About Adams Company Dance

ADAMS COMPANY DANCE, founded by Mitzi Adams, began in the desert heat of Arizona in 1988. Upon Adams’ move to Connecticut in 1991, ADAMS COMPANY DANCE based itself in New York City and was re-formed, performing in New York, Connecticut, Arizona, Pennsylvania, California, and Michigan. Drawing on intuition and serendipity, Adams creates works rich with imagery that concern deep matters of the heart. The benchmarks of her work are portrayed through pieces that are athletically charged, dramatically sensitive, and comedically absurd. She uniquely instructs her dancers in Jin Shin Jyutsu®, the ancient art of balancing body, mind and spirit,  from her twenty-four years of experience, providing for a more harmonious process and performance. ADAMS COMPANY DANCE has been commissioned by Connecticut Ballet and BernierDance in Connecticut; Happendance Dance Company in Michigan; Tappan Zee Dance Group in New York; and The Movement Source Dance Company in Arizona.

MITZI ADAMS received her B. F. A. in dance from Temple University and her M. F. A. in dance at the University of Arizona, where she was invited as a guest artist to teach in October 2003. She has toured with several modern dance companies, including The Douglas Nielsen Dance Company, Tenth Street DanceWorks, Orts Dance Theater, a European tour with the Dalton/Hartel Dance Company, and in Connecticut with Bernier Dance and Mary Barnett/In Good Company. She has worked with many independent choreographers, including Mark Dendy, Albert Reid, Sam Watson, and Madeleine Scott. Her company, Adams Company Dance, has presented her choreography in California, Michigan, Arizona, Philadelphia, Connecticut and, in New York City, at The Ailey Citigroup Theater, at Martin Luther King Jr. High School;  DanceSpace; Dance New Amsterdam; Theatre of the Riverside Church; Merce Cunningham Studio; Context Studio; Trinity School; Queensborough College; PMT House of Dance; New Dance Group Arts Center, where she was a guest choreographer with the New Dance Group Dance Company; in Brooklyn, at The Triangle Theatre; and at The Secret Theater in Queens.

She won the Juror’s Choice Award for her choreography, adjudicated by Gus Solomons, in the NewDance New Haven’93 competition. In 2002, her piece, Unthinkable Equation, was selected for the Kansas Dance Festival, during a residency at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Adams was invited to be the Guest Artist-in-Residence at Alma College in Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. She was also a guest teacher at the University of Michigan. In 2006, Adams Company Dance was selected as a finalist for the “Dance Under the Stars” Festival at the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, California.  In 2006-2007, Ms. Adams accepted a one-year appointment as Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University’s Dance Department, and in 2008, she served as a Guest Artist at Western Kentucky University’s Dance Department, as well as a Guest Artist at the Calucci Dance Studio in Columbus, OH, for their summer dance intensive. Also in 2008, Adams Company Dance was selected to perform in the West Coast Swing/Hustle/Salsa Fest in Stamford, CT.   In 2009, Adams Company Dance was a winner in the Mystic Independent Film Festival, with their entry, a documentary called:  “Except At Night: The Making Of A Dance.” Currently, the company is working on two new film shorts,  “Let’s Face It, “ shot at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and “A Piece of Shelter, ” shot at the Secret Theater in Queens. Also, in 2011, Ms Adams was a guest artist at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY.

Ms. Adams has taught dance extensively and facilitated many community-based programs to promote dance for all ages. She is also a certified Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner, with established practices in both New York and Connecticut.