Rob Divine & the Shadows of Angels

Dancer/Choreographer for Shadows of Angels Dance Company. NYC GOTH since 1984 (first generation). AKA: "Patron Saint of Goth-Dance". Live in the East Village, NYC. Order of the Strigoi Vii (Living Vampyrism).

IT BEGAN for Rob Divine in the NYC goth club scene of the late 80's/early 90's, where every night was an improv jam – only everyone was wearing black eyeliner and pointy skull-buckle boots. Performance art grew there, in the darkened catacombs of the Bank, Pyramid, the Batcave, Limelight, and Mother – black-clad dancers amid the billowy white smoke of dry ice and nicotine (or cloves), writhing to the music that formed the basis of who we were as a subculture. Then one day Rob Divine saw a live ballet – a virtuoso dancer had executed the double assemble en tournant en l’air – and it was then that he decided he wanted to jump into dance with both feet (and land in fifth). He wanted to be Superman. He wanted to execute acts of physicality that mere mortals could only dream about. He wanted the seemingly divine powers that a danseur noble possessed. So began his training journey.

Rob Divine spent two years at the Graham School, and has also studied jazz with Gabrielle Taylor, and modern with Sean Curran at Soundance. He has also attended master classes with jazz great Frank Hatchett, and ballet with ABT's Kat Wildish, at Broadway Dance Center. He then discovered Dance Space Center (now Dance New Amsterdam) and studied modern with Barbara Fraser for 3 years. Rob fell into his first Simonson Jazz class at Dance Space, and has spent the last 18 years perfecting that technique. Rob has had lengthy study with Isabel Gotzkowsky, an active dancer/choreographer and teacher who helped define his personal movement style in the critical formative years, and has studied more than 10 years consistently with Diane McCarthy who made him the technician that he is today.

Many years later, the goth imagery again rears its grimly fiendish head as Rob Divine seeks to reconnect the goth theme and motif with technical dance awareness. The goth scene is a rich subculture to have come from – full of distinctive aesthetics, etiquette, and beliefs just like any other culture through the years, and thus it is the perfect inspiration for theatrical exploration. There is beauty in darkness, and Shadows of Angels Dance Company exists to showcase that beauty.