Flow and Gather is a culmination of the Artist in Residency program supported by the Lawrence Arts Collective and the Transformative Development Initiative. This show is all about finding a sense of place inside oneself, in a community, in a relationship, and in the world. Join us as we explore, visit, and celebrate how far we have come.

Choreographer and producer Eliza Malecki will present two brand new dance pieces that were developed during this residency. Additionally, this show will feature the work of architect Jeffrey Mansfield, whose exhibition gallery will be displayed at Essex Art Center and who will address the audience with a short artist talk about his work. Flow and Gather will also feature Lawrence artists including choreographer Amy Xotyeni and musicians Evelyn Blush, and Lone Sol.

This show will run approximately one hour. Seating is a range of chairs, floor seating, and standing room. The building is handicap accessible and there will be a ASL interpreter at this event. Please email elizamalecki@gmail.com if you have any accommodation needs.

Ticketing Levels

$25 Non-Lawrence Resident
$15 Non-Lawrence Resident Artist/Student
$0 Lawrence Resident

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Performers

Eliza Malecki

Juan Hoggins

Juan began his training at the age of 11 in a small dance studio in his hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was trained mostly in hip hop and continued his dance and musical theater training at the performing and fine arts high school of Lawrence High school. During high school he mostly focused in his theatre education because acting was his main goal. Juan is currently finishing his degree is Psychological Science at Fitchburg State University where he has continued his dance training for the past four years. Juan had been taking hip hop, contemporary, modern and jazz classes and he has performed in many of the showcases and has had the opportunity to have a solo in his favorite styles. Juan Is very excited to continue his dance education, work with this amazing dance company and continue to grow in many different styles of dance

Ashley Eng

Hoang-Anh (Ashley) Eng started her dance training at Bonnie Siscoe’s School of Dance in Houston, TX at the age of 3. In 2011, she entered into the pre-professional company at Amy Blake’s Academy of dance and trained in ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary, musical theatre, and other various genres of dance. In 2014, Ashley began attending the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) and was a company member of the Houston Repertory Dance Ensemble (HRDE). At HSPVA, Ashley had the opportunity to train in a high focus curriculum that included techniques of ballet, modern, tap, improvisation, composition, musical theatre, jazz, and modern partnering. At HSPVA, she learned repertory from choreographers like Christian Warner, Gregory Dolbashian, and Michael Foley. Zachary Tang, Jeremy Arnold, Allie Kronick, and Angelica Stiskin were a few of the esteemed choreographers working with HRDE. She attended summer sessions at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance, Northwest Dance Project, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Since her exposure to modern dance, Ashley has started to explore the integration of floor-bounded work with contemporary focused movements into her dance vocabulary. She is currently attending Boston Conservatory at Berklee as a senior year student, and has performed works by Kate Weare, Maleek Washington, Ruka Hatua-Saar White, and William Issac. She has participated, choreographed, and collaborated in various projects and short films with local Boston artists, rising musicians for their music videos, and fellow Berklee and Conservatory students. Currently Ashley is an administrative assistant for Midday Movement Series, a Boston based non-profit dance organization. She is excited to continue performing concert works and exploring unfamiliar movement styles to enhance and enrich into her experience with the art of dance.

Erika Roque

Hi my name is Erika, I am 24 years old and I was born and raised in Lawrence MA. I am Dominican and dancing is my passion. I’ve loved dancing for as long as I could remember. Growing up I was in many dance teams and have tried different styles of dance such as ballet, hip hop, salsa, and step. I’m looking forward to expanding my experience in dance and pursuing my passion.

