Phantom Theater is wrapping up the dance portion of its summer program with a performance orchestrated by alumnae performer and choreographer Hannah Satterlee, who started dancing at Phantom Theater as a teen. She continued to study dance, receiving a Masters in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, and then went on to create dance companies, (the most recent ANIMAL Dance), and choreograph works that are, while abstract, “full of emotional power and heartfelt storytelling,” according to the Times-Argus critic Jim Lowe. He also described her as having a “simultaneous devotion to excellence, and the idea itself resulting in a clear and unfettered sense of conviction.”
“Tender Hearts” weaves together personal and mythical story. Satterlee started out wanting to invite strangers into connective experiences to expose and examine “what is possible with the human heart,” but that plan had to be laid aside when the pandemic started. She started online interviews with people about health, family, hobbies, dreams, hardship, and transformation, guided by her curiosity about human relationships. After two years, it was clear to her that the way to translate her discoveries was through her first language: movement. The result was “Tender Hearts,” which she describes as a journey of the heart.
She chose each of her four dancers -- Nicole Dagesse, Mireya Guerra, Marisa Hall, and Jessie Owens -- who share the ability and interest in speaking through movement. “Each emphasizes the power of the body and values the intensity of our emotional world,” said Satterlee.
Satterlee is the artistic director and producer of ANIMAL Dance. “Tender Hearts” will be at Phantom Theater on August 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased online by going to www.phantomtheater.org, or by purchasing at the door.
