Elisa Monte Dance (USA)
Elisa Monte Dance, founded in 1981, bridges cultural barriers through the universal language of dance. From its earliest recognition on the world stage in 1982 as “best company” at the International Dance Festival of Paris, the company has succeeded for over two decades. The work of Elisa Monte, a former principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company and Pilobolus, is widely recognized for its highly athletic and sensual style, as well as its technical and physical acuity, exploring a multitude of topics and themes.
The company has performed in over 40 nations including Singapore, Italy, Russia, France, Germany, and throughout the United States. Elisa Monte Dance has also appeared in several major dance festivals, from Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave and Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors to Steps ‘98 Switzerland and Weimar 1999 Cultural Capital activities. Elisa Monte Dance
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has been featured on television networks through Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, and the company was highlighted on PBS Metro Arts Channel 13 in New York as part of the station’s Dance Month, celebrating accomplished New York City-based choreographers. Elisa Monte Dance celebrates diversity through the work, its artists, and staff. The company’s artists hail from all corners of the globe, including the US, the Bahamas, Africa, Austria and the French Caribbean.
Artistic Director Biography
Elisa Monte entered the world of professional dance early, making her professional New York debut dancing with Agnes De Mille in City Center Theater’s revival of Carousel at the age of eleven, and attending the prestigious School of American Ballet. Monte worked as a principal dancer with Martha Graham Company for eight years, as well as Lar Lubovitch and Pilobolus, among others. Fifteen years into her professional career, Ms. Monte turned her attention to choreography and founded the company that bears her name.
Ms. Monte has created over 40 works in her years as a choreographer. These works have been performed by Elisa Monte Dance and other notable dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet Gulbenkian of Portugal, Teatro alla Scala Ballet, Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theater, North Carolina Dance Theater, the Batsheva Dance Company of Israel, Contemporary Dance Wyoming and the PACT Contemporary Dance Company of South Africa. Her signature work Treading, was created as part of a choreography initiative to develop new work from artists of the Martha Graham Dance Company. The work helped Elisa Monte Dance win “best company” at the International Dance Festival of Paris in 1982 and has also been adopted as a long-standing favorite into the repertory of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
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