Events

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The Speakeasy is Back March 8 at 5pm!

Going NEDT for our annual fundraiser held at a surprise location, featuring live aerial performances, auction, food, fun, and prizes!

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WORKS 2025

Featuring VIGIL choreographed by Nancy Evans Doede, and a world premiere work by Ashleigh Doede.

May 10 & 17 at 8pm and May 11 & 18 at 4pm

at ARC (A Room to Create)

The Inner Voices Project

A springboard for NEDT’s emerging choreographers

Thank you for joining NEDT for five premiere works created as part of our new mentorship program, The Inner Voices Project, designed to encourage young choreographers to create dance works from concept through production. From introspective themes like imposter syndrome and anxiety, to the exploration of societal pressures, and the personification of nature, these new works are an exciting introduction to our next generation of dancemakers. The Inner Voices Project features choreography by Sophia Bernardo, Alice Lousen, Jackie Pierce, Jacob Schmieder-Hacker, and Nairi Tahmizyan with guest performers Sadie Browne, Thomas Ng, and NEDT trainee Julie Turner.

The Inner Voices Project is made possible in part by grants from the Pasadena Community Foundation, The City of Pasadena Arts & Culture Department, and the Michael J. Connell Foundation. 

Thank you for helping us celebrate 15 years of NEDT with an eclectic program showcasing the company’s rich history and growth—an exploration of old and new. The evening featured a world premiere presentation of artistic director, Nancy Evans Doede’s, LANDSCAPES.

In addition to Nancy Evans Doede’s lauded works TETHERED (2010), SHIFTING SANDS (2011), SAD BIRDS (2012), and ITALY (2012); resident choreographers and founding company members Ashleigh Doede and Jenn Logan had several works on the program. Ashleigh revisited her trio, TICK (2018), an abstract movement exploration that deconstructs a timepiece. And Jenn Logan brought back the dysfunctional family THE JONESES, and the delightfully playful LUCY from the 2015 work, APARTMENT 6B.

WORKS 2024 featured company members Tara Aghaian, Sophia Bernardo, Jadyn Corral, Ashleigh Doede, Nancy Doede, Jenn Logan, Alice Lousen, Jackie Pierce, Jacob Schmieder-Hacker, and Nairi Tahmizyan.

Read the LA Dance Chronicle review here.

Open Modern Dance Class with Nancy Evans Doede

Sundays 11:30-12:45 at Pasadena Dance Theatre

1985 Locust St, Pasadena, CA 91107

Join Nancy and company members for an open level dance class focused on foundational movement, strength, alignment, musicality, and expression. Nancy’s exploration of form and space comes from a modern dance lineage that traces back to Mary Wigman via Hanya Holm.

$20 per class (classes must be purchased through NEDT)

***CLASSES WILL RESUME JANUARY 5***

2023 SEASON

WORKS 2023

Thank you for making WORKS 2023 a success!

NEDT celebrated crossing a variety of thresholds to create connections between visual, literary, and moving art forms. THRESHOLDS featured a return showing of the recent premiere, IMPRINT, originally performed at the Norton Simon Museum and inspired by their exhibition Ink, Paper, Stone: Six Women Artists and the Language of Lithography. This unique collaboration between choreographers Nancy Evans Doede and Jenn Logan along with costume designer Katrina Amerine and NEDT’s dancers reimagines two-dimensional art into a three-dimensional experience using mixed media for a surprising, dynamic, witty dive into expressionist movement.

Rounding out the program were three world premieres from Nancy Evans Doede, Ashleigh Doede, and Jenn Logan. Nancy’s new duet, FOUND AND LOST, lauded as “one the tenderest and loving duets between two men that I have seen in some time” (LA Dance Chronicle) is an intimate portal of the indiscriminate destruction of war and its impact on the lives that are forced to share in it. ANTAGONIST(S), by Ashleigh Doede, looks at the profound effects of confronting and moving through change. And, as part of NEDT’s outreach and education programming, we were excited to have a group of students from Pasadena Dance Theatre’s conservatory program perform along side the full company in Jenn Logan’s new work titled, WHAT NOT. Logan remarked, “It’s been exciting to have the students be part of building a new work from the ground up—to expose them to the design process from the initial concept through the development of a specific movement vocabulary, seeing costume sketches and mock-ups, and sitting in on conversations with the technical crew. Watching their growth as they work alongside our seasoned company members has been truly rewarding.” The work, inspired by the 1919 satire written by Rose Macaulay, explores a dystopian world guided by social engineering and policed by roving eyes that watch from behind state-controlled propaganda.

Read the full LA Dance Chronicle review here.

NOW PLAYING!

WORKS 2022: ROOTS AND BRANCHES—ONLINE

NEDT presents an exciting program that celebrates the roots of modern dance pioneers Mary Wigman, Martha Graham, and Lester Horton by showcasing work from artists who have grown and branched from them—Nancy Evans Doede, Nancy McKnight Hauser, Viola Farber, Don Martin, and John Pennington.
Don't miss this special evening that blends reconstructed works and original ones including audience favorites Everness (Nancy McKnight Hauser) and Eve (Nancy Evans Doede) along with a West Coast Premiere of Viola Farber’s Clearing, reconstructed by Jeff Slayton and unseen for over 40 years!

ROOTS AND BRANCHES is a look through the window of time, and timelessness that blends narrative and abstract dance. The program incorporates the artistry of dancers from both Nancy Evans Dance Theatre and Pennington Dance Group.

