PROGRAM MAY 13 & 14, 2025
Dances We Dance in collaboration with
Rae Ballard’s Thoughts in Motion present
SPRING DANCES - Echoes of Isadora
The Center at Park West – 165 West 86th Street, New York, NY
May 13-14, 2025 - 19h30
PROGRAM
ALLA PRIMAVERA
Choreography: Rae Ballard
Dancers: Lauren Naslund, Lana Hankinson, Rae Ballard
Music: Brahms Intermezzo Klavierstücke Op. 118, No. 2
SCHUBERT SYMPHONY #9 ‘THE GREAT”
Choreography: Isadora Duncan c.1914-17
Re-staging: Francesca Todesco
Costumes: Ivana Drazic
Andante con Moto*:
Apollo: Ian Spencer Bell
Choir: Jewel Cameron, Camille Constanti, Rosy Gentle, Faith Kimberling, Thandi Nyambose, Nira Solene, Mary Garrett Turner, Haley Wolfersberger
*This version of Andante con Moto is based on the 1989 staging by Catherine Gallant (Dances by Isadora)
Scherzo:
Dionysus: Faith Kimberling
Choir: Kathleen Caragine, Colleen Edwards, Rosy Gentle, Haley Wolfersberger
PASSAGES
Choreography: Rae Ballard
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1st Movement: Lauren Naslund, Lana Hankinson, Rae Ballard - Music: Luiz Costa
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2nd Movement: Lauren Naslund - Music: Craig Armstrong
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3rd Movement: Rae Ballard - Music: Max Richter
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4th Movement: Lana Hankinson - Music: Gabriel Fauré
SCRIABIN ÉTUDES
Choreography: Isadora Duncan
Étude in C-Sharp Minor, Op.2 No.1 “Mother” - Rae Ballard
Étude in D-Sharp Minor, Op.8 No.12 “Revolutionary" – Catherine Gallant
THIRD WHEEL
Choreography: Rae Ballard
Dancers: Lauren Naslund, Lana Hankinson, Rae Ballard
Music: Aloe Blacc
DANCE OF THE FURIES
Choreography: Isadora Duncan – rearranged by Francesca Todesco
Music: Christoph Willibald Gluck from the opera Orfeo et Euridice
Costumes: Ivana Drazic
Dancers: Kathleen Caragine, Colleen Edwards, Rosy Gentle with Jewel Cameron, Camille Constanti, Faith Kimberling, Thandi Nyambose, Nira Solene, Mary Garrett Turner, Haley Wolfersberger
This program has been conceived and produced by Francesca Todesco (Dances We Dance) in collaboration with Rae Ballard (Thoughts in Motion).
The Schubert Symphony and Dance of the Furies were re-staged following a workshop on Isadora Duncan's technique, led by Ms. Todesco. Special thanks to Catherine Gallant for her invaluable support throughout the process, and to Loretta Thomas, Colleen Edwards, Faith Kimberling, and all the dancers for their dedication and artistry.
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Dances We Dance/Performing Ensemble: Kathleen Caragine, Colleen Edwards, Rosy Gentle, Francesca Todesco
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Special Guest Artists: Catherine Gallant, Ian Spencer Bell, Faith Kimbeling
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Thoughts in Motion Dance Company: Rae Ballard, Lauren Naslund, Lana Hankinson
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Duncan workshop participants: Jewel Cameron, Camille Constanti, Thandi Nyambose, Nira Solene, Mary Garrett Turner, Haley Wolfersberger
Special thanks to the crew and staff at the Center at West Park.
Thank you for attend our performances. Please consider a tax-deductible donation in support for this and future programming of Dances We Dance. Thank you for your support.
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ARTISTS BIOS
ISADORA DUNCAN (1877-1927), born in San Francisco, revolutionized dance with her groundbreaking approach to movement and expression. Rejecting the rigid structure of classical ballet, she shed traditional costumes like ballet slippers and corsets, opting instead for simplicity and natural movement that echoed the rhythms of nature. Duncan sought to develop a dance vocabulary that would illuminate the human spirit and its connection to the world around us. She was among the first choreographers to create dances set to music that wasn’t composed specifically for dance, drawing from composers like Chopin, Brahms, Schubert, and Scriabin. Her bold, unrestrained style shocked American audiences, who found her bare limbs and unconventional approach daring. Unfazed by controversy, Duncan set off for Europe, and later Russia, where her boundless spirit inspired visual artists, poets, and choreographers.
