Quicksilver Dance/Mariah Steele

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Odyssea at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

Past Events

Past Events Of Note:

• 2023 brought our big-screen debut with the premiere of "Odyssea" – a 30-minute dance-on-film – at the historic Little Theatre in downtown Rochester. After over two years of work, "Odyssea" wowed audiences with its color, charm and creativity, as the big screen worked its magic to make painted hands truly appear as creatures.
• In November 2020, we premiered the one-of-a-kind Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: - a live show on Zoom with performers and audiences present simultaneously from all over the country and world. The event was both a relief to feel community in the midst of the pandemic as well as an artistic tour-de-force that some colleagues deemed "almost to create a new performing arts genre."
• Mariah made her Rochester solo debut at the Rochester Fringe Festival in September 2019, performing "My Life in Sweaters": a 30 minute memoir told through movement, text and numerous outfits. Pianist Yoshiko Arahata composed original music for the piece, and we performed to packed audiences at the School of the Arts as part of the Time to Change concert with colleague and friend Anne Harris Wilcox!
• Quicksilver Dance's "Children of Hobbes" premiered on November 17-19th, 2017 to packed houses at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, California. This evening-length work, created over 14 months with the support of a $5,000 matching grant from the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation, evoked "confusion, longing, turmoil, diversion, self reflection, and searching for connection" in today's tumultuous social environment. Audiences responded emotionally and powerfully - you can read comments on the blog Life As A Modern Dancer.
• It was a true honor to be invited as the head-lining guest artist for the 80th Anniversary Gala of the Steffi Nossen School of Dance in White Plains, NY. Mariah's experiences growing up at Steffi Nossen sparked her love for dance and provided her with an invaluable foundation for a successful dance career, so it was incredibly rewarding to return as a symbol of where a Steffi Nossen education can lead – and incredibly heart-warming to reconnect with a vibrant community of teachers, mentors, colleagues and friends!
• Quicksilver hit the ground running in the Bay Area with four amazing new dancers, presenting our sixth annual concert and first on the west coast: "The Memory Closet" at the Temescal Arts Center on April 22nd and 23rd, 2016. The priemiering eponymous work broke new ground as our first installation combining dance, sculpture, video, soundscape and spoken word. The show was also presented as part of Bay Area Dance Week.
• Quicksilver Dance's 5th anniversary season climaxed with "Choose Your Own Mythology," our triumphant annual performance in MIT's Simmons Hall. The six dances and one dance-on-film featured three premièring works. "Star: Struck" continued a collaboration with Boston visual artist Anne Loyer who created a kinetic sculpture for the piece, and composer Ryan Edwards developed an original environmental score for Habitus. Lighting design by Erik Fox combined with the dancers performances to create a larger-than-life experience.
• Quicksilver's first international tour, to the Festival St-Ambroise FRINGE de Montréal in June 2014, was a roaring success. Our touring show "Tempest in a Teacup," featuring five works and eight Quicksilver dancers, gave five performances to enthusiastic audiences, and earned a nomination for the Festival's 2014 Frankie Awards in the category MOST OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY/ CHOREOGRAPHER. In addition to building valuable relationships with dancers in the vibrant Montréal arts community, the tour served to strengthen bonds within the company and expose us to the current trends in Montréal choreography. Based on the foundations built by this tour, we look forward to many future collaborations and exchanges across the border.
• Quicksilver's fourth annual performance at MIT's Simmons Hall, "On The Threshold of Beginning," was an unprecedented success, described by audiences as Quicksilver's 'best show yet.' Eight pieces, including four premieres, wowed full audiences on April 18th and 19th at 8:00 pm. Composer Ryan Edwards provided new scores for The Constant Effort of Beginning (2013) and the newly premiered On the Threshold of Memory. Other notable works included a live shadowgraphy/video collaboration with video artist Sarah Outhwaite, and a live presentation of Hans Rinderknecht's PhD in plasma physics, performed by MIT undergraduates of Simmons Hall, the video of which has since won the "Dance Your PhD 2014" contest in the category of Physics. Spellbinding lights were again designed by Erik Fox.
• Quicksilver was ecstatic to premiere our full evening-length work "Festivals and Visions" as a part of Outside The Box, the first annual, citywide, multi-arts festival based in Boston, MA on July 17th, 2013 at 5:30 pm. The dancers performed the newly-completed dance on the open-air Park Street Stage in the summer's heat, for the audience sprawling on the lawn of the Boston Common.
• In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings, "Rites of Passage," Quicksilver Dance's third annual performance at MIT's Simmons Hall, took place on April 20 & 21, 2013. The performance became a symbol of moving forward and provided the community an important venue to come together and start healing. We dedicated the performance to fallen MIT Officer Sean Collier. Despite Friday's performance being rescheduled to Sunday, the dancers performed to packed audiences with all their hearts and souls, under elaborate lights once again designed by Erik Fox.
• Quicksilver Dance was honored to be awarded a Dance Residency at the Boston Center for the Arts for October/November 2012. We named and themed our five week intensive residency "A Month of Interdisciplinary Dance." Relating to this theme, we developed "Epoch Tales," a new science-based dance about evolution, and also gave three public workshops on "Using Dance in Peacebuilding," "The Physics of Dance" and "Writing Movement/Moving Words: Translation and Inspiration for Writers and Dancers." We were proud of the interest in our workshops, and even more thrilled that our three performances at the end of the residency sold out!
• In June of 2010, Mariah traveled to Bangladesh and taught a Modern Dance Workshop at the Asian University for Women. The 30 enthusiastic students from all over Asia dived into learning beginning technique, watching videos and making their own short choreographies. Their hunger for knowledge, cross-cultural exchange and movement was inspiring. Mariah has also taught international master classes in Sri Lanka and Ghana, when she was living and working in those countries, in the summers of 2005 and 2003 respectively.
• On June 12 and 13, 2008, Mariah self-produced the 75 minute show, "Dancing Away the Divide: A Performance to Benefit Girls' Education in Central Asia" at New York City's City Center Studios. With packed audiences, we raised over $5,000 for the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit that builds girls' schools in rural Pakistan.

