Angelica Cardente-Vessella

Professor Angelica Cardente-Vessella is Chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance, Professor of Dance, Director of Dance, and Managing Director of the Rhode Island College Dance Company at Rhode Island College. Throughout her career, she has worked as a choreographer, producer, educator, and arts leader, creating original performance, producing professional residencies, and developing opportunities that connect students with nationally recognized artists. For more than three decades, Professor Cardente-Vessella has combined professional artistic practice with higher education, believing that dance and theatre are powerful tools for communication, collaboration, and the exploration of the human experience. Her work bridges choreography, devised theatre, movement, education, and community engagement.

Before joining the Rhode Island College faculty, she was the owner of the Neon Dance Theatre, a dance studio, and the artistic director of the profeessional dance company, the Vessella Dance Project. She has taught at the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island, and Providence College. Her choreography has been commissioned by the Community College of Rhode Island, Providence College, Wheaton College, and the University of Rhode Island. As a professional performer, Professor Cardente-Vessella danced with Marta Renzi & Dancers and Paula Hunter, appearing at Lincoln Center, Jacob's Pillow, Central Park SummerStage, and Coney Island. She is certified in both the Luigi Jazz Technique and the Margolis Acting Method. She also served as rehearsal director for acclaimed jazz dance master and historian Danny Buraczeski, experiences that continue to influence her interdisciplinary approach to teaching, choreography, and devised performance. She studied tap dance for many at the Leon Collins Tap studio in Brookline, Ma.

Her choreography has been presented nationally, including performances at the Triskelion Arts Center in Brooklyn, New York, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2018, she received the Best Choreography Award at the All Out Arts Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City. She is also a two-time recipient of the Antonio Cirino Memorial Award for Art Education. In 2024, she received Rhode Island College's Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in recognition of her teaching, creative work, and service to the College. The Rhode Island Foundation has also recognized her work in a feature article highlighting her contributions to arts education. Although Professor Cardente-Vessella has choreographed more than twenty-five musicals at Rhode Island College—including HAIR, Pippin, Sweet Charity, Cabaret, Quilters, and Spring Awakening—she is perhaps best known for creating socially conscious devised performance.

Her creative process begins with a question rather than a script. Working collaboratively with student performers, she develops original productions through research, movement exploration, improvisation, writing, discussion, and theatrical experimentation. Students become collaborators throughout the process, creating performances that reflect both artistic expression and contemporary social issues. Her original works include NEXT, which uses the structure of an airport as a metaphor for the human journey, exploring emotional baggage, body image, relationships, transition, and belonging. A-MIRROR-CA: A Reflection of a Media-Driven Society, co-authored with Bill Wilson, examined the influence of media on identity and culture and received Best Script and Best Ensemble honors at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Her dance theatre work END IT!: Human Trafficking was developed in partnership with Day One and the Rhode Island Department of Health to educate audiences about human trafficking through performance. Other original productions include Like Me: Social and Digital Identity and It's All Your Parents' Fault!, both exploring how technology, relationships, family, and personal experiences influence identity and shape the way we see ourselves and others. Across all of these productions, Professor Cardente-Vessella's work reflects a consistent belief that performance can encourage conversation, deepen understanding, and invite audiences to consider issues that extend beyond the theatre.

As Managing Director of the Rhode Island College Dance Company, Professor Cardente-Vessella has built one of New England's most active collegiate guest artist residency programs. She has produced residencies, commissioned new work, and presented performances by more than fifty nationally and internationally recognized choreographers, companies, and educators. Artists she has brought to Rhode Island College include David Dorfman Dance, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Ephrat Asherie Dance, Marta Renzi, Adele Myers, Shani Collins-Achilles, David Parker, Adrienne Hawkins, Danny Buraczeski, Billy Siegenfeld, and Maria Bauman, among many others. Through these residencies, students have worked alongside leading artists while gaining firsthand experience with professional creative processes, rehearsal practices, and contemporary choreography.

Professor Cardente-Vessella's work as a producer extends beyond artist residencies. She served as Conference Coordinator and Producer for the New England American College Dance Conference hosted at Rhode Island College in both 2015 and 2025. These conferences welcomed more than 350 students and faculty representing over thirty-five colleges and universities throughout New England. The multi-day events included performances, adjudication, master classes, scholarly presentations, and opportunities for artistic exchange, further establishing Rhode Island College as a regional leader in dance education.

As Director of Dance Professor Cardente-Vessella has worked to strengthen the Dance curriculum development, faculty collaboration, student mentorship, community partnerships, and strategic planning. Her administrative work reflects the same collaborative approach that defines her artistic practice. Throughout her teaching career, she has remained committed to mentoring students as artists and individuals. She encourages students to think critically, take creative risks, and develop the confidence necessary for successful careers in the performing arts. Many former students have gone on to careers as performers, choreographers, educators, arts administrators, and creative professionals throughout the country.

Beyond her work in higher education, Professor Cardente-Vessella has a longstanding passion for interior decorating, event styling, and residential design. Drawing upon her educational background in architecture, interior design, theatre, and the visual arts, she enjoys creating spaces that balance beauty, functionality, and hospitality. Her interest in design reflects the same attention to storytelling, composition, and atmosphere that has defined her work on the stage.

Professor Cardente-Vessella holds an Associate of Science degree in Fashion Merchandising from the Community College of Rhode Island, an Associate of Science degree in Architecture and Interior Design from Hall Institute, a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education from Rhode Island College, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre from Rhode Island College. Whether serving as an educator, choreographer, producer, department chair, or designer, Professor Cardente-Vessella's work is grounded in collaboration, creativity, and the belief that the arts enrich both individuals and communities.