keshet dance company

Below is a sampling of some recent company projects:

Movement for Mercy (November 2021)

Movement for Mercy is a collaborative, iterative performance created by a team of artists, both Incarcerated and non-incarcerated, with the work shared through the bodies of those on the outside for this unique performance experience. 

This project takes many forms from year to year, and is co-created by Keshet Dance Company, members of Keshet’s Arts & Justice Youth Leadership Council, and currently incarcerated students within Keshet’s M3 Program (Movement + Mentorship = Metamorphosis).

Love Letter to Albuquerque (October 2020)

In the summer and fall of 2020, the Keshet Company dancers reached out to the ABQ community with a prompt to share their thoughts on their own personal “Love Letter to Albuquerque.”  Their words were gathered and compiled (see the full complied written piece here: Keshet Dance Company Creates New Work For Somos ABQ) and these words and images were used as inspiration for this new work created at the Keshet Center for the Arts, in the heart of the Midtown Arts and Entertainment District of ABQ, NM. 

• Featuring music (used with permission) by: David Bashwiner, Kid Feliz, Talking Hours, Matthew Tobias, and Bill Palmer 
• Music composition: Matthew Tobias, empty house studio 
• Keshet Dance Company / Choreographers and Dancers: Ana Lopes Aréchiga, Sonia Bologa, Lara Segura
• Videography production and editing: Joe Brown, Lara Segura 

National Water Dance (April 2020)

Created for National Water Dance 2020, Keshet Dance Company came together virtually, creating community in isolation and remembering our commitment to securing a safe environment as we globally battle the Coronavirus.

Movement for Mercy 2020 (February 2020)

Check out the performance on YouTube.

Mercy /noun/ compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm

Movement /noun/ an act of changing physical location or position or of having this changed; a group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas

Movement for Mercy: co-created performance installations with system-impacted youth; including residencies and partnerships throughout the U.S.

National Water Dance (2018)

Created for National Water Dance 2018, Keshet Dance Company and Keshet students partnered with the Sawmill Community Land Trust and the New Mexico Water Collaborative to create this site specific performance. Keshet performed in and with the Sawmill Detention Pond, and providing continued learning for the local community about the water issues in New Mexico.

Alice, an adventure of wonder and wondering (2017-2019)

“Wonder and Wondering…the story of Keshet and community power” (Huffington Post Review)

Created and choreographed by Shira Greenberg, the Company is joined by community dancers of all ages, experience levels, and abilities to bring to life an alternate telling of the Alice in Wonderland story.

a beast, an angel, and a madwoman (2015-2016)

• Premonition, Piazza San Marco, Venice, choreographer: Maggie Bergeron View video, here.
• Not Your Mother’s Mary, excerpt, Piazza San Marco, Venice, choreographer: Erika Randall 
• Interview with Guest Choreographer, Maggie Bergeron

Created in 2015 and performed in New Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland throughout 2015-2016, a beast, an angel, and a madwoman is a collection of four works, by four dynamic female choreographers.  

• Dancers: Margaret Behm, Jamie Book, Kristi Licera, Elysia Pope, Marissa Reynolds
• Choreographers: Maggie Bergeron, Shira Greenberg, Donna Jewell, Erika Randall
• Special thanks to our Swiss hosts: Cathleen Cain, Matti Straub Fischer, and KaosPilots

Ani Ma’amin (2009-2014)

• Commissioned by the Jewish Community Center of Minneapolis.

Ani Ma’amin (Hebrew for “I believe”) is powerful and thought-provoking contemporary dance piece exploring the impact of the Holocaust on American Jews. Choreographed by Shira Greenberg, the 85-minute piece runs with no intermission. Five dancers recreate the experiences and themes expressed by multiple generations, beginning pre-war and culminating at the present-day. Dynamic and emotional movement is threaded together with poetry and video testimonies from Holocaust survivors and children of survivors, with footage compiled from the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

The work was created with extensive input from the choreographer’s family interviews, familial community experiential contributions, and broader research in partnership with the University of Southern California, University of New Mexico, and many others.

In partnership with the Learning for Justice organization (formerly the Teaching Tolerance Foundation), Keshet created and distributed an extensive complementary curriculum which accompanied the Ani Ma’amin performance when presented in educational settings (primarily focused on middle school, high school, and colleges).  

Nutcracker on the Rocks (1997-2016)

The Company is joined by community dancers of all ages, levels, and abilities to create Keshet’s unique rock-n-roll version of the holiday classic.  Created and choreographed by Shira Greenberg, the 1997 production premiered with 13 dancers to a small audience in Albuquerque, NM.  At the end of it’s 20-year run, the cast had grown to a consistent 150-200 dancers, closing with a 3-week run to sold out audiences, and had been trademarked and licensed to Cohesion Dance Project in Helena, MT, where the production continues to run through the holiday season.

Project Director / Contact Information:
Shira Greenberg, Artistic Director, Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts
505.224.9808 office / shira@KeshetArts.org