COMPANY BIOS

Janet Taisey Craft (choreographer & artistic director) of The Ipswich Moving Company. Her choreography has been presented in the US, the Netherlands, the former Soviet Union, and twice at the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. In 1990, Janet was a guest artist with The Independent Company of Alla Sigalova and presented a full evening concert of her work at the Hermitage Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Her choreography has been recognized by the Massachusetts Artist Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council as a grant recipient numerous times and a fellowship finalist. Janet was Professor and Head of Dance at Emerson College for twenty-four years.  She directed dance concerts and co-directed and choreographed original dance theatre works for Emerson Stage.

Janet created her first aerial dance in 1986 for the Montserrat Gallery. Over the past twenty-five years, the Company evolved a unique form of aerial dance using tied climbing rope and fabric slings. Her aerial dances have been presented throughout New England and at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh. Her aerial dance, Snake in the Grass was selected for the First International Aerial Dance Festival in 1992. Craft's Free Fall was presented in the Spotlight on Dance Series at the Boston Center for the Arts in 2003. Since 2008, Janet has been on the dance faculty and a guest choreographer at Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in Steamboat Springs, CO.  Over the last nine years, in addition to numerous shorter dance works, Janet has created full evening aerial and modern dance works inspired by surrealism (Dreaming Head), Celtic folklore (Pooka in the Woods, the poetry of Sylvia Plath (Tales of a Tub) and the winter solstice (Alight).

Jim Boutin (performer & designer) is one of the original Aerial Dance creators. He has performed with the Ipswich Moving Company in aerial dances, site installations and school programs since the 1980's. He has gained critical acclaim as a set designer in New York City and throughout the US.

Chandra Cantor (dancer/choreographer) received a BFA in Dance from Emerson College. Her choreography has been featured in both regional and national American College Dance Festivals and she was the recipient of Dance Magazine's Outstanding Student Performer award in 1998. Chandra spent 3 years dancing with the Nicola Hawkins Dance Company and now performs sporadically with various groups in the Boston Area. She performed with Ipswich Moving Company 2001-2006 and rejoins the Company this season. Chandra is a full time mother of two small boys and a yoga teacher.

Jenny Carlson (dancer) graduated from Emerson College with a BFA in dance. Jenny grew up dancing in Connecticut at the Imperial Academy of Dance. She has performed with Julie Ince-Thompson and is currently working with Flipside Dance Theatre and The Ipswich Moving Company. She has performed with Ipswich Moving Company at The Fringe Festival in Scotland in 2000 and 2001. Her Choreography has been presented at the American College Dance Festival. She is the director of the Children and Teen Dance Program at the Ipswich Moving Company Studio.

Danielle DiVito (dancer) graduated from Roger Williams University with a B.A. in Dance/Performance Studies and Secondary Education. She has performed in NYC with Ellis Wood Dance and in Boston with Snappy Dance Theater, Bennett Dance Company and Emily Beattie. She has presented her own work for the Green Street Studios Emerging Artist Program and in the Charles River Dance Festival. Most recently, Danielle has been dancing with ANIKAI Dance, and is the Assistant Director of Broadway Bound Dance Center in Natick, MA. She has been dancing with Ipswich Moving Company for three seasons.

Sandra Galley (Lighting Designer) The Luminaires Group is the design/production arm of Galley Theatre Lighting, a lighting rental company operated by Charles and Sandra Galley for more than 30 years. Sandra designs for drama and dance. Her last project was ALIGHT for Ipswich Moving Company and her next production will be "The Laramie Project" at Brooks School. Other recent credits include: "Stringmaker", a community dance piece by Turning The Wheel Productions; "Dido and Aeneus" for the Cambridge Community Chorale; "Hamlet" at the Derry (NH) Opera House, and numerous academic and community theatre productions.

Ivette Shelbourne (costume designer) has been designing and sewing costumes for local theatre companies (Neverland Theatre, Moonlight Productions, Pine Grove Elementary, Ipswich Middle School and Ipswich High School) for 15 plus years. Her latest work was created for the Ipswich Middle School production of Aladdin. She went to the School of Fashion Design in Boston

Email: Janet Craft, Founder & Artistic Director -