This year, Dance Place is celebrating 40 years of growth and innovation in our DC neighborhood, and in those 40 years, we’ve had hundreds of patrons, students, and artists join our community. As we dive deeper into our Archival pursuits in our FORTITUDE year, we are excited to highlight community members from each decade of our history and share their stories alongside our own. Learn more about their histories with memories from our robust archives to tell the unique, diverse, and personal story of Dance Place.
2020: Dance Place looking towards 40 more years of creation, education, presentation, and community
Decade Representative: Sarah Beth Oppenheim & Belmondo Raziel Mertz
Describe your history with Dance Place.
Dance Place was literally one of the first places I went after moving here. I arrived on a Thursday in 2011, and walked into the building to take class with Tzveta Kassabova the following Monday morning. My next experience was as a performer in Stephanie Miracle’s work Figure Eights, and this is where I really got to know DMV performers and the special quirkiness of the backstage space being so close to the audience. That production was also where I first interacted with Ben Levine, Sarah Tundermann, Zachary Z. Handler, Kate Folsom, and Christopher K. Morgan – folks who all really helped elevate my work over the years. Next I was a presented choreographer in a Dance Metro DC Showcase – and that’s when I met Hayley Cutler and her amazing all female cast from darlingdance. Those ladies have become my friends, artistic collaborators, and mentors in this area. Eventually, I became a regular patron and class-goer; DP became my training, performance, and social hub.
And THEN…Carla decided to change things up in January 2018. After helming the class for over 30 years, she and Dance Place gifted me the most amazing opportunity to teach Monday Night Modern. I feel like I moved into Dance Place at that point – at least spiritually. I met so many more community members, felt much more connected to this really vibrant community of dancers, and was honored to join such a special faculty and staff alongside Sam Turner – Monday Night’s longtime accompanist. Monday nights are now the anchor of my week. It’s truly a gift to gather with friends and community members for our weekly seventy-five minutes of dancing side by side, whether in person, or over Zoom rectangles. We process difficult times, celebrate together, chase catharsis through splays and ball changes, and dance through whatever comes our way.
Later in 2018, I was so lucky to deepen my relationship with Dance Place as an inaugural Artist in Residence, alongside Quynn Johnson and Ryan Johnson of SOLE Defined. In our two years in residence, my company Heart Stück Bernie programmed and facilitated community events for students and choreographers, created new works exploring hypermagicalrealism, politics, and systemic deconstruction experiments, and established a research practice of land, music, and movement acknowledgement. We were able to deepen process, choreographic research, and relationships with the DMV dance community.
One of the most important aspects of my history at Dance Place is how they supported my choreographic and teaching career through pregnancy and into motherhood. They opened up doors and possibilities that are difficult to come by as a working mom in this field. My son Belmondo is always welcomed (and cared for by loving hands) in rehearsal spaces, meetings, and performances. He is so lucky to grow up in this incredible community of artists – partaking of their wisdom, vibrancy, and beautiful performance. I look forward to many more shared Dance Place experiences with Belmondo and his new little sister.
What is your favorite Dance Place memory?
What is one way you will be celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year?
The beauty of the virtual season is that Belmondo can join every performance, and his…we’ll call it exuberant delight and running commentary…don’t fall on any other audience ears! We’ll navigate this when we return to more in-person performances, but right now we’re so lucky he gets to view so much dance. I also love that he’s around for virtual Monday Night Modern; he boogies on the sidelines and loves seeing everyone on screen at the end of class.
Another way we’re celebrating the anniversary is really getting behind Dance Place’s initiatives of change, honest self reflection, and recalibration. I’m inspired by how leadership, staff, faculty, and resident artists are directly addressing systemic racism and actively pursuing programmatic and institutional response.
When I think of anniversaries, I think of the years that built up to the particular milestone, and the dreams we conjure to extend that numerical marker. So, celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year is also about the joy of looking back, and the commitment to dream big alongside the organization for the next 40 years! As I celebrate my most beloved DMV dance home this year, I revel in the stories of those who came before me, and the future possibilities that will surprise, delight, and challenge us.
Archives Highlight
Here is a program from Extreme Lengths Production’s I made this dance and nobody cares but you from 2019, which was the first performance Sarah Beth took Belmondo to just weeks after he was born!
2010: Dance Place preparing for growth and expansion
Decade Representative: Vee Woodland
What is your favorite Dance Place memory?
Describe your history with Dance Place.
What is one way you will be celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year?
Archives Highlight
Check out this Fall 2014 Kids on the Move Brochure from our Archives. This would have been around the time Vee began taking classes with KOM!
2000: Dance Place celebrating 20 years and a new millenium
Decade Representative: Shomari Stevens
Describe your history with Dance Place.
I was always at Dance Place since I remember. I was there since I was 3 – my mother was one of the original Junior staffers that set the foundation for the Junior Staff program. My mother would always take the West African dance classes, and I would always be there with the drummers. When I got older, I started drumming and would drum in some of the Coyaba shows and would take drumming class. I started Junior Staff when I was 13/14 and in Junior Staff I would do drumming and work in the office for my work shift. My elective class was drumming. I did that for a while and then started working in Camp. My first time I worked at Dance Place over the summer was 2016. Been in the Junior Staff program ever since.
I’m glad there is a place like Dance Place around because it keeps people busy and when you are busy, you have less time to be into stuff and be in trouble because you are doing something.
What is one way you will be celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year?
