Beth Soll & Company -- Mission & History

Linda Rabhan, Jeffry Pike, Rik, Margaret Rampey Medas in summerdance photo Jaye R. Phillips

Dancers: Linda Rabhan, Jeffry Pike, Ric Warren, Margaret Rampey Medas  in Summerdance            Photo by Jaye R. Phillips

 

"Noted for her abstract idiosyncratic style, Soll is something of an alchemist:  
she takes the dross of everyday life and turns it into the equivalent of spun gold.”

Thea Singer, The Boston Phoenix

 

Mission and Values

The premise of Dance Projects, Inc./Beth Soll & Company is that choreography and the performing arts at their highest levels should be expressive and thought-provoking, ensuring that the audience members’ minds are challenged even as they are entertained.  Ms. Soll’s goal is to choreograph dances that evoke feelings, offer insights, and present the viewer with the familiar seen in a new light. Her work seeks to elicit a wide range of responses from audience members, allowing them to add their own memories and perceptions to the experience of the dance, and to come away with a sense of personal enrichment.


"The dancing is both refined and unrefined -- natural roughness, fastidiously framed. Images, some of them almost like still pictures, suggest journeys, meditation, fear, celebration."
DeborahJowitt, The Village Voice

Abby Dias and Beth Soll in 
Two Red Solos: A Formal Response (film)
Photo by Ethan Mass

History

 

Dance Projects, Inc./Beth Soll & Company was incorporated in 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts.  In 2000, the company decided to center its activities in New York City. Under the auspices of Dance Projects, Inc., the company has performed Soll’s work in many U.S. locations, including Boston, Chicago, Jacob’s Pillow, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., Providence, and New Haven, and in many universities, schools, and small towns. Both alone and with the company, Soll has also performed and presented work in Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Hong Kong, Hungary, and Romania.

Dance Projects, Inc. is committed to supporting the work of other artists, and, to that end, under the auspices of the company, Beth Soll has collaborated or danced with numerous dance colleagues, including Janet Aisawa, Fiona Marcotty, Anna Nassif, Wendy Perron, Pamela Raff, and Mel Wong. Soll has also worked with numerous contemporary composers/musicians, such as Robert Aldridge, Charles Amirkhanian, Boston Musica Viva, Richard Cornell, Carolyn Lord, David Moss, Jacek Ostaszewski, Stan Strickland, David Stringham, Philip Tabane/Malombo and Patricia Van Ness, and with visual artists, including Liese Bronfenbrenner, Elisa Decker, Katherine Finkelpearl, Derith Glover,  Nancy and J.C. Hotchkiss, Ilona Lappo, Cristi Marin, Ethan Mass, and Anne Saussois.

Dance Projects, Inc. has a long history of participation in community-oriented work. In the 1970s, Beth Soll began teaching and performing for children, both in and out of the public school system, first as a member of other Boston area groups, such as Dance Collective, and thereafter as solo Artist-in-Residence under the auspices of the Artists Foundation.  Subsequently, the entire company began to join Soll in her expeditions into schools and communities in New England and beyond.  In addition, the company has had professional performance and teaching relationships with Boston area universities, including Boston University, MIT, Harvard Summer Dance Center, and Northeastern.
 

 

"...volatile, thrilling both kinesthetically and spiritually, and altogether magnificent." 

Christine Temin, The Boston Globe

Romanian Dancers in Tribute to Iris Barbura       Photo: Alina Uşurelu

Four Women

Dancers: Mary Socha, Emily Wassyng, Pamela Day, Beth Soll


Photo by Jaye R. Phillips. 

Beth Soll & Company is an activity of Dance Projects, Inc.

© 2025 Dance Projects, Inc.

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