Erin Levy- Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director, Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher

Photo by Nathan NorbyErin Levy is from Jacksonville, Florida, where she started her dance training. Starting at the age of 12, summers were spent at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) with Marcia Dale Weary for their 5 week summer intensives. Junior year of high school, training continued at Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts in their 4 year pre-pro program, while continuing the summer program at CPYB. At 19, she moved to New York City and danced with Eglevsky Ballet, Blue Muse Dance Project, and Ballet Long Island. She continued training in New York with various well known teachers from Steps on Broadway, through their work-study program, and took classes at PeriDance, Dance New Amsterdam and Ballet Arts. She has an Associates Degree in Jewelry Design from FIT in New York, and a BFA in Metalsmithing with a Minor in Small Business/Entrepreneurship from MSU. Erin is a dancer, choreographer, co-artistic director of Raison D’être Dance Project. Her involvement in Bozeman’s Dance Community has inspired her with a vision for fostering collaborations between musicians and dancers, and nurturing choreographers to bring their ideas to fruition with Raison D’être Dance Project. With the community RDE creates, she has found inspiration in how the artists work together, and is grateful for the continued growth they experience as a collective.

Photo by Nathan Norby

Erin studied Ballet at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Nutmeg Conservatory before moving to New York City where she danced with Eglevsky Ballet and Blue Muse Dance Project. She continued training in New York at 19 years old, with various well known teachers from Steps on Broadway, PeriDance, Dance New Amsterdam and Ballet Arts at City Center. She studied Jewelry Design at Fashion Institute of Technology and moved to Bozeman for a degree in Metalsmithing and Small Business from Montana State University. She is the manager at Gem Gallery, where she continues her jewelry design aspirations with the talented Jason Baide and Gem Gallery team specializing in rare Yogo and Montana Sapphires and cutting edge custom fine jewelry. Erin is also a proud member of the community engagement committee for the local non-profit Bienvenidos. As co-founder of RDE, she and Genevieve Trygstad-Burke share the vision of collaborating with artists and musicians to create works that push boundaries and challenge audiences and themselves to experience something new and unique, and contributing to Bozeman’s already rich performing arts culture. They have continued to grow the idea of bringing diverse audiences together by mixing classical and contemporary music for their projects. With each project, Erin digs into her personal experiences as well as implementing the professional development RDE provides for their dancers. Her career with RDE has provided the platform of growth she wishes to experience for herself, and to have available for other seasoned artists to fulfill their passions they might have unwillingly had to pause for personal reasons. She believes artists' potential for growth is infinite, and without providing support we might never get to see what they are fully capable of and what works we may miss out on. Her goal is to see artists and dancers be able to let go and discover something about themselves through working with Raison D’être Dance Project, inspiring audiences to continue to appreciate and support live performing arts. 

Erin Levy