Isthmus Dance Collective

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Erica Pinigis

Isthmus Dance Collective dancers.

Isthmus Dance Collective dancers.

Isthmus Dance Collective, the folks behind the popular “Shifting Gears” Labor Day bike path dance event, weighs in with a meaty collection of dances from IDC member choreographers drawing from classical Indian fusion, flamenco, contemporary ballet and more, showcasing Madison’s — dare we say it — cultural diversity. In addition to nine dances there will be short dance films, some filmed in different seasons right here in Madison. Choreographers include Amy Slater, Caitlyn Lamdin, Swapna Srinivasan, Tania Tandias, Raka Pushpanjali Bandyo, Jen Costillo, Juan Carlos Díaz Vélez, Robin Pettersen and Erica Pinigis. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 and 1 p.m. on Feb. 9.

media release: (Be)Longing is an invitation to belong with us and within yourself as you experience the connections that we make through the art of dance. Coming together around home being something we create together in community, the IDC member choreographers in (Be)Longing come together to present works that speak to their homes and their ongoing paths of manifesting better homes. Cultural and technical backgrounds that range from Classical Indian fusion to Flamenco, Contemporary Ballet to American Modern/Contemporary, seemingly disparate, stand in solidarity side by side both literally and metaphorically showing how the Isthmus Dance Collective is a home we have created together. It has been a source of trust, support, inspiration, community, friendship, professional development, innovation, experimentation, equity, inclusion, and more. 

Weaving together nine works by independent IDC member choreographers are several screen dances that highlight our beautiful city and the dance that happens in it. For the first time, a screening of Timekeeper, a film by Aaron Granat of the Madison Arts Commissioned dances honoring the 40th anniversary of the Timekeeper sculpture by Robert Curtis, performed at the Shifting Gears Bike Path Dance Festival on Labor Day, 2023. Three other short films recreating Pina Bausch’s Nelkin Line will meander through the seasons and across the screen, bringing together dance enthusiasts from across our community. The Nelkin Line features 16 counts of simple choreography representing the seasons, performed in a slow march through iconic Madison views; one in the dry early spring, one in vibrant autumn blaze, and one in a snow and ice landscape.

About the Nine Choreographic Works: 

Swapna Srinivasan will present a classical contemporary dance portraying our (Be)Longing on stage. The dancers have chosen various professional opportunities for survival but the beat of rhythm is still alive within them in every music they hear. They are masters in different styles of Classical Indian dance but when they are together they are united as one; soulfully, mindfully, and heartfully united in the dance. That’s where they most Belong.

Tania Tandias Flamenco & Spanish Dance will be performing the Colombianas, a flamenco dance showcasing the colorful Spanish fan. It is light and playful with sensuous movements reminiscent of Cuban and South American dance styles. Flamenco dance and music made its way to the Americas and found a new home there. It changed by being in a new home and integrating influences from the diversity of people in Cuba, Mexico and the Basque country.  It is a palo that was most likely originated by a famous flamenco singer in the 30's. This Colombianas piece is a fun and lively manifestation of a melting pot of different cultures finding community together.

In her new work “Crossing Water”, Raka Pushpanjali Bandyo reflects on those who have had to leave behind their homeland. Her ancestors were displaced by the creation of the borders of India and Pakistan and her own parents left India and made a new home in the US before she was born. With oceans separating continents, rivers and wars creating and moving borders, souls that must change their place and environment must transform. The vibrations of things taken from one world to the next help sustain a sense of self and belonging required in order to survive and grow.

Jen Costillo, a recent transplant from the San Francisco Bay Area is creating a new work about how time and injury are the enemy of any dancer. Dancers explore their own relationships with them in an environment of suspense. The disorientation of feeling estranged from one’s own body can leave anyone, and maybe especially dancers, in an unsettled, precarious state.

Juan Carlos Díaz Vélez is creating a new contemporary ballet piece set to the mesmerizing music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The composition titled "Fratres" translates to "brothers" but here is taken to represent genderless fraternal friendship. This abstract piece features six dancers performing Pärt's set of variations from the 1980 version for violin and piano. The movement and choreography are an attempt by the choreographer to capture the emotions and state of mind evoked by Pärt’s composition.

While not a story, Robin Pettersen’s “Requiem” is inevitably linked to her sister’s death in 2021. It is not initially an easy piece to watch. The music is harsh, the movement intense and a bit tortured. But, as with much pain in life, the mood eventually softens, the dancer becomes more open and we see that both can exist, and a new sense of home is created through the grieving process.

In a revival and expansion of a new work about parenthood, Erica Pinigis explores how new parenthood is a disorienting and isolating experience. And further, dancers as new parents are faced with changes in their bodies and work/life balance that make returning to work “as usual” nearly impossible. The systems that would need to be in place to support dancing parents of young children are simply not in place in our society. “Mom Village” deals with that struggle, the isolation, estrangement from one’s own body, the dance of balancing one’s own needs with those of stampedes of shrieking chaos makers, and a possible way forward through the creation of a “mom village” of dancing parents. The validation, grace, support, inspiration, and courage that comes from the mom village cannot be overstated.

