History

“Rebecca Stenn Company is a collective force …keenly pleasurable. They are smart, adult dancers and to watch them thinking through deft spatial patterns and often tricky partnering sequences is a treat.”
Claudia La Rocca, The New York Times

“Wildly connected yet free to fly…ingenious…darkly imaginative.”
Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

“Stenn moves like a gazelle, and out of her musclebound stance, she exudes a melodic beauty, whether wafting through the air in “Zimzun” or clomping onstage in Li’l Abner boots as a fiery seductress in “The Carmen Suites”. Her choreographic imagination showed boundless versatility...she exerts an.electrifying presence.”
Phyllis Goldman, Backstage

History

Known throughout the country for the unpredictable and beautiful way the dancers and musicians flawlessly and often humorously interact in performance, Rebecca Stenn Company was founded in 1996. The company has since performed to critical acclaim and sold out houses in over 50 cities in the US and internationally in venues such as The Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Symphony Space, Joyce SoHo, 92nd Street Y, Clark Studio Theater, La MaMa Annex Theater, Miller Theatre, The Winter Garden at The World Financial Center, Soaking WET, The Rubin Museum, The JCC, University Settlement and Wave Hill in New York City and The Copenhagen Festival, The Edinburgh Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, The Waterfront Festival in Virgina Beach, The Center for Contemporary Arts in St. Louis, New Orleans Performing Arts Center, The Peter Britt Festival in Oregon, Sunset Performing Arts Center in Carmel, CA, Summerfest in San Francisco, The City of El Paso Arts Center in Texas, Hollywood Center for the Performing Arts in Florida, The New Moves Festival in New Haven and the Wortham Theater in Houston, TX among many other venues. The company has held residencies at Southern Methodist University, Stockton College, Manhattanville College, University of Western Ontario, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Southern Oregon, University of Nevada at Reno and Dickinson College in Pennsylvania among others.

Rebecca Stenn Company has received support from The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, The Joyce Theater Foundation, The Mary Cary Flager Charitable Trust Live Music for Dance Fund, The American Music Center and The Pennsylvania Council for the Arts. The diverse repertoire includes over 30 works, which range from illusionary pieces using inventive props and mysterious lighting to abstract pieces that are entirely pure, kinetic dance. In complete collaboration with Stenn, the company's four dancers and three musicians create works of humor and beauty with original music ranging from funk/ rock to ethnic to the classically inspired.

Rebecca Stenn Company is devoted to education and to reaching as diverse populations as possible, and to this end they perform numerous students shows (the company is on the Young Audience roster in New Jersey) and hold residencies for the very young, the elderly, and the physically challenged. Community-based projects play an important role in the life of the company. Through a generous commission from the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Rebecca Stenn Company recently choreographed their second full evening-length work entitled Finding Home, in collaboration with over 40 community members. The group has also developed a full evening length community work with the New Orleans Ballet Association, entitled Dream Child Moving, performed during a five-week residency in 2002. The company has premiered a series of children's shows at the Lincoln Center "Meet the Artist" program in New York City, and continue to work with The Lincoln Center Open Stages Program, teaching New York City high school students workshops throughout the year and intensives during the summer. The company was commissioned by Dancing in the Streets to create a site-specific duet performed at New York City's Wave Hill, summer of 1999.

Highlights from past seasons include a residency from The Joyce Theater Foundation for the year in preparation for a New York Season at Danspace Project – St. Marks Church, 2005. The company performed at The Joyce Theater as part of The Altogether Different Festival, 2004, Dance Theater Workshop as part of Family Matters and as The Joyce Theater’s resident company for their annual Gala Fundraiser in New York City, 2006. The group performed a New York Season at Dance New Amsterdam, Dec 2007, toured to Danceworks, in Milwaukee, WI, summer of 2008 and performed a New York Season at Joyce SoHo entitled Chopped and Screwed, in June 2009. The company recently appeared at The Joyce Theater in the Family Matters Series with their new evening length work Generations, December 2012 and performed at The Rubin Museum in New York City, March 2013. Recently, Stenn created a new evening length work entitled, Riparius (belonging to the river), which is the 2nd part of an eventual Triptych and was premiered at the Gowanus Loft, June 11-20, 2015. She is currently working on the 3rd and final section of the Triptych, which will be premiered in New York City, June, 2017.

Awards and Honors

  • The National Endowment for the Arts -2005, 2002, 2001
  • The New York State Council for the Arts - 2007
  • The Joyce Theater Foundation Residency Award - 2005
  • The American Music Center, Live Music for Dance Fund - 2005
  • The Mary Cary Flager Charitable Trust Live Music for Dance Fund, 2003
  • The Pennsylvania Council for the Arts – 2000
  • The Jewish Endowment Charitable Trust for the Arts – 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
  • Faculty Development Fund, Eugene Lang College – 2007, 2008, 2009
  • University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Chosen as graduate student given season at Danceworks Theater (top student in class is chosen.)
  • Full Artistic Scholarship to University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
  • Doris Humphrey Dance Scholarship – The Juilliard School
  • New Works Initiative Award from Montclair State University - 2012