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Media Contact:
Erica Nelson
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Connecticut Dance Alliance announces Megan Boyd, Lili St. Amand, and Leanne Zalewski as recipients of Jump Start Award for choreographers
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HARTFORD, CT – March 23, 2021 – Connecticut Dance Alliance (CDA) is pleased to announce Megan Boyd, Lili St. Amand and Leanne Zalewski as the recipients of the 2nd annual Jump Start Award for Connecticut Dance supporting original work from Connecticut choreographers.
Boyd, St. Amand and Zalewski will be honored during CDA’s annual awards ceremony to be held at a future date. Recipients of the Distinguished Achievement in Dance Award and the Jill Henderson Award will also be recognized at the ceremony.
The Jump Start Award for Connecticut Dance provides multi-layered support for Connecticut choreographers creating original work in any dance genre, at any career level, to move forward and jump start their careers. This year’s recipients will receive implementation funds needed to create or complete a project; consulting/mentorship in a chosen area of need and/or interest - such as artistic, technical, marketing and communications, or business planning - to assist in project implementation; a series of cohort meetings to connect choreographers, build relationships, and allow for co-learning; a complimentary one-year choreographer CDA membership; and an opportunity to present their work in a Jumpstart Studio Showcase event.
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Photo by: The Dancers Eye |
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Megan Boyd, of Southbury, is a Connecticut choreographer, performer, and teacher whose former performance career was in New York City. She was co-founder of MUTE, a performance collaboration that explored choreography and improvisation for the concert stage and for digital media. Megan's choreography has been presented at Dixon Place and WAXworks in New York City, and at the 5x5 Dance Festival at the University of Saint Joseph and in dance concerts at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Connecticut. She holds an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College and a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts. Megan was Assistant Professor of Dance at Naugatuck Valley Community College from 2014-2020. Most recently she became the artistic director of MBDT: MB Dance Theater.
Lili “Bloom” St. Amand, of West Hartford, has been teaching Hip Hop since she was sixteen! She found her love for Hip Hop when she was six years old. She believes in spreading her love and knowledge for Hip Hop through her teaching and is always eager to teach the next generation so Hip Hop can stay alive. Lili has participated in countless battles. In May 2017 Lili won World of Dance New Jersey Head Bangerz Brawl. She was asked to come back in 2018 to judge the battle and preform on the World of Dance stage. She has also participated in Breakdancing Shakespeare at Hartford Stage, performing in Hamlet in 2015 and Romeo and Juliet in 2016. Three years later she came back to Hartford Stage to be the assistant choreographer for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Through the summer of 2019 she did countless street performances with Hartford Live, a program the Greater Hartford Arts Council created to bring lively performances to light the streets of Hartford with art. Lili continues to constantly educate herself and be on the Hip Hop scene so she can stay current and give her students the best knowledge and teachings possible.
Leanne “Laska” Zalewski, of New Britain, has performed at professional shows, festivals, cultural centers, street fairs, restaurants, haflas, university events, private parties, and hookah lounges. Laska began performing in 2010, but has been dancing for her entire life! She trained as a cabaret dancer in New York, Boston, and Hartford. She also spent three years studying Afro-Caribbean dance, and tried her hand at Jazz, Modern, Flamenco, Salsa, and Isadora Duncan dance. She danced with Lynchburg Tribal for five years before moving to Connecticut. She also has practiced Pilates for over ten years and yoga for over two years.
The 2021 Connecticut Dance Alliance awards ceremony is currently in the planning phase. Dates will be announced in the coming months. Information can be found at www.ctdanceall.org.
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About Connecticut Dance Alliance (CDA)
Connecticut Dance Alliance, Inc. (CDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public awareness of dance in all its forms and serving the needs of the statewide dance community. Since 1999, CDA has created and presented numerous events such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Dance – a day celebrating African-American dance traditions, CDA Distinguished Achievement in Dance Awards, Healthy Dancer Seminars and workshops on Planning a College Career in dance. In 2011, CDA founded and developed a successful summer scholarship annual competition, the Connecticut Classic, a competition for pre-professional classical ballet students. CDA also administers the Elena Delvecchio Rusnak Dance Education Scholarship. CDA’s current project, The Dance History Project. Through grassroots networking, the project endeavors to capture and share, through the art of photography and scholarly writing, a cultural and historical documentation of the rich and vibrant dance heritage in Connecticut. Using the 2,000 images submitted by the dance community, the curated Connecticut Dance exhibition has toured the state since 2017. In addition to the Dance History Project, other CDA initiatives include the further development of regional network consortiums to increase communication, partnerships, and opportunities for Connecticut’s dance community; dance education programs; and the new statewide dance resource database.
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