Chloe Napoletano is a Columbus based movement artist. She holds many roles within the dance field including choreographer, performer, community dance practitioner, and art administrator. She is co-director of Perennial Movement Group, movement classes and performance opportunities for adults over 50. In 2017, she began directing Columbus Dance for Parkinson’s, a community dance program that provides movement classes for individuals with Parkinson’s. She is a teacher with Momentum-Excellence, a dance outreach organization and Arts Possible Ohio, providing accessible arts education in schools.
From 2017-2021, Chloe collaborated and performed with SeaBus Dance Collective, a group who researched improvisation as performance. Chloe performed with SeaBus in many venues and settings including the Columbus Arts Festival and the Columbus Museum of Art. Chloe also co-choreographs, co-produces, and performs in original dance pieces with her artistic partner Hana Newfeld in their performance project, Soft Moss Dance Club. Their work has been performed around Ohio including Cincinnati Area Choreographers Festival, The Wexner Center for the Arts, the OhioDance Festival, and Cleveland Dance Fest. Chloe received her BFA in dance from The Ohio State University.
Artistic Process
I am a dancer who choreographs, performs, educates, and brings people together, and each of these roles are critical to my artistic identity. My art is informed by the variety of community spaces and populations with which I work, such as public schools, senior living facilities, community recreation centers, medical symposiums, and dance institutions.
My movement practice and choreography draws upon a variety of dance traditions including contemporary and modern dance, improvisation research, and contact improvisation. The performance work I create tells stories. I most often begin a new research/rehearsal process by inviting myself or collaborating dancers to generate text and share stories, drawing from our past experiences and vast collective knowledge base. These written texts and oral stories may be used to build movement or workshopped to be shared aloud as part of the live performance. Those who are cast into a rehearsal process with me are key collaborators in the creation of the work and are offered agency over their stories and how they are shared in text and movement.
I am most interested in how dance can be used for community building and facilitating deep relationships. I work to create spaces where dancers feel comfortable taking creative and physical risks, intimate stories may be shared, and play and laughter happen. I take pleasure in learning from peers who have differing perspectives and experiences from myself, and always look forward to the exchange of ideas and dialogue that will take place in the rehearsal and performance processes. For example, by intentionally pursuing intergenerational artistic relationships, I am able to learn/am inspired/ by the way differences in age affect relationships to our bodies, movement practice, life experiences, etc.
Right now, my dance research is centered around the topic of “home”. I am interested in questions surrounding what defines home, our literal home space, the metaphor of our bodies as a home, and my home within the broader Columbus community. This topic is continually present with me as I work within various community spaces, learning with those who inhabit them.
Grants & Awards
Support for Professional Artists Grant GCAC
2022 | Recipient
Be The Street Art-Based Community Projects Grant
2021 | Recipient
Greater Columbus Arts Council Artists in the Community Marketing Support Grant
March 2019 | Recipient
Greater Columbus Arts Council Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Professional Development & Research Grant
April 2018 | Recipient
The Crane Opportunity Grant
April 2018 | Recipient
Franklin County Neighborhood Arts Grant
August 2017 | Recipient