Artistic Director | Choreographer
By Cate Barry
As a tap dancer, Alexis is a percussionist and jazz musician who lives in a world where dance and music are one. She enjoys playing with time and rhythm by juxtaposing meter-less soundscapes and melodies with specific time signatures. Her work, which also employs original poetry or text and contemporary dance, often explores questioning identity, our relationships with our physical vessels and how that affects how we interact with the world, and family legacy.
Alexis Robbins (she/her), originally from Wakefield, RI (US), is a New Haven, CT based tap and contemporary choreographer, performer, improviser, producer, poet, and dance educator. Robbins received her B.A. in Dance and B.S. in Exercise Science from Hofstra University and is an alumna of the Tap Program at Jacob’s Pillow. As the Artistic Director and Choreographer of kamrDANCE, Robbins has shown her works throughout NYC, New Jersey, and New England, and created five dance films. Robbins has received choreographic commissions from Artspace New Haven, Kehler Liddell Gallery, Hofstra University, Arc Dance Collective, and the Montana Dance Center. Robbins was a 2022 “Artists Respond Round 2” grant recipient from the Connecticut Office of the Arts for her community performance project Rooted in Dance & Music, which had two successful performances in outdoor, public spaces in Hamden and New Haven, CT. Most recently, Robbins was named a 2023 Artist in Residence at the Kirkland Art Center in Clinton, NY, where she received the Tom Bell & Ginger Parker musician residency. As a featured soloist and/or musical collaborator, Robbins has performed at the Ely Center for Contemporary Art, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, University of St. Joseph, Edgerton Park’s “Sunday in the Park” and “Winter Solstice”, Hartford Jazz Society, and several events by the New Haven Jazz Underground. Robbins has been a guest teaching artist for the CT Tap Intensive, Elm City Dance Collective, MiXt Co, the Hartford Dance Collective, Montana Dance Center, Hofstra University, STAMP Long Island, and Rhythm and Sound (Toronto, CA). Robbins has a current teaching affiliation with Neighborhood Music School. She is a passionate advocate for dance and marginalized artists throughout Connecticut, is the owner of kamrDANCE Studio LLC where she offers drop-in adult tap classes, and currently dances for Rebecca Pappas.
PRESS:
Collaborators & performers
Luiza Karnas (she/her) is a Brazilian tap dancer-choreographer-pedagogue who received her M.F.A in Performance and Choreography from SUNY The College at Brockport, NY, and graduated from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS (Brazil) with a degree in Dance Education. Karnas was the only dance major to ever be awarded a Brazil Scientific Mobility Program Scholarship Award. Before starting her successful career in the United States, Karnas was nominated for Porto Alegre’s Açorianos Prize in Dance – Outstanding Tap Dance in 2012 and 2014 due to her notable work as a choreographer and performer. Karnas has presented choreographic works at venues in NYC including Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, Center for Performance Research, HATCH Series, Symphony Space, Spoke the Hub, and more. She is the leading tap dance performer and collaborator of kamrDANCE, and has been the soloist in choreographic works by the American tap legend Anita Feldman. An advocate of dance education, Karnas is an Artist-in Residency at Notes In Motion, WR Arts, and Downstage Studio (Long Island, NY). Karnas is thrilled to keep sharing her passion for Brazilian culture and tap dance in truly unique way throughout New York City and beyond.
Sarah Robbins (she/her) is a poet and vocalist from Wakefield, Rhode Island and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Sarah began performing with kamrDANCE in 2015. She graduated from Hofstra University in 2019 with a BA in English Publishing and Religion. Her writing is primarily centered on Jewishness and identity struggles, sexual assault and the nature of forgiveness, and meaningful connections with other women. She currently works as an editorial assistant at Abrams Books. Two of kamrDANCE’s most recent works, hard to swallow and Everything is taken care of, are set to Sarah’s original poetry and music.
Christie Echols (she/they) is a performer, composer, and creative artist located in Hartford, CT whose work highlights complexities of contemporary performance through the mediums of upright and electric bass, vocals, electronics, film, poetry, theater, and dance. Their music encompasses elements of free improvisation, singer-songwriter, avant-garde, EDM, jazz, contemporary classical, performance art, and funk to create versatile performances of unconstrained artistry and diverse timbres. She has been commissioned by Hofstra University, MIRACOR FILMS, Bassists with Boobs Ensemble, and others. Echols’ prioritizes collaboration with dancers, animators, and poets to create multi-disciplinary projects. Their recent collaborations include Obscure familiar (2023) with choreographer Alexis Robbins, Melodies of Certain Damage Opus 6 (2022) with performance artist Naama Tsabar, and The Modification of Oneself: for bass, vocals, electronics, and multimedia (2022) with poet Luisa Caycedo-Kimura. As a performer, Echols’ has been featured at the International Society of Bassists, Make Music Day Hartford, the Buttonwood Tree Center, FREE CENTER, New Haven Underground Jazz, and the Women’s Composers festival of Hartford. As a bassist they perform frequently with Playhouse on Park, Goodspeed Opera House, New Britain Symphony Orchestra, and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Likewise, she has recorded for NAXOS, Space Camp, Into the Light Ensemble and Cassie's Crutch.
www.christieechols.art
PAST COLLABORATORS AND DANCERS
Alice Halter, Allison Ward, Andrew Cashin, Aryanna Aronson, Briana Giordano, Ginny Mottla, Joan Bradford, Julia Neto, Karli Scott, Meghan Carmichael, Shaina Schwartz, and Tyler Cutler.