The Peanut Butter & Jelly Dance Company was founded in 1980 to present performances and programs by adult professional dancer/teachers for elementary and pre -school-age audiences, to sponsor concerts directed to the public, and to teach classes for children and teachers.

The PB&J Dance Company has performed all over the state. They have presented assembly programs, workshops and residencies to over 70,000 children in 300 sites around Massachusetts since 1980. In 1997, the company presented their work at the ‘dance and the Child international’ conference in Finland, where they were well received by young dancers and teachers from around the world. The SMALL FEETS dance company has presented an annual concert and 30 programs in schools since 1987.

PB&J is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. We have also received grants from the Brookline Council for the Arts and Humanities. We are also a City of Boston approved contractor. We can also be found at matchbook.org.

Who’s Who In the Company

Jim Banta, a twelfth season member of PB&J, has danced locally Ballet Theatre of Boston, Impulse Dance Company, Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble, and most recently with Marjorie Morgan, Margot Parsons, and In Vivo Productions, Cambridge Chamber Ballet, Annikai Dance Company, and Ballet Arts Winchester.

Paul Kafka-Gibbons has danced with PB&J since a lively audition in 1997, when he and Jim were taken into the company. Paul also dances with Joe Burgio in an improvisational duo, É/Emu, and with the Dadallamas, a multimedia performance group. He and fellow Peanut, Lynn Frederickson are Lynn and Paul, A Contemporary Dance Surprise. Paul also writes novels and book reviews. His work can be found and downloaded for free at www.kafka-gibbons.net.

Lynn Frederiksen is West Indian, from St. Croix, USVI. She attended college in Massachusetts, obtaining a BA in Biology and an MA in Environmental Studies from Clark University. She worked for the Mass. Dept. of Water Resources, but dance kept nagging her, so she abandoned the rivers for an MFA from Smith College, and embarked on a life in the arts. She artistically collaborates with her husband, John Minigan, playwright and teacher at Weston High School. She also researches how dance illuminates the role of bipedalism in the evolution of human learning and presents this research at national conferences. She is also working on an encyclopedia of Chinese Dance with colleague Shih-Ming Li Chang, which she just presented at the NDEO National Conference. This is her third season with PB&J.

Lindsey Allen is a Massachusetts native and currently attends Bridgewater State University. She teaches creative movement, jazz, ballet, tap and hip-hop  to  students ages 3-13. This is her first season with Peanut Butter and Jelly Dance Company.

Jeanne Traxler, Director, was an original founder of the PB&J Dance Company in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1976 and in Massachusetts in 1980. She teaches PB&J Dance Classes for Kids and co-directs the SMALL FEETS dance company. Jeanne is also involved in dance and the Child international, an organization whose mission is to increase and develop opportunities for young people to experience dance as creators, performers, and spectators throughout the world. She was the USA Chapter National Treasurer and has taught for daCi at the international meeting in Finland in 1997 and at two National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) conferences. She is also a founding member and on the organizing committee of the Children’s Dance Festival, an annual day of dance workshops and performances for and by children. Jeanne has taught workshops for all of the Dance Across the City days, the Dance for World Community Festival, and at the Wang Theater’s Artropolis program. She has also choreographed six elementary school musicals in Brookline, for one of which, she collaborated on lyrics for the original music. Her choreographic work has received grants from the Massachusetts and Brookline Arts Council.

Advertisers

Your company could be here! Please contact us at info@pbjdanceco.org for more information.