ABOUT ACCT
We are an organization of progressive dance artists and collaborators that work in myriad art forms. We seek to generate positive, social change in our communities. Through collaborative, artistic creation, performance, direct action, community dialogues, and scholarly research we believe in advocating on behalf of all humans.
We hold space for artists involved in advocacy, dissent, resistance, facilitation, and healing. Our intent is to facilitate intersectional, socio-political dialogue through art and dance. We model this through our collaborative interdisciplinary work.
WHO WE ARE
Is the body a site
of resistance?
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Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp (MFA, CLMA) is co-founder and director of ACCT. She is a dance artist, somatic educator, filmmaker, and activist. Her teaching and artistic work in somatics and body awareness is rooted in her work as a Certified Laban Movement Analyst. As the Artistic Director of inFluxdance and Collaborator with SirensProof Films, her creative work has been featured in cities internationally and across the country. During the last decade, she has taught at a spectrum of universities including Alfred University, SUNY Brockport, Dean College and the University of Virginia where, as the Head of Dance, she developed the dance program from the ground up. Much of her artistic research in the academic environment is interdisciplinary, requiring collaboration across disciplines — finding ways to integrate dance with architecture, art, psychology, engineering, art, and music. Rose’s ability to integrate concepts from seemingly diverse realms include her focus on dance and social activism. Currently. she is exploring metaphor as it relates to socio-political art making and sharing the results of her research internationally through performance and presentations. As a Full-time Senior Lecturer in the Dance and Movement Program at the University of Rochester, she is teaches courses that speak to her strengths and passions for choreography and performance, arts and activism, and Laban Movement Analysis.
What does it mean
to be an artist citizen?
Donna Davenport, co-founder and director of ACCT, has been performing dances, collaborating with artists, and presenting choreography in Western NY for two decades. Professor of Dance at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, she is the John Milton Potter endowed chair 2013-2018; co-director of the Social Justice Studies Program, and former Associate Dean of Faculty. She holds a Doctor of Education from Temple University and undergraduate degrees in Dance and Psychology. Recent performances include "Looming" by Bill Evans and "Relax," a new comic solo. Her work has been performed with BIODANCE at Geva Theater for Fringe 2016; in annual choreography showcases at MUCC in Rochester and CRS Barn Studio in Ithaca; in Rochester Contemporary Dance Collective (RCDC); and "Belles of Hell" in collaboration with David McGuire, composer, at Finger Lakes Community College (2016). She is a co-founder of Artists Coalition for Change Together (ACCT) in Rochester, an organization devoted to artistic activism and collaborations among artists from myriad disciplines.
Dance as Social Practice
Heather Roffe: (MFA) is co-founder and director of ACCT and an Associate Professor and the Program Director of Dance at Nazareth College. Roffe’s choreography has been presented in venues across the country and internationally, and has been commissioned by dance companies and college programs. In her choreography, Roffe explores the human experience, (relationships – to each other, our world, technology, solidarity vs. isolationism, divisive memes – like classism, racism, gender, etc.). Heather Roffe, Dance and Dancers collaborate through movement to reveal and dramatize the power of human gesture and of the body’s inherent ability to convey universal themes of love, loss, compassion, and fear. She has performed nationally and internationally with the Garth Fagan Dance Company, FuturPointe Dance, and at Jacob’s Pillow, the International Dance Festival, and the American Dance Guild Festival, in her own work, with Bill Evans Dance Company and Assemblage Dance.