CLYMOVE DANCE GALA To Honors Sarita Allen This Week

CLYMOVE DANCE GALA honors Sarita Allen, will present two World Premieres, and a performance of Elisa Monte's "Pigs and Fishes" on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:00 PM at Ailey Citigroup Theater (405 W. 55th Street, NYC).

Contemporary Dance Company 2nd Annual Dance Gala

CLYMOVE's second annual dance gala, on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at Ailey Citigroup Theater, will honor dance legend Sarita Allen. She will be presented the Elisa Monte Leadership Legacy Award, which was established and awarded to its namesake at last year's inaugural gala.  To honor Sarita Allen, Elisa Monte has permitted the company to perform her work “Pigs and Fishes” which was originally choreographed on Sarita Allen in 1982 and has not been performed in NYC in a decade. The performance will also include two world premieres, the first choreographed by Founder and Artistic Director Clymene Aldinger, to original music by DJ Kurt Rambus, and the second by company dancer and CLYMOVE's first commissioned choreographer, JoVonna Parks. Tickets are available for both the performance and post-show cocktail reception, and for the performance only.  

Clymove Founder, Artistic Director, & Choreographer

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, Hert: both received full house standing ovations. Last May, the company embarked on its inaugural gala honoring Elisa Monte. This two-evening engagement was a “The Dance Enthusiast - TOP PICKS Dance Events in New York City”, a sold out fundraising success and received a standing ovation plus a rave review from New York Theatre Wire.  

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 is a proud mother of two (ages five and two).

Clymove Dance, Inc. was formed with a commitment to virtuosic dance focused on truth and inclusive creative community. The Company's mission is to create message-drive art, movement, and performance.

About The Choreographer

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. 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, Konverjdans and has been a guest artist with Ballet Vero Beach. 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 2019, 2022 and 2023. 

She recently made an appearance in Season 2 of HBO's Random Acts of Flyness. JoVonna is a recipient of the NYFA City Corps Grant as well as a recipient of the 2021/2022 UMEZ grant from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as choreographer in collaboration with Nite Bjuti. She is also the recipient of a microgrant from The Map Fund in its first microgrant initiative. She is an original member of Clymove since 2019, served as Founding Board Secretary 2021-2023, and the company's first commissioned choreographer 2024-2025.

Tickets

Tickets: $100.00 for Gala Performance and Cocktail Reception (www.clymove.org) and $30.00 for Gala Performance only (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clymove-dance-gala-2024-tickets-844359701597).