2013 Faculty Bios
Jennifer Archibald
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Jennifer Archibald, founder and artistic director of the Arch Dance Company, graduated from the Alvin Ailey School and Maggie Flannigan acting conservatory specializing in the Meisner technique. She has performed at The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall, Lincoln Theatre, New World Theatre, Duke on 42nd Street, Abron Arts Centre, Judson Memorial Church, on MTV, as well as in Europe, Russia and Canada. She has staged various off-Broadway shows working with the casts from Bring in Da Noise and Da Funk and the musical Cats and has choreographed Carousel, The Music Man, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Pippin for professional theater companies. Jennifer has also choreographed for the NBA New York Knicks City Dancers, the Ailey School, and the outdoor Solstice Festival in Times Square. For 2013 Jennifer has been selected as a choreographic Fellow for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle. She is currently on faculty at Dance New Amsterdam, Broadway Dance Center and CAP 21 America’s Musical Theatre Conservatory. She has been a resident artist and lecturer at Princeton University, University of South Florida, University of Illinois, Virginia Commonwealth University, Goucher College, East Carolina University, FAMU, Studio Harmonique in France, and Jackson School of the Arts in Bermuda. In 2012 Jennifer was a resident artist at Ailey/Fordham, East Carolina University and Columbia College. www.jenniferarchibald.com
Art Bridgman & Myrna Packer
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| photo by Julie Lemberger |
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Artistic Directors of Bridgman|Packer Dance, collaborate as performers and choreographers. Their work developing "Video Partnering" — the integration of live performance and video technology — has been acclaimed for its highly visual and visceral alchemy of the live and the virtual. Based in NYC, they have been presented by City Center, Lincoln Center, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Dance Theater Workshop (now NYLA) among others. They have toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Central America, performing in festivals and arts centers. These include Spoleto Festival USA, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Munich International Dance Festival, The Institute for Contemporary Art/Boston, The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (St. Paul), Festival Internacional de Artes Escenicas (Panama), Kintetsu Theater (Osaka, Japan), Festival Internacional Chihuahua (Mexico), and Tancforum (Budapest). Bridgman and Packer are recipients of a Guggenheim Fellowship, consecutive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for 2007 through 2012, and fellowships and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, USArtists International, Performing Americas Project, and National Performance Network. Bridgman and Packer have been guest artists at over one hundred universities throughout the U.S. http://bridgmanpacker.org/
Julia Burrer
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Julia Burrer, originally from Austin, Texas, cultivated her love for dance while training with Tapestry Dance Company, under the direction of Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand. She moved to New York in 2002, where she continued her studies at SUNY Purchase and earned a BFA in Dance. She studied abroad at Rotterdamse Dansacademie in the Netherlands, participated in the International Dance Exchange in Essen, Germany, and in the summer of 2006, performed at the Hong Kong International Dance Festival. She has since had the pleasure of dancing with and for the following lovely folks - Daniel Charon, Bill Young & Colleen Thomas, Teri & Oliver Steele, Gwen Welliver, alexanDance, pocket engine, and Chimaera Physical Theater. Julia joined Doug Varone and Dancers in 2007.
Daniel Charon
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Daniel Charon was a full-time member of Doug Varone and Dancers from 1999 - 2010 where he served as dancer and rehearsal director. He also danced with the Limón Company from 1996 - 1999, and with Doug Elkins’ and Friends, the Metropolitan Opera, the Aquila Theater Company, the Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Mordine and Company and Dance Kaleidoscope (Indianapolis) among others. Daniel’s choreography has been presented at numerous venues and festivals including the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Judson Church, Topaz Arts and DanceNOW. He has presented two full evening concerts at Joyce SoHo in NYC, a solo concert at East Tennessee Sate University, and a duet concert in Cambridge, MA. Daniel has been commissioned by various companies, universities, and festivals, most recently the Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis where his piece "Storm" was awarded Best Dance Performance of 2012 by the Minneapolis City Pages. He is a recipient of DTW's Outer/Space Creative Residency and the Topaz Arts Solo Flight Creative Residency. Daniel has taught regularly in NYC at the Limón Institute, 100 Grand, Peridance, Dance New Amsterdam, and the 92nd Street Y. He also teaches master classes and workshops including the Varone Summer Workshop, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Metropolitan Opera, the Limón Summer Workshop, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Comprehensive, and Summerstages Dance Festival. He has been a guest artist at numerous universities, was an adjunct faculty member at Hunter College, and holds an annual dance intensive in Cambridge, MA. Daniel has staged the works of José Limón, and Jirí Kylián and continues to stage the works of Doug Varone on various schools and companies around the world. He holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is currently pursuing his MFA in Dance/Integrated Media from the California Institute of the Arts and is expected to graduate in May 2013.
