Artistic Staff

DIRECTOR RUTH LEWIS is the founder of Dimensional Dance. She has led Dimensional Dance during its twelve year history creating meaningful inspiring programs. Most recently the company has focused on women’s experiences and performed numerous pieces by female choreographers. These pieces include Phenomenal Woman (choreographed by Ruth Lewis) inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem,  Fierce Like Frida about Frida Kahlo and One Art based on Elizabeth Bishop’s iconic poem.   Ms. Lewis conceived and is the lead choreographer of the company’s award winning work Whole-Souled Women: The Prudence Crandall and Sarah Harris Story. 

She was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, but spent the majority of her youth growing up in the pastoral town of Harvard, Massachusetts where her parents owned and operated the International Youth Hostel, Friendly Crossways.  This upbringing has influenced her love of diverse dance genres. After graduating from the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts she went on to dance professionally. She finished her dancing career with American Repertory Ballet and then became assistant to the director, Septime Webre with who she danced with for seven years prior to that.  Lewis a teaching artist listed on the CT Teaching Artist Directory and also teaches yoga in Farmington.

ASSISTANT REHEARSAL DIRECTOR MATISSE MADDEN was raised on the beautiful island of Kauai and is proud of her French Polynesian heritage. She received her B.A. in Dance and her B.S. in Zoology from Brigham Young University.  She holds an MFA in Ballet Teaching and Choreography from The University of Utah. She has danced with professional ballet companies Ballet West, Connecticut Ballet and is presently a Principal Artist at Dimensional Dance. Her first piece for the company was Fierce Like Frida, created in 2019 and choreographed in collaboration with b-boy Savage Henry after being inspired by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. In 2020 she worked collaboratively with Dimesional Dance hip hop artist, Jus Hues, to create the piece The Ocean in One Drop which celebrates the Earth’s oceans.

Matisse is a visiting professor at Mt. Holyoke College, and is currently teaching the intermediate and advanced ballet classes at Yale University. Matisse has performed the lead in Dimensional Dance’s  Wyeth: Looking Beyond and Peaceable Kingdom inspired by the paintings of Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hicks, respectively. She performs as the lead, Prudence Crandall, in Whole-Souled Women: The Story of Prudence Crandall and Sarah Harris. She has also danced the lead roles in O Squared and Era of Essence.  A self-proclaimed “bunhead,” she leads the ballet history component in Dimensional Dance’s educational performances.