DANCES WE DANCE/PERFORMING ENSEMBLE (DWD) was formed in 2020 under the artistic direction of Francesca Todesco, carrying forward a rich legacy originally established by legendary dancers, teachers, and choreographers Betty Jones and Fritz Lüdin in New York in 1970. For over five decades, Betty and Fritz devoted themselves to nurturing and inspiring new generations of dancers, sharing their artistry and insights around the world. Upon their retirement in 2019, they entrusted Francesca with the leadership of the organization, ensuring the continuation of their vision. DWD's mission encompasses training dancers in presenting repertory works, commissioning new choreography, and providing educational workshops and classes. Since its season debut in 2022, DWD has performed three NY seasons, led workshops and classes in New York, Paris, London, Athens and Rome, and performed at the 2023 Battery Dance Festival as well as in Paris and Athens. www.danceswedance.org
FRANCESCA TODESCO (Artistic Director, DWD) is a New York-based dancer and educator, with extensive training in the Sokolow, Humphrey-Limón, and Duncan techniques, bringing a wealth of experience in both performance and education. She credits her training to esteemed teachers such as Jim May (recipient of 2024 Martha Hill Award for lifetime achievement), Catherine Gallant, Loretta Thomas, Betty Jones, Fritz Lüdin, Gail Corbin, and Debra Carr. Francesca joined Catherine Gallant/DANCE & Dances by Isadora in 2000, and since then has performed and taught Isadora Duncan’s works internationally. She has collaborated with numerous choreographers and companies in New York City, including Deborah Carr Theatre Dance Ensemble and Rae Ballard’s Thoughts in Motion. For over 16 years, Francesca danced with the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble and continues to assist with archives and the reconstruction of Ms. Sokolow’s repertory.
Dedicated to the art of education, Francesca has curated numerous workshops in Historical Modern Dance, inviting master teachers to share their expertise, and has directed her beloved children's program, Every Little Movement, in Hoboken for over a decade. A sought-after teacher and coach, she has recently worked with dance groups in London, Paris, and Athens. In addition to her role as Artistic Director of Dances We Dance, Francesca teaches Isadora Duncan exploration classes for adults in Manhattan and frequently leads workshops internationally. She recently returned from leading a highly successful two-week intensive in Athens for the second consecutive year, as well as a master class at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome, Italy.
THOUGHTS IN MOTION AND RAE BALLARD Rae Ballard’s choreography has been described by Jennifer Dunning in The New York Times as having “the quality of a short story.” This choreography and related scripts written by Ms. Ballard for dance/theater works have provided the artistic direction for Thoughts in Motion, a non-profit company which was founded in the 1980s. The company has performed at venues throughout New York City and Westchester County. Internationally Ms. Ballard’s choreography has also been performed in Finland, Brazil and Italy. Ms. Ballard has danced with many modern dance companies, including Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Project, and she has performed the works of Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Jose Limon. In addition to her work as artistic director of Thoughts in Motion, Ms. Ballard teaches dance and movement to a variety of age groups and was selected by Arts Westchester for its Artist Roster for over 10 years.
GUEST ARTISTS
CATHERINE GALLANT is the director and co-founder (with Patricia Adams in 1989) of Dances by Isadora which performs, teaches, and collaborates with dancers throughout the world. She began her study of the technique of Isadora Duncan with Julia Levien, (a student of Anna and Irma Duncan) in 1982. She is a founding member of the Duncan Archive, an online repository for the Duncan legacy. duncanarchive.org. Catherine is the US performer of Jerome Bel’s Isadora Duncan, part of his dancer series. Ms. Gallant is a retired NYCDOE dance educator. She taught at PS 89 in Manhattan from 1998-2023. She and her students were featured in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary, PS DANCE! She is currently on the faculty of Hunter College and the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) Catherine creates new works for stage and film with her company Catherine Gallant/DANCE. Their latest dance film project was screened at the East Coast Dance festival in Wicklow, Ireland. She is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory and holds an MFA in Dance from Temple University.
