We were lucky to catch up with Jeana Klevene recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jeana, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Since the age of 3, I have loved to dance. But as I transitioned throughout my career, from student to professional dancer, and then to become a teacher/choreographer….. as much as I love the art of dance, the way it is almost proud to be exclusive in every way bothered me to my core. I knew I wanted a lifelong career doing my passion, but needed to find a more inclusive way to do so. Creating Allegro Dance Project was that solution, and it is my biggest dream come true. We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) contemporary dance company that specializes in Inclusive Dance Outreach and Adaptive Dance classes, providing instruction and performance opportunities for over 1,500 individuals with Down Syndrome, autism spectrum disorder and other specific needs/disabilities each year. Our professional company blends contemporary dance, aerial circus arts and live, original music and performs each spring and each summer. Participants from our outreach and classes are invited to perform on stage alongside our company dancers as a celebration of inclusion and sensory-friendly field trip shows are offered to provide accessible performance opportunities for students in our community. This month we are actually celebrating Allegro Dance Project’s 10th anniversary, which has been such a meaningful milestone to achieve and it’s been very sentimental to reflect and look back on a decade of memories.

Jeana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I fell in love with dance at the age of 3, training in my tiny home town of Wisconsin Rapids under Marlene Turbin-Weldon. To further my training, I attended ballet summer intensives with Joffrey Midwest and spent 3 summers training with American Ballet Theatre. It was in a class with Mia Michaels that my focus shifted from ballet to contemporary dance. I first experienced the magnitude of complex emotions that can be evoked in just a simple eight counts of movement. Those eight counts- that feeling- stuck with me. I wanted to create art like that.

My senior year of high school I started auditioning for dance companies. I was offered a contract with the Lexington Ballet and joyfully accepted. I will always cherish my experience as a professional ballerina, but I knew that eventually I’d be headed in a more contemporary direction. My career transitioned into teaching and choreographing, which I discovered was even more rewarding than performing.I had the pleasure of teaching a young man with autism in an open adult class. Watching his sheer enjoyment of movement sparked something in me and a light bulb turned on. For awhile I worked a part time retail job to help make ends meet and often conversations with customers revealed parents of children with special needs, and these children longed to dance. In 2013 I read an article about the Boston Ballet’s adaptive dance program. It was time to take action, it was time to realize this dream. What started as just a thought grew into a calling. I didn’t know where to start, I just knew that I had to start.

So before the many mountains of non-profit paperwork, I began with a name…
Allegro: meaning “joyful”, a brisk and lively movement.
petit allegro involves small quick jumps and lightning fast footwork.
Grand allegro features the enormous leaps and jumps that have become the hallmark of ballet.

Project: an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim.

Allegro Dance Project: a joyful, lively collaborative enterprise centered around the art of dance.

We started with nothing. That first year, I believe our entire annual budget was less than $15,000, and we danced with approximately 50 children (I honestly remember feeling like that was a lot!) The growth was significant and surprising year after year, and in our 10th season of service, we were able to reach over 1,500 children and adults with specific needs through our Inclusive Dance Outreach!

This project is the product of a lifetime of hard work, dedication and passion for my art and it’s such an honor to see it take shape, thrive and grow in the very community that granted my professional dance career so many years ago.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The Covid-19 pandemic of course hit everyone hard. With schools closed and performance venues shuttered, we were scared and uncertain of how to move forward. Many of the students we serve were experiencing total isolation and total loss of all services/socialization/therapies -especially our students who are non-verbal. We felt strongly about the importance of everyone remaining healthy and safe, but also knew we had to find a way to do something to help combat the regression and loneliness our beloved students were facing. We started social dis-DANCING, meaning we would drive to a student’s home and dance with them from 10-20 feet away in their front yards. It was the bright spot for so many in such a dark time. I’ll never forget it – I tear up just thinking about it. We then also transitioned into virtual dance outreach sessions and classes via Zoom and adapted our whole model of outreach and classes to have virtual, outdoor and distanced indoor options to remain fluid throughout each phase of the pandemic. We were also the first local arts group to perform during Covid – hosting an outdoor, distanced show in which our dancers, aerialists and musicians all rehearsed and performed masked for added safety. You could feel the collective figurative exhale from the audience – finding relief and comfort in feeling the sense of community after such a long time in isolation. I truly believe that our resilience and the way we were able to adapt an already adaptive program is a key factor in our success today.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

This big, beautiful dream come true is rewarding in a lot of ways. It allows me to share my passion for dance in such an honest, genuine way with hundreds of children that might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience dance. I also get to help aspiring dancers realize their own dreams of a professional dance career, which is so much fun and truly special.

I love creating choreography almost as much as I love teaching – it’s such a nice balance to get to do both. It’s really exciting to create work about important, meaningful topics, often times very personal. I feel a bit vulnerable sometimes on opening night, like I’m sharing a page of my diary or letting the audience peek inside my mind. Choreography is truly my favorite form of therapy. To turn something so ugly and all consuming like grief, the opioid crisis or school shootings into something beautiful that can move audiences to tears, provoke thought and spark meaningful conversations is a very rewarding part of my job.

But the biggest reward I think will always be the gift of getting to watch kids fall in love with dance right before my eyes. It’s hard to top that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.allegrodanceproject.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AllegroDanceProject
• Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/AllegroDanceProject

Image Credits

Ryan Peters Photographic, Megan Hayden Photography, Michael Clubb