converge/dance

konverjdans (converge/dance)

konverjdans is a Brooklyn-based contemporary ballet company co-founded in 2016 by artistic directors Amy Saunder, Jordan Miller and Tiffany Mangulabnan, three women dancers, choreographers and creators who hail from Zimbabwe, the US and the Philippines, and who come together (converge) in the name of creating art in New York City.

konverjdans converges dance with other art forms; we create, perform and present new and original work that reflects the voices within our community, a diverse group of artistic collaborators in dance, music, film, visual art, literature, and design. Since 2016, konverjdans has collaborated with over 60 different artists and created and produced close to 30 original works in dance.

The company has been presented at festivals like Norte Maar’s annual Dance at Socrates and CounterPointe festivals, Battery Dance Festival, Periapsis Open Series, the Women in Dance Leadership Conference in NYC, the Riverside Dance Festival in Vero Beach, FL, and a number of other shows.

konverjdans has performed and produced work at venues all around New York City, such as Triskelion Arts, The Mark O’Donnell Theatre at the Actors Fund Arts Center, The Mark Morris Dance Center, The Kumble Theater, Danspace Project, Gibney Dance Center, Socrates Sculpture Park, JOHN DOE Gallery, The Living Gallery, The UNRULY Collective ArtHouse, and The Muse Brooklyn, among many others; as well as venues around the country, like Fort Wayne’s PPG ArtsLab and Vero Beach’s Riverside Theatre and Vero Beach Museum of Art. In 2020 and 2021, adapting to the age of social-distancing, konverjdans produced several new works on film, successful virtual “live” performances on Zoom, film festivals, and outdoor performances.

converge/backstory

New York, NY
October 2016 —

We're a company of three women - dancers, creators, artists, and friends - who hail from separate parts of the globe and come together (converge) in the hope of creating something meaningful out of our passions, as so many dreaming people do in New York City.

Our convergence, first as dancers, and ultimately as friends and co-creators; our mutual passions for cross-collaboration with artists of various fields; our commitment to thoughtful dancing and meaningful choreography; and the rare symbiosis and kinship among us, onstage as well as in life (a gift that we are continuously and happily discovering) — all this has laid the foundation for the building of konverjdans.

But to say that we three alone embody the soul of this growing company is to grossly disregard the collaborative spirit behind everything we have done and yet hope to do. There is no work without our collaborations - without the musicians, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, and other dancers and choreographers with whom we are forming inspiring artistic relationships (friendships, really), and whose original work, ideas and visions to us are paramount and invaluable.

While we will always have our classical ballet roots in the various companies we've danced with over the years (New York City Ballet, Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, BalletNext, Philippine Ballet Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Richmond Ballet, Eugene Ballet), we are also independent freelance dancers: diving into various projects (often concurrently, and often together) with other choreographers in New York and elsewhere in the US, constantly needing to feed our mutual desires to absorb a diversity of artistic thoughts and ideas, and to challenge our minds and bodies.

And in a way, konverjdans is just another venture we're diving - headfirst - into, and for that very purpose: it's a space for us to test and hone our own abilities as choreographers; to conduct open dialogues between artists of various fields, creating new work in dance, music, visual art, and film all at once; and to create new and rich experiences we hope to share with diverse audiences, with our patrons, friends and collaborators, with our home countries, eventually, and, always, with each other.

We invite you to join the collaboration: peek into the process on Patreon; and follow our journey on Facebook and Instagram!