By Steve Sucato

At age seventeen, dancer-choreographer Anthony Alterio, as he says, “ran away from Pittsburgh” in order to experience something different. Ever since, the city has been beckoning him back. 

“I love Pittsburgh, its people, and what the city represents,” says Alterio. “This is where I got my start in dance.” 

Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Alterio was raised in Pittsburgh by his mother after his parents divorced when he was an infant. He started his dance training at Dance Etc., then moved to Colorado to attend the University of Colorado Boulder, where he earned a BA in Dance and Psychology. During his time there, he also performed with Boulder Jazz Dance Company. He later received an MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan. Before his current role at Ohio University, Alterio worked as a Lecturer in Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Kentucky and as an Assistant Professor of Dance at the State University of New York at Fredonia. 

Now an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Schools of Dance and Theater at Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, Alterio says he wants to become reacquainted with Pittsburgh’s dance scene and culture. To do so, Alterio has taken a bold move by starting Pittsburgh Dance Workshop (PDW), a summer dance intensive and performance showcase. Even bolder, he is funding the workshop himself, with the bulk of the proceeds from class fees and performance tickets going to the participating dance artists.

“The point of Pittsburgh Dance Workshop is to bring the local dance community together for at least one week out of the year and celebrate what Pittsburgh’s dance community has to offer,” says Alterio. 

Co-directed by Alterio and colleague Aja Pandey, a Chicago-based dancer-choreographer, the week-long inaugural Pittsburgh Dance Workshop, running now through June 28, 2025, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Charity Randall Theatre, consists of classes in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance, as well as hip-hop and jazz, (Click here for more information and to register for classes.), plus two performance showcases.

The thought process, says Alterio, was to have the classes run Monday through Thursday. They would be taught by dance artists who choreograph for or perform in the showcases. The hope then is that the class participants will come out and support their instructors at the end of the week’s showcases.

The goal is to make PDW an annual summer event. That will depend on future funding and the success of this inaugural workshop. For now, Alterio, who works in Athens, Ohio, on weekdays and makes the 3-hour commute home to Pittsburgh on weekends, says his main motivation with PDW is to unite and uplift Pittsburgh’s diverse dance community, as well as those who attend its performance showcases, through a shared celebration of movement.

Here’s the scoop on PDW’s two dance showcases (subject to change):

PITTSBURGH DANCE WORKSHOP SHOWCASE #1
FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2025 AT 7 P.M.

Confluence Ballet Co. will perform an excerpt from their recently premiered full-length contemporary ballet, The Onion. The ballet, set to an original score by Josh Malavé, is based on a traditional Russian folk tale about the duality of good and evil within us all. Choreographed by Adrian Green, the 5-minute excerpt, danced by company Co-Artistic Director Elena Cvetkovich, is about a Wicked Woman scheming to trick and steal plums from village children when she is confronted by her Guardian Angel (Keeley Hernández), who warns her against doing so.  

Choreographer Ebony Cunningham’s work-in-progress, Born, Never Asked, is a 9-minute contemporary dance work for a trio of dancers. Set to music by Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass, the piece explores the impossible expectations placed on women. 

Nick M Daniels/DANA Movement Ensemble will present an 8-minute excerpt from Daniels’ The SOLO Project titled “What did I Do, D@Mn!!!!.” Performed by Daniels, the solo, he says, “is rooted in my signature fusion of African, modern, and Butoh influences. It reflects on recurring social and political tensions, drawing connections between past and present. It’s a visceral, multimedia meditation on how far we’ve come—and what we’ve forgotten along the way.”

Choreographer Kaylin Horgan says her new work, She Carries Thunder, was inspired by its title. The modern/contemporary dance work for seven dancers incorporates strong elements of improvisation. Danced to music by Esperanza Spalding, Horgan says that for the work, she envisioned a female soloist who embodied thunder, was strong, ethereal, and commanding. 

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre soloist JoAnna Schmidt will perform her new lyrical duet Dried Roses with fellow PBT dancer Jack Hawn. The 2 ½-minute piece, according to Schmidt, was inspired by and is danced to indie folk band Big Thief’s song “Dried Roses.” 

Alterio joins in the festivities with his most popular performed dance work, FULL BLOWN. The 7-minute piece about gender euphoria features six performers, including Alterio, who perform inside trash bags filled with balloons. 

Also on Showcase #1 will be Mia Giovanna’s It’s Not Really A Taste, and a TBA repertory piece by choreographer Shana Simmons.

PITTSBURGH DANCE WORKSHOP SHOWCASE #2
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2025 AT 7 P.M.

Maria Caruso’s Bodiography will present two duets by Caruso that she says represent her passion for clean contemporary ballet lines, coupled with strong narratives, and that focus on humanity in dance. The first is a premiere titled Per Due, set to music by London jazz singer-songwriter Francesca Mondi. The second is a reprise of 2019’s Provenance, danced to music by American ambient, contemporary classical, and indie pop artist East Forrest.

Kaben Benavides’ latest post-modern dance work-in-progress is a solo she will dance. The 8-minute Lunar Marrow, set to an original ambient score by Iain Delavan,  is an exploration of women through a beast-like lens, says Benavides. Set in the structure of a life cycle, Benavides re-experiences the growing pains of maturing with the weight of womanhood strapped to her feet.

Pittsburgh’s dance theater queen, Beth Corning, will perform a 4-minute solo from her latest evening-length work, What do you think you just heard me say?!  Premiered this past March, the solo excerpt is danced to music by composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and asks the question: Are the words we hear just interpretations sifted through our personal sieves of experience, culture, gender, and language?  

PearlArts presents “CIRCLE of one,” an excerpt from choreographer Staycee Pearl’s 2021 evening-length work, CIRCLES: going in. The 7-minute contemporary dance solo is set to a soundtrack by Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl and celebrates Black joy.

The Pillow Project founder and co-artistic director, Jaka Zakajinn (formerly Pearlann Porter), will dance the solo Charlie by Jack by Jaka. Based on a dance film by The Pillow Project, created in 2010, the nearly 4-minute “Physical-Spoken Jazz” piece is performed to a recording of Beat Generation poet Jack Kerouac describing the music of Charlie Parker.

Shana Simmons Dance reprises its 7-minute-plus work Of Elephants and Asses from 2015. The duet, danced to music by composer Claudio Monteverdi, is a satirical commentary on the United States’ two-party political system.

Texture Contemporary Ballet will present a 10-minute excerpt from Alan Obuzor’s ballet Big Mad!, for eight dancers. Performed to music by Pittsburgh-based musician D.o.B., the ballet is a reaction to the music’s edgy R&B vibe, says Obuzor.

Rounding out Showcase #2 will be hip-hop and street-styles collective the Get Down Gangs’ Clash of Titans, and Alterio returns with UNDERNEATH, a post-modern/contemporary dance work for six performers, including himself. Says Alterio, the super campy and queer piece, takes an unusual perspective, that of the iceberg that sank the Titanic. “I feel like the iceberg got a bad rap,” says Alterio.

Pittsburgh Dance Workshop presents performance Showcase #1 on Friday, June 27 at 7 p.m., and Showcase #2 on Saturday, June 28 at 7 p.m., at the University of Pittsburgh’s Charity Randall Theatre, 4301 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA. General admission tickets are $20 each and can be purchased by visiting pittsburghdanceworkshop.com/2025-performances.