Bio/History

Next Reflex Dance Collective, founded by Erika Schonemann and Roxann Morgan Rowley in 2006, is a Virginia based modern dance company focusing on collaboration and experimentation. What makes NRDC a truly experimental and collaborative dance company is our ability to use all of our resources in the most creative and effective manner. As choreographers our experiences and interests lie within creating work mostly through improvisation. We are interested in what each person can contribute to the process by allowing each and every collaborator to have a voice. Moreover, the spontaneous action which results from working through improvisation is intuitive, therefore human, and has the ability to communicate to a diverse audience. This process of improvisation is the foundation of our work. Typically, our works reflect the ideas and concepts of life, whether they are central or seemingly inconsequential. We are interested in shifting our audiences' perceptions by accentuating the importance of the small things in life which may seem insignificant at times and, therefore, easily forgotten.

As well as creating work collaboratively with dancers, we are consistently finding creative ways to include artists of other disciplines into our dance making. These types of artists include musicians and visual artists. Each season we are dedicated to collaborating on new work incorporating a musician for performance or commissioning an original musical score, or working with a visual artist such as a painter, sculptor, photographer, or a video/graphic artist. As a truly experimental dance company, we also collaborate within the community to create dance. Our creations have derived from our experiences with healthcare facilities, womens shelters, athletes and from the natural environment resulting in site specific work.

In addition to creating experimental works, NRDC generates opportunities in performance, education, and production for the local dance scene. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area has attracted many fine dance artists who are in need of assistance in making a name for themselves and whose talents could serve the community in a variety of ways. NRDC makes every effort to be a resource for these artists through inclusion in specific performance and outreach projects. To learn more about our collaborative productions click here.