Mal•Ped Presents: THE PARTY

THE PARTY

The Party is an experimental contemporary work of dance theatre that uses mediums of movement and monologue to communicate its narrative.

The Party is about exactly what it sounds like: a rendition of the various parties the Mal•Ped dancers have been to throughout their lives.

Some bear memories of loneliness, assault, heartache, injuries, and mistrust; while others are filled with memories of growing love, exciting introductions, raucous circumstances, and unabashed behavior. This is why we go to parties, right? It’s for the intrigue of the night and the curiosity of how we will wake up the next morning. We risk the pain and passion for the possibility of human connection, which in the end, is all we really need.

The Party explores the performers’ past experiences at parties through contemporary, floor-work, and modern movement, peppered in with some dance theatre and monologues to move the stories along.

Dancers

Music Composition

Costume Design

Photography & Videography

Rehearsal Photos

Victoria Bond, Sarah DeSordi, Cynthia Pearsall, Bailey Benoot, Erin Cervelli, Elaina Stewart Connor Hanson

Marissa Nanarone

Kris Khunachak

David Ross Lawn

The Team

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Victoria Bond graduated summa cum laude from Elon university with a BFA in dance performance & choreography, a BA in English, a concentration in creative writing, and four years of fellows undergraduate research under her belt. In college Bond studied under: Gerri Houlihan, Renay Aumiller, Jen Guy Metcalf, Andrea Miller, Laja Martin, Cameron McKinney, Andrea Webber, Enzo Celli, Ming Ling-Yung, and Megan Mazerick. Since graduating Bond has danced professionally under artists: Meagmove, Spare/Change Dance company, Persons dance ensemble, and Mignolo dance company. In 2020 Victoria founded Mal•Ped Dance Collective, which began as a company that specialized in collaborations with musicians and visual artists to make motion pictures. She is particularly grateful to have worked with Benjamin Lieber and Kris Khunachak in all the projects. Projects with bands like: Late Waves, Idle Wave, Babie, Blaze, Marina City, Guccihighwaters, Can’t Swim, Christian Sporacio, Cloud Hands, and Val Astaire. To Bond’s delight she is now putting on an evening length work under Mal•Ped Dance Collective, and is able to work with some of the most incredible artists, who have all helped the work take its full form. When she’s not dancing or producing a show, she teaches high-intensity fitness classes at Perspirology. Bond also teaches the amazing young minds and bodies of students at Colts Neck Dance, Kick Dance, and DSN dance. When she can find time, Victoria still loves to write. A collection of Bond’s non-fiction work has been published in Dead Mule magazine.

THE COMPANY

Bailey Benoot is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher originally from Detroit, Michigan. She graduated summa cum laude in 2019 with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Creative Writing at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has performed at Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Triskelion Arts, the Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out stage, Judson Church, and the Kennedy Center among other venues. She has premiered her own work at Spoke the Hub’s Winter Follies showcase, Spoke the Hub’s Director’s Showcase, Spring for Spring Dance Festival, River Dance Festival, as well as various showcases in the NJ/NY area. In addition to working as a dancer, Bailey does costume and lighting design for ~mignolo~ dance as well moonlighting as a fiber art designer. Find her on Instagram @unclechilliwhiskers

Erin Cervelli is a dancer from Edison, New Jersey. She recently graduated with a BFA in Dance from George Mason University. At GMU Erin had the opportunity to learn and perform works by Rafael Bonachella, Christopher d’Amboise and Karen Reedy. Erin has also performed in musical theater, most recently Something Rotten at Plays in the Park. She is also passionate about teaching dance, especially to diverse populations, and is beginning a Masters program in Speech Language Pathology in the fall.

Sarah DeSordi is an NJ-based creative, mover, and educator. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Elon University in May 2021 with her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and BS in Dance and Exercise Science. Under the expertise of the dance program faculty Sarah has had the opportunity to perform in works by Renay Aumiller of RAD, Jason Aryeh, Amy Beasley, Victoria Bond, Christal Brown, Abigail Corrigan, Jennifer Guy, Lauren Kearns of Kearns Dance Project, Leah Wilks, Yoshito Sakuraba, Ming-Lung Yang, and Summation Dance Company. While studying abroad in Italy, Sarah performed with Kearns Dance Project at Florence Dance Festival 2019. During her time at Elon she was also invited to present her choreography in two mainstage productions, as well as at American College Dance Association. Sarah currently works as certified Pilates instructor pursuing and sharing her passion for movement and wellness as she explores what it means to find balance in the life of an artist and forever student.

Cynthia Pearsall is a dancer, choreographer and teacher who received her education from Rutgers, Mason Gross School of the Arts. She graduated in May 2022 with a BFA in Dance and Minor in Human Resource Management. Since the age of three, Pearsall grew up taking dance classes in all sorts of styles such as contemporary, lyrical, ballet, pointe, jazz, acro and tap. During her time at Mason Gross she deeply focused on contemporary/modern, ballet, and improvisation techniques and was able to broaden her dance education by taking classes such as yoga, pilates mat, gaga, African fusion, classical Indian styles (Kathak and Odissi), bollywood, Laban movement, and pointe. While also at Rutgers, she has been a part of works choreographed by Pam Tanowitz, John Evans, Chien-Ying Wang, Sean Currán, Lynn Neuman and other undergraduate students. Since graduation, Pearsall has been sharing her love of dance through teaching. Pearsall plans to continue performing, collaborate with other

artists on projects and continue teaching in order to share her passion and love for dance.