Live Performance is back — Works 2021

NEDT recently presented Works 2021 under the blue sky in the courtyard of Porticos Arts Space. We were thrilled to welcome our audience to back to our first live performance since 2019. The program featured a world premiere from artistic director Nancy Evans Doede that celebrates the unsung heroes of John Steinbeck’s classic books, the women. Doede explores the inner worlds of five women from five different stories including “The Grapes of Wrath”, “East of Eden”, “Of Mice and Men”, “The Pearl”, and “The Chrysanthemums”. Plus, an NEDT first … company members Ashleigh Doede and Jenn Logan literally took flight with new works performed on trapeze and lyra.

Read more in the LA Dance Chronicle review.

Performed at Porticos Art Space (St. James Church courtyard) on June 19, 2021

Watch the full show on-demand.

Figures of Speech is back.

Join NEDT for our on-demand presentation of new dance works inspired by literature. Figures of Speech was born of a prompt from artistic director Nancy Evans Doede designed to challenge company members to create new material that would mix text and dance without speaking out loud. Each member was asked to choose a line from a book or play, or a stanza from a poem and use it as an inspiration for any or all aspects of their work. Originally planned as a live performance in April of 2020, the choreography has been reworked for film keeping the original literary inspirations from works by women that were chosen in honor of the 1920 ratification of the nineteenth amendment. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the inspirations for these world premiere solos are as varied as the personalities who created them. Other prompts include Wild by Cheryl Strayed, What Not: A Prophetic Comedy by Rose Macaulay, and hope for the flowers by Trina Paulus.

Featured Artists: Nancy Evans Doede, Jenn Logan, Jen Hunter, Noel Dilworth, Ashleigh Doede

Read more about the show from LA Dance Chronicle.

Hear the artists answer audience questions and discuss their creative process during the February 27th live Q&A.

For performing artists connection is everything.

We share space, breath, movement and emotion. We collaborate in real time whether it’s to create something new or to perform something familiar. In this time of social distance can we create that kind of connection from behind a screen? We share our online selves with people all over the world via social media, but is that “connection” authentic? Is it personal? Nancy Evans Doede, artistic director of Nancy Evans Dance Theatre in Pasadena California, and her son, Nikolaos Doede, dancer with Augsburg Ballet in Germany, started brainstorming about the possibilities of connecting the artist/dancers in their respective lives as an experiment. Could these strangers navigate physical distance to create something unique? They paired twelve dancers from opposites sides of the world and asked them to create one piece with a storyline, and although everyone involved is a dancer, the piece would not have to include dance. The goal was to get to know one another as people and share their impressions through creative exploration. These Channels are the result.

Featured Artists:

Karina Francis Jones and Riki Campos Freire

Jenn Logan and Marcos Novais

Jen Hunter and Irupé Sarmiento

Noel Dilworth and Jiwon Doede

Katrina Amerine and Shori Yamamoto

Ashleigh Doede and Nikolaos Doede

Read our interview with LA Dance Chronicle!

Parallel by Jenn Logan & Marcos Novais

Connections by Karina Francis Jones & Ricard Campos Freire

Behind the Mirror by Jen Hunter and Irupé Sarmiento

Are You by Ashleigh Doede & Nikolaos Doede

Nice to Meet You by Noel Dilworth & Jiwon Kim Doede

Daydream by Katrina Amerine & Shori Yamamoto

Classes taught by Nancy Evans Doede

Zena Rommett Floor-Barre™

Thursdays 4:00-5:00 p.m. PST (Beginning Thursday, November 12th)

Zena Rommett (1920-2010) was a ballet dancer whose career included dancing in ballet companies, on Broadway, and with the Radio City Rockettes, toured nationally and internationally, and taught at the Joffrey ballet school before opening her own studio in 1968.  She developed a revolutionary system of exercises called Floor Barre™ that defines and refines  dancers’ movements and especially concentrates on placement and the development of turnout while working on the floor.  By centering the body without having to resist gravity by standing, the focus turns to lengthening the muscles and building strength while protecting the joints.  Since 1998, the Zena Rommett Dance Foundation has offered a certification program in order to teach her technique to other teachers.  This certification must be renewed annually, and the teachers are dedicated to preserving the purity of Zena’s technique.

Nancy Evans Doede took a Floor Barre™ class in San Francisco in 1983 and loved it.  However, it wasn’t until 2007 that she signed up for certification.  Family needs interrupted this and she had to put it on hold.  She began studying Floor Barre™ in 2012, and attended her first certification in 2014.  She continues to maintain her certification, now going into her eighth year.

“The beauty of Zena’s technique is that it not only helps dancers, but also non-dancers, athletes, and mature adults.  It is a concentrated approach without inducing strain or stress on the body, and allows each individual to apply it best to their own body needs and skills.”

To register email: nancyevansdancetheatre@gmail.com

Class fee: $15.00

“Defrag Fridays” Gentle Stretch Class

Fridays 5:00-6:00 p.m. PST (Beginning Friday, November 6th: )

This class is designed to release excess tension from a week of work. Especially if you work at a computer, this class will help to open up the back, gently stretch out sore and tight areas, and also practice simple relaxation techniques. It’s a great way to start the weekend!

To register email: nancyevansdancetheatre@gmail.com

Class fee: $15.00