CLYMOVE Dance Honors ELISA MONTE

Dancer/choreographer Clymene Aldinger announces her company CLYMOVE's spring season May 26 & 27, presenting Time Signatures, an evening of nine contemporary dance pieces, all choreographed by Aldinger, and consisting of a series of solos, trios, and quartets, performed by four outstanding dancers whose divergent and contrasting life experiences celebrate the Company's individual uniqueness and shared humanity. Shifting from dark and intimate to silly, and blending personal reflections and experiences with larger social movements, the work is a celebration of womanhood. The Company's desire is to highlight a unique lineage of modern/contemporary dance that praises the gift of womanhood and mentorship in dance, and that proves to be an example of what happens when women support each other and share wisdom. Within the two-hour program, audiences will experience everything that has been created by CLYMOVE since its inception in 2021.

In addition to the presentation of Time Signatures, the very special evening of May 26 will honor ELISA MONTE, Clymene's mentor, inspiration, and friend, in whose company she performed for eight years.

Clymene Aldinger, MA, LMHC (NY, NY) originally from Jacksonville, Florida, graduated with a BFA in Dance and with an Honors Award for Distinction in Choreography from The Ailey School/Fordham University in 2002. During her time at The Ailey School, under the direction of Denise Jefferson and Ana-Marie Forsythe, she performed for numerous acclaimed choreographers and apprenticed with Sean Curran Company. Clymene then spent several years as dance faculty, teaching and choreographing for Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida, and remains on faculty as a guest artist (DASOTA is also Clymene's alma mater, where she has been honored with several prestigious awards) . Clymene graduated with a MA in Mental Health Counseling from Rollins College in 2006, and worked as a Specialist in Student Counseling at the University of Central Florida Counseling Center until her move back to NY in 2009. At both universities Clymene developed and facilitated racial/social justice, leadership, and community engagement programs, as well as psychoeducational workshops and group therapy. She is currently a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of New York in private practice: Artist Within, Psychotherapy for Artists & Creative Professionals since 2009.

Clymene performed with Elisa Monte Dance for eight years. Elisa Monte Dance was a critically acclaimed dance company in New York City that toured domestically and internationally for forty years. Clymene joined the company as a Lead Dancer and performed as Principal Dancer for seven years until her retirement in June 2017. One of her favorite performances was her first professional tour to Italy and Luxembourg in 2010, where she performed for the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg/Royal Family. Clymene acknowledges Elisa Monte as a lifelong mentor, and assists her in teaching and setting choreography all over the world. In her time with the company, she performed 20 of Elisa Monte's choreographic works, including Monte's seminal Treading. Clymene teaches and performs in Bali, Thailand, China, Florida and NYC.

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of CLYMOVE Dance, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in Brooklyn, NY in 2021. The company premiered her first evening-length production Femmenisto Chapter One in December 2021, followed by a second annual NYC season in December 2022: both received full house standing ovations. Clymene also holds a MA in Performance Studies from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Lastly, in addition to the birth of a new dream, forming her own dance company and exploring her choreographic vision, Clymene became a proud mother of two.

JoVonna Parks (NY, NY) is a Philadelphia native where she began her intense formal training in Ballet, Horton and Graham techniques. She attended Ailey/Fordham under the direction of Ana Marie Forsythe and graduated with her BFA in dance in 2012. Upon graduation she was invited to perform with John Mark Owen in John Mark Owen Presents.... In Requiem. She has had the pleasure of working with and performing works by Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Donald McKayle, Hofesh Shector, Robert Battle, Jill Echo and many others. JoVonna has also had the opportunity and pleasure to work with Ty Jones and The Classical Theatre of Harlem in their productions of MacBeth(soldier/ensemble), The Three Musketeers(Kitty/ensemble), Antigone(ensemble) and she served as dance captain production of A Christmas Carol in Harlem. JoVonna performed with Elisa Monte Dance under the direction of both Elisa Monte and Tiffany Rea-Fisher from 2014-2019. Whether performing or creating, she also teaches ballet, modern and contemporary techniques in the greater NYC and New Jersey area. Presently, she teaches at Essential Elements Dance Studio in Hazlet, NJ. She is currently a freelance dance artist in NYC with Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, Clymove and Konverjdans. Her own creations have been performed at Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company: Solo Suites as well as the all female collaborative choreography festival CounterPointe in both 2019 and 2022. JoVonna is a recipient of the NYFA City Corps Grant as well as a recipient of the 2021/2022 UMEZ grant from the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture as choreographer in collaboration with Nite Bjuti. She is an original member of Clymove since 2019 and a Clymove Board Member since 2021.

