Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup presents DEA x DEA & Moving Memory: NEXT GENERATION

Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup presents The Moving Memory Project featuring DEA x DEA on Friday, June 6, 2025 at 7:30pm and Moving Memory: NEXT GENERATION on Saturday, June 7, 2025 at 7:30pm at Broadway Presbyterian Church, 601 W 114th Street, NYC. Tickets are pay as you wish, reservation required! To learn more and reserve tickets, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dea-x-dea-tickets-1353959512349.

Launched in 2019 by Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup, The Moving Memory Project embodies its founders’ vision of bringing together artists, caregivers, and seniors to create a community of care surrounding issues connected to memory loss and destigmatizing the diagnosis of dementia, to raise awareness until a cure is found. “Works like this can help the world think and talk about dementia and memory loss in important new ways,” says project advisor David Shenk whose writings on Alzheimer's and dementia garnered him international acclaim as an authority on the subject.

“What makes us human?” That’s the central question animating DEA x DEA, a whimsical evening-length dance work co-choreographed by Stefanie Nelson and Maya Orchin that uses Massimiliano Bontempelli's 1925 play, Nostra Dea, as a springboard to explore the clichés and expectations surrounding feminine identity. In Bontempelli’s absurdist comedy, the protagonist is a blank slate, adopting new identities dictated by the outfits she wears. In this contemporary reinterpretation, her transformations reflect the fluid and often contradictory roles imposed on women—simultaneously shaping and erasing identity. Nelson and Orchin shift away from the metaphor of clothing as a mere expression of self and instead critique the "one-size-fits-all" approach to identity. The work explores historical amnesia through the image of a swinging pendulum, progress and regression in a cyclical repetition over time. Ultimately, the dancers embody unpredictable forces of chaos—shaped by and resistant to the expectations placed upon them, revealing the instability of identity in a world that insists on defining it.

This final iteration culminates years of development, from solos to duets to ensemble works. Now distilled into its purest form, DEA x DEA embraces contradiction, movement, and metamorphosis—demanding we ask not just who Dea is, but who we are becoming.

Moving Memory: NEXT GENERATION continues to nurture emerging artistic voices, foster meaningful creative connections, and create space for the next generation of artists in our community.

This edition invites you to an evening of dance curated by Stefanie Nelson, featuring original movement-based works that delve into the themes of memory, erasure, and forgetting.

The performance highlights contributions from members of the Dance Italia community, including Nunzia Picciallo, Next Gen selected choreographer Anna Rice, and a special guest solo by Marjani Forté-Saunders, created in collaboration with Idea Reid, a recent graduate of Barnard College.

Program:

A Black Hole is Everything a Star Longs to Be

Choreography: Marjani-Forte Saunders in collaboration with Idea Reid

Performer: Idea Reid

Music: I Won’t Complain by Rev. Paul Jones and Empty Grail by Vernon Reid

Inspired by the works of: Kara Walker, Frantz Fanon, and Forté-Saunders' On Permanence and I Won’t Complain

This work navigates grief, Black embodiment, and resistance through layered references and deeply personal expression. Anchored by text, song, and movement, it presents a space for reflection on presence, inheritance, and visionary imagination across time.

Idea Reid is a Barnard College graduate with a background in both Dance and Psychology. Her performance credits include work by Norbert de la Cruz III, Chanel DaSilva, and others.

WAMI

Created & Performed by: Nunzia Picciallo

Music: Marcal, Nunzia Picciallo

Supported by: Equilibrio Dinamico, Big Factory, Associazione Culturale Ri.E.S.Co., Fuorimargine Sardegna, Tersicorea T.Off

Produced with support from: MIC Italian Ministry of Culture, GAI, TPP Puglia Public Theater, GA/ER

Awards: Performance Award (Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival), Masdanza Award, SAI Festival Award, and more.

WAMI reclaims the dancing body from binary expectations. Through raw, shifting movement, Nunzia Picciallo offers a vision of identity unbound—fluid, resistant, and fully embodied in its rebellion against structural norms.

smeard

Choreography: Anna Rice in collaboration with the dancers

Dancers: Georgia Dahill-Fuchel, Hanna Golden, Taylor Graham, Anna Rice, Kayla White

Music Composition: Georgia Dahill-Fuchel

Costume Design: Anna Rice

smeard explores the liminal world of dreams—where subconscious truths surface and disorienting logic reigns. Through a surreal, shifting movement language, the work invites audiences into a realm where reality and memory blur, allowing glimpses of our most avoided inner narratives.

