Full Circle Dance Company was formed in 2000 by Donna L Jacobs, with the intent to offer local dancers and instructors an outlet to share their art outside of the classroom setting. During the first several years of the company's history, the ensemble cultivated a passion for creating choreography with meaning, dance that spoke to their audiences in ways that words could not. The ensemble further decided to delve into one important topic at a time, using movement and dialogue to build thematic performances.

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That tradition began in 2006, when Full Circle embarked on a year-long exploration of race and discrimination titled Borders Uncrossed. This challenging project brought together local and visiting choreographers, dancers, and non-dancers for an honest investigation of the entrenched ideas that affect our perceptions of each other. Sacred Body was created in 2008 to encourage discussion about spirituality and religion: how and why people pray, religion as a source of conflict within our families and across communities, and how faith can provide support for the suffering and unite as well as divide. This project included public school choreographic workshops and a partnership with local Native American dancers. In 2009, Full Circle produced The Unconscious: Dreams and Fears, an intensive choreographic crucible that examined diverse aspects of the mind and invited members of the community to participate in the artistic journey. Full Circle worked with Baltimore City public elementary school students as part of this project, providing school-based workshops followed by performance opportunities around the city.

 

Marking the company's 10th anniversary year, Full Circle set out to challenge its audience to think in new ways about water's place in our world. Debuting in February 2010, Aqueous: Awakening Our Connections to Water explored water's impact on our lives, from the devastation of its absence to the solace it can bring to one's soul. And in 2011, Full Circle tackled the sensitivity, humor, candor, and angst over the topic of body image in B.A.R.E: Bodies, Attitudes, Reflections, Exposed. This concert involved considerable input from the community, imagery, and text that all convey the many personal, social, and media-driven perceptions of the body. Full Circle's 2012 and 2013 productions were part of a two-part series, Moving Passages: Dances Inspired by Writing. Moving Passages featured new choreography inspired by writing of the past and present, from famous sonnets to twitter feeds, as well as free children's writing and performance workshops open to the public. The first 2014 performance of Impulse: Responses to Music, Rhythm, and Sound reflected months of exploration into the age-old question asked every concert: "What came first? The movement? Or the music?" For this project, Full Circle collaborated with local musicians - a jazz band, drummers, and a violinist to deliver something that is too rare in Baltimore, original choreography performed to live music. The fall 2014 performance of Bloodlines: Upheaval and Peace was a thought-provoking journey through family issues both contemporary and timeless, and the marks they leave on all of us.

 

Fight and Flight was a special performance commemorating 15 Years, and also served as a benefit for the Baltimore City Cancer Program, raising funds for underinsured and uninsured women undergoing breast cancer treatment. The choreography created for this project drew upon workshops and discussions with the women of the Baltimore City Cancer Program's breast cancer support group. Fall 2016 was devoted to celebrating, through all original choreography, several women who stood up, stood out, and made meaningful contributions to the human race in Women: Power, Passion, Purpose, which was nominated for Best Dance Performance by the Baltimore Sun.

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Full Circle Dance Company has performed locally at the Hippodrome Theater and Lyric Opera House, Artscape, Baltimore Theatre Project, the Baltimore Museum of Art Exhibit Expressions series, and by invitation at the annual Maryland Council of Dance Festival Concert, the Howard County Arts Council annual Celebration of the Arts Gala, as well as the annual Baltimore Dance Invitational. The company has also performed by invitation at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, the Broadway Dance Center's Choreographers Performance Outlet in New York, the Music City Arts Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Dance Place, Joy of Motion Dance Center's Jack Guidone Theater in Washington, D.C. for the Annual Choreographer's Showcase, Grace Street Theater in Richmond, VA as part of the K Dance Yes! Virginia Dance invitational and Starr Foster's Annual Richmond Choreographer's Showcase, Dogwood Dance Theatre in Richmond, VA for the en Route! Touring Dance Project and the Annual Richmond Dance Festival, the Atlas Performing Arts Center as part of the annual INTERSECTIONS Festival in D.C., the annual INERTIA Dance Concert at Towson University, the annual AKIMBO Artwalk in Baltimore, and the Tempe Center for the Arts for the Breaking Ground Choreographer's Showcase in Tempe, Arizona.

 

Full Circle Dance Company is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization (Baltimore, MD | EIN: 47-5593783). Photo credit: Brion McCarthy