Sheri Celentano
(Producer, Dancer, Choreographer & Co-founder) is a dance performer, choreographer and educator from Brooklyn, New York. A co-founder of the Lexington Dance Collective, Sheri has produced, directed, choreographed and fundraised for most of the company’s formal concerts, as well as exhibiting her work and performing in Jana Hick’s Performance Workshops since 2002 (NYC), Jana Hicks and Friends Tsunami Relief event (NYC), at One Arm Red Theater (Brooklyn, NY); at LaMama (NYC) as part of Andre DeSheilds 2001 production, “In Search of Pops” for Black Heritage Month, and at the Naples Arts and Music Festival  (Naples, New York). She holds a B.A. in Dance from the University at Buffalo and ia a certified Vinyasa yoga teacher (from the Laughing Lotus Yoga Center) where she currently teaches. Since 2000, she has worked for The Leadership Program as an educator in NYC public schools teaching violence prevention and conflict resolution, yoga, hip hop, ballet and modern dance as well as coaching a step team. In 2003, the University at Buffalo’s Department of Theater and Dance commissioned her to create a piece for their 30th Anniversary Celebration. Recently, Sheri co-produced, choreographed and performed in “Three Evenings of Dance” in Brooklyn at BAX, The Next Stage Project’s Fundraiser at City Center, “Fuerzas” an evening of dance curated by Maija Garcia and the Next Stage Project’s Exchange 2 in Amsterdam. She is currently setting a new piece to be debuted at this years Next Stage Project concerts. Sheri performed in the 2006-2007 season as a company member for Nia Love’s dance/theater company, Blacksmith’s Daughter. BACK TO THE TOP

Bonnie J. Butkas
(Producer, Choreographer & Co-founder) is a choreographer, producer and arts administrator.  She co-founded Lexington Dance Collective (LDC) in 1996 with Sheri Celentano and has produced, choreographed, stage managed, and supported LDC’s efforts throughout the last 11 years. Other theater/dance credits include assisting Terry Berliner on the Broadway production of “The Lion King;” program associate for the Bristol Valley Theater (BVT) Apprentice Program and movement instructor for the same; and choreographer for BVT’s mainstage and Wayland-Cohocton Central School’s theater program.  She spent four seasons as managing director of BVT in Naples, NY and is currently the Director of Development and Communications for TADA!, NYC’s best youth theater company. She holds two B.A.’s (magna cum laude) from the University at Buffalo, one in Dance Performance and one in Literary Journalism. Most recently her work was part of Jana Hicks and Friends Tsunami Relief event, and “The Little Girls Have Grown Up,” a world premiere concert of new work produced by LDC at LA TEA Theater in April 2005.  She also serves as an Audience Outreach Coordinator for Creatively Speaking, a film, video and conversation series featuring works by artists of color. BACK TO THE TOP

HOW IT ALL STARTED
A walk in the park: The product of a meandering walk on a gorgeous sunny day in Buffalo, NY, Bonnie Butkas and Sheri Celentano co-founded Lexington Dance Collective (LDC) in 1996.  LDC’s mission is to create new work in dance through collaboration with other artists, and the work is intended to enhance and educate our community by bringing forth personal, social and political issues through movement, music and spoken word. Born in Buffalo and bred in New York City, the company has produced dozens of full-length concerts and shorter works for concerts, festivals, fundraisers and showcases.  Lexington Dance Collective’s mission remains true to that original walk in the park. BACK TO THE TOP

WHAT WE'VE DONE
A brief history of concerts:

2005
The co-founders Sheri Celentano and Bonnie Butkas created the company’s seventh concert, “The Little Girls Have Grown Up,” in April 2005 at LaTea Theatre in the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In “The Little Girls…”, the first act was an intensely personal story of a woman growing up, and the second act examined the binds of both learned behaviors society and family roots.

2002
LDC produced “Shards & Orbits in a Place Called Home” at La Tea Theatre in NYC.  “Shards…” was a multi-media work with spoken word and short stories by Marci Jaffer, choreography by Sheri Celentano, video/film by Chris Biggins and co-producer/dancer Paige Constable.  “Shards…” dug deep into NYC with characters like Berry Beauty (a model with a penchant for partying), Aubrey Artist (an artist yearning to escape her shyness), Johnny Sticks (an aging drummer), and Angie All That (a Brooklyn girl turned Manhattan actress).

2001
Just after 9/11, Sheri Celentano and Traci Smith co-produced LDC’s “Shades of Blue” at the 4th Street Theatre/NY Theatre Workshop in NYC. “Shades…” paid homage to some of the great women in blues who broke down social and class barriers through music.


1998
After Bonnie and Sheri spent three months in Athens, Greece, dancing, drinking and choreographing, the company produced “LDC-4” at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY. “LDC-4” included “down and back” (an oral and visual exploration of a journey that occurred internally and across time zones and featured a frightfully honest looks at depression, body image and friendship) and “C/H/A/P/T/E/R/S” (a movement-base piece exploring social stereotypes, change, power, love and friendship).

1997
Bonnie Butkas and Laura Blackburn produced LDC’s “thus she proclaimed” at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY. “thus she proclaimed” examined the myths of goddesses, prophets, archetypes and self from a fiercely feminine point of view.

1996
LDC produced “Community in 3 Parts” at the UCC’s public studio space in Buffalo, NY.  “Community in 3 Parts” examined three individual views of community. Earlier that same year, LDC produced its first-ever concert in a historic outdoor courtyard at Cybele’s Restaurant in Buffalo, NY. The concert included three new works by co-founders Bonnie Butkas and Sheri Celentano and features live music, dance and poetry.

BACK TO THE TOP