Naz Dance brings NYC-based dance troupe to perform at Erie Canal Bicentennial

The public has a chance to see a NYC-based dance company perform a new work inspired by the Erie Canal's historic creation and music, thanks to a $6,000 Monroe County grant to Nazareth University's dance program and Professor Heather Roffe. The grant supports the performance residency with Cecilia Whalen Dance Company for the Erie Canal Bicentennial celebration in Pittsford at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28, at Carpenter Park Pavilion at the Port of Pittsford. The company, along with six student dancers from the Nazareth University Dance Ensemble, will perform "The Erie Canal Project." It is free and open to the public.

"The Erie Canal Project" dance piece by Cecilia Whalen Dance is inspired by the motion that's inherent to the creation and use of the canal — surveying, clearing, and digging the land, releasing the water, and towing the boats. The movement is stylized, with a modern and postmodern sensibility as well as influences from Irish step dance. "The Erie Canal Project" was developed in part through a residency at Baryshnikov Arts.

Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal was the first American waterway to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. Its construction was considered the first and greatest American feat of engineering. It was dug by brute force, primarily by low-income Irish immigrant laborers, as well as free African Americans from the south and local farmers. The canal carried thousands of Americans traveling westward, while displacing Native American communities whose land it ripped through. The canal triggered dramatic cultural change, as abolition, utopianism, and women's rights all flourished along the canal.

Nazareth University is an inclusive community of inspired learners, educators, and changemakers who for 100 years have been driven by a bold commitment to action, empathy, equity, and leading innovation for the common good. Impact experiences are at the heart of a Nazareth education, preparing each student to discover within themselves the potential to cultivate positive change in their life's work, in any career field, and in a world that is constantly evolving and infinitely interconnected.

Our broad academic offerings present a range of study options typical of larger universities, yet achieved in our supportive campus culture. Nearly 2,100 undergrad and 600 graduate students enroll in degree and certificate programs and engage in collaborative, transformative learning experiences, preparing for the professions and society of today and tomorrow. In a learning community that purposefully integrates liberal arts and professional programs, Nazareth University graduates are able to launch a lifetime of impactful leadership in communities and workplaces near and far.

• published: 2025 September
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