History
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Dance Generators was founded in Massachusetts in 1997 by Amie Dowling, a former member of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. Under Ms. Dowling's direction, the company established a strong reputation in the Pioneer Valley and held residencies in schools, senior centers, universities, art spaces, and youth programs across Massachusetts. For ten years, Dance Generators was a company-in-residence at Available Potential Enterprises (APE) in Northhampton, MA.
In 2006, Amie Dowling relocated to San Francisco and started a new branch of the group, Dance Generators West, with director Natalie Greene. Kristen Greco brought her co-artistic rigor to the company from 2010 - 2015. From its beginning, DG West featured Bay Area community members, reaping the benefits of a wide age range of dancers: from elders all the way to students from University of San Francisco.
Back in Massachussetts, former company member Kristin Horrigan headed up the original company, Dance Generators East, from 2006 - 2014. Maureen Shea, also a former company member, served as director from 2014 - 2015. The DG East company has since ended, after an exciting 18 years in residence in western Massachusetts.
Currently, Dance Generators remains an active company on the West Coast. Director Natalie Greene moved on from the position in 2018, after a successful decade growing the company to new and exciting capacity, and Dance Generators welcomed Liv Schaffer as the new director in Fall 2018. The 2018/2019 academic calendar focused Dance Generators attention to performances on campus and to running a pilot residency in partnership with EngAGE Aging, wherein elder and student company members co-teach dance classes in senior housing communities. The company continues to perform in schools, senior centers, festivals and community events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
DANCE GENERATORS IN 2010
AMIE DOWLING, FOUNDER OF DANCE GENERATORS
Amie Dowling creates dance and theater for the stage, for film and in community settings. For the past several years, her work has considered the politics and representation of mass incarceration. Well Contested Sites, a collaboration with Bay Area artists, some who were previously incarcerated, won the International Screendance film prize. Her most recent film, Separate Sentence, examines the intersection of gentrification and the generational impact of incarceration. She has presented work nationally and internationally at such venues as Busboys & Poets (Washington D.C.), Lincoln Center (NYC), Regards Hybrides (Canada), Cinéma Jean-Eustache (France), Passangen Art Gallery (Sweden), and the Juming Museum (Taiwan). Professor Dowling’s writing has been published recently in Performing New Lives, Contact Quarterly, Jesuit Higher Education, and InDance. She is an artist in residence at the San Francisco Jails and at San Quentin Prison, where she is a member of the Artistic Ensemble.