Who We Are

DUAL RIVET is a women-led dance company focused on creating and sharing highly physical contemporary dance to a wide audience. Based in NYC, Dual Rivet creates work for stage and film that exchanges a cinematic and visceral language to influence both platforms. Directors Jess Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth have been making and presenting work since 2017. They have performed and set work at Festival PRISMA (Panama), b12 (Berlin), Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico), Barnard College/Columbia University, Sam Houston State University, Oklahoma International Dance Festival, Austin Dance Festival, Joe's Pub, West End Theatre, Kittery Maine, Musikfest Pennsylvania, Gibney Dance, Peridance Capezio Center, CreateArt, Arts On Site and many more. The company teaches a myriad of classes, throughout the United States and internationally, with an emphasis on contemporary partnering and floorwork. Dual Rivet is currently on faculty at The Juilliard School, Gibney, Peridance, SUNY Purchase, Marymount Manhattan College, and STEPS. The company hosts an annual choreography festival, MADE BY WOMEN, highlighting women choreographers and filmmakers from around the globe.
For more info: www.dualrivetdance.com‍ ‍@dualrivet

DIRECTORS
COLLABORATORS

OUR STORY

After a long rehearsal day in 2017, we (Jess and Chelsea) found ourselves unwinding over a drink and talking about our dreams and ambitions. By the end of that drink—or maybe two—the seed of Dual Rivet had been planted. We connected through our shared love for athleticism, partnering, interpersonal nuances, and physical risk-taking in dance. We quickly discovered a deeper connection and shared understanding of what it means to move through the world as women in the arts. That early collaboration grew into a partnership grounded in a commitment to building work that not only exists on stage and screen, but also creates space for women creators to be seen, supported, and valued.

From the start, our guiding questions have remained the same: What does it mean to be a woman in the arts? How do we build structures that support women artists creatively, economically, and sustainably? And how can dance expand beyond the spaces it is traditionally given?

From these questions, both Dual Rivet and MADE BY WOMEN emerged.

In 2020, the name Dual Rivet came to represent our body of work together — our creative, educational, and producorial endeavors combined. In 2021, we founded MADE BY WOMEN, a festival dedicated to amplifying women creators, educators, and entrepreneurs, and building a platform for visibility and exchange within the field.

Across all of our work, we remain committed to expanding what dance can be—and who it is for—through performance, education, and community. Across all areas of our practice, we remain committed to expanding what dance can be—and who it is for—through creation, performance, education, and community-building.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Our Work- We make work for stage and film, that exchange a cinematic and visceral language to influence both platforms. We invite viewers into a world where time and space morph within a non-linear narrative. Our work focuses on the intimacy of everyday life, magnifying and contorting our reality into a surrealist landscape. 

Our Focus- We use cinematic and large-scale imagery to evoke introspection and challenge observers to examine deeper truths about the shared human experience. 

Our Movement - Through rigorous physicality, our focus on contemporary floorwork and partnering weave together layers of sensitivity, intimacy, and interpersonal relationships. We’ve committed to continue exploring contemporary partnering in a way that challenges gender roles and the heteronormativity that comes with the form. 

Our Goal- Through our focus on an everyday landscape as well as the use of film, our goal is to reach a wider audience making dance accessible. As two women directors, we aim to be examples while uplifting women* creators and makers around the world.