About Us

Our Mission: Canyon Movement Company, Inc., is a modern dance ensemble dedicated to sharing our passion and excitement with a growing audience by creating and presenting the art of dance through performance, education, and community and collaborative projects.

Photo by Sean Openshaw

email: cmcgina1@gmail.com

Mailing address:  5680 E. Sunset Drive

Flagstaff, AZ 86004

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History of Canyon Movement Company (CMC)

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CMC was established in April of 1993, and incorporated in July of 1995.

CMC has produced and performed in numerous venues in the past 26 years. The company has an annual Spring Concert/Festival, produces “A Christmas Carol in Dance” alternating with the “Nutcracker Suite in Modern Bare Feet,” a bi-annual Halloween Show, as well as other performances throughout the community.  We work in the schools through lecture/demonstrations and residencies, and travel throughout the region. 
CMC was listed as a company on the Arizona Commission on the Arts roster for community and school based residencies through 2014. 
The company has danced with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra and collaborated with other organizations.  CMC performs in the annual Dance in the Desert Festival each July in Las Vegas.  The company has performed with Arizona Contemporary Dance Festival from 1996- 2019.
CMC has worked in Ireland four different times since completing a residency in Wexford, Ireland in October 1996. The company conducted lecture/demonstrations, performances, and community classes during a sixteen day tour. They concluded with a fringe event performance at the Wexford Festival Opera. CMC worked again in Wexford Ireland in 2006. Myriad Dance of Ireland were guests at DanCelebration in June 2005, and June 2006, and CMC traveled to perform again in Ireland in April 2006. CMC traveled to Cesena, Italy to perform in a festival in June 2004.
The company has performed for residencies and lecture demonstrations in Flagstaff Unified Public Schools, charter schools, Tuba City schools, and Grand Canyon Schools. They also traveled to Aspen, Colorado to participate in a residency and performance. They taught 300 students in public and private schools.
The company was commissioned by international conductor Maestro Irwin Hoffman to perform with the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts Orchestra in 1994, and was asked back in 1995 and 1996. CMC and it’s director have received grants from the City of Flagstaff since 1992. CMC also receives funding from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Arizona Community Foundation. 
CMC frequently collaborates with other artists including choreographers, musicians, sculptors, visual artists and writers/poets. The company has performed in numerous venues including Heritage Square, Wheeler Park in Flagstaff, NAU, outdoors at Lowell Observatory, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Coconino Center for the Arts, Las Vegas, MAD BAD festival in the San Francisco Bay area, the Kerr Center at ASU in Scottsdale, The Herberger Theater in Phoenix, Pima Community College in Tucson, and Tuacahn Center for the Arts in St. George, Utah.

GINA B DARLINGTONis the executive director of Canyon Movement Company and Canyon Dance Academy. Gina has traveled to Ireland, Italy, and the Southwest where she and the company performed for and taught hundreds of people. She has performed in dance companies in Utah, Missouri, Nebraska, and Arizona. She has been an Artist-in Residence for Arizona where she conducted numerous residencies. Gina was on faculty at Coconino Community College for twenty-three years and has been a guest teacher at the American College Dance Festival. She choreographed for NAU Theater.  She received her dance degree from Brigham Young University. Gina is also on the board of the Arizona Dance Coalition.  She served on the Arizona Department of Education (DOE) Committee to re-write the Arts Standards in 2005-06, and the Arizona DOE National Content Review Committee for Arts Assessments.  Gina keeps busy with family including her twelve beautiful grand-kids.

AMANDA KAPP danced with Canyon Movement Company for several years before developing an interest in creating video dance.  Her recent piece “Sequential” won Audience Choice for the Northern Arizona Film Festival and has been shown in film and dance festivals across Arizona as well as at the International Dance Film Festival in Burgundy, France.  She is extremely appreciative of all the support and creative nurturing from CMC Across the years.

Founding co-director: JAYNE LEE (emeritus) has choreographed more than 100 dances for companies worldwide. Trained as a dancer in London and at Julliard, she danced and choreographed for London Contemporary Dance Theatre for 10 years and toured internationally. Jayne co-founded and co-directs both Human Nature Dance Theatre and Canyon Movement Company. Jayne is an associate faculty member at Coconino Community College and she choreographs regularly for NAU’s theatre department. Jayne is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner® with a private practice in Flagstaff. She has served on the board of Grand Canyon River Guides and still works on the river in the summers.

 Founding co-director: KRISTEN MCBRIDE (emeritus) is a founding member of Canyon Movement Company. She has danced with several modern dance companies and choreographers: Funhouse Movement Theater, Semaphor, ZUZI! Move IT!, and Liz Casebolt and Carly Condor. She was a guest choreographer for “Poetry in Motion” in Wexford, Ireland in 1997. Kristen received a Masters in Range Science and Management from the U of A in 2001 and now works with her husband Scotty for the National Forest Service in Bend, Oregon. 

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