Leslie Frye Maietta

Mother to three, Mover and Maker, Leslie Frye Maietta embraces an entrepreneurial spirit practicing radical versatility in all things dance and life. This philosophy has led to a successful career in both Concert and Commercial dance spaces on an international to local scale. Leslie’s choreographic work has been presented from Berlin to Boston and her teaching continues to be equally as distinct. She has worked with Mia Michaels, George Faison, Hope Boykin, Mary Cochran, Adele Myers, Daniel Gwirtzman, Paul Matteson, and Deborah Goffe to name a few.

Body House, The Collective is a project-based platform, a house of mentorship, a home for deep connection and a hub for Leslie’s rich, collaborative creative research - rooted in the empowerment of women of diverse backgrounds, producing socially conscious performance. Additionally, Leslie is the Founder/Owner of Body House Integrative Fitness in Avon, CT, a space dedicated to providing wellness through movement, specializing in Gyrotonic exercise, core rehabilitation and more.

Leslie has held faculty positions and set commissioned work at numerous area universities and private institutions including; UMass Amherst, Smith College, Amherst College, Mt. Holyoke College, Salve Regina University, Keene State, Connecticut College, The University of Hartford, Hartt School, Miss Porter’s School, The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, University of St. Joseph, Hollins University, and The American Dance Festival. Currently, Leslie is Visiting Faculty in Theatre and Dance at Trinity College.

BFA from the University of the Arts

MFA from Hollins University/The American Dance Festival.

CV and additional materials upon request.

lesliemaietta@protonmail.com

Collaborators 

Niki Farahani, movement

Niki Farahani is an Iranian - American woman originally from Connecticut, and is currently based in New York City. She received her undergrad (BFA in Dance) from Umass Amherst in 2015. She had opportunities to preform the works of Camille A. Brown, Sidra Bell, Janice Brown, Gallim and Leslie Frye- Maietta during her time in Western Mass. Critical moments in the years after include, a residency at EPDM in Sinaloa, Mexico and Vertigo's Contact Improv Festival Eco - Village in Israel during 2016. She has performed in Festivals such as The White Wave Festival and INSITU - LIC, and presently has on going collaborative relationships with Heath in Progress, Gabriella Carmichael, and Vessels and Body | House. Her current research resides in the desire to dissect the pigments of loss we as a human species experience and the misconceptions of formality/ civility.

Helen Duros, movement

Helen Duros is a dance performer, educator and maker in pursuit of what it means to be an embodied human. She holds a BFA in dance from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she was largely influenced by the teachings and creative process of Leslie Frye-Maietta. Within the Five College Dance Consortium, she studied under Paul Dennis, Debra Goff, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Nugent, Jennifer Pollins, and Thomas Vacanti.  She has performed throughout the country in works by Joelle Cosentino, James Kinney, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company, Brendan Drake Choreography, Shannon Gillen, and Sidra Bell Dance New York.  

2018 marked the beginning of Helen's journey in the Countertechnique method: a revolutionary step in furthering her expanded and sustainable relationship to movement. Ms.Duros additionally spent the greater part of 2019 based in Paris, France choreographing site-specific dance work, most notably alongside Paulina Schaefer at the Louis Vuitton Foundation Museum. She is a certified yoga teacher and Gyrokinesis practitioner who is passionate about sharing an informed, holistic perspective of the dancing body. Helen lives in Los Angeles and is honored to be a founding member of Body | House. 