Robbie Cook
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| photo by by Kristina Pugh |
Robbie Cook is a dancer, choreographer, Pilates and yoga instructor based in Los Angeles teaching in the Dance Departments of Loyola Marymount University and Idyllwild Arts Academy. He completed a 200-hour Yoga certification at Yoga High in NYC and has since taught Yoga in NYC, American Dance Festival, Summer Dance Institute/University of Wisconsin, Dallas and Los Angeles. His Pilates certification was completed in Chicago, subsequently teaching there as well as in NYC, San Francisco, Bennington College in Vermont, Dallas, Los Angeles and as a guest teacher in Minneapolis; Montevideo, Uruguay; Sapporo, Japan; and Cork, Ireland. As a dancer, Robbie has danced with Douglas Dunn, Other Shore (dancing in works by Edward Liang and Stacy Matthew Spence), Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Margaret Jenkins, Jan Erkert, Keith Thompson and Liz Gerring among others. He has also commissioned two solos from Deborah Hay, participating in her Solo Performance Commissioning Project: Music 2001 & The Runner 2007. Robbie earned an MFA in Dance from Bennington College and has taught dance at CSSSA @ Cal Arts, TCU, Long Island University, and Master Classes at Pepperdine University, Harvard-Westlake School, University of Houston, HSPVA Houston and UCLA. Robbie’s classes draw from his study of Functional Anatomy with Irene Dowd and his continual investigation of the eight limbs of Yoga.
Autumn Eckman
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Autumn Eckman is a choreographer, teacher and dancer currently serving as Artistic Associate of Giordano Dance Chicago and Director of Giordano II. She received her classical training from the Houston Ballet Academy. Autumn has danced for renowned companies including Giordano Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Lucky Plush Productions, State Street Ballet and the Cangelosi Dance Project. She is a performer for Ron De Jesus Dance and Chicago Repertory Ballet. Autumn has created seven works for the Giordano and has been commissioned by DanceWorks Chicago, Grand Valley State University, Western Michigan University, Northern Illinois University, KRESA, State Street Ballet, Chicago Repertory Ballet, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, Contemporary Dance South, Inaside Chicago Dance, Momenta, NoMi LaMad and the Vittaca Dance Project. Her work has been shown at Dance/USA, Arts Midwest Conference, Midwest RAD Festival, and the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival. She was awarded Dance Chicago’s “New Artistic Voice” in 2009, and named as a "standout choreographer” for 2010 in the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune’s Sid Smith highlighted Eckman as the feature choreographer for its 2012 Fall Dance Preview. Autumn has taught at Northern Illinois University and is currently on faculty at several Chicagoland studios.
d. Sabela Grimes
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d. Sabela grimes is a multi-hyphenated artist, choreographer and educator. Sabela has conceived and presented a body of dance theater work that proactively seeks to expand beyond contemporary notions of Hip Hop culture and aesthetics. Projects such as World War What?Ever?, 40 Acres & A Microchip: Salvation or Servitude, Sankofa and his evening length tour-de-force BULLETPROOF DELI exemplify his propensity to funktion as performer, choreographer, writer, composer, actor and costume designer. Sabela’s work continues to journey through the present future of Hip Hop’s past and the corrugated spaces of its many incarnations. He created, and continues to cultivate, Funkamentals a technique-based approach to learning Black vernacular and Street dances/dance forms. Sabela holds a MFA in choreography from UCLA’s World Arts and Culture Department and a BA in English also from UCLA. In addition to his own work, Sabela has choreographed music videos and film. He also has functioned as composer/sound designer for Victoria Marks’ Medium Big Inefficient Considerably Imbalanced Dance, Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project’s, Beautiful Struggle and David Rousseve's, Stardust. Sabela directed Raphael Xavier’s Black Canvas and is collaborating with Miss Prissy and Lil’C as Artistic Director on The Underground. Sabela continues to work with Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM). http://dsabelagrimes.com/
Return to topHeidi Henderson
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Heidi Henderson, choreographer for elephant JANE dance, a pick up company in RI, is a three time recipient of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellowship. Heidi has danced in the companies of Bebe Miller, Nina Wiener, Peter Schmitz, Sondra Loring, and Paula Josa-Jones. Heidi is a contributing editor at Contact Quarterly, a vehicle for moving ideas. She received her BA from Colby College and her MFA from Smith College and is in her tenth year on the faculty at Connecticut College. She has been teaching at the Bates Dance Festival for many years. elephant JANE dance has performed at the South Bank Centre in London, in New York City, at Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Festival, at The International Festival of Dance in Taegu, Korea, at the Bates Dance Festival, and at many venues in New England. Recently elephant JANE dance premiere Pine, a trio, at the Flynn Space in Burlington, VT.
