DeAnna Pellecchiais a dancer, choreographer, educator, equestrian, trainer, athlete, aerialist, actress and artist. She is committed to creating multi-sensory, multi-disciplinary works of live art. DeAnna crafts performance pieces both site-specific and for the stage that seamlessly integrate the disciplines of dance, theater, music, visual art and digital technology. She uses rich visual imagery to create dance-theater pieces that communicate emotionally powerful physical landscapes. The Boston Herald calls her “stunning…one of the area’s finest artists”. The Boston Globe describes her as “a committed and daring performer”. Bay Windows defines her as "...muscular, mesmerizing, unforgettable..."
As a dance-artist/educator, DeAnna's mission is to bring dance, in the form of high-art, to the masses. In the process of achieving this goal she has danced with horses, in trees, on stilts, under water and through air; has been featured in rodeos, operas, plays, fashion shows, magazines, movies and music videos; and has performed in unconventional landscapes as well as theaters of all shapes and sizes across the United States from the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C. to the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert. DeAnna has toured throughout India, performing and teaching in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kerala and Bangalore for organizations such as the National School of Drama, Pondicherry University, Alliance Francaise and the University of Calicut. She has created performance pieces with Grammy-nominated musicians Dave Eggar and Joshua Pierce, NYC music-icon, composer Johnny Reinhard, award-winning choreographer Ann Carlson and legendary choreographer Elaine Summers of the Judson Dance Theater. She has performed onstage with music artists including Mission of Burma's front man/guitarist Roger Miller, and Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy. Her work has been presented by the American Festival of Microtonal Music, The Charles Playhouse/Broadway Across America, Critical Moves Performance Series, Outside Art Collective, Braver, P.C., Betty Riaz/STIL, The Huntington Theater, Boston University, Roger Williams University, The Boston Center for the Arts, Mobius, The Order of The Artists, The Dance Complex, and Green Street Studios.
Alongside Ingrid Schatz, DeAnna co-directs KAIROS Dance Theater, an eclectic performance company committed to creating emotionally powerful, viscerally charged dance theater. Critics have called Pellecchia & Schatz "the sexiest and most ironic duo on the local scene...a new wave in contemporary dance". Their project "THAT GIRL AND THE OTHER ONE", which explores the intense dynamics cultivated in relationships between women, has been called "violently compelling", "unnerving and intimate", "a beautifully eerie duet". DeAnna also collaboratively founded Savage Amusements with musician Ed Broms, formerly of grammy-nominated BLUE MAN GROUP. Their performance installation "RED CHARLIE" was produced at The Charles Playhouse by Broadway Across America. Thier collaboration inspired Broms to write and record the song, "DEANNA FLIES" which will appear on his newest album, currently in production.
DeAnna is a principal dancer with internationally acclaimed Paula Josa-Jones/Performance Works. As an original cast member of PJJ/PW's "RIDE" Project, she has been dancing with horses for the past ten years. She dances as a soloist with Kinodance Company (named one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” in 2008), an interdisciplinary artist collective which marries film projection with live performance. DeAnna is a principal dancer with ANIKAI Dance Company(since 2005), of which she is a founding member and for which she is Rehearsal Director. Ms. Pellecchia was a principal dancer with Bennett Dance Company from 1999-2007, of which she was a founding member and for which she was Assistant Choreographer and Rehearsal Director. She has also had the pleasure of performing with Michael Jahoda's White Box Project, Anna Myer & Dancers,Ipswich Moving Company and Nicola Hawkins Dance Company.
DeAnna was the inspiration for writer/director Gary Shore's award-winning, feature-length film "Children of Providence". Shore invited DeAnna to act the lead role of "Roxie", as well as choreograph the movement sequences for the film. "Children of Providence" was awarded "BEST FEATURE FILM" nationally and internationally in 2010 at the SENE Film Festival in Rhode Island and the ROB KNOX Film Festival in London.
In 2008 DeAnna choreographed and staged the Boston premiere of Johnny Reinhard's theatrical opera "ODYSSEUS", presented by the American Festival of Microtonal Music. Also dancing in the production as a soloist, DeAnna performed opposite Grammy-nominated cellist Dave Eggar, who played the lead role of "Odysseus". DeAnna coordinated the staging of the 50 plus musicians and singers in the performance, which also included Grammy-nominated pianist Joshua Pierce and singer/songwriter/recording artist Dina Fanai.
As a kid, DeAnna spent her free time taking ballet classes and playing tackle football with her brothers. "A dancer of...sinewy athleticism" (Big, Red & Shiny), her "no-holds-barred physicality" (Nine Dots Boston) is a marriage of the two. Her movement style is extremely grounded in nature, strongly influenced by her extensive studies in martial arts, and punctuated with quick, explosive accents, characteristic of jazz and hip-hop, resulting from her studio-days as a 'jazz-baby'. Descendent from a family of cowboys, DeAnna grew up handling horses and has been riding since she could walk. In her professional career she has studied mime, acting, Butoh, aerial dance, stilt-walking, Authentic Movement and Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening®. She has intensively trained and competed in the Korean martial art Tae Kwon Do under Master Young Ho Jin, former trainer of the U.S. Olympic team. She has also studied martial art forms including Capoeria (Brazilian), Wushu (Chinese) and Kalaripayattu (Indian). Ms. Pellecchia received a BA in Dance/Performance with a dual minor in Business Management and Latin from Roger Williams University.
As a dance educator DeAnna has taught and been taught by movers of all kinds - dancers, musicians, actors, doctors, quadriplegics, teenagers, the elderly, and corporate business managers. She resides on dance faculty at Boston University (since 2002) where she teaches Body Conditioning for Dancers, Repertory & Performance, and Jazz technique at the beginner, intermediate and advanced level. She is the founder/director of "Dance at St. Paul's", a workshop and performance series based at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Tremont Street. DeAnna specializes in working with teens and currently holds residency as a staff artist at Urbano Project, providing much needed mentorship to young performers across the city of Boston. She has also worked with youth at Medicine Wheel Productions, Cloud Foundation, Boston Ballet, Celebrity Series of Boston, Vine Street Community Center in Roxbury, Cambridge School of Weston and Oak Bluffs Middle School via The Yard on Martha's Vineyard. DeAnna greatly enjoys teaching inquisitive, courageous teenagers how to express themselves through the medium of dance, and in the process beautify the world.
DeAnna brings her passion and experience as a professional dancer to her work as a personal fitness coach. As an ACE-certified Personal Trainer she works one-on-one with individuals in their homes and has been successfully helping clients reach their fitness goals for over a decade.
ABOUT THESE PHOTOS: THESE PHOTOS ARENOT "PHOTOSHOPPED" in any way -- DeAnna really is leaping through the air inches away from Regaliz. They were taken by Jeff Anderson, talented photographer who is masterful at capturing equestrian art. Please visit his website: www.jeffreyandersonphoto.com. The horse is "REGALIZ", the magnificent pure-bred Spanish Black Stallion - please visit his webpage: www.tintageltalent.com/regaliz.html - owned and trained by Sarah Hollis of Tintagel Enterprises. Please visit her website: www.tintagelandalusians.com.
