Nell Mancini is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and educator based in Boston, Massachusetts. She joined KAIROS Dance Theatre in 2021, just two months after graduating from college, and is now an apprentice with the company. While dancing with the company she was able to work with Paula Josa-Jones, Billie Jo Joy, and performed in the one act Opera, FOXY created by Artistic Director DeAnna Pellecchia. She also joined NOZAMA Dance Collective as a company member at the beginning of their 2021-2022 season and has performed in works by artistic director Dana Alsamsam and other company members. She received her BFA in dance from The University of Massachusetts Amherst in just three years and while there she had the opportunity to perform in the masterwork Boats Leaving by Doug Varone, where she was apart of the first ever non-company cast to perform the work in its entirety. She was born and raised in Massachusetts, and she attended the Acton School of Ballet for her formative dance training. She has also trained with Pantos Project dance, where is is currently a member of their Ensemble, Urbanity Dance, where she was a Junior Apprentice and a member of the Underground Company, David Dorfman Dance, and The Ailey School.
Artist Statement
PROJECTS
PROJECTS
WE TALKED AS GIRLS DO
July 9, 2022
NOZAMA Dance Collective
“We Talked as Girls do” was inspired by a poem, written by Emily Dickinson of the same name and is an exploration of female friendships and the way that women interact when we feel comfortable around each other. This work was crafted with the dancers, and is inspired by not only my life experience but theirs as well. This piece is meant to feel like a conversation between the two dancers and the structure is inspired by the many nights I’ve stayed up past 3am talking with my best friend. This work is a love letter more than anything, a love letter to my amazing friends, this incredible community, my amazing dancers that I could not have created this work without, and to my best friend, who also happens to be my cousin so it’s not like she could get rid of me if she tried.
LET THEM EAT CAKE
April 23, 2021
UMass Dance
Let Them Eat Cake is a 12 minute work that explores the lives of 7 historical women through the lens of storytelling and emotion. Through the framework set up by Marie Overlie in The Six Viewpoints, this work explores how generating movement from the viewpoints of emotion and story can portray the lives and stories of others, specifically Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine De Medici, Marie Antoinette, Queen Victoria, and Caterina Sforza, all of whom who defied typical power dynamics and gender stereotypes of their times. From the complex relationship between Anne Boleyn and the power she wielded, the parallel lives of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, to the controversy surrounding Marie Antoinette this work attempts to examine these women through their stories and emotions. This work is the performance aspect of my senior thesis project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It premiered on April 23, 2021 during the first night of the 2021 Umass Dance Senior Thesis Concert.
INSIDE THE BOX: A STUDY IN WHAT LIMITS US
April 2020
UMass Dance
Inside the Box is a dance film originally created for the Umass Amherst Junior Choreography project. The film is centered around limitations. What limits us? Why do we think those are the things that are holding us back? Can we use the things we view as limitations as a steppingstone to success? This piece was originally inspired by a class I with Whitney Dufrene of Doug Varone and Dancers. She said to our class, think of one thing that you think limits your dancing. Then she told us not to think of that limitation as your ceiling, a place where you stop and can go no further, but rather as your floor, a starting point for you to continue to grow and develop from. That idea inspired the beginnings of this piece, and once we were sent home due to COVID, the new limitations I faced creating and dancing from home fueled the final product.
LE MUSE
2017
Urbanity Dance
Le Muse is a trio originally choreographed on members of Urbanity Dance’s Junior Apprentice program of 2017, James O’Gilvie, Meena Jay, and Abbey Malec-Kenyon. The trio was inspired by the Muses of Ancient Greek myth, and in a five minute work the dancers explored the aesthetics of the muses and of greek mythology through movement and partner work.
February 15
Venue
New York, NY
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.
March 15
Venue
New York, NY
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.
