Outreach

Teaching at Community Place

Teaching at the Senior Center at Community Place

BIODANCE in the Community

BIODANCE offers classes, workshops, lectures, free concerts, benefit concerts and other residency activities for all ages and populations.  Artistic Director Missy Pfohl Smith is currently the Director of the Program of Dance and Movement at University of Rochester, where she teaches a number of courses in choreography, performance studies and dance technique.  Since 1992, she has also been offering residencies nationally and internationally not only for dancers but also for children, adults, and community members who are new to dance.  Smith and the company members bring an array of areas of expertise to its educational and community programs.  Some of these offerings include Contemporary Dance, Laban- based Dance for Seniors (or all ages), Limited Mobility Dance (in chairs), Contact Improvisation, Dance and Social Change, Pilates/Yoga, Conditioning, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Improvisation, West African Dance, Ballet, Creative Movement, Dance for Athletes, Functional Anatomy, Composition, Russian Folk Dance, and more.

BIODANCE Community Presence

Selected Events

  • BIODANCE is pleased to have its virtual show, BIODANCE at Home, available on dvd for free in the Joseph Avenue Arts and Cultural Alliance lending library for families to borrow and experience. (Starting Fall 2020)
  • BeCAUSE, BIODANCE is a founding member with Roseanne DiMaria/RaNdOm DaNcErS, Sarah Johnson, Michelle Whitt, Euri Seche and Kelly Johnson of this series of free outdoor community performances. Started during Covid, the BeCAUSE series raises offers dance arts to the community free of charge while also raising money for local non-profits and needs in our community. The first BeCAUSE, Oct. 18-19, 2020, raised funds for 540 WMain, Inc, a hub for accessible education and events that promote justice for all.
  • Dances, Distance and Dusk, produced by Ethan Beckwith Cohen, provided free access to safely distanced dance on July 29-30, 2020, and raised funds for The MOCHA Center which is focused on improving the health and wellness of LGBTQ people of color—in mind, body, and spirit.
  • Black History Month Celebration – BIODANCE performed in this free event at Community Place of Greater Rochester Aging Services in February 2020.
  • BIO/DANCE and Social Justice (2017 and 2016) – BIODANCE initiated this 2 year project that hosted artists and choreographers in free community concerts in various sites with work that was created to address issues of social justice. BIODANCE/Missy Pfohl Smith also created and performed in various new works as part of this project. These works remain in BIODANCE’s repertory today. This work was shared throughout the Greater Rochester community at events and locations such as Monroe Community Hospital, Brockport’s Diversity Conference, Community Place of Greater Rochester, the Gandhi Institute and more.
  • Flapper Follies: A Benefit for the Friendly Home, June 2013.
  • Bright, Bounding, Balancing, Bursting, Bumping, Breathing Bodies: BIODANCE! A fun, interactive family matinee that promotes dance literacy and gets the audience dancing in their seats and on the stage! AVAILABLE FOR TOURING, First performed at Calkins Road Middle School Theatre, September 2009.
  • Bright, Bounding…BIODANCE Haiti Benefit, February 2009, Multi-Use Community Cultural Center, Rochester, NY
  • Benefit for Simon, co-produced by BIODANCE and Rochester Contemporary Dance Collective to raise funds for a Rochester dancer’s son with cancer.  October 15, 2010 at Hochstein Concert Hall in Rochester, NY

Workshops

  • BIODANCE regularly conducts movement workshop for urban underserved senior citizens at the Senior Center at Community Place, 2012 – present

National Dance Education Organization Conferences

  • Choreographing the Socio-political; co-taught by Missy Pfohl Smith and Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp
  • “Whose Dance is it Anyway,” Phoenix, AZ, 2015
  • Lead Panel Presenter: Diversity in Dance:  “What is Diversity in Dance in higher education and what models seem to be working?”  Chicago, IL, 2014
  • Paper Presentation: Different Identities/Mutual Paths: Dance and Tai Chi, Minneapolis, MN, 2011
  • Invited to present: BIODANCE performed Guzzle! at the Progressive Strides Regional NDEO Conference
  • Workshop Presenter: Art and Big Oil at NDEO Contact Politics, Towson University, June 2008
  • Workshop Presenter: Perspectives on Students with Physical Disabilities at The Regional NDEO Conference at The College at Brockport, July 2006

International Conference on Somatics-based Dance Education

  • Pre-conference workshop – Somatics and Social Justice – co-taught by Missy Pfohl Smith and Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, 2019
  • Contemporary Dance and Social Justice, 2017
  • Presented duet Choreography and Performance: Amidst Crossed Wires in Parallel Paths
  • Guzzle!  Art and Social Change at Invention-In: Dance, Somatics and Movement Analysis Conference (Organized by Bill Evans & Sondra Fraleigh), Brockport, NY, 2008

Diversity Conference at University of Rochester, 2019, 2018

  • Workshop co-presenter: From Me to Us: Identity, Community, and Place, 2018

Residencies

BIODANCE has conducted residencies across the United States and internationally, including in Greece and Finland, as well as Glendale, AZ, University of Southern Mississippi and more.

  • Glendale Community College Dance Department, AZ, 2019
  • University of Southern Mississippi, 2017
  • Nazareth Academy, Rochester, NY
  • Westchester Arts Council Teaching Artist, (2003-2005), Awarded various Arts Partners Grants in 2003
  • Arts Partners Schools (short-term, aesthetic learning/curriculum-related school residencies)
  • Arts Partners Community (short and long-term developmental arts experiences)
  • Arts Excel/ESP (long-term, intensive curriculum-integrated school residencies)
  • Set a new work, taught Improvisation, Composition and Modern, Grade 9 at Talented Unlimited Performing Arts High School, NYC
  • Modern/Repertory Semester Course for Teens; regular substitute for modern technique for professional dancers at 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Center

Master Classes

  • The Yard, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
  • Hospital Audiences of New York, NYC
  • Various preparatory workshops for professional dance concerts for K-12 students as part of “Arts Alive” Grant Program, NYC
  • Co-taught and performed a solo for Community Movement Workshop (55 & Over)/Discussion at the National
  • Museum of Dance, Saratoga Springs, NY
  • Lecture Demonstrations:
  • Interactive Family Matinee, Rochester, NY
  • Presented Improvisation and Choreography; engaged audience in participation and dialogue, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY