Third Space Dance Project creates platforms for professional dance artists in Arizona to present their creative work and research through a variety of programming such as festivals, performances, workshops, and ongoing community-centered events and classes.
The idea behind the organization's name is rooted in the belief that dance is a powerful art form that cultivates shared experiences and constantly reinforces the significance of meaning-making through the body - it connects us, and can confront both universal and unique challenges through artistic interrogation.
Live performance is a meaningful energetic exchange that takes place between artist and witness. Live performance translates ideas, emotions, and stories into tangible, embodied knowledge that expands our understanding, perception, and point of view. Third spaces are in-between spaces where ideas that appear very different can work together to generate a new, third idea.
In a world that can often be polarized, dance brings us together, allowing us to find common ground and bridge our differences, as well as celebrate and respect them. The goal of Third Space Dance Project is to create spaces for the generation of new connections and possibilities as well as innovation and excellence in dance. Third Space Dance Project as an organization aims to build and facilitate the exploration of difference, identity, and community through dance.
Third Space Dance Project Founder and Creative Director, Angelica DeLashmette Hurst, is a veteran dance artist, choreographer, performer, educator producer, curator, production manager, entrepreneur, non-profit director, and everything in between the hustle. She first caught the “producer bug” back in 2013 after graduating from college and moving to live and pursue her dance dreams in Seattle, Washington.
She immediately wanted to create and produce her own work, and she also noticed that there were many unknown new or local artists, particularly dance artists, in the city who needed a platform to create and have their work produced. She sensed the creative and hungry energy of her peers to perform and be involved in collaborative projects.
So without any prior production experience, she successfully produced her first dance festival, enROOT, A Cooperative of Seattle Artists Presenting an Evening of New Dance Works, which supported the work of 13 local artists. The festival sold out the entire weekend of its run and garnered notable and positive reviews. This first production encompassed her vision to advance, evolve, expand, grow, and progress the careers of local dance artists in Seattle, specifically by supporting local emerging artists and artists transplanted onto the Seattle scene.
Since then, DeLashmette Hurst has built an extensive history of doing community work and producing events that offer platforms for dance artists to present their creative work and bring live performance experiences to the local community.
Between 2016 and 2018, DeLashmette managed Seattle’s long-running annual event, Converge Dance Festival. The festival served emerging to mid-career artists in the Pacific Northwest and provided Seattle audiences an opportunity to experience original Contemporary concert dance work. Under her leadership, the festival focused on intergenerational selection for presentation, innovation, and building community through artist showings and feedback opportunities. She devoted herself to finding community partnerships to support artists in their need for rehearsal space to create their work. During her time producing the annual festival, she successfully fundraised, promoted productions, and generated business relationships in the community to support artists.
While living in Seattle, DeLashmette Hurst realized her passion for producing, directing, and creating live performance events. She also came to recognize that her business management skills and entrepreneurial chops are talents and gifts she has been given to use in service to her community, which also happens to bring her a lot of joy and fulfillment. During her time in Seattle she also directed and created new work with her own project-based dance company, DeLashmette Dance Projects.
DeLashmette completed her graduate studies between 2018-2020. She was appointed an Iowa Arts Fellow and received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance (choreographic emphasis) from The University of Iowa. After receiving her MFA degree, she moved to Arizona where she currently resides and enjoys working as a dance educator in higher education, teaching in dance degree programs locally and doing community-based work through Third Space Dance Project.
The organization came to fruition in the Summer of 2022 after the pandemic with the goal to contribute to building more opportunities for dance artists in Arizona. DeLashmette has personally experienced dance to be one of the most powerful ways to bring people together of all backgrounds, identities, beliefs, and experiences to find common ground and bridge differences.
Spaces that allow us to be in dialogue, share ideas, and collaborate is what creating a "third space" is all about. Our current social and cultural climate often promotes division, segmentation, and polarization. The objective of the organization is to resist this and create the exact opposite via a third space - a way to be together in our differences, practicing mutual respect and empathy, and finding common ground while also being authentic to who we are.
After its first inaugural season (2022-2023), Third Space Dance Project's Twilight Fringe at Mesa Art Center and Third Space Dance Festival at Tempe Center for the Arts presented the work of over 25 local professional dance artists and involved over 50 performing artists. The organization also produced its first Arizona Dance Professionals Workshops in the Summer of 2023 and had over 100 local dancers participate in the free classes and workshops. Third Space Dance Project has received several grants and positive feedback from the community and aims to continue to serve Arizona dance artists.
Founder and Creative Director
Angelica DeLashmette Hurst is a hybrid dance artist who is passionate about Hip-Hop/Street Dance and Modern/Contemporary dance forms and lineages. She aims to bring awareness, education, respect, and appreciation for Black vernacular dance through her artistic practice and pedagogical research.
Recently her cr
Founder and Creative Director
Angelica DeLashmette Hurst is a hybrid dance artist who is passionate about Hip-Hop/Street Dance and Modern/Contemporary dance forms and lineages. She aims to bring awareness, education, respect, and appreciation for Black vernacular dance through her artistic practice and pedagogical research.
Recently her creative research has focused on Western and Afro-Diasporic dance improvisational practices that are centered in the social moving body – examining how a responsive and conversational body (the mode of call and response) is activated both in practice and performance. She aims to interrogate choreographic structures, create cooperative group processes, and identify relational approaches for choreographic development.
Hurst sees dance as a powerful art form that cultivates shared experiences and constantly reinforces the significance of meaning-making through the body. It is in her capacity to connect, collaborate. and be in community with others that dance has had its most profound influence on her.
She is currently residing in Southern Arizona and is on faculty in the dance programs at Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University, and Scottsdale and Mesa Community Colleges. She is the creator and host of The Artist Arena Podcast, a podcast specifically for professional dance artists, students, and educators working in the dance field/industry.
In 2022 she launched Third Space Dance Project.
Social Media Assistant
Juan Carlos Garcia Gutierrez , aka Jay, aka “the prince of chaos” was born and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. He found the world of dance when he was 19, taking his first classes in ballet and Hip-hop at Scottsdale Community College.
Questioning what it means to be a dancer and feeling very intrigued by this, Juan
Social Media Assistant
Juan Carlos Garcia Gutierrez , aka Jay, aka “the prince of chaos” was born and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. He found the world of dance when he was 19, taking his first classes in ballet and Hip-hop at Scottsdale Community College.
Questioning what it means to be a dancer and feeling very intrigued by this, Juan dabbled in SCC’s program and fell in love with dance for film, color theory, and lighting design. He also has a keen interest in the choreographic process, music composition, and social media management.
Juan gravitated very quickly to modern floor work and breaking forms. His movement is a unique blend of athleticism and gestural work, and he enjoys working collaboratively because it allows him to utilize dancers' individual strengths without completely relying on them. His works are a blend of contemporary with an emphasis on momentum, swing, and free flow, translating into a more release-based work.
Operations Manager
Shauna Meredith is a performer, choreographer, and movement educator based in the Phoenix area. She received her Master of Science degree in Dance Science from Trinity Laban in London, UK. This sparked her interest in dance psychology and has allowed her to work with dancers in performance enhancement and injury prevent
Operations Manager
Shauna Meredith is a performer, choreographer, and movement educator based in the Phoenix area. She received her Master of Science degree in Dance Science from Trinity Laban in London, UK. This sparked her interest in dance psychology and has allowed her to work with dancers in performance enhancement and injury prevention.
Her technique classes typically focus on efficiency and ease of movement. She also uses strength and conditioning exercises to prepare the body for the ever-increasing physical demands of contemporary choreography.
Shauna currently serves as an adjunct faculty member and resident choreographer at Glendale, Scottsdale, and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges and as a faculty associate at Arizona State University. She has performed professionally for film and in live performances with MAC & Company Dance, Rosenkrans Dans, Mary Fitzgerald, Jordan Daniels Dance, and her own company, Vital Motion.
Research & Evaluation Specialist
Arianna's decade of experience working in higher education includes coordinating the First-Year Writing program at Carnegie Mellon University and teaching and tutoring students in writing at Valencia College. Along with an MA degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, Arianna
Research & Evaluation Specialist
Arianna's decade of experience working in higher education includes coordinating the First-Year Writing program at Carnegie Mellon University and teaching and tutoring students in writing at Valencia College. Along with an MA degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, Arianna holds a Certificate in Grantwriting from Seattle Central College.
Based in the Pacific Northwest, Arianna provides editing and coaching for graduate school applications and other academic writing tasks. She also writes for The Humane Space.
Production and Technical Advisor
Angela Rosenkrans is the Dance Program Director at Scottsdale Community College in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is also a founding member and Artistic Director for Rosenkrans Dans, which premiered in the summer of 2012.
Angela holds a bachelor's degree in Dance from Centenary College of Louisiana and a master'
Production and Technical Advisor
Angela Rosenkrans is the Dance Program Director at Scottsdale Community College in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is also a founding member and Artistic Director for Rosenkrans Dans, which premiered in the summer of 2012.
Angela holds a bachelor's degree in Dance from Centenary College of Louisiana and a master's degree in Fine Arts from Sam Houston State University. She has been teaching and choreographing for 25 years at colleges and dance studios in Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana.
Angela has also performed professionally with Rosenkrans Dans, Ormao Dance Company, Scorpius Dance Theatre, Conder Dance, 32 Flavors, and Liz Casebolt Dance.
Operations Assistant
Lauren Jimenez is originally from Brentwood, California. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University. She also holds a minor in Film and Media Studies and a certificate in Homeland Security.
During her time at ASU, Lauren was part of the choreogra
Operations Assistant
Lauren Jimenez is originally from Brentwood, California. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University. She also holds a minor in Film and Media Studies and a certificate in Homeland Security.
During her time at ASU, Lauren was part of the choreographic process and performance of guest artists and professors, including Adam McKinney, Nicole Klaymoon, Michael Sakamoto, Joan Rodriguez, Taimy Miranda, Alicia Nascimento Castro, and Nicole Bradley-Browning. She has performed professionally at Taliesin West, Tempe Center for the Arts, and the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City.
Lauren's creative work has been selected for performance at ASU’s Spring Dance Fest, Herberger Alumni Event, and Gammage Auditorium, as well as, Tempe Center for the Arts. In 2019 she attended the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina and was selected to be in the HOT SUMMER POP UP’s directed by Mark Dendy and Kayla Farrish.
More recently, Lauren has performed in the repertoire of Koresh Dance Company and in “Here and Now/Wet Stones” at Tempe Center for the Arts.
Lauren has completed an Arts Administration internship with SALT Contemporary Dance and LED Boise, where she engaged in the choreographic process and performed the works of Lauren Edson and Cameron McKinney.
This season she is on the contemporary dance faculty at Ballet Theater of Phoenix, where she works with the Imagine Dance Challenge competition. She is also a stagehand at Tempe Center for the Arts.
Lauren is excited to join the Third Space Dance Project team and is inspired by its vision!
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