Hello! Thank you so much for your interest in my work as a performing artist and teacher on the MS Gulf Coast!

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I am a former New York City-based currently Gulf Coast-based actress, dancer and choreographer. Before my NYC days, I received my BFA in Theater/Dance from Valdosta State University in Georgia. While in NYC, I trained and performed with Julie Ludwicks' aerial dance company, Fly-By-Night Dance Theater, including portraying Dafne in her 2011 aerial-adaptation of the opera Apollo and Dafne. I also had the pleasure of performing in Scarlet Fever, an experimental opera written and directed by Ryan Tracy with The Collective Opera Company. Scarlet Fever was presented at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC and Mt. Tremper Arts in Mt. Tremper, NY. As an actress, I performed in the one-act plays A Curious Thing and A Summer Song for Impetuous Theater Group and played the lead actress in two episodes of the web-series Joseph Kaplan. One of my favorite NYC gigs was swinging from a harness, as a mystical wood nymph, for a Belgium energy commercial!

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Since moving to the Gulf Coast, I have been performing in and around New Orleans, Louisiana and Ocean Springs, MS. In 2013, I was featured in a 2 minute promo on WGNO’s “News with a Twist and also voted as one of the TOP 3 Performing Artists of the Year for RAW: New Orleans for my performance of, The Betty Dance, on the low-flying trapeze. My favorite New Orleans project so far has been being cast as Betty in the black and white short film noir, The Dead Man’s Number, directed by Jackson Hill. The Dead Man's Number won the Audience Choice Short Film Award at the 2013 Fairhope Film Festival, a Gold Remi Award at the 2014 Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival and I was nominated for Best Actress in the 2015 Philadelphia Horror Film Festival and 2017 Southern Shorts Awards. My most recent film work includes playing the lead female role of Beth in Cornbread Cosa Nostra directed by Travis Mills.

 

My professional choreography experience began with two low-flying trapeze duets Whatever You Think is Best (2011) and petite bash (2012) at Soundance Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Work on the Gulf Coast includes If It Suddenly Rains, performed inside the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, MS and Ever So..., which was apart of the 2013 New Orleans Fringe Festival. My most recent original stage work, Aloneliness, was a collaboration between mixed-media artist Julia Reyes, sound designer Billy Louviere, dancer Katy Gaines and singer Leah Rodgers. Other work includes two improvisational duets with Leif Anderson, 40 Years Between Us at The Mary C. and Movement is Born at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. My most recent project, Aloneliness: a screendance, was a dance film collaboration with MS Gulf Coast-based filmmaker Rachel Searcey (A Girl and her Goldfish Productions). Aloneliness: a screendance has been chosen for numerous film festivals including Oxford Film Festival, Southern States Indie Fan Film Fest and Lady Filmmakers Festival in Beverly Hills, CA.

 

As Director of Dance and Theater at Rock U 2 in Ocean Springs, MS, I strive to offer non-competitive, safe and creative dance and acting classes to children and adults of all ages and skill level.   

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Sincerely,

Summer Baldwin

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Dance Artist on Mississippi Arts Commission Artist Roster 2018

Mississippi Arts Commission Fellowship Artist Grant Recipient 2019

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