2023

• “Odyssea” Screening, Wegmans Hall, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY: November 12
• "Odyssea" at the Rochester Fringe Festival, The Little Theatre, Rochester, NY: September 18
• "Yoshiko Arahata: Solo Recital," Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY: July 17

2022

• "Confluence Concert," University of Rochester Sloan Performing Arts Center, Rochester, NY: November 5 & 6, 2022
• "Yoshiko Arahata: Piano Concert," Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY: July 18, 2022
• "SEED Concert," University of Rochester Sloan Performing Arts Center, Rochester, NY: April 2 & 3, 2022

2021

• "Dances at MuCCC Mixed Bill," The MuCCC Theater Online, Rochester, NY: streaming July, 2021

2020

• "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:," live Zoom Webinar, multiple locations: November 20 & 21, 2020

2019

• "Confluence Concert," University of Rochester Spurrier Theater, Rochester, NY: November, 2019
• "Dances at MuCCC Mixed Bill," The MuCCC Theater, Rochester, NY: June 20 & 22, 2019
• "SEED Concert," University of Rochester Spurrier Theater, Rochester, NY: April 13 & 14, 2019
• "Time to Change," School of the Arts: Allen Main Stage Theater, Rochester, NY: September 13 & 14, 2019

2018

• "The Reckoning: Night of the Missing Vote," Artists Coalition for Change Together at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY: November 2 & 3, 2018
• "ArtAwake @ the Rochester Fringe Festival," First Federal Plaza Building Rochester, NY: September 22, 2018
• "May Salon," Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA: May 6, 2018
• "Choreographers' Showcase," Spector Dance, Marina, CA: February 10 & 11, 2018
• "Salon," LEVY Dance, San Francisco, CA: January 27, 2018

2017

• "Children of Hobbes," Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA: November 17–19, 2017
• "Artists-in-Residence Informal Showing," Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA: May 7, 2017
• "Be A Choreographer For A Day Workshop," Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA: April 22, 2017
• "The Feedback Program," Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco, CA: April 8, 2017
• "80th Anniversary Concert for the Steffi Nossen School of Dance and Dance in Education Foundation," SUNY Purchase, Purchase, NY: April 1, 2017
• "Choreographers' Showcase," SpectorDance, Marina, CA: Feb 11 & 12, 2017

2016

• "Artist in Residence: Final Showing," Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA: Dec 11, 2016
• "Be A Choreographer For A Day," Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA: Oct 1, 2016
• "PUSHfest," ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA: Sept 23 & 25, 2016
• "The Memory Closet," The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA: June 9–19, 2016
• "The Memory Closet," Temescal Arts Center, Oakland, CA: April 22 & 23, 2016
• "20 Points of View," Luna Dance Institute, Berkeley, CA: April 21, 2016
• "East Bay DANCES Festival," sponsored by the Oakland Ballet Company, Malonga Casquelourd Theater, Oakland, CA: April 17, 2016
• "Cornerstones," on tour with the GVSU New Music Ensemble, Cleveland, Oberlin and Delaware, OH; Indianapolis, IN; and Chicago, IL: Feb & March, 2016
• "Faculty Concert: IMAGES 2016," Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA: Feb 4–7, 2016

2015

• "CHOREOFUND," Luna Dance Institute, Oakland, CA: Nov 5, 2015
• "The Salon," Levy Dance, San Francisco, CA: Oct 3, 2015
• "Cornerstones," Big River Dance Festival, Huntington, WV: Sept 18 & 19, 2015
• "Cornerstones," Detroit Dance City Festival, Detroit, MI: July 30 & 31, 2015
• "Dancing in the Streets 2015 Festival," sponsored by the Somerville Arts Council, Union Square Plaza, Somerville, MA: May 23, 2015
• "Choose Your Own Mythology," MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: April 10 & 11, 2015
• "Dances at Noon," Tufts University, Medford, MA: Mar 27, 2015
• "RAD FEST Dance-on-Camera Showing," The Epic Center, Kalamazoo, MI: Mar 21, 2015
• "CHANNEL/DANCE: An Evening of Movement, Art and Theatre," Atlantic Wharf, Boston, MA: Feb 13 & 14, 2015

