DanceSmith Background. DanceSmith is a contemporary ballet company rooted in classical technique informed by modern dance. Founded by Natalie Moffett Smith in 2002, DanceSmith makes ballet accessible to a wide range of audiences. The company redefines the experience of watching ballet by the innovative use of classical ballet technique combined with a strong emotional component that is more contemporary. The company’s style contrasts the flowing movement and extended lines of ballet with the angularity and weight of modern dance.

DanceSmith promotes an exchange between dance and other artistic disciplines including the visual arts and music. Since its inception, the company has premiered two collaborations with Washington area composer Charlie Barnett. Barnett’s score for one of these collaborations, Moffett Smith’s Within, was awarded the 2004 Metro DC Dance Award for original composition. DanceSmith has also premiered three collaborations with Corcoran-trained Washington Master Painter Helene O’Neil Sherer.

Based in Washington, DC, DanceSmith became the Resident Performing Dance Company of the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC. in March 2007. The company completed its first two seasons at the Marvin Theatre at The George Washington University and two seasons at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. DanceSmith was previously an arts incubator tenant at the American Dance Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and currently rehearses at the studios of the Maryland Youth Ballet in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Natalie Moffett Smith (artistic director, choreographer and dancer)

Natalie Moffett Smith is a native Washingtonian. She received her MFA in Dance from George Mason University and her BA from Virginia Intermont College. Moffett Smith founded DanceSmith in 2002, building on her extensive experience as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. She was previously a leading dancer of the Duluth Ballet (now the Minnesota Ballet), Eric Hampton Dance and Dana Tai Soon Burgess and Company, and also appeared as a guest artist with several dance companies including Tony Powell/Music and Movement. She trained at the Washington School of Ballet under the direction of Mary Day and Choo San Goh, and as a student she was the recipient of scholarships to attend intensive training at the Pennsylvania Ballet, Skidmore College and the Joffrey Ballet.

Moffett Smith taught extensively prior to founding DanceSmith, including as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University, at her own studio in Rockville, Maryland, as Ballet Mistress of the Duluth Ballet, and as faculty at George Mason University in Virginia and Joy of Motion in Washington, DC.

In addition to DanceSmith, Moffett Smith’s choreography has been performed by Theater Bristol, the Duluth Ballet, and at Georgetown University (commissioned work), The George Washington University, George Mason University, and in Santiago, Cuba as part of an educational cultural exchange.

Upcoming

• 2010 Performance Schedule coming soon!

Selected Performances

• May 2007 - Atlas Performing Arts Centre, Washington DC

• January 2006 - John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - Terrace Theater, Washington, DC

• April 2005 - Atlas Performing Arts Center,Washington, DC
  Narrated lab theatre performance as part of community opening celebration

• March 2005 - Jewish Community Center, Rockville, Maryland
  Guest appearance on mixed bill; Fon Fon Odeon (Eric Hampton), The Gift

• November 2004 - Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theater, Washington, DC
  The Gift, Together Alone, Fon Fon Odeon (Eric Hampton 1992), Within, Disquiet (premiere)

• October 2004 - Magical Montgomery, Silver Spring, Maryland
  Narrated performance as part of community open-air arts festival

• May 2004 - Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC
  Divertimento (premiere), Together Alone (premiere), Interior Lining, The Language of the Heart (Tony Powell 2002), Within (premiere), Impulse (premiere)

• February 2004 - American Dance Institute, Rockville, Maryland
  Narrated studio performance of works in progress

• January 2003 - Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC
  The Gift (premiere), Rex, Mélange Separé, Fon Fon Odeon (Eric Hampton), Between Us (premiere), Interior Lining (premiere)

• November 2002 - Maryland Youth Ballet, Bethesda, Maryland
  Narrated studio performance of works in progress

DanceSmith Board of Directors

Ann Fowler
Kurt Harrington
Andrew Majett III
Sandra Ritzert
Natalie Moffett Smith

DanceSmith Advisory Board

Contact Us

Phone (202) 364-5918

Fax (202) 364-5922

Email: nmsdancesmith@aol.com