Kendra Mace Clark

category: Dance, Dance-Jazz, Dance-Modern,

Contact & Info

Website: http://kendramacedance.com

Phone: 707 688-3866

  • kendramace@gmail.com

Artist Statement

I feel most alive when in motion.  When I move, I transcend to a deeply intuitive place.  The act of dancing is physical research, a meditative state of letting go of assumptions of what is and isn’t possible. Rigorous improvisation allows me to understand an idea through movement by exploring the form and function of my body.  I instinctively follow my imagination, even when I don’t know where it is taking me.  My body attends deeply to its visceral convictions and corporeal instincts to reveal new material through the phenomenon of dancing.  The process can be onerous, interesting, or maddening, but with persistence it delivers striking new ideas. My inimitable dance style derives from a hunger for unaffected movement.  I work tenaciously to perfect sequential shifts of weight that stupefy gravity.  Whether I am creating a work to perform myself or setting choreography on an ensemble, I design sleek, musically-driven sketches that ebb and flow through space, revealing subtle layers of meaning through sheer articulation.  My dance language creates texture by contrasting polar ideas: I work arduously to create cohesion while honoring individuality; I am sensitive to both skeletal and muscular details, and I meld highly mobilized, luscious movement with pedestrian mannerisms.  My works range from athletic, to quirky, to emotionally intense, and are each carefully crafted through choreographic devices. I am especially passionate about transforming an everyday setting into a public stage to bring the community together to participate in dance. It is my goal to use dance to inspire the community to see that our environment can be center stage for artistic pedestrian activity. For more information please check out the Kendra Mace Dance website: www.imcreator.com/free/kendramace/kendra-mace-dance

Educational Background

Kendra Mace is a New York based, California grown, Dancer, Teaching Artist, and emerging contemporary Choreographer.  Mace approaches performing, teaching, and creating with a steady curiosity that fuels a seemingly effortless intensity and rigor.  Through a body of work that explores her corporeal craving for unaffected movement, Mace has developed a recognizable artistic language of physically demanding, luscious movement adorned with intricacies. After earning a BA in Psychology and Dance from California State University, Fullerton, Mac launched a professional contract with a leading cruise line, where she integrated folk dance and tourism to entertain passengers.  She broadened her knowledge of dance languages and nurtured her inimitable dance style studying forms traditional to Canada, Mexico, Central American, South America, Europe, and the Caribbean.  She earned an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, where she trained extensively with postmodern pioneer Sara Rudner.  Mace’s no-holds-barred physicality led her to be casted in works by Maxine Sherman, Rashaun Mitchell, Jodi Melnick, Dianne McIntyre, Buglisi Dance Theatre at Lincoln Center, and a reconstruction of Martha Graham’s 1931 masterpiece Primitive Mysteries at The Joyce Theater. Mace’s choreography has been commissioned and performed nationally, including numerous works for California high school and collegiate dance teams performing for Universal Dance Association’s National Competitions broadcast on ESPN. Mace has presented her work at CSUF, Bennington College, SLC, and the Flamboyán Theater. Mace is the recipient of the Mark DeGarmo Dance Salon Series Choreography Award (2015) and premiered her work for the MoveUP! Dance Festival at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. In August 2016 Mace will present a public dance installation in partnership with East in Arts in Riverhead, NY. Mace is an in demand dance educator throughout the New York dance scene and is faculty at the renowned Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation, the premier Dance School in Westchester County. She is devoted to dance education for dancers and non-dancers and develops programs for academic institutions and community agencies in partnership with ArtsWestchester and Mark DeGarmo Dance. Mace continues to share her curiosity to understand the capacity of the human body with the community through performance, creative place-making, and arts-in-education programming.