Kelsey Saulnier, movement

Kelsey Saulnier is a freelance dance artist currently living in Brooklyn NY, and holds a BFA in dance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Kelsey has studied under the direction of Leslie Frye-Maietta, Paul Dennis, Jennifer Nugent, Paul Matteson, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, David Dorfman and more, and has been featured in works by Korhan Basaran, Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, Pilobolus Dance Theater, and Kinsun Chan among others. She has worked as a dancer at Boston Moving Arts Productions under the direction of Jenna Pollack, Prometheus Dance, Boston Dance Theater, and BODY | HOUSE. She is not only a mover, but a maker, and has presented original works at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 92nd Street Y, Montclair State University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston University, the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, Green Street Studios, Arts on Site, Alchemical Theater Laboratories, Triskelion Arts, the Somerville Armory, Onstage Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Newburgh Illuminated Festival, SMUSH Galleries, and more. She continues to freelance in both New York and Boston, and collaborates with friends from near and far. She is currently a performing collaborator with BODY | HOUSE.

Paulina Schaefer, movement

Paulina is a freelance dance artist, choreographer and yoga teacher based in Brooklyn, NY. Holding a B.F.A in dance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Talent Award Scholarship, Paulina has studied under Leslie Frye-Maietta, Paul Dennis, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Nugent, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Jennifer Polins, Thomas Vacanti and Wendy Woodson. Here she performed in works by The Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company, Shakia Johnson, Ericka Wilson Perkins, Leah Moriarty among others. In 2019, Paulina moved to Europe to capitalize on an opportunity to travel and study under a variety of established dance artists in an effort to gain new experiences, foster artistic development, and bring a renewed perspective on movement. She had the chance to work / collaborate with Sabine Parzer, Idan Yoav, Guy Dartnell and Martin Gent among others. She has also collaborated with Helen Duros in site specific work during her travels in Paris. She is elated to continue cultivating her dance community as well as be on this collaborative adventure with Body | House.  

Emily Relyea-Spivack, movement

 Emily holds a BFA in Dance from The University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Talent Award Scholarship. During her time at UMASS, Emily had the opportunities to perform works by renowned guest choreographers, including Jennifer Hart and John Heginbotham. Emily completed the first two years of her degree at The Hartt School, where she performed additional works by Stephen Pier, Katie Stevenson-Nollet, Gregory Dolbashian, and Loni Landon. Having received the bulk of her early training in classical ballet, Emily used her undergraduate as a time to fully explore and delve into all dance forms such as contemporary and modern, allowing her to expand her movement vocabulary to a wider range. Her senior thesis entitled, “Spillage”, which she presented in April of 2015, was a visual representation of this on-going, exploratory, movement research. In addition to her dance career, Emily is expecting to receive her Pilates Studio Instructor certification by the end of August 2015, and hopes to help people achieve their individual fitness goals through the practice of the rehabilitative-based, Polestar Pilates method. Emily has been working with Leslie for the past year, performing her works, Body | House and Breed. She values the collaborative process that Leslie instills during each rehearsal and finds each choreographic experience incredibly enlightening as an artist. Needless to say, she is thrilled to continue on this collaborative journey of art-making.  

Adriana Greaves, movement

Adriana is traveling through Europe exploring new places and experiences. During her travels, she has participated in ImPulsTanz in Vienna and b12 in Berlin where she explored under Johannes Wieland, Shannon Gillen, Guy Nadar, Maria Campos, and Luke Murphy. She is passionate about dance and continues to be curious, exploring how and why the body moves the ways it does. Adriana earned her BFA in Dance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst along with a BS in Kinesiology. During her time there she participated in the choreographic processes of Leslie Frye-Maietta, Jenn Nugent, Thomas Vacanti, Kinsun Chan, and Rodger Blum among others. She has performed work at 92nd Street Y, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Boston Conservatory and The School of Contemporary Dance and Thought. Prior to University she attended the University of North Carolina Sc

Korea in the space, Sound

https://koreainthespace.bandcamp.com

Divyamaan Sahoo, Sound

Divyamaan Sahoo from Kolkata, India, is a mathematician, puppeteer, and sound artist, deeply influenced by anima, the soul or essence of living things, in the alchemy of puppets and instruments. His research is formally rooted in Spencer-Brown distinctions, the laws of which determined the compositional framework for his recent work-in-progress, Flatland (2018). His practice currently involves sound, light, movement, sculpture, and very recently, weaving.