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Our Story

Founded in 1997, Moving Current Dance Collective is directed by Erin Cardinal, Cynthia Hennessy and Katie Cole. The Tampa based Collective has found its voice by bringing contemporary dance to the Bay Area. With a group of talented and diverse dancers, Moving Current has established itself as one of Florida’s top modern dance companies and currently the Company in Residence at the University of South Florida. Moving Current has produced approximately 150+ evening concerts presenting local and national choreographers, dancers, musicians, poets, actors, and visual artists. Along with original work by Ms. Cardinal and Ms. Hennessy, they have also presented the work of Michael Foley, Sara Sweet Rabidoux, David Dorfman, Stephanie Skrua, Lynne Wimmer, Jennifer Salk, Jennifer Nugent, Paul Matteson, Nathan Dryden and many others. Moving Current has been awarded funding from the State of Florida, the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and Southern Arts Federation along with many individual contributors. Moving Current also fosters dance throughout their community through programs such as NewGrounds, an annual concert dedicated to promoting young choreographers in the state of Florida, annual work with Forever Moving, a troupe of dancers ages 50–85 and Hillsborough County Public Schools K-12. The collective and its directors are dedicated to bringing modern dance to the forefront of the performing arts by creating and producing work that is not only accessible to a wide audience but does so without compromising the artistic integrity of contemporary dance today.

In June 1997, Moving Current Directors and Hillsborough Community College personnel agreed to make the HCC Performing Arts Building on the Ybor City Campus a performing space for our first two seasons. Since then, the initiative was taken to explore new venues in the attempt to reach new members of the community within the Tampa area.

In addition to season concerts at HCC and USF, the collective has performed in just recently in the last couple of years in venues such as:
 

• The Palladium, St. Petersburg

• Largo Cultural Center

• Tarpon Springs Cultural Center

• Studio 620, St. Petersburg

• Project Re-Fuel, Trinity Preparatory, Orlando

• The Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg

• Blake High School for the Arts, Tampa & Harrison Center for the Arts, Lakeland

• New World School of the Arts, Miami

• Byron Carlyle Theater, Miami

Moving Current as of yet does not have a permanent working studio space of our own. The University of South Florida’s Dance Department provides support through a formal affiliation as the Company in Residence which provides a temporary home for rehearsals and performance space, when available. We also receive support from dance departments of the University of Tampa, Hillsborough Community College and St. Petersburg College and Blake High School.

In the spring of 1999, Moving Current was the only organization to receive an Emerging Group Grant from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County.

Since then, we have been awarded the following grants:
 

• FastTrack Touring Grant from Southern Arts Federation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts

• Special Project Grants for NewGrounds (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006)

• Quarterly Assistance Grants from the Division of Cultural Affairs, State of Florida

• Cultural Development Grants from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County (annually since 2000)
   

Moving Current has also received funds from the Knox Family Foundation, Info-lution Corporation and Pilates Bodies along with many individual contributors.

The collective’s greatest award has been the privilege of receiving many hours of donated time and services from local and national artists as well as local companies and individual volunteers.

Without the community, Moving Current would not be the successful organization that we are today.

We have collaborated with notable visual artists, poets, composers, choreographers, musicians, and set designers. The Public Radio station WMNF has highlighted us in programs such as Art in Your Ear and the Women’s Show.

Moving Current has received several honors and awards in recognition such as:
 

• Performed an evening of work at the Florida Dance Festival 2005, presented by Florida Dance Association

• BEST OF THE BAY 2004: Best Dance Event - Weekly Planet

• BEST OF THE BAY 2003: Best Choreographer (Michael Foley) Weekly Planet

• BEST OF THE BAY 2002: Best Dance Event - Weekly Planet

• BEST OF THE BAY 2002: Best Choreographers (Erin Cardinal and Cynthia Hennessy) Weekly Planet

• BEST OF THE BAY 2001: Best Modern Dance Performance - Weekly Planet

• “Impact through the Arts Award” in 2001 from the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts.

One of Moving Current’s many goals is to present workshops, open to the community, with multi-disciplinary guest artists, such as:
 

• 1998 Elaine Summers taught a workshop in the field of Kinetic Awareness

• 1999 Dale Andree offered voice/movement workshops (based on Ruth Zaporha’s “Action Theatre”)

• 99-05 Moving Current company residencies at Howard W. Blake High School and Harrison Center for the Arts, Lakeland

• 2001 David Dorfman and Jennifer Salk led classes in modern dance technique

• 2001 Skinner Releasing workshop with Stephanie Skura was offered as a portion of the 2001 Seattle Summer Intensive

• 2001* Nathan Dryden a free lecture demonstration on aerial dance, introducing many to an art form just beginning to find its way

• 2003* Nathan Dryden, Michael Foley and Peter Kalivas taught classes in Skinner Releasing and modern dance technique

• 2004* Jennifer Salk and Leymis Bolanos taught classes in modern and Afro-Cuban Dance

• 2005* Jennifer Salk returned with classes in modern dance with Nathan Dryden in aerial dance.
  

*Part of NewGrounds Master Class Series

The response has grown tremendously for the NewGrounds Master Class Series, and with the aid of additional funding, future development of the class series is planned for 2006 with the addition of an international choreographer’s residency.

In addition to formal concerts and workshops, Moving Current directors have also focused on project based performances such as the work “Root to Root”, a sight specific work performed in a massive tree for St. Petersburg’s First Night Celebration. This work was created to move in, on, under and around the tree using the tree’s immense trunk and branches and aerial rigging in the form of ropes in which dancers were able to suspend themselves over the ground and amongst the tree. This work became the topic of a documentary directed by Michael Kolb for the Museum of Dance Arts and presented during the installation of The Power and Passion of Dance, the Carol Halsted Dance Photography Collection Exhibit in May 2003.

Moving Current’s outreach program has expanded to include several new projects, foremost is the Inter-Generational project funded in part by the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and centers around the Forever Moving Dance Group, dancers and movers over the ages 28-75, of the Life Enrichment Center. This project is an annual event for Moving Current, Forever Moving and Blake High School choreography students. This widely varied group of individuals come together in a series of workshops where they interrelate through art and dance created from their own words and movement. The culmination of this project is performed on the annual NewGrounds concert in May. A second project, entitled On the Spot which is an improvisational based concert series performed in non-traditional venues such as museums, outdoor locations, schools and various other non-theater performance spaces.

The collective’s outreach efforts are furthered through ticket subsidies, sponsored in part by the Arts Council of Hillsborough County. For each concert, we also include a special student matinee, during school hours, directed towards middle and high school ages. At the closing of each of these matinees, Moving Current choreographers, dancers and guest artists participate in a talk back with the students.


Moving: dance/movement      Current: channeling contemporary work


The collective and its directors are dedicated to bringing modern dance to the forefront of the performing arts by creating and producing work that is not only accessible to a wide audience but does so without compromising the artistic integrity of contemporary dance today. Moving Current has successfully accomplished this and more since is inaugural year in 1997, and we will continue to do so for many years to come.

MMoving Current is a non-profit, 501c3 organization registered with the State of Florida.

If you are interested in supporting the collective through in-kind or monetary donations, please visit the "Contact Us" page and email: info@movingcurrent.com/a>..