This is my last year in Junior Staff after 7 years and I will be starting something new! Dance Place was the only job I had until recently, I am glad I had the chance to work here. I learned a lot about how to be in a workplace, and workplace expectations and etiquette. I’m not sad because I will still be part of the community! Different but not much will change.
What is your favorite Dance Place memory?
Four or five years ago! My favorite Dance Place memory is when the JS program went to New York. Everyone that summer drove up to New York and took dance classes. That was the most fun I’ve had at Dance Place! We went to Times Square at night, I have never seen a city like that. I grew up in DC, people coming from outside think here it’s pretty but this is just home and where I live. I really thought NY was pretty at night.
We took a house dance class and one of my former mentors and drumming instructors Desmond and took class with us. I hadn’t seen him in a while and I was surprised to see him. We did a West African class the next day. We stayed for two nights.
That trip feels so much closer than it was in time.
Note: This feature is a transcription of an oral interview.
Archives Highlight
Check out this Junior Staff Program brochure! Featuring quotes, photos, and overviews of the program, this archival printed piece is a snapshot of Shomari’s experience as a Junior Staffer.
1990: Dance Place settling into our home in Brookland/Edgewood
Decade Representative: Alison Talvacchio
Describe your history with Dance Place.
I first came to Dance Place as a student in Carla & Company’s morning classes. I was working on a Drama degree at Catholic University, and wanted to continue dancing, as I had done since I was young. I also often took Shannon Quinn’s modern class through the CUA musical theater department. When I graduated in 2011, Shannon was beginning ReVision dance company, following the retirement of Carla & Company. She suggested I audition and I joined the company as an apprentice. I worked my way up to a company member and danced with ReVision while working as a freelance actor, teaching artist, and Box Office Assistant at theaters in the area. About 5 years ago, I joined Dance Place full-time as the Box Office Manager. I’ve since added to that position the Work/Study and Volunteer programs, and Financial Assistant responsibilities. I still dance with ReVision, and I teach Creative Movement with the Kids on the Move program.
What is one way you will be celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year?
I’m very excited about the Disability Justice committee I’m working on with other Dance Place board members and staff. We have a lot of great ideas and goals already in the works, as well as a renewed commitment to finding creative solutions to complex, long-standing barriers. Silver linings of our circumstances this year include the space and time to make thoughtful change and the prevalence of technology and tools that increase accessibility. I’m honored to be a part of these conversations and I think it is a fantastic way to honor what Dance Place has achieved while continuing to push us forward.
What is your favorite Dance Place memory?
It is SO hard to choose. I have so many incredible memories with ReVision dance company – they are some of my best friends in the world. We’ve traveled to South Africa twice together, we’ve performed for field trip groups to squeals of excitement and awe, and had many laugh-until-you-cry family dinners, game nights, and backstage shenanigans.
But I have also worked many impactful DanceAfrica festivals, Kwanzaa Celebrations, and gala events. The energy I feel from the audience in our theater is heart warming and uplifting. When I am able to help bring that about – it is very rewarding. I have done many pre-show speeches as House Manager, and I’ve handed the mic over to some incredible leaders and mentors – Carla, Deborah, Sylvia, Christopher. I’ve learned so much from them all and I’m very grateful.
Archives Highlight
Check out this postcard for ReVision’s 2018 “Garage Sale” from our print archives. As Alison mentioned, she’s been dancing with ReVision for 10 amazing years, and will be performing in their physically distant performance in May.
1980: Founding of Dance Place
Decade Representative: JR "Nexus" Russ
Describe your history with Dance Place.
So while I had taken a class here and there, I think my history with Dance Place really kicked off when I was one of the first residents to move into the Brookland Artspace Lofts next door, in 2011. I had just finished grad school the year before and was getting ready to produce my second devised piece for Capital Fringe in just as many years. Being welcomed as a neighbor into housing for and with other artists was just an incredible gift, and helped me to understand the way Dance Place really looked at community, especially within the Brookland and Edgewood neighborhoods. I would go on to join a committee of various stakeholders to help guide the selection and design process for the Arts Park, bridging the lofts and Dance Place. Soon after I would then join the board, in the final years of Carla and Deborah’s time leading the organization.
What is one way you will be celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year?
One way I’ll be celebrating Dance Place’s 40th year is actually in line with how I hope to celebrate my own 40th, as my birthday is March 18, and that is simply to begin dancing again and dancing more. I was a dance major at UMD and finished in ’06, and have reflected on how and why my time since then has led to me dancing less. Fortunately, some of the barriers to that no longer exist, and some I plan on dancing again and taking classes as often as possible. I feel like celebrating Dance Place simply by beginning to move again also reflects how much I, and I’m sure others as well, want and need dance and the community it engenders as the world finds ways to move again, as we hopefully get closer to the end of this pandemic.
What is your favorite Dance Place memory?
My favorite Dance Place memory might actually be from 2011, when another organization I was on the board of at the time, Story District (then SpeakeasyDC), actually had a show at Dance Place. It was in October and the theme was true stories that were scary. To help kick it off, we actually had a surprise Thriller Flash mob, and I got to help teach and lead it, channeling Michael Jackson. I think it was the intersection of two performing arts organizations that I loved, happening at a time when I was questioning a lot of what I was doing and where I was in life. And this moment helped affirm that at least for that night, I was in the right place at the right time.
Archives Highlight
Check out our 2011-2012 Season Brochure from our print archives. If you look at the second picture, it describes the SpeakeasyDC Halloween event that Nexus said was his favorite Dance Place memory! Were you there to witness the epic Thriller flash mob?
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