University Residencies

Interested in having Alexandra for a residency at your university’s dance or theatre department?

University Residencies are either a ten day process of intensive rehearsals and classes (out of town), or a semester long guest position (NY local), resulting in a 12-30 minute original work for 1-30 student performers. Below are a few examples of the pieces derived from collaborative process with students at various Universities.

Alexandra has most recently been hosted for residencies by the dance departments at Illinois State University and Rhode Island College.

If you are interested in booking Alexandra for a residency please email beller.alexandra@gmail.com and matthewabdances@gmail.com

Dangling Fruits of Joy or How To Make Love, originally a quartet, has been stretched and condensed for different company situations into either a duet or a piece for as many as twelve. The piece has been set on Connecticut College and Dance New Amsterdam's NYSDI. Attacking mythologies surrounding gender, "Dangling Fruits of Joy or How to Make Love" asks "what makes a man a man and a woman a woman in the eyes of society." Challenging, provocative and philosophical, the work is also vigorous, dramatic, and ripe with humor. Called "smart and startling" by Elizabeth Zimmer and "hilariously perverted" by Deborah Jowitt, "Dangling Fruits of Joy or How to Make Love" continues to garner critical and popular acclaim.

Diet Coke Can Save Your Life, created through an NCCI grant at Montclair State University, is a repertory work for 5-15 women. The work has been re-created on Alexandra Beller/Dances, Rhode Island College, Long Island University and Oakland University and with the help of Dance Space Center’s Artist in Residency Program. Using gestures drawn from mass media, Ball gowns made entirely of diet coke cans, and a sound score of infomercials and driving music, DCCSYL an examination America’s cultural obsession with physical perfection, especially in women.

what comes after happy, has been set on The New School and at Dance New Amsterdam's NYSDI. cracks open our cultural obsession with happiness. More than almost any country, America is driven by the search for a state we consider "happy." As if happiness were a state of the Union rather than a state of being, we seem to be constantly mapping out the route towards a place, rather than experiencing the journey and taking in the states along the way. While other countries give deep value to the states of sadness, anger, passion and fear, we often whitewash our everyday lives to announce to the world and ourselves that we do not covet, that we are not filled with unrest, that we do not mourn. What comes after happy features 300 fortune cookies, an eclectic score and a ferocious physical vocabulary.