Bridget Cronin (NY, NY) grew up in Liverpool, NY where she received her dance training from Linda Facciponte at the Dance Arts Center and Movement Studies. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts where she performed works by Merce Cunningham, Ohad Naharin, Camille A. Brown, Monica Bill Barnes, and Janis Brenner. Bridget is a NYSSSA School of Dance Mae Banner Award and a UMass Amherst Chancellor's Talent Award recipient, and was on scholarship at The Taylor School from 2017 to 2020. She has presented her choreography with Gowanus Arts, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Buggé Ballet, Local Produce Festival, Tank NYC, Triskelion Arts, the TaDa! Youth Theater, the Artist Co-Op, Sans Limites Dance, Riverdale Artists Workshop, and as a guest artist at UMass Amherst in December of 2015. Bridget was a guest artist at the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance under artistic direction by Carolyn Adams and Julie Strandenberg in the summer of 2019 and set her choreographic tribute to Paul Taylor, "For Paul," on the students. Bridget has performed with New York-based companies: Aaron McGloin Dance, Ballaro Dance, the Equus Projects, Parisa Khobdeh Dance Company, Mazzini Dance Collective, Aimee Plauche, Reject Dance Theater, Beth Soll and Gallim Dance, in collaboration with Marta Minujín and Frieze NYC 2016. Bridget teaches children and adult private and group dance lessons throughout the five boroughs and for the Department of Education at P.S. 24 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and P.S. 02 in Chinatown. She currently dances for former Paul Taylor dancer, Laura Halzack and for the Taylor School outreach program. She has been with Clymove since March 2020

Roxanne Young, a native of Denver, CO, trained at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance School. She attended the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, TX where she was a member of the Repertory Dance Company I. In 2006, Ms. Young was a finalist for the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts in Modern Dance, which was held in Miami, FL. After high school she continued her studies at the University of Utah, joining the Department of Modern Dance. In 2010 she joined the Dallas Black Dance Theatre II and in 2011 Ms. Young joined the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble as a member of the Second Company and was promoted to the First Company after one season.

Ms. Young danced with Elisa Monte Dance, under the direction of Tiffany Rea-Fisher in 2016. In addition to dancing with Elisa Monte Dance, Ms. Young has performed for AThomasProject, Bloodline Dance Theater, Gesel Mason (Yes, And Project Residences), Yara Travieso, Heidi Latsky Dance, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company and nathantrice/RITUALS Dance, theater, Music. This is Roxanne's debut season with Clymove.

Angelica Mondol Viaña (NY, NY) a Brooklyn native, discovered her passion for dance at the age of 8. She began training at Elliot Feld's Ballet Tech - the NYC Public School for Dance and continued at Fiorello H. Laguardia High School for Performing Arts. In the afternoon, she would train at Ballet Hispanico on a merit scholarship throughout the school year. She went on to graduate with her BFA in Dance & Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). While at CalArts, she performed works by DIAVOLO, Elisa Monte, and Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, and has collaborated with artists from all sorts of mediums, including music and film. She also studied at the Bates Dance Festival in 2015 and 2021, trained at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater's Raul Julia Training Unit, and participated in the University Settlement's New York Movement Collaborative, founded by Ehizoje Azeke and Marguerite Hemmings. Shortly after, she danced at Ballet Hispanico as a member of BHdós, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, Spark Movement Collective, and Emily Johnson/Catalyst, STREB, and Brooklyn ballet. She is a dancer and choreographer for Olivia K & the Parkers for an ongoing 3 years.

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