Kathleen Hermsdorf
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| Photo by Yvonne M. Portra |
Kathleen Hermesdorf is a dance maker, improviser, teacher and producer based in San Francisco, CA. She is the Director of la ALTERNATIVA and Alternative Conservatory, in collaboration with musician, Albert Mathias, and in residence at KUNST-STOFF arts. la ALTERNATIVA is an apparatus for deeply integrated dance and music via improvisation, creation, performance and production. Alternative Conservatory is a modular, mobile and intensive training ground in dance and related forms. Hermesdorf was a member of Bebe Miller Company and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and worked extensively with Sara Shelton Mann & Contraband. She co-directed Hermesdorf & Wells Dance Company with Scott Wells and has been in collaboration with Stephanie Maher in Berlin and Stolzenhagen, Germany since 2000, creating performance work and training opportunities through Ponderosa Tanz/Land Festival and PORCH. Hermesdorf honors her many outstanding teachers and colleagues, holds a BFA and MFA in Dance alongside extensive experience in the field, and has received GOLDIE, IZZIE & BESSIE awards. She teaches, performs and creates around the world. www.la-alternativa.us
Darrell Jones
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Darrell Jones has performed in the U.S. and abroad with a variety of choreographers and companies such as Bebe Miller, Urban Bush Women, Ronald K. Brown, Min Tanaka and Ralph Lemon. Along with performing Darrell continues to choreograph and teach. He has collaborated with writers, musicians and designers in dance films, documentations and interactive multimedia installations. In addition to his collaborative work, he continues to work in solo forms and with ensembles. Darrell has also taught workshops and master classes in dance technique, improvisational processes and the voguing aesthetic throughout the U.S. and in South Africa, UK, and South Korea. Darrell is presently an Associate Professor at The Dance Center of Columbia College in Chicago. His classes are informed by his training and studies in a variety of contemporary dance techniques and traditional dance forms.
Kim Konikow
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As a consultant through artservices & company, Kim Konikow has been engaged in projects that facilitate artistic growth and build community with a focus on organizational development. Ms. Konikow has a varied background in the arts as a presenter, arts manager and administrator. Prior work experience includes Conference Coordinator for Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance in Washington DC; Executive Director for The Mesa, an arts & humanities residency center in southern Utah; Executive Director for the statewide service organization Minnesota Dance Alliance; Associate Director for Art Awareness, a residency and performance center in upstate New York; and Director of Special Events at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has served extensively as a site visitor and panelist for several regional, state and national organizations. She holds a BA in Art History and Theatre from George Washington University in Washington, DC and a dual MFA in Arts Administration and Theatre Direction from Brooklyn College/City University of NY.
