History

Everett’s Company was founded in 1986 and quickly gained national recognition for its theme-based concert works. These original works use dance, theater, and video to explore themes ranging from science to labor to family. Works include Bliss Body (2023), Good Grief (2018), Freedom Project (2014), Brain Storm (2012), Home Movies (2004), Somewhere in the Dream (1999), Body of Work (1996), The Science Project (1992), Pandora Restaurant (1990), and Flight (1989). Everett’s concerts have toured to sites such as Dance Theater Workshop, New York; Spoleto Dance Festival, South Carolina; and Walker Arts Center, Minnesota. Everett has received national recognition from in publications such as Dance Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Village Voice. Elizabeth Simmer writes in The Village Voice, “Everett Dance Theatre’s Somewhere in the Dream…triumphed at Hostos College. Until you have seen the Wilis represented by rolling panels of chain-link fence, you will not understand the transformative nature of art.”

Everett received the Jabez Gorham Award for Unwavering Commitment to Excellence (1992); a Bessie, New York’s Dance Choreography and Creator Award (1996) for its Body of Work concert; the first annual Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts (1997); the Meeting Street Center’s Visionary Award for an Outstanding Level of Concern and Commitment for Rhode Island’s Children and Adults with Disabilities (1997); and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award (2000). Artistic Director Dorothy Jungels has received four Choreographers Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Rhode Island Foundation Fellowship and four fellowships from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. The Carriage House School received the City of Providence Citizens Citation for Outstanding Youth Program (1995) and was recognized four times by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities Coming Up Taller Awards.

In 1990, Everett incorporated and founded their Stage and School. The company transformed an old carriage house, located in the heart of inner-city Providence, into a studio/theater space. Since its opening, Everett School has brought performing arts classes, mentorship, and apprenticeship opportunities to Providence’s young people who lack access to high quality afterschool engagement. Everett Stage has brought low to no-cost performances to the community, pushing back against the idea of who gets to attend the theater as well as what stories the theater portrays as its diverse casts have come together to bring to the public eye underrepresented voices for over 35 years.