Amy Slater, using an elaborate layering of costumes, explores how the dancer’s personality is transformed with the exposure of each layer.  At times, this is approached in a comical way and other times with some darkness.  Throughout the shifts of character that might represent the different roles we inhabit in life, there is the persistent interruption of the cell phone.  The dance is an exploration of how we make sense of our busy lives with the many roles we juggle and how the constant demand of technology impacts how we exist.

Caitlyn Lamdin has taken the opportunity to reset “me | them | us,” a work originally created for the Shifting Gears Bike Path Festival in 2022. The piece explores feelings of imposter syndrome and calls us to examine which barriers to belonging are real and which are imagined out of our own insecurities.

We want to invite you, our cherished Madison Friends and Neighbors, out to MYArts this February to celebrate our collective brilliance and feel a sense of belonging with us - the communal beauty that we're continually creating as citizens of Madison. No performance is complete without an audience, but this one will not be complete without YOU <3

PERFORMANCES


Saturday. Feb 8th 2025, 7:30pm

Sunday. Feb 9th 2025, 1pm



LOCATION 

Madison Youth Arts Center - Starlight Theater

1055 E Mifflin St, Madison WI 53703



TICKETS

$25 General Admission / $20 Youth 

Purchase tickets at isthmusdancecollective.org/tickets



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


This concert is presented and produced by the Isthmus Dance Collective with support from Dane Arts

About The Artists:

Swapna Srinivasan, a Bharathanatyam dancer from Madison, WI, USA, began her training at a young age and studied with various renowned gurus. Currently getting her advanced training from Guru Radhika Ramanujam. She has showcased her talent in both national and international performances, earning multiple awards and scholarships for her exceptional dance skills. With 15 years of teaching experience, Swapna is a seasoned dance instructor who has mentored students of all ages. She currently teaches at Mukula and is actively preparing students for Bharatanatyam examinations. In addition to her dancing endeavors, Swapna volunteers in the community, sharing her passion for Indian classical dance with adults and children. As a member of the Isthmus Dance Collective, she has participated in the DELVE Project and taught creative movement and dance outreach classes at the Pinney Library and Madison Children’s Museum. The Mukula team has showcased their performances at various prestigious events including the international festival at Overture Center, Rosemont Theater for the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Sun prairie Multicultural Fair, and numerous others.

About the team: The Mukula team has showcased their performances at various prestigious events including the international festival at Overture Center, Rosemont Theater for the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Sun prairie Multicultural Fair, and numerous others.

Tania Tandias studied flamenco, Spanish classical, and escuela bolera with two of the top flamenco dancers in the United States today, Pablo Rodarte and Eva Enciñias-Sandoval, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has also studied with Juana Amaya in Seville, Spain, Rosa Montoya in San Francisco, and numerous other Spanish artists, including La Tati, Ciro, Eva "La Yerbabuena," Javier Latorre, Antonio Canales, Emilio Ochando and Lola and Carmela Greco. Ms. Tandias performed with Maria Benitez's Nuevo Flamenco in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  As a dancer with this company she toured statewide, bringing flamenco to the public schools through lecture-demonstrations and to the general public through full-length performances.  She also danced in Nuevo Flamenco's weekly performances at the Radisson Hotel in Santa Fe. Ms. Tandias was also a dancer in the Albuquerque-based Alma Flamenca, which performed in local venues, festivals, schools, and in the internationally acclaimed Festival Flamenco Internacional that takes place in Albuquerque every summer. While still living in New Mexico, she performed in faculty concerts at the University of New Mexico and in the opera Carmen. Tania Tandias now lives in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, where she has been introducing, through performing and teaching, the beauty and passion of flamenco and Spanish dance to fellow Wisconsinites. Besides numerous stage productions, festivals, school shows, private parties, and lecture-demonstrations, Ms. Tandias has recently choreographed and danced in pieces for Madison Opera, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Milwaukee Ballet, Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, Kanopy Dance Company, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, whose program Vivo Flamenco was aired on Wisconsin Public Television. Tania Tandias also directs her own performance company Tania Tandias Flamenco & Spanish Dance, which has become a favorite at the Overture Center’s annual International Festival. In 2016, Ms. Tandias was honored to receive the “Performance/Choreography Award” from the Wisconsin Dance Council.

Raka Bandyo began study of the Classical Indian Arts as a first-generation child born in the USA to Indian parents. She has been dancing and performing Odissi dance since age 4. Her first teacher, Guru Sangeeta Mohapatra Kar was a student of the great Padma Vibushan Guru Kelucharun Mohapatra. Odissi dance for Raka is an extension of her heritage and practice a spiritual ritual. While finishing her MS in Mechanical Engineering, she began teaching Odissi dance. In 2005, she moved to Madison, Wi to work full time in Healthcare IT. She started training in Aerial and Modern dance and performing with the Cycropia Aerial Dance Company. During this time, she also continued teaching Odissi in local yoga studios and performing Odissi as a soloist and choreographer, producing several works for her ensemble the Karmic Flower Dance Company. In the last several years, she cut back her IT work hours to part-time in order to further pursue a more focused study of the Indian Sciences and Arts. In 2017, she became a Certificated Ayurvedic Practitioner and took a very special journey to India where she re-entered dance study with the Kelucharun Parampara. She continues learning and performing in that lineage today with and from a network of international dancers and artists. She is also a student of Jyotish Vedic Astrology, Bansuri Hindustani Flute, Sanskrit, Vedanta and other Indian Philosophies. She is currently available for consultation, teaching, choreography, and performance.

