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DAY IN THE LIFE OF DANCE: Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup Presents Moving Memory Project 2026: Next Gen
By Christine Jowers/Follow @cmmjowers on Instagram
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Published on April 23, 2026
Cover photo: Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup
A Festival Devoted to Memory & Forgetting as Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary
Don't Miss These Original Next Gen Dance Works
When: Friday - Saturday, April 24 - 25, 2026 @ 7:30 pm
Where: Broadway Presbyterian Church, 601 W 114th St, New York, NY 10025
Tickets: $20 or pay-what-you-wish
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moving-memory-next-gen-tickets-1985383543624
Featuring Original Dance Works by:
Tricia Dietrick, an SND Commission with Commissioned Music by Jonah Kreitner
Zev Haworth
Miguel Miranda
Chelsea Thedinga
Tethered Residents: Taylor Graham & Jerimy Rivera and Omnivore Dance -Maggie Xiao Liang and Yinqi Wang
When Stefanie Nelson explores a choreographic concept, as she has done for 25 years with her company, Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup, she does so thoroughly and with passion. Her work A, MY NAME IS… , which I saw at Aaron Davis Hall in 2019, tackled the difficult subject of Alzheimer's disease and dementia through dance performance.
After that show, I wrote in this publication, "Nelson envelops us in the surreal to acquaint us with the shifts in reality experienced by people living with Alzheimer's. Symbols of recognition, loss, passing time, and memory swirl abundantly throughout her work. Nelson and her fine collaborators, committed to the poetics of their ravaging subject matter, engage our imagination and inspire understanding and empathy."
Seven years later, I still think about the powerful imagery of that work and the performances of Christine Bonansea, Becca Loevy, Emily Tellier, and Cameron McKinney. During a recent Zoom interview, Nelson said, "It is the only piece, my only piece, that I feel is complete, and that I'm actually quite proud of." (Of course, she speaks about her work with an artist's self-critical eye.)
Nelson's interest in dementia was sparked by a family member who sent her three separate Happy Birthday greetings in one day. "I realized they didn't remember they'd sent me a birthday message, and that was heartbreaking," she says. "I realized what was happening, and I wanted to process it, you know: 'What is dementia like? Where is it going? What can I expect?'"
"I did a deep dive. I read Gerda Saunders' book Memory's Last Breath: Field Notes on My Dementia. It was beautiful. She was an academic who knew she was losing her memory and wrote this book about the process. Also, a friend of mine, David Shenk, wrote the book The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic, a seminal book about Alzheimer's. [David] became my advisor for the project, and would talk through issues with me."
Nelson and Shenk started the Moving Memory Festival in 2019, which featured her choreography and his Living with Alzheimer's film project.
In 2025, Nelson, along with Maya Orchin, choreographed DEA x DEA for the Moving Memory Festival. After intensive rehearsals and research, the piece became an evening-length work exploring identity, humanity, and historical amnesia. Even the self-critical Nelson found the work beautiful. But she wanted to do more than dance and choreograph, so that same year she launched the Moving Memory Project: Next Gen.
"I've been very fortunate," says Nelson. "How beautiful to pass it on to the next generation. All of these young artists you know sort of remind me of the beginning, when I first came to New York, the salad days. It was so exciting. I miss that feeling and that magic. I see it in younger artists. I don't know what the dance world is gonna look like in the next 10 or 15 years. I don't know if anybody does; everything is shifting so quickly. [I thought], wouldn't it be great to give younger artists a platform to show their work? It's not easy to find platforms these days."
The Moving Memory Project 2026: Next Gen continues to bring together a community of artists, scientists, seniors, caregivers, and others dedicated to destigmatizing dementia and raising awareness of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The event, taking place this April 24th and 25th at 7:30 pm at Broadway Presbyterian Church on 114th Street in NYC, will feature performances of six original dances by Zev Haworth, Miguel Miranda, Chelsea Thedinga, Tethered Residents (Taylor Graham and Jerimy Rivera), and Omnivore Dance's Maggie Xiao Liang and Yinqi Wang.
This year, in celebration of her SNDancegroup's 25th Anniversary, Nelson has commissioned a new work by Tricia Deitrick, along with a new musical composition for that work by Jonah Kreitner. Kreitner, a 2025 Tufts University graduate and a jazz violinist/composer, is Nelson's son, by the way. He has been composing for her company since he was 14! Deitrick was one of the dancers in DEA X DEA and a recent Boston Conservatory graduate whom Nelson felt deserved an opportunity.
"Since it's our 25th Anniversary, there's a lot of looking back, and I thought it would be interesting to take some of the ideas from the dance pieces I've created along the way and put them into a score for Tricia. I sent her the score, saying, 'You could work with all of these images, or you could work with one of the ideas. I'm going to leave that open to you.' For me, knowing that there is a sense of continuity relating to this career I've had is really satisfying. I'm excited to see what she's going to make."
When asked which role — dancer, choreographer, teacher, producer, or commissioner of work — she relishes the most, Nelson says, "I have a few roles, and maybe too many. I really think it's just being a citizen. I'm a citizen in this beautiful community, and I enjoy providing opportunities. I had an aha moment leaving one of my classes the other day. I thought, 'What's bringing me the most joy in what I do in the dance world?' It's having a bunch of people walk into a room with zero expectations, no judgment, and leaving much happier than when they came in. That is a win! And for me, creating many opportunities for that to happen is my trajectory."
