mignolo dance is a contemporary dance company founded by sisters Charly & Eriel Santagado in 2017. They are lifelong dance and creative partners dedicated to developing new work that explores elements of various artistic mediums through movement. The company has presented at many festivals including Altofest, Thessaloniki Fringe Festival, Come Together Dance Festival, Dance on the Lawn, Dumbo Dance Festival, FAKI Festival, KoDaFe, Making Moves Dance Festival, the Moving Memory project, New Wave Dance Festival, Triskelion’s SummerFest, and Your Move. Their work has been produced by Arts On Site, The Berrie Center at Ramapo College, Dixon Place, Gardenship Art, HERE Arts Center, and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. Their dance film work has been featured at several international festivals including Austin Dance Festival, Dance Days Chania, Leeds International Film Festival, InShadow, New Jersey Film Festival, TANZAHOi, and Utah Dance Film Festival.

mignolo’s workshop will begin with an introduction to Movenglish, their movement language in progress with a word-to-word correspondence to English that seeks to preserve and embody the nuances of written/spoken language. Then they will teach Movenglish-based repertoire from Self Help, which is currently touring the east coast.

Vasiliki Papapostolou (a.k.a Tarantism) is an international experimental dance artist who incorporates physical theatre, ballroom Latin and movement concepts from street dance styles in her work. She holds a BA from Trinity Laban, London, an MA in Education with Distinction from King’s College London and she was trained with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel. As a choreographer, she has showcased her work at Sadler’s Wells, Whitechapel Gallery, TEDx Panteion University, The Place and Block 336 - ICF. As a dancer, her credits include performing with Edifice Dance Theatre, Teatro Regio Torino, Pottporus: Company Renegade, Taira Foo Dance Company, Open Art Surgery, Breakin’ Convention. She has been invited to judge international competitions such as KRE8 Lab (UK), Percorsi Coreografici (Italy) and Torre del Lago Dancing Time (Italy).

Vasiliki’s workshop starts with a combination of improvisation and some set exercises aimed at challenging movers to use their fullest potential in movement and exceed their perceived “maximum”. This leads into movement concepts that she used to create her latest work PANOPTICON, and give a deeper understanding into the repertoire.

Self Help by mignolo dance explores mental health through the lens of a relationship between a therapist and patient using Movenglish® – a movement language in progress that directly corresponds to English. The translation of spoken conversations is complemented by fragmented and deconstructed phrases that represent what happens between the lines and inside the mind, embodying a ceaseless yet hopeful striving toward balance between thought and feeling, mind and body, self and other. @mignolodance

PANOPTICON by Vasiliki Papapostolou (a.k.a Tarantism) explores concepts of surveillance, discipline, and punishment. While the red hands of the performer are the ruler, the body represents the human spirit, the constant fight to preserve the human instinct and individual mind in a society where humans become increasingly mechanical, interested in objects, numbers, controlled outcomes and statistical rules. @tarantism___

mignolo dance is a contemporary dance company founded by sisters Charly & Eriel Santagado in 2017. They are lifelong dance and creative partners dedicated to developing new work that explores elements of various artistic mediums through movement. The company has presented at many festivals including Altofest, Thessaloniki Fringe Festival, Come Together Dance Festival, Dance on the Lawn, Dumbo Dance Festival, FAKI Festival, KoDaFe, Making Moves Dance Festival, the Moving Memory project, New Wave Dance Festival, Triskelion’s SummerFest, and Your Move. Their work has been produced by Arts On Site, The Berrie Center at Ramapo College, Dixon Place, Gardenship Art, HERE Arts Center, and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. Their dance film work has been featured at several international festivals including Austin Dance Festival, Dance Days Chania, Leeds International Film Festival, InShadow, New Jersey Film Festival, TANZAHOi, and Utah Dance Film Festival.

mignolo’s workshop will begin with an introduction to Movenglish, their movement language in progress with a word-to-word correspondence to English that seeks to preserve and embody the nuances of written/spoken language. Then they will teach Movenglish-based repertoire from Self Help, which is currently touring the east coast.

Vasiliki Papapostolou (a.k.a Tarantism) is an international experimental dance artist who incorporates physical theatre, ballroom Latin and movement concepts from street dance styles in her work. She holds a BA from Trinity Laban, London, an MA in Education with Distinction from King’s College London and she was trained with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel. As a choreographer, she has showcased her work at Sadler’s Wells, Whitechapel Gallery, TEDx Panteion University, The Place and Block 336 - ICF. As a dancer, her credits include performing with Edifice Dance Theatre, Teatro Regio Torino, Pottporus: Company Renegade, Taira Foo Dance Company, Open Art Surgery, Breakin’ Convention. She has been invited to judge international competitions such as KRE8 Lab (UK), Percorsi Coreografici (Italy) and Torre del Lago Dancing Time (Italy).

