About

Carol Langstaff has been doing and instigating in many facets of the performing arts.  Starting as musician, actor and dancer, she embraced teaching the interweaving of the arts in many outlets.  Since 1971 her work as an artist centered around REVELS. Carol co-founded Christmas Revels in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an event which she produced and directed.  Annual Christmas Revels productions now attract tens of thousands of people in nine cities around the United States.  She also founded Revels North in Hanover, NH and was the Artistic Director of Revels for 25 years.

From time to time she has written, produced and directed theater events with an explicitly political purpose.  The most notable was Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button: A Dream of Nuclear War, a large-scale, outdoor program created in 1980 and presented in several Vermont communities.  Carol was awarded a Citation in 1981 by the Vermont Council on the Arts.

From 1995 – 1997 Carol was Executive Director of THE CONNECTICUT RIVERFEST dedicated to educating and celebrating the Connecticut River watershed.  She bought artists, educators, scientists, and ordinary citizens together to focus on the life of the river.  

1999 marked the creation of FLOCK DANCE TROUPE a dance/theater troupe combining professional dancers with talented members of the community of all ages, creating 12 full length dance works. In 2001 the start-up of FLOCK Dance Company in Galway, Ireland came about when an international company successfully performed FLOCK creations. In Ireland, FLOCK received the Galway Arts Council Award in 2005.

A stroke in 2017 left Carol no longer herding people, but has given her the opportunity to turn to photography and composing. 

“My art has always been a celebration of what I notice and what I care about.  My surroundings spark curiosity and show me the joy and wisdom that can be found in the forces of our natural world— which can transcend our day-to-day concerns.  Responding to the flow forms of nature and the language of gesture has been my passion.  Now, since my stroke, I have been given the opportunity to do more observing than herding people. Much like my choreography I’m fascinated with sequences. And now, more than ever, I’m aware of the need to leave less of a foot print—leading to my own simple ways of framing work with what’s around.” 

— Carol Langstaff