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Claire Lane

Claire Lane is a dance artist and educator based in Boston, MA. She graduated summa cum laude from Smith College with the distinction of highest honors in Dance. A recipient of the Five College Dance Department Virginia K. Wagner Scholarship and the Smith College Excellence in Dance Studies award, she performed in works by Doug Varone, Bebe Miller, Ephrat Asherie, Angie Hauser, Chris Aiken, and Rodger Blum. Claire has pursued training internationally at P.A.R.T.S under the direction of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Belgium, and at Trinity Laban Conservatory in London. Claire has presented her own choreography at The Dance Complex in Boston, MA, and virtually through Freeskewl and NACHMo Boston. Making under the moniker detritus dance with artistic collaborator Caroline Bradbury, she is honored be an inaugural Artist-in-Residence at ArtAssembled in Somerville, MA, where she will develop “in the Ether,” a duet exploring biblical lore from a feminist revisionist lens. Claire is currently dancing in projects with Holly Stone/StoneWorks Productions, Abilities Dance Boston, Chavi Bansal, and Haley Andrews/Andrews Movement. She is on faculty at Urbanity Dance, Wilmington Dance Academy, and The Dance Place Arlington, and she cultivates connections with professional contemporary dancers as a rotating teacher and outreach intern at Boston-based dance non-profit Midday Movement. Her artistic practice is rooted in somatic principles as an entry into physical and emotional range. She is thrilled to be diving into new work with Izizwe Dance Collective!

Sarah Pacheco

Sarah Pacheco, originally from Southern California, is a freelance artist, administrator, and educator living in Boston, MA. She graduated with a B.A. in Dance and Business Administration with a Concentration in Arts Administration from Goucher College, where she danced for the Goucher Repertory Dance Ensemble and performed in works by Sidra Bell, Adam Hougland and Ronen Koresh, among others. She was also an intern for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater where she began her interest in special events coordinating. Upon graduating, Sarah moved to New York City where she performed with several freelance groups, including Kins Dance Theater and BIRDHOUSE New York. Additionally, she worked as a Community Actionist for Gibney Dance’s youth program “Hands Are For Holding” and became a certified GYROTONIC® Apprentice Teacher. Sarah now resides in Boston, and is in her second season as an artist and a rehearsal director for VLA DANCE, a contemporary dance company that is invested in dance as a conduit for communal care and creating Freedom for people of all identities. Most recently she had the opportunity to be featured in the Boston Lyric Opera’s independent dance film “Svadba” choreographed by Shura Baryshnikov. She continues to pursue her Certification in GYROTONIC® and teaches at Upward Spiral located in Cambridge, MA. Sarah enjoys exploring creative projects with her fellow colleagues and continues to pursue special event coordinating opportunities. Sarah is excited to continue diversifying her artistic opportunities in the greater Boston area, and further nurture her creative curiosities.

Mcebisi Xotyeni

Mcebisi Xotyeni, of Cape Town, South Africa, is a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer. He began dancing with the outreach program Dance For All, where he trained extensively in ballet, African, contemporary, and hip hop. He was awarded a full scholarship with Dance For All, and eventually began working for the professional dance company iKapa Dance Theatre. He has also worked with leading companies in South Africa such as: Cape Town City Ballet, Suede Productions, and Sibonelo Dance Project. He has performed for numerous festivals and has collaborated with international artists for performances and outreach projects. He currently dances professionally with one of Bostons leading dance companies; Jean Appolon Expressions in Cambridge Massachusetts. Mcebisi has also taught for Lawrence and Boston Public Schools, Boston University, and The School of Classical Ballet.

Lone Sol

Oriel Mendez, AKA “Lone Sol'', is a saxophonist, composer, and producer, from Lawrence Massachusetts. Son and Brother of Dominican immigrants. His music is influenced by jazz mixed with various genres and storytelling. The name, “Lone Sol”, means lone sun. It represents a duty, much like the sun itself, to share energy with the environment around him.

