We are artists that collide with living spaces. React/dance is a site-inspired dance company that works collaboratively with artists, spaces and neighborhoods in a boundary-lessened environment. Two dancers flaying and falling against the garage doors of a bodega in South Philly, two wide-eyed women weaving through the audiences’ feet in a living room in Brooklyn: We question performance traditions. React/dance wants to see places through a new lens creating characters who tell open-ended stories about honesty and depletion. The audience is welcomed into this world; welcomed to create their own version of this loose-ended story, to walk about the space or to stand in the light and have their own performance. We make art and this is where we want to show it.
Jacelyn Biondo (co-founder/co-director) mostly prefers stoops to stages, loves punctuation as part of titles, and is completely intrigued by all aspects of psyche and soma and their lifelong relationship. She is inspired by bookshelves that are overflowing, the unconventional and the super conventional and is currently exploring overlapping roles and their cohabitation. She returned to Philadelphia after spending nine years in Arizona, California, and traveling overseas. Jacelyn graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and Photography and Media. In Los Angeles, she performed with local choreographer Elizabeth Hoefner for 2 years prior to her move to Philadelphia. She received her MA in Dance/Movement therapy at Drexel University. Locally, she has had the opportunity to work with Myra Bazell, Jeb Kreager, and with Austrian choreographer Willi Dorner and was a member of Reactionaries from 2005-2006. Jacelyn, along with Kristen Shahverdian, co-founded react/dance in 2006 and has presented work at various venues in Philadelphia as well as on stoops in South Philly and lingering outside of her favorite Bodegas. Jacelyn currently works as a Dance/Movement Therapist, as she believes everyone would feel better if they danced it out.
Kristen Shahverdian (co-founder/co-director) is fascinated by the intersection between people and places. She loves to perform in both intimate spaces and onstage and is exploring the different experiences of both as a performer and audience member. She wants to use dance as a way to connect with people and communities. Her passion is for improvisation in performance and as a way to create dynamic, unpredictable movement patterns. Before co-founding react/dance, she worked with various independent artists in Philadelphia as well as Reactionalries and The Bald Mermaids. Her solo work has been presented in Philadelphia at venues including the Live Arts/Philly Fringe Festival, nEW Performance Series, and Glue Performance Series; she has also shown work at the Joyce Soho, Walt Whitman Arts Center and in Bytom, Poland. Kristen holds her BA in History and Dance from Hamilton College and her MFA from Temple University. She has taught at Temple University and Rowan University and she is a certified Pilates instructor in Center City Philadelphia.
David Konyk (dancer/collaborator) is a mover and dance maker, based in the city of Philadelphia. For the past twelve years, most of David’s dancing time has been spent with Scrap Performance Group/ Myra Bazell, Leah Stein Dance Company, Group Motion Dance Theater, Kate Watson-Wallace, The Bald Mermaids, and The Reactionaries. As a choreographer, Mr. Konyk’s work has been presented by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, New York’s DanceNow/NYC, and Philadelphia’s CEC PIAIS, (Performance In An Intimate Space), residency. David is excited to be working with React/dance. He is thrilled to be working again with Jacelyn and Kristen in this new constellation. David is a graduate of Temple University Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance.
Elisa Lane (dancer/collaborator) loves dancing with the react/dance girls and boy. When not dancing she is a clown for Clowns Without Borders and also a construction worker. Elisa recently moved to Baltimore with her husband, dog and cat where she plans on building a strawbale/hobbit house.
