“unique, special and entirely personal … this show is a new evolution in dance.”
Naveed Moeed for Chatham Life & Style
“this imaginative and immersive performance literally presents the audience with a new sensorial way to experience dance and theater.”
Kim Jackson for Beltline to Broadway
“Regional choreography gets its full due this season: after enVISION, ShaLeigh Dance Works’ astounding season opener.”
Byron Woods for IndyWeek
“ShaLeigh Dance Works Takes a Fresh Perspective in New Performance”
Megan Tillotson for Durham Magazine
“ShaLeigh Dance Works’ original production enVISION: Sensory Beyond Sight kicked off the summer season for the American Dance Festival and was a sensational and poetically eye-opening performance.”
Josh Bottoms for CVNC.org
“intriguing, innovative and immersive”
Dilip Barman for Saathee Raleigh Magazine
“ShaLeigh Dance Works’ company moved with precision across a meadow stage at Mystic Farm & Distillery, captivating the crowd.”
Marie Muir for Durham Magazine
“I’ve followed SDW for four years, and in this short span have been amazed at the progression of the company. This can be explained in part by Shaleigh’s excellence as a teacher and coach for her dancers, but she also treats them as collaborators, gently encouraging their creativity. With the In-Between, she’s added incredible lighting and a sound experience that’s among the best I’ve ever heard in dance — or any performance. Truly, this is a work in which all the elements combine in ways that captivate an audience. Kudos!”
Timothy Walter for Durham Fruit
“I love this work! So powerful and focused! The build-up of tension is breathtaking!”
Jodi Kaplan for Booking Dance
“In a most eloquent, fierce, and dynamic language of movement, The In-Between holds the space for introspection and ultimately for empathetic discovery.”
Myra Weise for Proxemic Media
“Compelling and powerful!”
“Beautifully danced and featuring choreography and movement so smooth as to be almost primal, this performance is sensual, engaging, and breathtakingly beautiful.”
“Comerford’s new ensemble work represented a significant development: a series of uncertain encounters with the Other across international, intercultural & interpersonal borders, in response to the polarization that’s been turning us into “a nation of Others” since the 2016 elections. Its nuanced social metaphors and raw emotional realism reminded me of Pina Bausch.”
criticalifragilistic.blogspot.com
“Comerford’s vivid imagination is clearly on display throughout this thought-provoking new work.”
Byron Woods for indyweek.com
“ShaLeigh Dance Works presented a 90-minute respite from daily anxiety … and also offered a sense of hope that diverse peoples could peacefully co-exist. After this affirming work, the world outside seemed brighter even on a cloudy night when no stars could be seen. I felt a sense of peace and calm I had not experienced when I had first entered the performance space … Kudos to the cast … the production crew … and everyone else, including the donors, who made this powerful work possible.”
“A fresh, new dance group is quickly making upward progress on the Triangle scene … ShaLeigh is quickly becoming known in and out of Durham for its inclusive and adventurous programming. Comerford has assembled a group of dancers whose passion is refreshingly honest, and they clearly understand the emotional journey of the piece, a testament of their talents and Comerford’s control as a director. As its third production, the evening showed immense promise from ShaLeigh who … will no doubt make an influential mark on the wider arts scene.”
Jackson Cooper for cvnc.org
“Rousing group work.”
Michaela Dwyer for indyweek.com
“a marvelous surprise … Comerford’s dance language, with its mix of Gaga-style freedom of movement and balletic elegance, is well suited to the complex balance of dance theatre … but like any significant artwork … symbols and metaphors layer on themselves too thickly for such a simplistic description to do justice to the experience of its larger mystery. One hopes that Comerford will be able to stage this work again in the near future.
Kate Dobbs Ariail for cvnc.org