s jazz scene, including Catherine Russell, Cyrille Aimée, Theo Bleckmann, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. Through her work in the swing dance community as a singer, dancer, and lindy hop instructor, as well as through cutting-edge multimedia immersive experiences, her versatile work stands at the intersection of music and the other arts.
Photo by Mirco Pasqualini
Womb Creature
Friday May 5 at 8pm &
Saturday May 6 at 8pm
Venue: TAKE ROOT at Green Space
Located at 37-24 24th Street, Suite 211
Long Island City, NY 11101
Performed by Alma Dance Company members Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens, Cecilia Mitchell, Heather Robles, Mireicy Aquino, Natalia Munoz, and Roberta Samet.
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