Photo Credit: Wendy Whitesell
Jenny Boissiere, choreographeR &
Artistic Director
Jenny Boissiere is a Washington Heights based choreographer. Originally from New Orleans, her movement style reflects her background in modern dance, jazz, Black southern line dances and rhythms, and contact improvisation. Her work examines themes of power, dependence, empathy, and identity. She uses improvisation as an entry point for her work and character development. She enjoys when the line between audience and performer is blurred and wants her dances to be accessible to new audiences.
Jenny was selected for Doug Varone’s Choreographic Mentorship and Chen Dance Center’s New Steps Choreographer Series in 2017. Her work has been shown at Gibney Dance Center, Dixon Place, and Mark Morris Dance Center. She produced her first evening-length show, Reflections//Refractions: The Empathy Project in 2019. After a two-year hiatus, she created Running Into Joy in 2021. She is currently working on ReStart Project, outdoor dance work, and celebration for Fort Washington Park.
Jenny’s work has been supported by an NYC Artists Corp Grant (2021), two Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone’s Creative Engagement Grants (2019, 2022) and two Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Creative Engagement Grant (2019 and 2021). She is also an inaugural recipient of UMEZ and Mertz Gilmore Foundation’s Seed Fund for Dance in Upper Manhattan for Summer 2022.
current performers
Sara Crayne-Dedrick, performer
Sara Crayne-Dedrick, Westchester NY, graduated magna cum laude from Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2015. While at college, she performed works by Pam Tanowitz, Doug Elkins, Larry Keigwin, Keith Thompson, Randy James, Kim Gibilisco, Paul Ocampo, and Julia Ritter. Her work has also been shown during the Rutgers Summer Series, annual student concerts, and ACDFA. She has had the privilege of dancing for Kelley Donovan, Monteleone Dance Collective, Tangent Dance under NACRE Dance Company and her own work throughout New York, New Jersey, and Boston.
Molly Gorin, performer
Molly is a Brooklyn based mover and native New Yorker. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2016 with a double major in dance and creative writing. Since then she has been making and performing contemporary dance and physical theater with a variety of emerging choreographers.
Sarah Hillmon, performer
Sarah Hillmon is a native of Rochester, NY. There, she trained with Garth Fagan, Timothy M. Draper and was a member of the Rochester City Ballet. She graduated with a BFA in Dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she had the privilege of performing works by talented artists including Sidra Bell, Lucinda Childs, Gus Solomons Jr, and Charles Weidman. While in New York City, Sarah has danced for Lucinda Childs Dance Company, Suzanne Beahrs Dance, BodyStories, AMS Project, MATYCHAK and was a founding member of RedCurrant Collective.
Genna Mattana, performer
Genna Mattana, from Syosset, New York, is a New York based dance artist. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where she received a BFA in Dance. During her time at MGSA, she had the opportunity to perform in works by choreographers including Pam Tanowitz, David Parker, Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, and Netta Yerushalmy. Since graduating, she has had the opportunity to perform for Krissy and the Works, Juliana Garber, Libby Wolf, Taryn Vander Hoop, Jenna Riegel, Jenny Boissiere, and as an apprentice for David Dorfman Dance.
Jacquelyn batten, performer
Jacquelyn Batten (she/they) hails from East Spencer, NC and is a graduate of UNC Greensboro with a BFA in Choreography and Performance and an Arts Administration minor (‘18). Her work centers around Black movement, social theory and spirituality, using these ideas as tools to further understand herself and the world around her. She explores these concepts through movement vocabulary rooted in her modern, hip hop, jazz, and traditional African training. Besides being a well-versed choreographer and performer, she developed her own movement-based media platform entitled (soul)lection where she shares her work, dance journey, and other movement-based content. Jacquelyn is also a budding arts administrator, with hopes of one day curating and producing performance art. They are currently wrapping up their time as the Dance Programming apprentice at New York City Center, with the hopes of advancing their administrative career to the next level. Jacquelyn is excited to be in New York tacking her artistic pursuits, and looks forward to where this journey takes her.
