Vermont Dance Alliance

09/24/2026

Decade of Dance Gala is this Saturday, 6:00 and 8:00 PM! Do you have your tickets? Don't wait: https://www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/21/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala: CHOREOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT 🌟
Melisa Putz Clark (PIMA Group)

PIMA Group Artistic Director Melisa Putz Clark presents new sections of Shimmers, an evolving interdisciplinary performance created in collaboration with her three daughters, Vivienne (13), Edyn (10), and Mira (7).

Working with her kids, this project combines movement, mask-making, storytelling, original audio recordings, and collaborative design to explore transformation, memory, and evolving identity. Multiple masks will be worn and changed throughout the dance performance, and In the changing of the mask, there is a transition and transformation taking place. Inspired by stories including The Queen in the Cave and The Witch in the Tower by Júlia Sardà, the work unfolds through shifting masks, dreamlike imagery, and layered realities.
"I have danced and performed while pregnant with each of them, they have all been witness to my rehearsal process and performances while creating solo or group dances. They each perform regularly with their dance studio performances and have created many ‘living room’ performances with each other for years. So now we’re merging all of that together into our unique dance rehearsal process adding in set and costume design, masks and sound recordings in a truly collaborative way." Clark says. "We’re finding ways to listen to each other’s ideas and incorporate them into this performance. It has been incredible to share this focused creative time together, preparing for the VDA Gala Performance. Many thanks to the Micro Seed Grant for the impetus to make this happen now!"

A Decade of Dance Gala: featuring performances from this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients
When: Saturday, September 26th. Two shows 6:00 and 8:00 PM
Where: The Chapel in Montpelier
Get your tickets now! www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/19/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala: CHOREOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT 🌟
Caitlin Morgan

presents an excerpt of Wind and Unwinding, an ambitious new ensemble work examining humanity's complex relationship with the natural world.
“Wind and Unwinding,” set to an original score by Silence_Castor and choreographed by Caitlin Morgan in collaboration with the cast (Hannah Katz, Mia Makarski, Caitlin McCloskey-Meyer, Emma Rainville, and Gem Raff), explores humans’ interventionist relationship with our ecosystem: an internal war between the intellectual desire to control our surroundings and a fundamentally animal urge to surrender to the imperfect, sometimes violent, and nonetheless beautiful wildness that surrounds us. Drawing inspiration from mosh pits, sacred geometry, and architectural evolution, this entropic mirror of the human condition invites the audience to see where care accompanies chaos, the blurry edge between nature and Nature, and to feel their full spectrum of emotions, both individually and collectively.

Caitlin had the opportunity to participate in and share excerpts of her piece at both and as part of our Micro-Grant Partnership opportunities. Her full piece premiered at Main Street Landing on Thursday, September 10th of this year with an additional abbreviated showing at the Vermont Dance Alliance Gala in Montpelier on September 26th.

A Decade of Dance Gala: featuring performances from this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients
When: Saturday, September 26th. Two shows 6:00 and 8:00 PM
Where: The Chapel in Montpelier
Get your tickets now! www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/18/2026

Take a trip down memory lane as we prepare for 10 Years of Dance with Vermont Dance Alliance.
VDA was developed to create alternate pathways that allow dancers in Vermont viable avenues to create, develop, and share their art. We want to share some of the ways VDA has helped fill the gaps and take creating dance from an act of sacrifice to a fulfilling journey for artists.

Please help us in this celebration:
-Tag VDA in any old photos you may have already posted on social media.
-Do you have photos that didn’t get posted? Email them to us: [email protected] Bonus: include names of dancers and description of the event.
-If you feel so called, we invite you share some of how VDA has impacted your dance journey to [email protected] or by posting on social media and tagging us!

Thank you for these beautiful photographs, Mike Reilly!

I had the distinct honor of photographing "Traces: A Public Dance Happening," a da- long series of performances in downtown Burlington and at the waterfront on Saturday. Organized brilliantly by Vermont Dance Alliance (vermont dance.org), it featured dancers representing a broad range of ages and styles and showcased dance and movement in a variety of genres, including contemporary, classical, and improvisational. It generated interest and joy to all who got the chance to see or participate. While this is a large album, it's just a small sample of what went on (and what I shot!), but I hope it captures the spirit and feel of the day. I invite folks to tag themselves, and to feel free to share whatever they'd like. These are not posts full resolution, but I'm glad to forward this to folks pictured who may want them. Thanks to Jessie Owens and Hanna Satterlee for inviting me to take part! Check out Vermont Dance Alliance - they have a while list of great happenings around the state!

09/15/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala: CHOREOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT 🌟
Kat Coyne

is a recent University of Vermont graduate and Lines Vermont instructor. Kat Coyne presents new choreographic research examining bodily autonomy and creative ownership in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.

The work asks urgent contemporary questions: How do we protect our bodies from artificial replication? How do artists safeguard creative ideas from intellectual property theft in the face of technological reproduction? Through movement, Coyne investigates systems of power, technology ethics, q***r feminism, and the ways social structures shape our relationships with ourselves and one another. Performed by Andy Logan, Lily Horowitz, Dani Sewards.