Vasiliki’s workshop starts with a combination of improvisation and some set exercises aimed at challenging movers to use their fullest potential in movement and exceed their perceived “maximum”. This leads into movement concepts that she used to create her latest work PANOPTICON, and give a deeper understanding into the repertoire.

Come see an extra special excerpt of Self Help at Philadelphia Fringe Festival Preview Nights! FREE ADMISSION.

Workshop: 3PM

Performance: 7PM

Expanding Community is a collaborative show, at mignolo arts center in Metuchen, NJ, of artists spanning the east coast. This show is the third installment in the series, there previously has been one in NJ (July 2023) and one in Boston (February 2024). Geared at creating partnerships between different choreographers to expand their artistic community, Expanding Community seeks to grow how many artistic partnerships and connections we each have. The show is under the direction of Tess Saoirse Liddy, a Boston-based dancer and choreographer who discovered her choreographic voice in New Jersey at Drew University and therefore seeks to bring the two communities closer together. Expanding Community 3 will feature an assortment of both returning and first time EC artists!

Childhood Nostalgia presented by Collective Moments Dance Company is an hour-length show presenting works revolving around themes of childhood, care of younger self, and the freedom to move as we once had as a child! Mental Health is a rollercoaster, with the dark comes the light and with Childhood Nostalgia we look to share that light we all have inside, as we dance, and play together. 

Bringing together 5 new works from the company alongside 6 guest artists' works, Childhood Nostalgia will take place, on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, at 7:00 pm.

Join us to celebrate the 2023 Arts Council Choreography Fellows!

Over three evenings of performances, the 2024 NJ State Council on the Arts Choreographers’ Showcase Moving Into the Future celebrates the dynamic and diverse artistic visions of 14 of the 2023 Arts Council Choreography Fellows.  These talented artists bring the beauty and athleticism of dance to the SOPAC stage!

This program is conducted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.  To learn more about the Individual Artist Fellowship program, visit the Mid Atlantic Arts website.

Moving Into the Future: New Jersey Choreographers’ Festival is a co-sponsored project of SOPAC and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Come see Eruption / Regenesis at Dixon Place’s 8 IN SHOW!

Promo code "8inshow24" will give you a $3 discount on advance tickets.

Help mignolo keep the oil burning in 2024!

mignolo is a nonprofit arts organization based in Metuchen, NJ that strives to bring together artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines through a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary arts community. Through our multipurpose arts space, collaborative programming and residencies, arts education, and performance opportunities, we seek to transcend traditional boundaries of not only artistic disciplines, but of social constructs like age, socioeconomic status, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. By offering ample opportunities for artists continue their work within the state of New Jersey, we are building a local network of artists whose contributions we deeply cherish.

mignolo was founded by sisters, Charly & Eriel Santagado, in 2017 when they first performed under the name mignolo dance. Over the past six years, their work has explored a range of artistic mediums through the lens of movement. mignolo gained 501-c3 nonprofit status in 2019 in order access resources to support additional dancers, choreographers, and artists of all disciplines with its eclectic programming.

2023 Greatest Hits:

• January: We launched our Co-Production Series at mignolo arts center (6 shows have been produced thus far).

• February: We received a grant from Middlesex County to support Pinky Thinker Press, and shot our latest screendance, Conjoined, at the Rivoli Theater in Rutherford.

• March: We were hired by Rutgers University to perform Self Help for a Dance Appreciation course.

• April: We hosted our first Pinky Thinker Press virtual release event as well as our first PTP artist roundtable.

• May: We launched Shallow Pocket, an affordable art show at mignolo arts center, and hosted an Interdisciplinary Open Mic in collaboration with Cold Weather Company.

• June: We performed Self Help at our first international festival, Altofest, in Naples, Italy, and co-hosted Spring for Spring Dance Festival at the Metuchen Plaza.

• July: We turned mignolo arts center into a black box theater thanks to funding from a Middlesex County technical grant.

• August: We hosted the fourth annual mignolo dance summer intensive.

• September: We hosted the second annual mignolo international screendance festival.

• October: We presented a full length show of short dance pieces at Arts On Site.

• November: We hosted our second Interdisciplinary Open Mic in collaboration with Cold Weather Company.

• December: We have several upcoming dance performances in NYC. And don't forget our upcoming Chanukah/holiday party!

In 2024, we hope to continue creating and supporting new artistic works with the help of your generous donations. Proceeds from the holiday fundraiser will go toward general operations––including pay for our staff and freelance artists––technical and functional upgrades to mignolo arts center, residencies, performances, productions, and workshops. Your contributions, no matter how big or small, are greatly appreciated and will help us continue to uplift local, emerging artists of every medium and background. With your help, our community will continue to blossom into the multidisciplinary, collaborative group of artists and audiences that we envision.