NACHMO Boston Interview - Tess Liddy

By Nicole Harris

We are so thrilled to have so many folks from aMaSSiT, a program Monkeyhouse runs in collaboration with The Dance Complex, participating in NACHMO this year! Tess Liddy was part of the most recent aMaSSiT cohort and we have loved watching her work grow since then!

Curious about aMaSSiT? Applications will open soon for the next cohort! More information will be available at The Dance Complex’s website!

Learn more about NACHMO and take the #MonkeyhouseNACHMOChallenge by following us on Instagram!

---

Nicole Harris: This is your first time doing NACHMO. (WELCOME!) What are you most nervous and most excited about the experience of creating work in a month?
Tess Liddy: I’m most excited to be creating with a group of dancers who I really love and respect! I’m also excited to have gotten permission from the artist of my song to use it; as it was my top most played song of 2022, it feels like a great way to start 2023. 

I’m most nervous about creating a jazz piece in such a short time. I’ve created contemporary pieces in a crunch before but I’ve recently become much more interested in jazz dance and upbeat songs. I haven’t ever choreographed jazz so it’s a double challenge to choreograph jazz and to do it in a month!

N: You are relatively new to the Boston area. Where did you come from before here and what brought you to Boston?
TL: I grew up in Plymouth, MA dancing since I was 6 at Center Stage Dance Academy in Sagamore, MA. I went to undergrad in Madison, NJ at Drew University which is where I first choreographed! The pandemic closed everything during my senior year and I returned home to live with family on Cape Cod. After a year of working on Cape Cod, I was offered a job teaching for the Boston Public Schools and I made the move in July 2021! I now live and teach in Dorchester; I teach 7th/8th Grade Applied Behavior Analysis. Working for the public school system and moving a bit farther from home was what brought me to Boston but the dance community is what has kept me wanting to be here!

N: Monkeyhouse first met you at aMaSSiT in 2022 (where you worked with Kaylee Mahan and Lila Klaus, who are also NACHMO Boston participants!). Since then your work has been presented in a number of places.

By @umbriannamedia

Can you talk a bit about your choreographic journey in the last year? When did you feel most successful? What are you looking for to keep your momentum going into 2023?
​TL: I love this question because it is actually what my NACHMO work is about - the last year of my life in dance! The aMaSSiT program felt like a shot in the dark for me and when I was accepted, it introduced me to the large dance scene here in Boston; before that, I hadn’t choreographed since my senior year of college - spring 2020. I was able to continue my aMaSSiT piece, “In A Minute”, for the OnStage 360 show in July. From there, I took a break from “In A Minute” and began choreographing a piece entitled “Falling” which was a duet danced by Kaylee Mahan and Gwen McGovern - it was presented at the 2022 Dance for World Community Festival in September and I then adapted it again for the DanceWorks In Progress show through Metamorphosis Dance Company in December 2022. To keep my momentum going into 2023, I am looking to broaden the amount of dancers I work with. Coming to the Boston dance community was intimidating at first because of how well connected everyone felt and how little I knew; I’ve made some amazing friends along the past year and I’d like to continue building those relationships.

N: Monkeyhouse and NACHMO Boston believe that we wouldn’t be here without the support of our community. Who is one of your favorite local choreographers and why?
​TL: At the OnStage 360 show, I was absolutely blown away by the dance “Rain in the Ravine”, choreographed by Pearl Young (IG: @pearlyoung21). While I haven’t had the opportunity to see any of Pearl’s work since, I would love to see more! It was a beautiful, dynamic performance with amazing synergy between the dancers. ​​