Jen Costillo is a multifocal artist with a deep background in classical ballet, contemporary and modern dance. When she is not dancing, she is concerned with the daily ethical and social impacts of technology. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Costillo has been both a performing and choreographic member of High Release Dance collective, Artist Edge, and the Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble, including its performance at the Egyptian Modern Dance Festival in Cairo and Alexandria. Previous roles include the Nutcracker as Drosselmeyer and Raul Salamanca’s contemporary ballet pieces. She has trained under Linda Rickert, Marny Trounson, Carmela Peter, Zoltan Peter, and Gloria Mohr. In 2019, she earned the SJDanceCo’s Choreoproject Award for “Optional.” She self-produced her first show in 2023.

Juan Carlos Díaz Vélez began his dance training in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he studied under several teachers including Carmen Sandoval, Lucila Arce, Helen Hoth, Alex Zybin, and Jo Sabino. He later studied at the San Francisco and Pacific Northwest Ballet schools and was offered an apprenticeship with the American Festival Ballet at age 17. He then returned to Guadalajara where he danced with Ballet de Cámara de Jalisco before joining the Spokane Ballet as a soloist under Christopher Aponte. In 1989, he joined the Eugene Ballet Company as a soloist under Toni Pimble and rose through the ranks to become a principal dancer. He has also performed as a principal dancer with Charleston Ballet Theater, Ballet Idaho, and Idaho Dance Theater. He has toured internationally throughout North America, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.  More recently, has explored other forms of dance including contemporary, modern, Mexican folklore, and flamenco, performing with a number of local groups. In addition to his own choreography, Juan Carlos has been entrusted to set works by Christopher Aponte and Yuko Sakata. In 2022, he produced an international collaboration between choreographers from Wisconsin and Mexico in Guadalajara featuring his own work along with works from Marlene Skog, Edgar Reyes.

Robin Pettersen is a freelance choreographer who also offers workshops in dance composition. 

She was the Dance Program Coordinator at the Theatre/Dance Department, University of Wisconsin -Whitewater where she taught for 26 years. She also taught at UW-Madison and Alfred University. Robin’s choreography was chosen, by adjudication, for Gala Concerts at American College Dance Association conferences four different years. She has had work performed and been a guest artist, teaching and setting choreography, at multiple Universities. In recent years Robin has set choreography on pre-professional students at the Crooked Tree School of Ballet in Petoskey, MI, as well as mentored student choreographers. Ms. Pettersen received the Wisconsin Dance Council Distinction Award in October of 2003. Actively involved in arts funding, she has served on numerous Dane County and Wisconsin Arts Board grants panels. Robin also teaches ballet to adults and private students.

Erica Pinigis started dancing as a teen then went on to receive her BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. After graduating, she produced and choreographed “Ooh La Lounge: An Evening of Dance and Jazz” at the Suburban World Theater and the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. She was curated by the Red Eye Theater for her collaboration with Erinn Liebhard: Lulladreams and Insomnimares, and was an Artist in Residence at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Arts. Erica has performed in Madison and Minneapolis with the Kanopy Dance Company, Peel and Core Dance Company, University Dance Theater, Zenon Block E performance group, the Eclectic Edge Ensemble, and Marylee Hardenbergh’s Global Site Performance. Erica migrated to the Bay Area where she was a company member of Facing East Dance & Music, Paco Gomes & Dancers, the Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble, Slick Babble Dance Project, H2O Dance, and Bianca Cabrera’s Blind Tiger Society. Erica completed her MFA in performance and choreography at Mills College and was honored with the E.L Wiegand award for excellence in performance and choreography. Since returning to Madison, Erica and several colleagues founded the Isthmus Dance Collective, a non-profit cooperatively run organization that supports dance artists.

Amy Slater has been teaching dance in higher education since 2006 and currently teaches at UW-Whitewater in the Theatre/Dance program.  In December 2016, she completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training at Perennial Yoga in Fitchburg, WI.  She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography with a secondary emphasis in Somatics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College. Between her degrees, she spent 8 years in Minneapolis performing, choreographing, and teaching dance.

Caitlyn Lamdin is current secretary of Isthmus Dance Collective (IDC), Chair of the Dance Experience Lab for Vibrant Exchange (DELVE) project, and co-founder of the Unincorporated Dance Lab (u.DL). She grew up training in jazz, modern, ballet, hip hop, and lyrical and has danced and choreographed in VT, NY, MS, WA, and WI. Since relocating to Madison in 2021, she has performed with Madison Contemporary Dance, Liz Sexe, faculty of Barrio Dance and members of IDC, as well as producing work for Shifting Gears and DELVE. She is Director of Operations & Study Abroad at OneWorld Now, a nonprofit based in Seattle whose mission is to develop the next generation of global leaders.