Amy Xotyeni

Amy Xotyeni, Owner and Director of Izizwe Dance Studio, has been teaching and choreographing for the past 9 years. She has trained with Boston Ballet, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, The HARTT School of Dance, iKapa Dance Theatre, and Bridgewater State University. She has launched international dance exchange programs for underprivileged youth in South Africa and Boston and hosted the first Jean Appolon Summer Dance Institute in the United States. She has taught at several dance studios around Massachusetts before becoming the director of Izizwe Dance Studio. She has collaborated with international leading artist on several projects both here and abroad and has been an outreach dance teacher for Boston and Lawrence Public Schools. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Education.

Eliza Malecki is a Cambridge based dancer, choreographer, administrator, teacher, and produce. Eliza was a Young Artist in Residence at Bearnstow in Mt. Vernon, ME, where she studied with renowned international dance faculty for ten weeks. Eliza is a founding member of The Picnic Sisters, a quirky dancing duo comprised of herself and collaborator Molly Hess. Her production credits include Laugh Track (2019), Social Disdancing (2020), Jamaica Plain Porchfest (2021), Almost Normal Almost Party (2021), and Flow and Gather (2022). Her choreographic projects have been funded by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture and The New England Foundation for the Arts. From 2021-22, Eliza will serve as an Artist in Residence for the City of Lawrence, MA.

Eliza has had the pleasure of performing for Natalie Johnson Dance, Molly Hess Dance Projects, Grant Jacoby and Dancers, and Catherine Siller. Her choreographic works-which display strong inventive movement, pedestrian gestures, and an undeniably unique sense of humor- have been presented in Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Rhode Island, and Arezzo, Italy. Her driving question when creating new work is "how can I create serious art that does not take itself seriously?" Eliza is also a passionate arts administrator and served as Studio Manager at Green Street Studios for 2 wonderful years and currently serves as the Associate Director of Operations and Events for Dunamis, a nonprofit committed to providing professional development opportunities for emerging artists and arts managers of color in Boston. When she is not dancing you can find Eliza watching reality television, thrift shopping, exploring the outdoors, and making wacky jewelry.

Jeffrey Mansfield

Jeffrey Mansfield is a design director at MASS Design Group, whose work explores the relationships between architecture, landscape, and power. Currently, he is researching how Deaf schools and other Deaf Spaces emerged as sites of cultural resistance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, initiated with a grant from the Graham Foundation and the John W. Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress. Jeffrey also co-edited MASS Design Group’s first monograph, Justice is Beauty (The Monacelli Press). Jeffrey’s work has been published in the Cooper Hewitt Design Journal, AD, Tacet and exhibited at MoMA PS1, Bergen Assembly, Sao Paulo Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial, and Tallinn Art Hall. Previously, Jeff has worked at the offices of Kennedy Violich Architecture (Boston), HHF Architects (Basel), and Parker Warburton Team Architecture (Dunedin, New Zealand). Jeffrey holds a Master of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an AB in Architecture from Princeton University. Jeffrey has been deaf since birth and attended a deaf school in Massachusetts, where his earliest intuitions about the relationship between aesthetics, power, and society emerged. Jeffrey is also a three-time Deaflympian, winning gold with the USA Men's Deaflympic Ice Hockey Team in 2007 and 2019. He also played Varsity Ice Hockey for Princeton and was awarded the 2005 USA Hockey Disabled Player of the Year.

Evelyn Blush

Evelyn Blush is a Los Angeles native artist based in the Greater Boston area. The daughter of two hard working immigrants from Nicaragua, she is inspired by the voice and struggles of POC, immigrants and all minorities including herself. Growing up in Church allowed her to tap into a deeper spiritual level, discovering the healing power music has. She often blends many sounds such as RnB, hints of Jazz, Soul accents, Rock and a hint of what she likes to call "Tracy Chapman/Lauryn Hill Folk". She has a deep passion for spiritual, emotional healing and growth of the individual through music. Evelyn Blush believes that music is one of the most powerful remedies for a broken soul. For her, music has the power to bring people together. This talented artist overcame countless obstacles on the way up, working every day to be a voice for her community and to keep their musical dream alive.

ELIZA MALECKI DANCE