My Guide to Feeling It All: An Informal Showing

We spend time trying to escape, control, or even understand emotions. What if instead of hiding from feelings, we invited them in?

My Guide to Feeling It All is an intricate movement tapestry portraying the wide range of human emotion created by Angelina Benitez in collaboration with Alexandria Nunweiler and Katrina Conte. This contemporary dance work challenges the societal norms that often encourage us to suppress or compartmentalize our feelings, instead celebrating the beauty of authenticity while inviting viewers to embrace their own identities and express their emotions without fear or judgment.

Throughout this approximately 30-min performance, the dancers embody the intersection of shame and pride, love and grief, anxiety and excitement, carefully holding space for the many contradictions and paradoxes that make up the human experience. Adam Matthew's original composition blends ballads, acoustic guitar interludes, and electric guitar jams to match the range of emotion presented physically.

The evening begins with a chocolate meditation (do we have your interest piqued?) followed by a prelude of community-built choreography made during workshop series. The performance will be followed by a short Q&A with the students and artists.

Come feel it all.

This presentation is made possible in part by a Community Building Mini Grant from the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs.

About the Choreographer:

ANGELINA BENITEZ graduated from Salem State University with a B.A in both Modern/Contemporary Dance and has since studied at Bates Dance Festival and continues to study with local Boston-based artists. Her choreography at Salem State was presented at Boston's American College Dance Association Conference and earned her a Presidential Arts Scholarship and a Creativity Award in Dance. Angie has immersed herself in teaching dance in the Greater Boston area at local studios, schools, and residencies. Her recent performance experience includes local arts festivals and events such as Verse / Visual, 24 Hour ChoreoFest, Salem Arts Festival, Art Walk with Luminarium, and more. Much of her work is focused on collaboration. When she's not teaching dance, you can find her working as a social media strategist, creating fiber art, and taking pole dance classes.

About the Dancers:

ALEXANDRIA NUNWEILER is a contemporary choreographer, performer, administrator and educator based in Boston, MA. Her movement is rooted in history, human experience, and the fine line between darkness and humor. Alexandria earned her B.A. in Dance from Winthrop University. Alexandria works within The Click and with Alive Dance Collective as the Director of Development, performer and choreographer. She currently teaches at Creative Steps Dance Studio in Newton, MA and is a recurring guest artist at Dance Theatre of Greenville in South Carolina.

KATRINA CONTE is a dancer and choreographer based in Boston MA. She attended the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Mt Pocono PA. Katrina graduated with her BFA in Dance with a minor in Technical Theater from Ball State University. She is working administratively at the Boston Center for the Arts and dancing with The Click, Alive Dance Collective and Luminarium Dance.

About the Musician:

ADAM MATTHEW is a guitarist and songwriter local to the North Shore. He's been playing and performing for over 20 years. He has studied music at the New School in New York and with artists including David Schumacher and Joel Yennior. A resident of Newburyport for many years, Adam has played at many local favorites such as the Grog, The Barking Dog, The Sunset Club, Plum Island Grille, and the Grove at the Briar Bar Inn.

About The Click:

Developed in 2021, The Click is a collaborative dance company and creative collective in Greater Boston. Its members are dancers whose primary medium of physical expression is through contemporary dance forms, but who experiment in many modes and genres of creativity. As a collective, The Click’s members are each deeply invested in answering the universally complex question: who am I and what am I doing here?

The Click contributes to the consistent presence of creativity in Boston and beyond in several ways: by educating pre-professional youth dancers, professional adult dancers and the dance-curious of any age; performing original creations several times a year at traditional and non-traditional venues across Massachusetts, New England and beyond; and by investing in the curiosity of those new to dance in Boston or new to dance in general by maintaining an open, inclusive and accessible community.

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