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People Dancing
Connect: Inspire: Resonate: Reflect

People Dancing is a vibrant modern dance company that specializes in unique and multi-disciplinary performance. People Dancing was founded in 1985 by choreographer/dancer and singer/songwriter Whitley Setrakian Hill, and the founder's prowess in dance, music, storytelling informs the work of the company today. Christina Sears-Etter was selected as Artistic Director in 1999, and has been integral to People Dancing's past 10 seasons and recent new growth. With a dual mission of art and education, the company continues to serve in three capacities: concert performances, educational programs for all ages, and somatics and healing arts modalities. As a recipient of significant grants from State of Michigan, City of Ann Arbor, Monroe Community College Educational Foundation and ArtServe Michigan, we have been able to present dance and related arts to new audiences through programs such as "Dance Day," "Dynamic Dancing Showcases" and collaborative programs. People Dancing choreography has been presented in showcases, concerts and conferences in New York City, (2011), Ann Arbor, Baltimore, Detroit metro, Minneapolis, Washington DC, and internationally in Italy and Poland. People Dancing has been lauded in the press as presenting a "dazzling display of the human form in motion" (Heritage papers, 2005) and as possessing a "satisfying physicality." (Murray Louis, 1997). The dancers have been noted to grace the stage with "ethereal beauty"(Ann Arbor News, 2003) and to embody works that have an "offbeat, quirky theatricality," (New York Times, 1992.)

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Company Performance

"Ms. Sears-Etter's company, People Dancing, and the musical ensemble clock & body performed here together in the summer of 2002, creating an improvisational performance based on a Picasso exhibition. I, and several members of the dance faculty who were in the audience, marveled at their beautiful and seamless production. The caliber of both dance and music was extremely high and the musicians and dancers worked together as if they had been doing it for years instead of for the first time."

-Pamela Reister,
University of Michigan Museum of Art