DanceFest 2024: ReWorx

Over the past 20 years, ACT’s dance department has produced high-quality stage performances. This year, we explore re-imagined pieces with DanceFest 2024: ReWorx. The past and present collide, with current students and alumni performing works never seen before and reinvented for this full-length evening of dance. Watch as they rekindle past work under the direction of Tiana Mancuso for a unique night full of variety and thrills.

ReWorx will be performed on Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23 at 7 p.m. at EASTCONN’s Arts at the Capitol Theater (896 Main Street, Willimantic). Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students, seniors, children and military; and $5 for current ACT students, alumni and staff.

In 2020, COVID prevented our dancers from taking the stage, but now you can witness the previously unperformed pieces of Proof. Returning for the show that never was, ACT alumni Lia Casedei, Alexa Chapman, India Harper, Tiani Gardner and Taegan Praytor perform “Body Language,” which tells us a new story and examines the power of the body. “The Beatles Trilogy,” restaged for current students, follows the hypothetical life of Eleanor Rigby while exploring empathy in a lonely world. ACT alum Lauthell LaBonte returns as well to perform “Love Duet III” with Tiana Mancuso – eight years after their original performance of the piece, which was a part of 2016’s Social Order.

From 2017 to 2020, Ashley Green has choreographed, taught and performed, and now has woven her works together with a Missy Elliot mashup. ReWorx will also display work choreographed by current ACT principal and former dance teacher Sarah Mallory; her piece “Oasis,” from the 2018 production Vivid, comes back to the stage, along with “Red Football” from the same show. Choreographed by Mancuso, “Red Football” draws on the raw, animalistic behavior of the fight-or-flight response in the face of fear. A section of this piece was first staged at ACT in response to a grant to fight bullying in schools.

Special guest Shannon Malone restages “The Other Dying Swan,” an alternative take on the classical ballet Swan Lake. Originally performed by Malone herself in 2012, this piece will highlight Madisyn Raymond (Thompson).

Current student performers include seniors Layla Edmiston (Sterling), Madisyn Raymond (Thompson), Aiya Butler (Groton) and Layla Hellandbrand (Coventry); juniors Audrey Houk (Coventry), Caitlyn Kurcinik (Windham), Michaela LaFlamme (Willington), Morgan Labonte (Plainfield); Julie Margelony (Vernon), Najah Wells (Norwich) and Tatyana Winston (Sprague); and sophomore Amaree McKnight (Windham).

Tickets can be reserved by calling 860-465-5636 and can only be paid for with cash or check at the door. For more information, call or visit eastconn.org/act or our Facebook page (/ACTMagnetSchool).