IAN SPENCER BELL is a dancer and a poet who has performed at the 92nd Street Y, Boston Center for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Poetry Foundation, and Queens Museum. In addition to his own work, he has danced historic solos by Merce Cunningham and Isadora Duncan.
FAITH KIMBERLING is a professional dancer and teacher based in NYC, performing, collaborating, and/or choreographing in the last few years with various companies and artists such as Las Danzas, Putnam County Dance Project, Loretta Thomas/Moving Visions Dance, Catherine Gallant, and Mark Bankin. Faith is deeply passionate about exploring and nurturing the connection, truth, clarity, beauty, understanding, expression, and meaning that dance reveals. Faith danced with Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company from 2004-2021 and with WHITE WAVE: Young Soon Kim Dance Company from 1997-2014. She has led company and open and master classes, presented lecture demonstrations in NYC public schools, was a teacher of the junior resident company, the Beliloveables, of the Isadora Duncan Foundation, and has taught at Dance World Stuttgart Dance Fair 2024 and 2025 in Germany. She teaches dance to kids at Bridge for Dance, the Y, and in under-resourced NYC public schools with Mark Degarmo Dance. She is a student of Laban Kinetography. Faith is thrilled to revisit and perform these Duncan works with Dances We Dance, and thanks Francesca, Loretta, and the Corvinos for their teaching and coaching.
RAE BALLARD’S THOUGHTS IN MOTION
LAUREN NASLUND began her modern dance studies in Chicago with Frances Allis. She holds degrees in biology from the University of Chicago and Harvard. She danced in Cambridge, MA with the Performing Arts Ensemble and the Massachusetts Dance Ensemble before moving to New York to work with the theater/dance company Plath/Taucher Productions. In New York, Lauren has studied with Ruth Currier (in whose studio she met Rae Ballard), Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin, Gail Corbin, Risa Steinberg, Janet Pannetta, Katiti King, among others. Lauren also danced with Andrew Jannetti & Dancers, and performed the work of Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey, and Deborah Carr. She was a member of Anna Sokolow's Players' Project from 1989 through 2003. She has worked with its successor, the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble, since its founding in 2004 and is now its Associate Artistic Director. Lauren has been dancing with Thoughts in Motion since 1992.
LANA HANKINSON Born and raised in Marietta, Georgia, Lana Hankinson is currently a freelance artist performing, working, and teaching (under ABT® Certification) in New York City. In early years, she studied at Anne Burton Avery’s Academy Dance Company and then in the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre’s Conservatory Program under the direction of Maniya Barredo and Andrea Pell. Hankinson graduated Summa Cum Laude from Adelphi University as recipient of the Jeff and Tina Bolton Scholarship and Ruth St. Denis Prize, under the tutelage of Frank Augustyn.
DANCES WE DANCE/PERFORMING ENSEMBLE
KATHLEEN CARAGINE is a New York City based modern/contemporary dancer who began her dance training at the age of three in Danbury, Connecticut. Her training continued at Hofstra University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and a minor in Exercise Science. Currently, she is teaching dance and Pilates in Connecticut and NYC/Brooklyn. Kathleen has had the pleasure to perform works throughout NYC and abroad by Isadora Duncan, Doris Humphrey, Ted Shawn, Catherine Gallant, Rae Ballard, Annmaria Mazzini and Francesca Todesco. She is currently a member of Dances We Dance under the direction of Artistic Director Francesca Todesco.
COLLEEN EDWARDS (she/her) is a dancer and teaching artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Hofstra University where she studied Dance and English Literature and has since had the opportunity to perform across NYC and abroad, as well as on live national television. She joined Dances We Dance in 2020 and has since had the pleasure of performing works by Isadora Duncan, Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey, Francesca Todesco, Catherine Gallant, Rae Ballard, and Annmaria Mazzini, while learning and exploring the technique and works of early American modern dance pioneers under the artistic direction of Francesca Todesco. She is also an active company member with Mark Bankin Dance Theatre and performs with The NeoPolitical Cowgirls. As a teaching artist, Colleen shares her love of movement with the students at WR Arts and the School at Peridance.
