Date: July 13, 2008
About: Ann Westhoff Sorvino - Class of 1976

Dancing Her Way from Quinc y to New York

Source: Quincy Herald-Whig
Author: Herald-Whig Staff

Former Quincy resident Ann Sorvino is choreographing a prestigious performance Friday and Saturday at Dance New Amsterdam in New York.

The dance, called "Transcendance," explores the Buddhist concepts of karma and will be performed to live music.

Sorvino is a daughter of John and Maryann Westhoff of Quincy. The Quincy High School graduate began dance lessons with Harriet Musolino at age 4. She became interested in modern dance with Pamela Bedford at age 14.

After attending the University of Illinois for one year, Sorvino auditioned and was accepted at Julliard School in New York City. She is the director of the Sorvino Dance Project based in Massachusetts.

"Transcendance" premiered in March at the Northampton Center for the Arts in Northampton, Mass.

"In Eastern philosophy, emptiness is preferable, whereas here in the West, we are always filling ourselves up -- be it with material goods, food, ... " Sorvino said. "I wanted to find a way through movement to express the challenge of ridding ourselves of some of these unnecessary attachments."

Sorvino is director of the dance program at Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield, Mass., and is an adjunct professor at Greenfield Community College.