2014

• "Informal Showing with Facilitated Audience Feedback Discussion," MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: Dec 13, 2014
• "Tempest in a Teacup," Festival St. Ambroise FRINGE du Montréal, Montréal, Quebec; Canada: June 14 – 19, 2014
• "Dancing in the Streets Festival," sponsored by the Somerville Arts Council, Union Square Plaza, Somerville, MA: May 31, 2014
• "On the Threshold of Beginning," MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: April 18 & 19, 2014

2013

• "Informal Showing with Facilitated Audience Feedback Discussion," MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: Dec 14, 2013
• "Green Street Studio Fundraiser," Green Street Studio, Cambridge, MA: Sept 14-15, 2013
• "Festivals and Visions," Outside the Box 2013, the Boston Common, Boston, MA: July 17, 2013
• "Rites of Passage," MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: April 20 & 21, 2013
• "Against The Odds Mini-Festival," Springstep, Medford, MA: March 21 & 22, 2013

2012

• "Epoch Tales: Dance Residency Showcase," Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA: November 16 & 17, 2012
• Massachusetts Dance Festival, Bowker Auditorium at UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA: September 2012
• Choreographer's Project Showcase, Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA: July 2012
• Massachusetts Dance Festival, Boston University Dance Theater, Boston, MA: June 23 2012
• Arts @ 29 Garden, "Breaking Boundaries: Arts, Creativity and the Harvard Curriculum," Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: April 2012
• "Tempest in a Teacup," MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: April 20 & 21, 2012
• Boston Center for the Arts Dance Residency Showcase: groundwork by Contrapose Dance, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, Boston, MA: February 2012

2011

• Arts @ 29 Garden, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: December 2011
• Massachusetts Dance Festival, Boston University Dance Theater, Boston, MA: August 2011
• Contrapose Dance in Union Square, an outdoor performance by Contrapose Dance, Union Square, Somerville, MA: August 2011
• Dance for World Community, Jose Mateo Ballet's Sanctuary Theatre, Cambridge, MA: June, 2011
• A Residential Scholar Event at MIT's Simmons Hall, Cambridge, MA: April 15 & 16, 2011
• Against the Odds, a mini-festival produced by Monkeyhouse, Springstep, Medford MA: March 2011

2010

• Dance in Education Fund, "An Afternoon of Choreography," SUNY Purchase Dance Theater Lab, Purchase, NY: November 2010
• Massachusetts Dance Festival, Boston Ballet & UMass Amherst, MA: August 2010
• Movement at the Mills, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA: January 2010

2009

• Blood, Sweat and Tears, Green Street Studios, Cambridge, MA: October 2009
• Berkshires Fringe Festival, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington, MA: July 2009
• Dance for World Community, Jose Mateo Ballet's Sanctuary Theatre, Cambridge, MA: June 2009
• New Dance Downtown, The Arts Exchange, White Plains, NY: May 2009
• Emerging Artists, Green Street Studios, Cambridge, MA: April 2009
• Cygnet Festival, Middlesex Lounge, Cambridge, MA: March 2009
• Charles River Dance Festival, Arsenal for the Arts, Watertown, MA: March 2009
• Cool New York Dance Festival, White Wave's John Ryan Theater, Brooklyn, NY: February 2009
• Shared Choreographer's Concert, Julie Ince Thompson Theatre, Cambridge, MA: January 2009

2008

• Dance in Education Fund, "An Afternoon of Choreography," SUNY Purchase Dance Theater Lab, Purchase, NY: November 2008
• Dumbo Dance Festival, White Wave's John Ryan Theater, Brooklyn, NY: September 2008
• Portland Dances! New Works Showcase, John Ford Theater, Portland, ME: August 2008
• Dancing Away the Divide, City Center Studios, New York, NY: June 2008
• Schonberg Composition Lab Showing, Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY: March 2008
• Fertile Ground, Greenspace, Queens, NY: February 2008
• Cool New York Dance Festival, White Wave's John Ryan Theater, Brooklyn, NY: January 2008

2007

• Lewis Center for the Arts Dedication, Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ: November 2007
• Dance in Education Fund, "An Afternoon of Choreography," SUNY Purchase Dance Theater Lab, Purchase, NY: November 2007
• Dumbo Dance Festival, White Wave's John Ryan Theater, Brooklyn, NY: September 2007
• American Dance Guild Festival, Hudson Guild Theater, New York, NY: September 2007

2006 & Before

• PMT Fall Showcase, Martin Luther King Jr. School, New York, NY: November 2006
• Dance in Education Fund, "An Afternoon of Choreography," SUNY Purchase Dance Theater Lab, Purchase, NY: November 2004 & 2006
• Senior Thesis in Choreography & Performance, Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ: April 2006
• Annual Spring Dance Festival, Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ: February 2003, 2005 & 2006
• The Chimera Project, Hagan Dance Studio, Princeton, NJ: 2003-2005
• Bates Dance Festival, Student Showcase, Lewiston, ME: August 2004