LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Welcome to the Mandell Theater, a vibrant artistic home nestled within the heart of Drexel University’s campus. We are honored to welcome you as Drexel Dance Ensemble and FreshDance invite you into a world of imagination, rigor, and expression where energy, emotion, and movement converge to tell powerful stories.
Rooted Together: Drexel FreshDance Spring Concert brings together dancers and audiences to witness the energy, curiosity, and creative exploration of first-year performers. The concert honors movement as a starting point for artistic expression, collaboration, and connection within the Drexel community.
Dance, when done well, appears effortless, but excellence is never accidental. It is cultivated through repetition, reflection, and an unwavering commitment to craft. Musicality, emotional authenticity, and ensemble connection are skills honed over time. Week after week, our dancers and choreographers come together to rehearse, revise, and refine, shaping moments that are not only technically precise, but deeply human, and rooted in shared experience. What you are about to witness is the result of that collective dedication a testament to practice, collaboration, and belief in the power of dance to educate, challenge, and inspire.
Thank you for being part of this experience.Your presence affirms the work we do and the future we are building. We invite you to journey with us and enjoy the remarkable dancing ahead.
Onward,
Britt Whitmoyer Fishel Director, Drexel Dance Ensemble & FreshDance
ABOUT OUR ARTISTS
Sydney Donovan (Assistant Director) (She/Her) is a Philadelphia-based performer, choreographer, educator, and mystic whose work bridges contemporary performance, ritual, and embodied healing. She earned her BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts in 2019.Following graduation, Donovan was rehearsal director for Bobbi Jene Smith, Annie Rigney, and Paul Matteson, later returning to UArts as a guest choreographer, premieringThy Spirit like Thy Flesh (2023). A frequent performer with Opera Philadelphia, Donovan appeared inThe Listeners (2024), choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, Il Viaggio a Reims (2025), and EITCHTERLING’s collaboration with Anthony Roth Costanzo (2025). Her additional performance credits include works by Paul Matteson, Lilach Orenstein (featured in Dance Magazine), and Zoe Scofield, including a Princess Grace Award–winning work and a recent collaboration with Xiu Xiu. Since 2024 she has been a collaborator with BF & Artist.Donovan has performed in both the Philadelphia and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals with choreographers David Gorden, Susan Marshall, Hillary Pearson, Wally Carbonell, and Britt Fishel. As a 2022 Artist in Residence at MOtiVE Brooklyn, she developed her soloThe Many in One are Mingled. She later premieredTRINE (2024), launching her company, OmenThrice, which recently held residence at Philly PACK where Jack|Jill & the Hill (2026) premiered.Her interdisciplinary work includes film and movement direction, with credits spanning performance and collaborative film projects. Donovan currently serves as dance professor and Assistant Ensemble Director at Drexel University, where she restaged and reworkedThy Flesh like Thy Spirit (2025) and premiered Portal to Self (2026).