Alison Cook Beatty Dance

✨ GET TO KNOW OUR DANCERS ✨

Meet Madelaine “Maddie” Burnett, Senior Core Company Member of Alison Cook Beatty Dance! 🇨🇦💃

Originally from British Columbia, Canada, Maddie is now in her fifth season with ACBD. Over the years, she has performed with the company throughout New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Memphis, and New Jersey and has become an important part of our company family.

🌿 A favorite ACBD memory?

For Maddie, it’s our summer residencies at Windhover Performing Arts Center in Rockport, Massachusetts.

“Dancing in nature and using this setting to inspire the work connects me to my outdoorsy Canadian roots and brings me back to the remote camping adventures I grew up doing. Windhover connects two of my favorite things: wilderness and dance.”

💃 What does she love most about performing?

“Dancing brings me SO much joy, and performing is my favorite way to share that passion.”

🚣‍♀️ Something you might not know about Maddie?

When she’s not dancing, she’s a whitewater canoeist and a double black diamond skier! ⛷️

🍉 Favorite tour snack?

Watermelon!

🌊 What is she looking forward to in Connecticut and Newport?

Sharing modern dance and Alison’s work with audiences who may not have experienced this kind of dance before—and seeing and learning from the other artists at the Newport Dance Festival.

And there’s more! 🧘‍♀️ Maddie will be sharing another one of her passions while we’re in Newport by teaching a community yoga class during the festival.

We can’t wait to take you behind the scenes with Maddie and the rest of our dancers over the next few weeks!

Follow Maddie: Maddie Burnett

🐋 Monday Meet Millie 🐋

Meet Millie, a baby whale who became separated from her mother and swam into Rockport Harbor, Massachusetts, in 2019. Although the community did everything they could to save her, Millie sadly passed away.

Last summer, Artistic Director Alison Cook-Beatty was inspired by Millie’s story and the memorial statue in Rockport to create Millie the Whale—a site-specific dance imagining Millie’s spirit returning to the sea.

Since then, Millie has rehearsed along New York City’s East River, danced down Sixth Avenue during Dance Parade, and is now swimming to Woodmont, Connecticut!

This summer, Millie begins a new journey. Community members will be invited to create quilt squares filled with messages of hope, artwork, or memories. Together, these patches will become Millie’s belly, connecting communities wherever she travels.

Join us Saturday, July 11 at Anchor Beach in Woodmont (around 5:00 PM, weather and tides permitting) for this free community performance.

📸 Photos courtesy of the people of the Rockport, Massachusetts community and Dance Parade NYC.

🇺🇸 HERE’S TO THE NEXT 250 YEARS OF AMERICA.

As we celebrate 250 years, we look toward the future with hope—hope that freedom and liberty for all will prevail.

Through Houston Street Hootenanny, we honor the artists, activists, veterans, and everyday people who have used their voices to stand for freedom, equality, peace, and justice.

As artists, we will continue to do our part: bringing people together, spreading joy and love, and using dance to remind us of our shared humanity.

We’re honored to bring an excerpt of Houston Street Hootenanny to the Newport Dance Festival, July 15–17, sharing its message of freedom, resilience, and hope with audiences in Rhode Island.

🎟️ Festival info & tickets at the link in our bio and website www.alisoncookbeattydance.org

Here’s to the next 250 years—and to continuing to dance toward a more peaceful, compassionate, and united future. 🇺🇸❤️

📸 Artistic Director Alison Cook-Beatty by Tristan Pope
📸 Alumni dancer Fiona Oba by Russ Haydn
📸 Alumni dancer Genaro Ferrara with a guest artist at Dance Parade

Artist’s Note: The American flag pictured in this work is used as a symbol of artistic expression and reflection. It is presented with respect and is not intended to dishonor the flag, but to explore themes of freedom, resilience, unity, and hope for our country’s future.

As America commemorates its 250th anniversary, we are reflecting on HOUSTON STREET HOOTENANNY, a work created by Artistic Director Alison Cook-Beatty in 2013 and one we are honored to bring to the Newport Dance Festival this July.

The work began with a torn American flag found on railroad tracks and given to Alison. Walking through Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park, she thought about the artists and activists of the 1960s whose voices helped shape a generation—Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary—and how so many of their words still resonate today.

Conversations with her father, a Vietnam War veteran, and others who lived through the Civil Rights Movement and the social change of the 1960s also became part of the work.

The torn flag became a symbol of America itself: a country that has been divided, challenged, and wounded, but whose people continue to stand up, create, hope, and move forward.

The flag may be torn, but it keeps waving.

And so do we. 🇺🇸

This July, we carry this story with us to Newport as we reflect on 250 years of American history, resilience, and the continuing journey toward freedom.