About Freespace Dance
Freespace Dance is a contemporary modern dance company renowned for creating emotionally driven work with a bold, athletic signature style. This vibrant company is comprised of exceptionally strong and seasoned performers that continue to create humanistic works. Artistic Director Donna Scro Samori, a former principal dancer with the Nikolais/Louis Dance Company and a founding member of Sean Curran Company, has been described by Robert Johnson of the Star-Ledger as “a dancemaker that seizes an audience’s attention and pulls viewers into her space with works that can be gentle or physically aggressive, but are always profoundly sexy.” Whether bodies fly through the air in full company works or women slowly circle one another in duet, critics have noted that, “in all of Donna Scro Samori’s pieces, a recognizable human element surfaces wordlessly and goes straight to the heart.”
Freespace has appeared at some of NYC’s top dance venues including BAM, Citi Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Ailey Citigroup Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce SoHo, Salvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance and St. Marks Church. New Jersey venues include NJPAC, SOPAC, Rutgers University, Raritan Valley Community College, Kasser Theatre at Montclair State University, Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center, Merseles Studios at Jersey City Theater Center, and the Oakeside Mansion. The company has also appeared at popular dance festivals including the Dancenow Festival, Downtown Dance Festival, Dancers Responding to AIDS: The Remembrance Project, International Dance Festival, DNA’s Raw Material, DUMBO Dance Festival, Cool New York Festival, Solo/Duo Festival, Dance on the Lawn, and Jersey Moves.
Freespace Dance has had the honor of appearing as a guest company for Soulphonic Soundscape by Daniel Bernard Roumain featuring DBR & The Mission and holds TV credits that include choreography for Playhouse Disney’s “Choo Choo Soul” video and an appearance on the Professor Predicts series for mtvU. National touring has included performances at Jacob’s Pillow, San Diego State University, SUNY Purchase, Wells College, Southern Utah State University, the American College Dance Festival, University of Maine, and the Kaplan Theatre in Houston, Texas. The company made its European debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with the Edinburgh Press declaring our choreography as “the pinnacle of technique in partnering” and The Edinburgh Spotlight recognizing the company’s “prowess in technique and welcome feel of connected emotion and dancing from the heart.”
Central to the Freespace Dance mission is collaborating with other artists. Past collaborations include the use of live music and guest performers such as Brian Sanders of JUNK and Gaspard Louis of Pilobolus Dance Theatre. With the support of New Music USA, the company has partnered with violinist Brett Duebner, pianist Amanda Harberg, and Grammy Nominee 13Hands/Daniel McBride along with singer Katherine Oakes.Throughout a long-standing partnership, Freespace has staged works with Peter Kalivas of the PGK Dance Project in San Diego.
In addition to these performance credits, the company is at the forefront of modern dance education in New Jersey, conducting lecture-demonstrations and residencies throughout the state via its own Dance Inspirations program through Dance to Learn and Young Audiences New Jersey, Arts Council for the Morris Area. Freepsace regularly sets company works and creates original works on aspiring dancers at schools including Montclair High School, Morris Academy for the Performing Arts, Hudson County Technical School, Glenfield Middle School and Raritan Valley Community College.The company hosts a popular annual three-week Summer Festival for high school and college dancers featuring classes in modern, jazz, yoga, ballet and repertory.
Freespace Dance has partnered with Yoga Mechanics in the opening of The Space as a permanent home for itself and a forum for other regional performing artists. With significant support from the Hyde & Watson Foundation, the facility has been transformed into one that can easily be converted from a yoga and rehearsal studio to a professional performance venue. The Space has become the perfect intimate setting for the presentation of completed works as well as those still in progress. In addition to holding its own annual season here, Freespace curates series by other choreographers and artists of other disciplines. The extremely popular annual “40+” event highlighting choreographers and performers over forty years old has sold out each year.
Freespace has received grants from Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The New Jersey Cultural Trust and The American Music Center/New Music USA. Artistic Director Donna Scro Samori was a recipient of a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for excellence in choreography.
photo © John Herr
Freespace has appeared at top NYC dance venues Ailey Citigroup Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce SoHo, The Salvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance, and St. Mark’s Church, a number of NJ venues that include NJPAC, The New Theater at Rutgers University, Raritan Valley Community College, The Oskar Schindler Center for the Performing Arts, and popular dance festivals including the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, DUMBO Dance Festival, and Jacob's Pillow.