Elaina Stewart is a creator and mover from Northeast FL. She has a passion for movement and believes it is one way in which all humans communicate. She’s a BFA Dance graduate from Rutgers University, where she studied contemporary and compositional forms. Stewart has trained in Israel and Berlin, both of which she has also performed. Stewart has worked with choreographers Darrell Grand Moultrie, BennyRoyce Rayon, Fluer Darkin, Greg Dolbashian, Roni Chadash, and Noa Zuk. During these creative processes she was given opportunities to perform at The Joyce Theater, dock11 Berlin, and the Suzanne Dellal Center Tel Aviv. Stewart’s passion for movement is what transcends her to move in a performative way, she enjoys these creative processes and the learning that comes with it. Much of her movement is heavily influenced by improvisational techniques, she loves to play around in the studio and see what new energies she can render up. Aside from her dancing she also is a pilates instructor, traveler, plant, and pet lover. She is always looking to keep life interesting.

Connor Hanson (Composer) is a producer, songwriter, and engineer from Asbury Park, NJ. He graduated in 2017 from Elon University with a B.S. in Music Production and Recording Arts. Connor owns his own studio where he produces, tracks, and composes music for himself and other artists. He enjoys playing in bands: Idle Wave, Babie, and Ella Ross. Connor started his post graduate career working as an engineer at Lake House Recording Studio and doing live sound at the Asbury Park Brewery. These positions gave him a foundation of field based knowledge that allowed him to venture off into his own business endeavors. Connor is also an adjunct professor at Monmouth University where he teaches advanced record production.

Marissa Alea Nanarone (Costume Designer)

aka Mars is Yungblud’s wardrobe assistant, lead wardrobe for Production 624, contributing fashion editor for Reserved Magazine, and DIY extraordinaire. She graduated from LIM College in 2018 with a BBA in Visual Merchandising. Mars has assisted on projects including the Met Gala, The Wendy Williams Show, the NBA Awards, and MDNA Skin Care commercials before going out on her own. Since 2018, Mars has styled album covers, editorials, TV pilots, short films, and her personal favorite, music videos. She finds inspiration from her Italian roots, Debbie Harry, Bruce Springsteen, and the local music scene of New Jersey. If Mars is not on set she can be found at the beach reading a book or watching movies with her cat, T-bone.

About Mal • Ped

Mal•Ped Dance Collective is termed a collective because of how it uses collaboration in the creative process. Though Victoria Bond acts as the main choreographer and director for the company, each piece will express vivid input from each individual dancer. This gives the dancers agency and identity within the work. In this way, the dancers feel an effortless comfort with some of their habitual movement appearing in the piece, as well as taking on the challenge of Bond’s more foreign movement.

Mal•Ped strives to engage both the audience and performer by using elements of liminality (set design, lighting design, dialogue, and carefully crafted music) and relatability. The dialogue and monologue moments of the works are derived from the dancers’ personal histories, causing them to naturally immerse themselves in the expressive process. Mal•Ped uses the stories of its performers to empower them and the audience members, by thoroughly exploring them.

Mission Statement

Mal•Ped Dance Collective is a dance company that takes inspiration from all of its collective members to create cohesive and well-rounded work. Mal•Ped aims to utilize dance, and dance theatre, as an artform to cathartically heal the performers from their past experiences. The creative process and product of Mal•Ped dance collective will help kickstart the presence and importance of dance, while also growing its community in Asbury Park.

Vision Statement

As Mal•Ped continues to grow in members and notoriety, Bond wishes to perform at wellestablished venues that offer tools to mic the dancers in order to fully incorporate dance and theatre. In the future, Mal•Ped aims to cultivate a professional dance community by offering classes and workshops for professional dancers, weekly. Furthermore, Mal•Ped would like to kickstart a dance festival in Asbury Park for smaller dance companies to travel to and share their work, thus, creating more dance opportunities and visibility in the community. This growth will be cultivated by grant sponsorship opportunities supported through Omni Arts.

Mal•Ped Dance Collective is supported in part by its fiscal sponshorship with OmniARTS.

OmniARTS is a 501(c)3 charitable organization dedicated to the creation of multidisciplinary art and artists. Through fiscal sponsorship, OmniARTS empowers the collaborative work of creators.

At the onset of the pandemic, OmniARTS created the Lean On Me concert series. By partnering with The New Music Solidarity Fund, Artist Relief Tree, and First Responders Children’s Foundation, this three part virtual concert series fundraised over $30,000 towards emergency relief to artists and essential workers impacted by the COVID19 pandemic.

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