About Us:

Summation Dance Company, founded by Sumi Clements and Taryn Vander Hoop, is a New York City and LA based modern dance company. The mission of Summation is to find the beauty in struggle and the humor in the mundane. We value dance that moves the flesh; it bubbles from underneath, knots in the back, and rips away the layers leaving us raw and exposed. Our works are powerfully kinetic and emotional explorations of the human experience that demand physicality as we push the limits of the body. The exhaustion and vulnerability of the dancers is often on display as well as small or eccentric gestures to communicate the essence of our ideas. We offer up this work to affect, inspire and enliven.

In 2010, Clements and Vander Hoop graduated with their MFAs in Dance Performance and Choreography from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Since the spring of 2010, Summation Dance has self-produced annual seasons at Brooklyn Academy of Music and Baryshnikov Arts Center, as well as produced three Dancing Literate Project performances, their annual dance education outreach festival at Judson Memorial Church. Through the Dancing Literate Project, Summation has commissioned Suzanne Beahrs (Suzanne Beahrs Dance), Sidra Bell Dance (Sidra Bell Dance New York), Claudia Anata Hubiak (The Anata Project), Peter Kyle (Peter Kyle Dance), and Kendra Portier (BandPortier) to perform, as well as Andrea Miller (Gallim Dance) and Sydney Skybetter (skybetter & associates) to set repertory pieces on Summation’s dancers.

The company has also performed in numerous festivals and venues in NYC such as: City Center, DUMBO Dance Festival, FAB Festival, FlicFest at the Irondale Center, Fridays at Noon Series at the 92nd St Y, RAW at Dance New Amsterdam, La MaMa Moves Festival, REVERB Festival at Baruch Performing Arts Center, Skirball Center, St. Mark’s Church, and the World Dance Alliance Conference. Summation has received numerous commissions and residencies from venues and colleges across the country.

Summation Dance strives to bridge the gap between the choreographer and the viewer, so that our art is no longer esoteric and understood only by the dance elite, but can be universally appreciated. We offer dance and arts education programs for children and young adults because we believe that fostering creativity and imagination is the key to a bright future. Our educational outreach program brings dance into the schools, offering performances, as well as movement and composition classes, to children who may not otherwise have exposure to the arts.

Founders:

Co-Founder, Artistic Director, Choreographer
Co-Founder, Artistic Director, Choreographer

NYC Artists:

LA Artists:

As a choreographer, Sumi Clements shows skill, [...] making use of a relatively large cast to maintain multiple vectors.

The New Yorker

It's the kind of thing that makes me question how I move in my daily life...I want to watch what they are doing in the future

Andrew Andrew

DEEP END is an engrossing abstract work using [...] physicality (contractions, floor work) with precise movement synchronization perfectly performed by ten graceful, well-trained women...

Richmond Shepard / Performing Arts INSIER and lively-arts.com

[Clements] displayed a flair for moving groups in space by knitting patterns that sent dancers zipping across the stage in threes. Here their tenacity took center stage: a heart can break, but the body never stops running.

Gia Kourlas / The New York Times

Summation Dance renews your faith in the power of motion and announces the advent of a troup to put on your radar...fearless performing by a cast of strong women brings the work vibrantly to life. The choreography has all the elements of "well-made dances" – expansive use of space, soaring dynamic contrasts with skillful use of silence and stillness, and cohesive development of thematic materials. But these elements of good craft never stultify the kinetic and emotional impact of the work; rather, they amplify them.

Gus Solomons jr

Within the space of roughly two years, Summation Dance has made its presence known on the New York City dance scene, both producing its own shows and making the rounds at dance festivals and conventions [...] What began as a one-time graduation performance project rapidly evolved into the establishment of a small company that presented its first evening-length work to a sold-out house at Baryshnikov Performing Arts Center in 2010....

Leah Gerstenlauer / DIY Dancer

Sumi Clements’ "Pathological Parenthetical Pageantry," was the most out-right fanatical of the three. From mismatched floral costuming to extended periods of awkward silence to over-saturated sexuality, the piece was wildly entertaining.

Bayla Gottesman / UpTempo Magazine

Deep End excites the audience and reminds me how thrilling pure movement and design can be...

Theodora Boguszewski / The Dance Enthusiast

What’s not to love? That is, if you—like me—are easily entranced by the combination of formal purity and weirdness...Clements is a big talent

Deborah Jowitt

It takes a lot of nerve to start a dance company in New York. There's no money for young artists, and rehearsal space is expensive. But groups do emerge, full of energy and creativity. Such is Summation Dance, formed by Sumi Clements and Taryn Vander Hoop, graduates of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Mrs. Clements, the main choreographer, has a fiercely physical style and wears her heart on her sleeve but has mature command of pattern and form...

Roslyn Sulcas / The New York Times

The five-year-old company uses one aspect of the theater intrepidly. Many troupes have danced across the Fishman’s balconies, but never before have I seen dancers traverse the cage-like deck beneath the lighting grid, crawling around up there like monkeys in a rain forest canopy. This coup de théâtre immediately gives the work a fresh perspective.

Brian Seibert / The New York Times