About

MAGMA is a center for movement practices where people of all ages can discover, develop, and create in a broad curriculum of movement styles. We offer dance technique, improvisation-based classes, martial arts, fitness, movement for special populations, and somatics workshops.  MAMGA is an inclusive, non-discriminatory place to move, regardless of dance experience, age, body type, race, sexual orientation, or disability.

MAGMA is venue for performances spanning dance, theater, performance art, and interdisciplinary practices. It is the host venue of the Live Arts Series, established in 2014, which produces performances of experimental dance, music, and performance art from local, national, and international artists. The series works in collaboration with Matthew Swift Gallery (formerly Trident Gallery) of Gloucester.


MAGMA Team

Director

Sarah Slifer Swift

Advisors

Kate Tarlow Morgan

Vincent Cacialano

Matthew Swift

Teachers

Ramon Alves

Sarah Fader

Nathan Zimmerman

Molly Tupper

Sarah Slifer Swift

Lissa Geggis

Jillian Chavez-Oliveira

Dianna Daley

William Gleason

Learn about our teachers

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Director Sarah Slifer Swift has been on faculty at Boston Ballet School, Salem State University, George Washington University, Amsterdam College of Art/School for New Dance Development, Scotland’s National Center for Dance (Dance Base), and Liza Indiciani Studio of Dance. Through the Gloucester Education Foundation, she created and taught two dance curricula for Gloucester Public Schools. Since 2014 she has directed the Trident Live Art Series @ Trident Gallery. She was Director of the Gloucester New Arts Festival (2005-2009) that specialized in site-specific art and performance.

Slifer Swift performed as a dancer with several dance companies and choreographers in the US and in Europe, seeking out radical, experimental work that challenged ideas about performance and aesthetics. Her choreography has been performed in Amsterdam, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and in New England and has received several grants and awards, including a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship.