Karen Montanaro
Tuesday-Saturday, Oct. 24-28—POULTNEY—Internationally acclaimed mime/movement artist Karen Montanaro performed at the Young at Heart Senior Center 206 Furnace St. in Poultney Tuesday, Oct. 24, and will perform a culminating show on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Stone Valley Arts, 145 E. Main St., Poultney. A workshop for adults will be held from 4:15-5:45 p.m. ($15 fee) and a public performance will be held at 7 p.m. (donations requested, not required).
One moment an old gunslinger reminisces about his youth, the next an entire baseball game plays out in front of you with Karen Montanaro playing all the roles, including the avid baseball fan, the patient catcher, and an incredibly flexible pitcher.
It’s storytelling through movement.
This one-woman tour de force is a triumph of athleticism, artistry and imagination. Montanaro blends the art forms of mime and dance to create theater with rare physical and emotional power.
She is a solo performer, an award-winning choreographer, and the innovator of “mime-dance” (the fusion of two classical art forms).
Montanaro studied ballet at the Cantarella School of Dance in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Ram Island Dance Center in Portland, Maine, and on scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. She danced professionally with the Ohio Ballet and the Darmstadt Opera Ballet in Germany. Upon moving back to the U.S., she also danced principal roles with the Portland (Maine) Ballet Company.
For more than a decade, she toured and taught her art forms internationally with mime master Tony Montanaro.
Karen Montanaro is leading workshops in five regional elementary schools, including Poultney, Wells, Mettawee, Fair Haven, and Middletown Springs.
Stone Valley Arts is located at 145 E. Main St., Poultne. For more information, visit: mimedance.com or stonevalleyarts.org.
