Our Story
CON·SCIOUS·ness
NOUN
THE STATE OF BEING AWAKE AND AWARE OF ONE"S SURROUNDINGS
HISTORY
Camille Rennie (Moten) formed the Company of Collaborative Artists (CoCA) in April 2021 as a personal mission to hold space for dance artists to continue to explore their artistry and training in a creative environment amidst a global pandemic. She felt called to address a collective need to move and process the restless energies, questions, ideas, and experiences of living in these modern times through the dancing body, and with community.
With studios closed and the dance industry in crisis, Camille brought dance artists together in city parks, public sidewalks, beach boardwalks, and more to keep creating together, and to keep live performance accessible for the New Jersey community. From our humble beginnings outdoors to to site-specific, theater, and festival performances, educational workshops, film shoots, and our 1st community gala, Camille's intention has remained the same for herself and for the artists she welcomed: to continue coming together as dancers and to keep sharing our art with the people.
As a dance company, we've laid our foundation during this unique time in history, and we've abandoned antiquated company models, too. We understand that artists are humans, and people need to roam free. Our company structure reflects the ruling nature of change and our collaborative creative process adapts to this same flow of malleability.
MISSION
As a new 509(a)(2) nonprofit organization, our company artists pick up and put down work in project-based format, and we share our art stories as they exist in real time. These stories become part of our growing body of repertory, and we translate that work into artistic experiences such as immersive performance, somatic movement instruction, and virtual social engagement. We strive to meet people where they are and begin from there.
We value community and the connective power that blooms between artist and audience. We emphasize performance as well as process, and experiment with ways to share our work in any of its stages. Life does not live solely to reach the final version of itself, but instead reveals its true beauty in the moments in-between; like vignettes, or passing clouds, or fragmented memories, or bodies in an open space. This is how the artwork on our site is intended to be experienced.
THE MISSION OF THE COMPANY OF COLLABORATIVE ARTISTS IS TO SPREAD LOVE AND LIGHT INTERNATIONALLY THROUGH DANCE ARTS AND CREATIVE COMMUNITY.
We strive to energize, express, and elevate our collective human condition through dance by illuminating the conscious body. We are especially driven by the belief that movement is medicine, and we work to create spaces for both us and audiences to experience that truth inside of our community.
Our company extends the invitation to all to join our creative village. We invite artists across the disciplines to collaborate with us; add new colors to our stories. We are artists of the time, and we reflect the current and changing 2020s with a vibrant tenacity and radical compassion for all as we clear a path to a more awakened & embodied life.
"Golden"
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Performance:
Anysia Kelly & José Lapaz Rodríguez​
Photography:
Julia Discenza
Direction:
Camille Rennie