A Decade of Dance Gala: featuring performances from this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients
When: Saturday, September 26th. Two shows 6:00 and 8:00 PM
Where: The Chapel in Montpelier
Get your tickets now! www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/11/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala: CHOREOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT 🌟
Jennifer Daniels

Jennifer will continue developing new work for Talking with Strangers, an ongoing exploration of what occurs when individuals who begin as strangers move toward moments of connection. The project asks how intimacy, trust, and recognition can emerge between individuals. This project builds on Jennifer’s diverse pool of knowledge as facilitator, mediator, and designer.

Through this residency, Jen aims to expand the Talking with Strangers series by developing Conversations 4, 5, and 6 by exploring new collaborative dynamics with objects, instrumentation and spontaneity.

Jen is a lifelong dancer whose creative practice is informed by more than four decades of movement, community engagement, and interdisciplinary work. Alongside her artistic pursuits, she is a landscape architect, facilitator of dialogues in conflict transformation, leadership, and social justice, and co-founder of her family’s h**p farming and product manufacturing business. Her work has been shaped by experiences across the southwestern and northeastern United States and throughout Russia, where relationship-centered collaboration and productive landscapes informed her approach to creativity, leadership, and advocacy. As both an artist and practitioner, Jen brings a thoughtful, community-driven perspective to her dance, facilitation, and design practices.

A Decade of Dance Gala: featuring performances from this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients
When: Saturday, September 26th. Two shows 6:00 and 8:00 PM
Where: The Chapel in Montpelier
Get your tickets now! www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/08/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala: CHOREOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT 🌟
Hanna Satterlee

/ANIMAL Dance will preview Future Nostalgia, featuring Vermont dance artists Sarah Vogelsang-Card, Mia Makarski, Maggie Maury, and Maura Gahan with a DJ mix by noltron. Future Nostalgia is being commissioned by interspecies dance artist Kari Wolfe Borni, to be included in an immersive dance performance inside Borni’s horse barn in Addison County, Vermont this October. Kari’s pieces in the October show will feature her dancing with horses. This section by ANIMAL Dance will be a dance/theater story mixing story and character with the embodied nonverbal vocabulary that relates how physical language is shared between species.

Future Nostalgia is a nod to two ideas: that there will be a time when we viscerally miss what is happening now, and there will be a time when we wish we could tell our past selves of the good that will come out of their current hardship. Future Nostalgia will touch on the concept of being in a specific and tenuous moment, with five sides of one character in dialogue, each dancer representing one of five voices within the self.

A Decade of Dance Gala: featuring performances from this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients
When: Saturday, September 26th. Two shows 6:00 and 8:00 PM
Where: The Chapel in Montpelier
Get your tickets now! www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/07/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala:
Join the celebration at the Vermont Dance Alliance Gala Showcase on Saturday, September 26, an inspiring evening featuring performances by this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients. Audiences will enjoy excerpts of five new works created by some of Vermont’s most innovative dance artists while celebrating a decade of impact and investing in the next generation of dance. The Gala will feature performances at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at The Chapel in Montpelier, bringing together artists, supporters, and dance lovers for an unforgettable night of creativity and community.

At the Gala, VDA will be featuring new works from: Hanna Satterlee , Caitlin Morgan , jdaniels21 , Kat Coyne , and Melissa Clark.

We have two ticket levels for each show, a standard price, and a supporter level for anyone who can give more. Get your tickets now! www.vermontdance.org/gala

09/04/2026

A Decade of Dance Gala:
Join the celebration at the Vermont Dance Alliance Gala Showcase on Saturday, September 26, an inspiring evening featuring performances by this year’s Choreographer’s Seed Micro-Grant recipients. Audiences will enjoy excerpts of five new works created by some of Vermont’s most innovative dance artists while celebrating a decade of impact and investing in the next generation of dance. The Gala will feature performances at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at The Chapel in Montpelier, bringing together artists, supporters, and dance lovers for an unforgettable night of creativity and community.

At the Gala, VDA will be featuring new works from: , , Jennifer Daniels, , and Melissa Clark.

We have two ticket levels for each show, a standard price, and a supporter level for anyone who can give more. Get your tickets now! https://www.vermontdance.org/about-micro-grants

06/30/2026

TRACES 2026 RECAP

HUGE THANK YOUS to everyone who made pieces, helped set up and prepare, or came to watch and support all of us at TRACES this year! Although we got pushed inside by the rain, it was such a good day of dancing, meeting, and getting to know one another!

Thanks to Community of Sound and Lauren Larken, Heart Song, Aerial Healing Arts for helping with space and set up, kat terrell Sonia Plumb Vivi Noah Saltzman, Paul Besaw, Jacob Ian Ireland Asher Taylor-Dawson emilyarwenmott Addie Irvin and all of the other dancers who helped make this day so fun!

If you want more opportunities like this, get involved and join VDA! With your help and support, next years TRACES will be EVEN BIGGER ❤️💃🕺💙