Profile: Angela Martinelli

Photo by Zac B.

Angela has been a dancer for 27 years, excelling in the art of ballet, modern, Afro-Haitian, West African, Bharatanatyam, contemporary, street funk and butoh. She is a certified yoga instructor through an Ashtanga/Iyengar blend. She has studied somatics with Sondra Fraliegh through ISMETA, and has traveled through Hawaii and New Zealand studying this work. Angela has participated in extensive dance, choreography and performance with such organizations as Plymouth State University's contemporary dance ensemble, Built on Stilits, Harvard University, University of Hawaii at Manoa's theatre and dance department, Luminz Performing Arts Center, Upside Down Dance, and Danse Perdue.

Her background in study is global communications and american studies, focusing on race/class/gender issues and preservation of culture through the arts. Her main focus has been on the Harlem Renaissance, West African tribal customs and Native American hopi tradition. She has traveled extensively with her own anthropological study through Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the States, as well as the Caribbean. Butoh has allowed her to autonomize her skill in dance with somatics, as well as infuse the movement with African and modern technique.

Angela's more recent study and performance art has been with noise/experimental musicians such as Tom Swafford, Noise Poet Nobody, Rosalyn DeRoos and Hugh Keelan. She travels bicoastally, teaching workshops and performing in New England, NYC and the Northwest. Angela has researched dance therapeutics and psychodrama, with which she is still highly interested in. She is available for teaching, collaborating, performing and curating.

Bio text from www.angelamartinelli.net