HIDDEN ARENA DANCE/Fiona Dolenga and Company (formerly Fiona Marcotty) is an ensemble of outstanding contemporary dancers, performing the work of choreographer Fiona Dolenga. These dances reveal interior universes made visible through the singular voice of each body; they are rigorous, passionate, sensual, desparate, volatile, and uniquely entertaining. Dolenga’s work embodies a subtle irony, while it aims towards the visionary. The dance vocabulary is lush and detailed and uses weight exchange and partnering to describe relationships. Known dance styles are evoked as emblems and vehicles of cultural experience. The goal of the company’s work is to create timeless, humane statements by exposing the stark beauty and unexpected grace of dealing with difficulty, the romantic nature of existence, the mundane miracle of everyday love.

This company, newly renamed and reorganized, has been based in New York City since 1990. The dancers have been consistently noted for their excellence, integrity, and commitment. The work has been performed at many venues in New York, including Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace at Saint Mark’s Church, Dixon Place, Symphony Space, the West End Theater/Produced by David Parker, The Kitchen, Joyce Soho, commissioned by The Yard in Chilmark, Mass., and has been presented by New Dance Alliance, the TWEED Festival, and others. It has also been seen in Canada at the Ffida Festival and Vernissage Dance at Studio 303; Albuquerque at The Performance Space; Atlanta; the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, Calif.; in Portugal, and in Colombia, South America.

Critics have described the company as “impressive in their clarity, focus, and individuality…a choreographer with a voice of her own…” Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times. George Russell, commenting in LGNY, termed the choreography as “strong, brilliant, strung-out dance”, while Paula Citron in Dance International said “the most daring work by far…because the artist was so raw, passionate and vulnerable.” The choreographer was cited by Chris Dohse in Dance Magazine’s feature article of “25 to Watch in 2004.”

Photos on this site by Briana Blasko and Rafael Santiago