About ECDC
Our Mission
Elm City Dance Collective is a New Haven based organization that values an experiential and collaborative approach to dance creation, education and performance. ECDC works to challenge ideas about movement and reinvent the performance experience.
Creative Directors
Board of Directors
- ECDC Dancers
- Bios CLICK HERE
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Community
To read more about the artists we connect with visit the link below for individual webpages
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The Story of ECDC
Elm City Dance Collective (ECDC) began in 2008 as a conversation between four dance artists in the New Haven area. Kellie Ann Lynch, Lindsey Bauer, Jennifer Brubacher and Emilia VandenBroek envisioned an organization that would offer classes in a variety of movement forms, as well as choreographic and performance opportunities for local dance artists. In addition, the founders discussed a shared commitment to building community and connection through art. They chose the name Elm City Dance Collective to honor the significance of community and place, as New Haven was dubbed the “Elm City” after a number of majestic elm trees were planted there during a public tree planting program.
The mission, vision, and goals of ECDC took shape over the Summer of 2008. It was important to the founding members that ECDC not subscribe to a singular model such as a dance company, dance studio, community center, or school. Instead, ECDC was organized as a collective – a group that could integrate aspects of a variety of organizational models, so as to engage and create as broad a community as possible. Immediately after establishing itself, ECDC began rehearsing, creating, and connecting with community members through classes and improvisation jams at the Center for the Arts at Christ Church (CACC) in downtown New Haven.
As an organization, ECDC is committed to collaborating with artists and organizations in the New Haven area, providing performance opportunities to local dancers, contributing to the presence of dance as an accessible public art, and offering artistic development opportunities such as classes and improvisational jams. The organization welcomes partnerships, collaborations and new projects.
Elm City Dance Collective is a nonstock corporation in Connecticut and is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization under federal law.