The Moving Memory Project is made possible in part with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the West Harlem Development Corporation.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

June 6:

Stefanie Nelson’s (Concept, co-choreographer) multi-disciplinary works have been described by critics as ‘instinctual, untamed, and edgy’. Her work has been presented at venues including Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Stefanie is a curator and producer, dedicated to fostering dialogue between artists and audiences, providing performance opportunities and platforms for emerging and established artists. As founder and director of SNDancegroup and Dance Italia, an international summer dance program, Stefanie cultivates a global exchange of ideas and movement practices, bringing together artists from diverse backgrounds to engage in rigorous physical exploration and creative process. She recently opened Motore 592, a bold, new contemporary performance space dedicated to movement-based arts in Lucca, Italy.

Maya Orchin (co-choreographer, performer) is a choreographer and movement director based between New York and London. She has had her choreographic work presented internationally in Canada, Poland, Italy, Scotland, Germany, Russia, England, Israel, France and throughout the United States. She has had artistic residencies at PAF, Champs Melisey, S.P.A.M, DanceEast, Motore592 and English National Ballet. As a performer she has worked with artists such as Luis Lara Malvacias, Okwui Okpokwasili, Bill T Jones, Christine Bonansea, Davis Freeman, Zoe Scofield, Madeline Hollander, Reut Shemesh, Lynn Neuman, Kate Digby, Jody Oberfelder and more. She was a solo performer in ‘Room 29’ on a European tour with musicians Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales. She has been an assistant choreographer for projects with MOMAPS1, NIKE, and for Stefanie Nelson for fashion designer Terrence Zhou for Bad Binch TONGTONGs New York Fashion Week. Maya has choreographed a music video for singer H.C.McEntire and a recent commercial for LNER.

Tricia Dietrick (performer) is a dance artist with a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance from The Boston Conservatory. She has attended intensives such as A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Dance Italia. Tricia has performed in works by Loni Landon, Victor Quijada, Doug Varone, and Crystal Perkins. As an artist-in-residence for the Boston Conservatory Summer Dance Intensive, her piece Liminal State was presented as part of the program. Additionally, her work Letter(s) to Mom was featured in Moving Memory: Next Generation in NYC. In 2025, Tricia worked in London, England with Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup for research and development of Dea. Tricia also worked in collaboration with Zjana Murraro, to restage and perform With Our Shadows at White Wave International Dance Festival 2025. Most recently, Tricia was a resident choreographer with KTCO the Company for SAT which premiered in NYC April, 2025.​

Paige Doku (performer) is a movement artist originally from Massachusetts. Doku trained and competed in various styles of dance from a young age. She received her foundational training at the Hanover Theater Conservatory, where she studied classical ballet, modern and contemporary. Paige proceeded to attend the Boston Conservatory at Berklee where she received a BFA in 2023. Along with her collegiate studies, Paige simultaneously trained with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel. She has danced and performed on stages abroad in Germany, Italy and Israel. Throughout 2024 Paige performed in multiple works by Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup, in New York City. Doku will join Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company as a member of the Main Company this September.

Noah Meteau (performer) is a French multidisciplinary artist based between Paris and London. Dancer, choreographer, and writer, he creates dance-theater works that blend movement, poetry, and cinematic atmospheres. He has choreographed several pieces since the age of 19 and designs the lighting, scenography, and texts for his own creations. His artistic path, shaped by travels and key encounters, explores emotional depth, visual poetry, and immersive storytelling

Sky White Tiger (Music composition); Blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality, Louis Schwadron (formerly of The Polyphonic Spree and Rufus Wainwright’s ensemble) has forged his own distinct sonic identity with Sky White Tiger, a project that fuses psych-soul and pop into an immersive soundscape. Over the past decade, Schwadron has contributed as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer alongside renowned artists including Radiohead, David Bowie, Elton John, Sufjan Stevens, Grizzly Bear, The National, and St. Vincent. His extensive touring experience includes supporting acts such as Rufus Wainwright, Alberta Cross, Duncan Sheik, and Tempesst. His body of work includes the debut LP Electra, the EP Child of Fire, and the original soundtrack for Particle Ink, an immersive animation experience currently running at The Luxor in Las Vegas. Additionally, he collaborated with Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear to co-produce a single for his most recent LP, Invisible City.

