From the left, Kyle Georgina Marsh, Arielle Petruzzella, Lauren Connolly, and Robert Mark Burke are the choreographers whose work was featured at Jersey (New) Moves! Emerging Choreographers

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From the left, Kyle Georgina Marsh, Arielle Petruzzella, Lauren Connolly, and Robert Mark Burke are the choreographers whose work was featured at Jersey (New) Moves! Emerging Choreographers. Top, dancers perform Petruzzella’s work, the fence that you sent me.

Photography: 
courtesy NJPAC

Four alumni of the Mason Gross School of the Arts aspiring to be professional choreographers were the lone choices invited to premiere their dance programs this summer at Jersey (New) Moves! Emerging Choreographers. The June 19 event, which took place at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, paired the talented choreographers—Robert Mark Burke, Lauren Connolly, Kyle Georgina Marsh, and Arielle Petruzzella—with experienced mentors who had been selected by NJPAC’s Celebrate Dance Advisory Committee. The mentorship program resulted in full productions of each choreographer’s work (and featured performances by close to 30 Mason Gross dancers, both students and alumni), culminating a competition that began in November with an open call for online submissions, which attracted 70 applicants. The competition was an offshoot of the dance showcase Jersey Moves! Festival of Dance.

Burke MGSA’13 was mentored by Randy James, artistic director of 10 Hairy Legs and an associate professor at Mason Gross (who pushed for a contest to highlight aspiring choreographers); Connolly MGSA’10 received instruction from Claire Porter, choreographer of Claire Porter’s Portables; Marsh MGSA’11 was helped by Nai-Ni Chen, artistic director of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company; and Petruzzella MGSA’13 got guidance from Carolyn Dorfman, artistic director of Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company.

“For many years, the Jersey Moves! festival has aimed to present the very best of professional dance in the Garden State side by side with some of the world’s finest dance companies,” says David Rodriguez, the executive producer of NJPAC. “Now with Jersey (New) Moves! the festival will take a step further by discovering the next generation of dance artists in the state, and helping them launch their careers with a performing arts center debut on our stage.”

For further information, visit youtube.com/watch?v=sBRgb-MYoG8.