Jessica Robling, Performer
Jessica Robling, Brooklyn NY, graduated from The University of Wisconsin Madison in 2019 with a BFA in Dance and Pilates Certificate. While at UW-Madison, Jessica has performed works by Kate Corby, Li Chiao-Ping, Chris Walker, Jin-Wen Yu, Michel Kouakou, Scott Ewen, Heidi Latsky, Brooke Smiley, and Anna Halprin. Since graduating, she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers Jin Wen Yu, Li Chiao Ping, Liz Sexe Dance, Kanon Sapp, and was a member of Nimbus2 Dance.
Madelyne Clark, Performer
Madelyne Clark was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and grew up in Monroe, Louisiana, where she began her formal competitive dance training at Linda Lavender School of Dance. During her off seasons with Twin City Ballet, Madelyne spent her summers studying at Joffrey South Ballet Summer Intensive, Next Generation Ballet, and Regional Dance America’s National Choreography Intensive. Madelyne graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Louisiana at Monroe with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. She soon moved to New York to continue her training at The Ailey School. As a student in The Ailey School Scholarship Program, Madelyne has worked with renowned choreographers such as Omar Roman de Jesus, Earl Mosley, and Martha Nichols and was featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As a member of the Ailey Student Performance Group, she had the opportunity to not only learn repertory by Alvin Ailey but also work with Ronald K. Brown and Tina Bush. Madelyne enjoys all styles of dance and exploring new movements through both improvisation and choreography of her own which has been been recognized and awarded through Regional Dance America (Monticello Award 2017). Madelyne is very excited to collaborate these fellow artists in the Restart Project.
collaborators
Becky Hutt, Rehearsal Director & Creative consultant for Restart project
Becky Hutt is a dancer, visual artist and graduate student currently residing in Boston, Massachusetts to complete her Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy. She has trained in many styles of dance and has had the opportunity to perform with companies in Chicago and New York as well as tour throughout the US, Canada and South America with Disney Live. Becky was a member of DanceBoissiere from 2014-2017 and has been a collaborator since then. She looks forward to rejoining the company as a performer upon completion of her degree.
Jamie Yasgur, Rehearsal Asst. & Performer
Jamie is a dance/movement therapist in New York, specializing in Authentic Movement. She has work extensively with LGBT elders and individuals with severe and profound disabilities, including medical frailties and autism spectrum disorder. She has also run workshops for women surrounding themes of sexual identity and expression. In 2010 Jamie co-founded an intergenerational dance troupe, “Tuesday’s at 4”, that performed across New York City. Jamie has been a dancer with DanceBoissiere since 2015 and rehearsal assistant since 2017.
Frankie quintanilla, performer
Francisca Quintanilla is a graduate from Mason Gross School of the Arts. She hails from North Bergen, NJ. She trained at Yolanda’s Academy of Music and Dance in West New York, NJ. She received training in Classical Ballet and Pointe, Jazz, Tap, Flamenco, Modern, and Contemporary styles. She’s attended intensives with Shen Wei Dance Arts, The Ailey School, David Dorfman, Maxine Doyle and recently with the Cunningham Trust. She has also performed works by Reggie Wilson, Yvonne Rainer, Doug Elkins, Chien Ying Wang, Maxine Doyle, Christian Von Howard, Donna Uchizono, Kimberly Bartosik, and Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company. In 2018 she received the Patricia Mayer Scholarship for Academic and Technical Excellence. She received her Pilates Mat Certification from Polestar Pilates Education in August 2018.
Photo Credit: Mariah Miranda
Carolyn hoehner, performer
Carolyn Hoehner is a performing artist from Washington D.C. She and her collaborative partner Emily Karasinski started Kit District, showing work as apart of Dance Place's New Releases, Gibney Dance, WaxWorks, The Richmond Dance Festival as well as in independent gallery spaces in NYC and D.C. In 2018 they created the Housewarming Project - a collaborative, site-specific work that blurs the line between performance and house-party in order to foster communities between artists and their audiences. Carolyn met Jenny Boissiere in the 2017 cohort of Doug Varone's DEVICES choreographic mentorship and have been collaborators ever since.