ROSY GENTLE Originally from Spokane Washington, Rosy began studying dance at the age of three and received a BA in dance and environmental studies from the University of Washington. She has studied ballet, modern dance and most recently Argentine tango. Since moving to New York, she has danced with Moving Visions Dance, Dances by Isadora, Rae Ballard, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, Heidi Latsky Dance, Cross Move Lab, Studio Apartment, SMUSH gallery, and Mark Bankin. She has also performed internationally in Athens, Paris, and Berlin. As a member of Dances We Dance under the direction of Francesca Todesco, Rosy has studied the movement of Isadora Duncan and had the opportunity to assist in teaching Duncan technique and repertoire at the Duncan Dance Research Center in Greece; she looks forward to more opportunities in the future!
DANCERS
Originally from Atlanta, JEWEL CAMERON is a New York based dancer and choreographer. Jewel studied dance at Oberlin College, where she received the Distinction in Dance award. Jewel has performed and had work showcased at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Trinity College’s Performance Lab, the Ohio 5 Dance Conference, and Oberlin’s Warner Theater.
CAMILLE CONSTANTI is a dancer and teacher based in NYC. She studied in the Independent Program at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance where she was instructed by Amélie Bénard, Miriam Barbosa, Marnie Thomas Wood, Ellen Graff et al. Camille received her B.A. in Literature and Philosophy from St. John’s College, where she founded the St. John’s Dance Collective and taught contemporary and ballet classes to adults. Her formative dance training was in ballet, contemporary and hula at Hawaii State Ballet, the Movement Center and Punahou School. She has learned and performed the repertory of Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham and Jacqulyn Buglisi. Camille has performed for Mark Bankin Dance Theater since 2023. In 2025 she became a certified Classical Pilates instructor.
THANDI NYAMBOSE, native of Boston, MA, began dancing at the age of twelve with the Deborah Mason School of Dance and continued her professional training through her time at Barnard College. She has lived and worked in NYC for ten years and performed at venues including the Kennedy Center in DC, and been featured in dance roles by brands such as Converse. With movement, Thandi aspires to fulfill the highest expression of herself as a human being and an artist.
NIRA SOLÉNE From childhood at Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in Torrington, Connecticut, to discovering the timeless rhythm tradition at the early modern dance & movement system of the Noyes School of Rhythm in Portland, I’ve danced through life. A pivotal summer introduced me to the artistry of Isadora Duncan, whose free-spirited, soulful movement transformed my understanding of dance. Studying her techniques with various Duncan teachers, I embraced her philosophy of connecting the body to the heart’s emotional flow. In 2019, I deepened my practice with Egyptian dance (Raqs Sharqi), also known as belly dance, and began performing and teaching in NYC. As my journey evolved, I explored erotic feminine movement, which became the heart of my personal style and path as a women’s empowerment leader. Through Awaken Your Sensual Goddess, my signature program fuses sensual yoga, belly dance, modern dance, and feminine archetypes to guide others toward embodied empowerment.
MARY GARRETT TURNER is thrilled to be recreating Isadora Duncan’s historical pieces with Dances We Dance. Recent credits include the role of Queen Margaret in She-Wolves, Peaseblossom in The Dreamer, as Brenda in the film Last Dance directed by Malene Schjoennin, and as Sheila in There’s A Marquee… at American Theatre of Actors.
Notably, she has performed off-Broadway and regionally in A Chorus Line, The Will Rogers Follies, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and as a Radio City Rockette. She can also be seen in films, The Producers, The Stepford Wives, and Summer of Sam. Mary Garrett graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, receiving her BFA in dance where she was introduced to the legacy of Isadora Duncan.
Beyond theater, Mary Garrett enjoys flowers, entertaining, and longevity science… and is deeply passionate about supporting arts advocacy and education. She serves on the boards of Neo-Political Cowgirls and Atlantic Theater Company and has previously served with the organizations WomanKind, Parents-In-Action, and The Chapin School. She is extremely grateful to Francesca for the opportunity to broaden her dance life and for the support of her family.
HALEY WOLFERSBERGER is a New York City based dancer and teacher. Originally from Ocean City, Maryland she began dancing at the age of four and received a BFA in Dance from Montclair State University in 2019. There she had the opportunity to perform works by Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. She has enjoyed expanding her knowledge of Isadora Duncan through this workshop and is very grateful to Francesca for continuing her legacy.
