Summation Dance Company, founded by Sumi Clements and Taryn Vander Hoop, is a New York City based modern dance company creating exciting, innovative, and highly physical work. Empowering each other on all decisions, Clements and Vander Hoop have distinct roles, but an equal partnership that is complimentary in aesthetic and vision. We value dance that moves the flesh; it bubbles from underneath, k
nots in the back, and rips away the layers leaving us raw and exposed. We offer up this work to affect, inspire and enliven. In 2010, Clements and Vander Hoop graduated with their MFAs in Dance Performance and Choreography from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Since the spring of 2010, Summation Dance has selfproduced and premiered two evening length works, Keep Your Feathers Dry and Deep End, at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, as well as produced two Dancing Literate Project performances, their annual dance education outreach festival at Judson Memorial Church. Through the Dancing Literate Project, Summation has commissioned Claudia Anata Hubiak (The Anata Project), Peter Kyle (Peter Kyle Dance), and Kendra Portier (BandPortier) to perform, as well as Andrea Miller (Gallim Dance) and Sydney Skybetter (skybetter & associates) to set repertory pieces on Summation’s dancers. The company has also produced a Benefit performance for the Japan Earthquake relief efforts at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and performed in numerous festivals and venues in NYC such as: DUMBO Dance Festival, FAB Festival, FlicFest at the Irondale Center, Fridays at Noon Series at the 92nd St Y, Judson Memorial Church, La MaMa Moves Festival, REVERB Festival at Baruch Performing Arts Center, Skirball Center, St. Mark’s Church, and the World Dance Alliance Conference. Summation has received commissions from Dance New Amsterdam’s RAW Materials Emerging Artist Showcase and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Clements’ works are powerfully kinetic and emotional explorations of the human experience. Her work demands physicality as she pushes the limits of the body, often displaying the exhaustion and vulnerability of her dancers, while at the same time using small or eccentric gestures to communicate the essence of her idea. Summation Dance strives to bridge the gap between the choreographer and the viewer, so that our art is no longer esoteric and understood only by the dance elite, but can be universally appreciated. We offer dance and arts education programs for children and young adults because we believe that fostering creativity and imagination is the key to a bright future. Our educational outreach program brings dance into the schools, offering performances, as well as movement and composition classes, to children who may not otherwise have exposure to the arts.