Ting Huang (costume design) is a London-based Scenographer and Visual Artist working across theatre, opera, and dance. Her designs have been showcased at venues including the Royal Opera House (UK), Süreyya Opera House (Turkey), Jacksons Lane Arts Centre (UK), Nicosia Multiple Theatre (Cyprus), Rich Mix (UK), Camden People’s Theatre (UK), The Playground Theatre (UK), The Pleasance Theatre (UK), and The Place (UK), among others. Ting currently works as a Visiting Practitioner in the MA Performance Design and Practice program at Central Saint Martins. She has upcoming exhibitions at 125 Shaftesbury Avenue, London UK as part of her Bow Arts residency and was recently featured in China People Art’s ‘Artist Session: Ting Huang – Visual Narrators in Contemporary Drama,’ where she discussed her evolving artistic practice.

June 7:

Marjani Forté-Saunders is a 3x Bessie award-winning choreographer, performer, teaching artist, and Mother. She is a 2023 United States Artists Fellow, an awardee of the prestigious Dance Magazine Harkness Award (2020) and the (2020) Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship. She is a founding member of the collective 7NMS, alongside composer/sound designer Everett Saunders.

Nunzia Picciallo is an award-winning artist born in Italy, working as a creator, performer, and teacher in various parts of the world. Their creations develop through a transdisciplinary approach that weaves together dance, performance, conceptual and visual arts. Nunzia's work is defined by an ever-evolving investigation into the foundational dynamics between the body, understood as a subjectivity in constant transformation, and the system/space it inhabits. Consequently, the performative act becomes a means to open up diverse dialogues, inviting a form of presence that transcends surface and image. Nunzia has presented their creations in international contexts between Europe, Asia, Middle East, Central and North America. Nunzia’s work has received numerous awards, including the Performance Award at the International Solo Tanz-Theater, the Residanza Award - house of new choreography, Masdanza Award, and the SAI Festival Award. She was also selected for the Stray Birds Dance Platform 2023 and the Vetrina della Giovane Danza d'Autore 2022. Alongside their performative practice, Nunzia facilitates movement workshops and Gaga classes, bringing together dance professionals and people from diverse backgrounds.

Anna Rice is an interdisciplinary movement artist & choreographer based in NYC. She currently works as a freelance performer and choreographer - most recently performing in Must Come Down (a dance theater show) choreographed by Cameron Barnett. She was also recently a selected choreographer in the inaugural class of CENTRIFUGE: A Hub for Choreographers led by Omri Drumlevich. Anna spent the last 4 years in Chicago working as: the rehearsal director, company artist & choreographer for Alluvion Dance Chicago; project-based performer with RAMBLE Dance Theatre; company artist with LA-based Geometry Dance Company directed by Mackenzie Martin. Anna received her BFA in Dance from Indiana University. | @annarice___

Idea Reid is a recent graduate from Barnard College, where she studied Dance and Psychology. She received her dance education from the Professional Performing Arts High School (Alvin Ailey Program), Manhattan Youth Ballet, and Staten Island Ballet, and is a recipient of the Homer Avila Merit Award from Alonzo King LINES Ballet.

Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup (SND) is an NYC-based contemporary performance ensemble producing original work; and a public service-driven and education-focused organization invested in using dance for joy, healing, and empowerment. Led by women since its founding in 2000, SND has developed a repertory of collaborative, multidisciplinary works presented at premiere venues such as Aaron Davis Hall, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors & Jacob's Pillow in the US; and internationally in Canada, Mexico, and throughout Italy. SND created Dance Italia in 2011, a vibrant community of international students, performers, educators, and choreographers who regularly gather in Lucca, Italy each summer; and Motore 592 in 2021, a vibrant space for contemporary movement-based arts in Lucca, Italy. In NYC, SND provides over 150 annual creative community classes and performance opportunities for intellectually and developmentally disabled adults in collaboration with AHRC NYC, and children underscoring creativity as a cultural asset. Innovative contemporary collaborations include Terrence Zhou, designer of Bad Binch TONGTONG, featuring intellectually disabled dancers in New York Fashion Week shows for SS23, 24, and 25; and the NYC store opening of Flying Tiger. SND produces annual curation and performance opportunities for the next generation of contemporary choreographers.