Laurie De Vito is
the founder, director, and choreographer of Laurie De Vito &
Dancers (formerly She-Bops and Scats), a New York-based dance company
dedicated to bringing quality concert dance to the stage. She is also a
founding director of Dance New Amsterdam (formerly Dance Space Center),
a dance school located at 280 Broadway in Manhattan, where she teaches
regularly scheduled classes and where the members of her company also
rehearse, teach, hold workshops and perform. Ms. De Vito’s
persistence and commitment enable her to continue her work despite
diminishing economic support for the arts in New York City.
In addition to choreographing for Laurie De Vito
& Dancers, Ms. De Vito has created and danced for The Uncompany,
Present Company Accepted and the Boulder Jazz Dance Company. She was
commissioned to choreograph for the Montreal Jazz Dance Festival and
has mounted two works for Zenon, a Minneapolis-based jazz dance company.
Ms. De Vito has taught at many schools across the
United States including Spirit Square Center for the Arts in North
Carolina and Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, locally at New
York University and Hofstra, in Canada at the École de Danse in
Montreal, York University in Toronto, and the Academie de Ballet de
Saguenay in Quebec, and internationally at I.A.C. Studio in Tokyo and
the Tel Aviv Dance Center in Israel. Before founding Dance New
Amsterdam, she was on the faculty of Morelli Ballet School in New York
for over four years and was also artist-in-residence at the Lexington
School for the Deaf. She is a co-founder of Evolving Arts, Inc., a
producing organization created to help emerging artists which has
received much critical acclaim (Anna Kisselgoff,
The New York Times) for its choreographer’s series.
As a choreographer and teacher, Ms. De Vito
consistently refines and develops her understanding and approach to
dance. Her pieces are usually inspired by musical compositions that
evoke particular emotions and their corresponding images and shapes.
The repertory of Laurie de Vito & Dancers is a reflection of her
versatility and creativity. Ms. De Vito has earned great praise and
support as a choreographer, dancer and gifted teacher.
Katie Bailey graduated from
Mount Holyoke College, obtaining a B.A. in Dance with a pre-medical
emphasis. She has performed works by Balanchine, Mark Morris,
José Limón, Rain Ross and Kellie Ann Lynch. Previously
she performed with Ballet Tucson and in the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe
Festival with Burklyn Ballet Theatre. She started working with Laurie
De Vito and Dancers in 2009. Katie began teaching Pilates during high
school in Arizona at Anderson Pilates. She continues to teach in New
York at Volution Movement Lab. She is also the founder
of the Volution Foundation, working with children with special needs
through Pilates and movement exploration.
Sarah Clark graduated from Indiana University
in 2004, earning her B.A. in Dance Performance and English Literature.
In the summer of 2003, Sarah attended the American Dance Festival (ADF)
where she performed works for John Jasperse and Ming Yang. She then
relocated to NYC
in
2005. Sarah was honored to begin working closely with Laurie
and
her beautiful dancers in 2006. Sarah
has also performed for Propel-Her Dance Collective, Rachel Feinerman,
Ricardo Gomez Dance Theater, and Jamie Dowd. Sarah earned her
teacher training at OM Yoga Center in 2007, and has since gone on to
teach yoga privately and at OM Yoga Center, New York University, and
Dance New Amsterdam.
Rachel Feinerman
started dancing at Barnard College and received her BA in Dance and
Political Science. She has performed with Laurie De Vito since 1999.
Rachel has also been a member of Daria Fain's Human Behavior Explorers and Ricardo Gomez Dance Theatre and
has danced for Wilson Mendieta, Isabel Gotzkowsky, Sakura Shimada, Gail Accardi, Suki
John, Yael Levy, Marjon van Grunsven, Katiti King, and Diane McCarthy. She
has been in cast in photo and film projects including Stephanie
Matthews' black and white series "Dance: A Study of Movement and
Fluidity," Julie Taymor's
Across the Universe, and Daria Fain's film
Clocks and Clouds and has worked with visual artists Brookie Maxwell and Kelvin Robertson.
Rachel's choreography has been performed at Dance New Amsterdam, Green Space, WAX, Evolving
Arts, Makor, and Greenwich House Theater. She has been on faculty at Dance
New Amsterdam since 2000 and has taught at Barnard College, 3rd Ward and the Educational Alliance.
Sally Im
began her dance training with Laurie De Vito in 2000. She was
honored to join the company in 2005. Sally has a BA in American
Studies from Mills College, Oakland, CA and is also a DJ, costume
designer and an active member of the
New York Mycological Society.
Many of her costume designs can be seen in Laurie De Vito's
work. She currently owns an art framing business
www.egganddartframe.com in Edgewater, NJ.
Megumi
Onishi moved
to NYC after graduating from Skidmore College, Saratoga
Springs, NY. She has had the opportunity to work with
several choreographers including Verhoff/LoTurco DanceWorks, Paul
Mosley at the Yard on Martha's Vineyard, and Naeko Shikano at the
New York Fringe Festival. She first performed with Laurie De
Vito in 2002 and since then has been grateful to be part of such
an amazing group of people.
Suzanne Reimann is from Belleville, NJ and a graduate of The School of Visual Arts in NYC. She has been studying and performing solely with Laurie De Vito since 1988 and has filled a diverse role as dancer and artist. Working with artist Karen Guancione, she joined her productions of "Contro il Malocchio" and "The Art of Labor". Integrating art installation with traditional folk dances of southern Italy, the combined disciplines served to bring awareness to the historical importance of women's work, ethnicity and labor injustices. Pilates continues to be her life's work. A practitioner since 1987, she has been teaching at the Greene Street Studio in Soho under Deborah Lessen since 1998. She also maintains an independent practice teaching privately and in Madison, NJ with Margaret Vangeli.
Marcia-Elizabeth Thompson has
worked with a variety of choreographers including Sean Curran, Deborah
Pratt Tacon, and Demetrius Klein, culminating in a six-year stint with
STOMP. She is currently pursuing her Masters in acupuncture at the
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. She joined Laurie De Vito &
Dancers in 2009.
