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Updated 3/9/2023

Loom Ensemble

  • V

    VT

Institution/Business Type: Performing Group

For 13 years now, Loom Ensemble has been devising dancetheater for culture shift. We use our performances to open difficult conversations, and then facilitate community discussion to unpack the emotional vulnerability and cultural taboos of each show. Recent performances we’ve made speak directly to racism, patriarchy, rugged individualism, and the body-shame-industrial complex. In that shared space, the social value of art made from a place of deep integrity becomes clear: our actions matter, new ways of living are possible, together we can build a more loving world. 



We devise “dance-theater” in the literal sense, using character, story, and dialog to ground abstract dance in emotional specificity; and using full-bodied contemporary choreography to deepen the resonance of narrative storytelling.

We take deep pleasure in leading Loom Ensemble’s physical training within the rehearsal process. We practice unwinding conventional gender roles and shame through the embodied practice of movement, voice, and partnering. We are working from the inside out, to unlearn the systems of oppression that live in our interpersonal relationships and within our individual bodies.

Our design aesthetic values found objects, recycled materials, and organic materials. 

Over the last decade, Loom Ensemble has toured this approach to dance-theater around the world, with teaching and performance residencies from NYC blackboxes to stone monasteries in Italy, repurposed industrial warehouses in Dubai and back to the fields of Vermont. 

In addition, Neva danced with Pilobolus and Raphael performed with Sandglass Theater.

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We are thrilled to have received the New Work New England grant from NEFA to support the creation and tour of our newest work "Tell Me How You Breathe." This piece will be on tour in VT, MA, and NY in July and August 2023.

This piece draws on themes from our 2021 touring piece, and uses the lungs as a central metaphor for interconnectedness. Air may be the last public commons. Yet the impact of airborne illness and pollutant particles is not evenly distributed. Who gets to breathe freely, fully, with ease, is a necessary question to be asking as our culture continues to be plagued by racism and colonial violence. Loom’s show is vulnerable, brave, and inviting.

We are also booking repertory pieces: PrimeFading Brightness and What the Jellyfish Knows.

Find Me

Neva Cockrell (She / Her / Hers)
Job Title: Director / Choreographer
Phone: 845-379-1851
Address:
2315 Connecticut River Rd
Springfield, VT 05156

Social Media:

Additional Content:

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Performing Group

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Embedded in cultural private organization

Parent Organization:

Art Monastery

Year Founded:

2009

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Performing Group

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Embedded in cultural private organization

Parent Organization:

Art Monastery

Year Founded:

2009

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Theater - Devised / Artist-Led

Additional Disciplines:

  • Music - New

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Arts and Health
  • Arts Instruction / Lessons
  • Residency - In School
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
  • Residency - Production / Development
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Residency - Community
  • Community Arts
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 30

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Adults
  • Families
  • General Public
  • LGBTQ Populations
  • School Groups
  • Nonprofits

Geographic Reach:

  • Town / City
  • County
  • Multi-County Region
  • State
  • Multi-State Region
  • National
  • International

Accessibility of Services

Accessibility of Services:

  • Access accommodations for people who use a wheelchair and have limited mobility

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Awards

Awards:

  • New England Dance Fund Network
  • Dubai Short + Sweet Festival, Best New Ensemble 2015
  • Dubai Short + Sweet Festival, Best Play 2015
  • Dubai Short + Sweet Festival, Best Choreographer 2013
  • Nominated for Best Original Compositions for "Erosion: A Fable" by New York Innovative Theater Awards in 2012

Awards

Awards:

  • New England Dance Fund Network
  • Dubai Short + Sweet Festival, Best New Ensemble 2015
  • Dubai Short + Sweet Festival, Best Play 2015
  • Dubai Short + Sweet Festival, Best Choreographer 2013
  • Nominated for Best Original Compositions for "Erosion: A Fable" by New York Innovative Theater Awards in 2012

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient

Artist Info

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • Corporate Business
  • Healthcare Facility
  • Private Studio
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults
  • Seniors

Subject Areas:

  • Arts Integration - Communications
  • Arts Integration - Health
  • Arts Integration - Physical Education
  • Dance
  • Music
  • Theater

Certifications and Training:

  • Dance, Theater, Yoga, Vocal work, meditation

Fee range:

$25 - $1,500

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • Corporate Business
  • Healthcare Facility
  • Private Studio
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults
  • Seniors

Subject Areas:

  • Arts Integration - Communications
  • Arts Integration - Health
  • Arts Integration - Physical Education
  • Dance
  • Music
  • Theater

Certifications and Training:

  • Dance, Theater, Yoga, Vocal work, meditation

Fee range:

$25 - $1,500

Touring Artist

NEST Eligible Artist

Technical Requirements:

  • Loom is currently touring 3 shows. "What the Jellyfish Knows" is a one-man show with no technical requirements. "Prime" is a two-person show and requires 8 basic theater lights. "Tell Me How You Breathe" is a 5-person outdoor show requiring basic sound.

Fee Range:

$300 - $10,000

State of Residence:

Vermont

Minimum Number of Performers:

1

Maximum Number of Performers:

7