2022 Kids Summer Art Intensive

David took his first dance class when he was six years old.  He continued to dance and perform in musical theatre all through his childhood and into high school.  When he was 17 he left Maine to live abroad in Iceland for a year.  After that, there was a long period where he let his love for the stage drift into the fog of life.  He continued his need for expression through the arts by drawing and painting but somehow lost the confidence that once shined so brightly.

Several years ago he had a revelation and threw himself back into his childhood form.  The process was not easy, but little by little he began to find the light in himself once again.  All of his talents he had restrained and kept hidden needed to emerge and break free… holding them back was no longer an option.

These days he lives in a tiny house in Bowdoin, Maine with his rabbit Antoine, and can be found writing and singing songs, creating visual art of all varieties, and most recently… dancing again!    When his childhood dance partner of many years reached out to him to join Yes Dance Ensemble, there was no hesitation and the moment he took off his shoes and stepped onto the dance floor he felt whole again.  For David, art is the highest and most satisfying form of self-expression and he will never go dark again.

Sharoan Cohen has been dancing throughout her life, and life’s rhythms are at the root of her dance practice. With and through dance, she embraces the often avoided spaces where identity, vanity, shame, confusion, and society eclipse the innate human gift of physical expression. She believes that by elevating the simplest actions of daily life, as an invitation to dance, everybody can and should dance every day.

Sharoan has been teaching new and seasoned dancers, all ages and abilities, since her undergraduate work at Marlboro College. At Marlboro, she began considering the glorification of the dancer and the inaccessibility to dance and performance narratives. She continues this work in her community with Everyday Dance, the Variety Show, and more recently with Michaela Knox at Spark Dance.

Sharoan is excited to be dancing with Yes! Dance Theatre Ensemble. Dance is woven through every aspect of her life which includes; being a preschool teacher, mother of two young men, and as the At Large Director for the Casco Bay Islands Transit District in her representation of island residents. Her formal dance training began in New Orleans where she studied at Giacobbe Academy of dance and danced with The New Orleans Youth Ballet and Delta Festival Ballet. Her dance training broadened at Ballet West, Point Park University, Brattleboro School of Dance, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, The Alvin Ailey School, and finally Marlboro College where she earned a BA in Literature and Dance. She is the Artistic Director of the Variety Show at Greenwood Gardens, an annual event that raises funds for the community through live performance while uplifting