Stephan Koplowitz
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| photo by Lynn Lane |
Stephan Koplowitz is a director, choreographer, media artist and educator known for his work on stage, film and creating original site-specific multi-media works for architectural and environmental sites. As a graduate of both Wesleyan University (BA Music) and the University of Utah (MFA Choreography), he has created 65 works since 1984 of which 45 are commissions. He has been awarded a 2004 Alpert Award in the Arts, a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, a “Bessie” (2000) and six NEA Choreography Fellowships from (1988-97). His work has been produced and commissioned for eight seasons at NYC’s Dance Theater Workshop (now NY Live Arts) from 1987-2006, Dancing in the Streets, the American Dance Festival, Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Bates Dance Festival, London’s Dance Umbrella Festival, Choreographic Center, Essen, Germany, among other venues. Stephan Koplowitz: TaskForce, his touring site dance company, has created new works in Idyllwild, CA, Los Angeles (2008) and Plymouth, UK (2009) and Houston, Texas (2012). He has collaborated with composer, John King, on two recent projects, the opera, Dice Thrown (2010) and Stabile/Mobile, a series of site specific works in Spoleto, Italy as part of the La Mama Spoleto Open Festival (2012). Koplowitz, with architects KBAS, won a design competition for a permanent visual/media installation for The Center for New Media in Salt Lake City (2013). He is a contributor to Site Dance, the first book on site choreography published by Florida University Press (2009). After 23 years in NYC, Koplowitz, moved to Los Angeles in 2006 as dean and faculty at The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts. www.koplowitzprojects.com & www.youtube.com/user/lanycart
Hannah Kosstrin
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Hannah Kosstrin Ph.D. is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Reed College where she teaches courses in dance studies, Labanotation, and contemporary technique. She is situated at the intersection of dance, Jewish, and gender studies, and researches questions of politics and identity in Anna Sokolow’s choreography. Her articles appear in The International Journal of Screendance and Art Criticism, with work forthcoming in Dance Research Journal and Dance on its Own Terms: Histories and Methodologies edited by Karen Eliot and Melanie Bales. Before she came to Reed, Hannah taught dance and dance studies in Boston and central Ohio. She performed and presented choreography with, and wrote publicity for, Columbus Movement Movement (cm2), an organization that supported independent dance artists in Columbus, OH, that was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2007. Hannah is Treasurer-Elect for the Congress on Research in Dance, and she serves on the Dance Notation Bureau Professional Advisory Committee. Hannah holds a Ph.D. in Dance Studies from The Ohio State University with a minor in women’s history.
Rachel List
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| photo byArthur Fink |
Rachel List has performed across the U.S. and in Canada, Mexico and Europe as a member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, The Vanaver Caravan, Partridge/Benford/Dance/Music and The New York Baroque Dance Company. Recent performances with the NYBDC have included appearances at The Kennedy Center, The Rose Theater (Lincoln Center), and at the International Handel Festival in Goettingen, Germany. Ms. List directed and choreographed for her own company from 1985-1995 and was the founder and director of Manchester Dance, a summer workshop in Vermont, from 1987-1997. She holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee and has taught professional ballet classes in New York City since 1978 (currently at the Peridance Center). Ms. List is the Director of the Dance Program at Hofstra University and has taught previously at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Barnard College, Queens College (CUNY), the Paul Taylor Summer Institute, the Balettakademien (Stockholm, Sweden) and Danse Projektet (Copenhagen, Denmark). Ms. List has presented master classes and lecture/demonstrations in Baroque dance at Juilliard, Columbia University, NYU, Swarthmore, Vassar, Bard Graduate Center and F.I.T. and has served as a period movement consultant and/or choreographer for the Pearl Theatre, Bronx Opera, and New York City Opera. She is very pleased to be returning for her sixteenth summer at the Bates Dance Festival.
Bebe Miller
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| photo by Julieta Cervantes |
Bebe Miller, a native New Yorker, first performed her choreography at NYC’s Dance Theater Workshop in 1978; she formed Bebe Miller Company in 1985. Her choreography has been performed in venues across the country and internationally in Europe and the African continent, and been commissioned by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Philadanco, and the UK’s Phoenix Dance Company, among others, and much of the Company’s repertory has been presented or developed at the Bates Dance Festival. She has been honored with four New York Dance and Performance ‘Bessie’ awards, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council, was named a United States Artists Ford Fellow in 2010, and has been a professor in Dance at The Ohio State University since 2000. Last year Tracing History: Bebe Miller, a curated exhibition featuring her choreographic career, was on view at Ohio State’s Urban Arts Space. Bebe was named as one of the inaugural class of Doris Duke Artists, a program of the Doris Duke Foundation’s Performing Artist Awards in 2012. http://www.bebemillercompany.org/
Shonach Mirk-Robles
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| photo by Arthur Fink |
Shonach Mirk-Robles received her classical training in some of the world's best schools, including the School of American Ballet, The Royal Ballet School of London and Maurice Béjart's MUDRA. She was a member of Bejart's famed Ballet of the Twentieth Century from 1974 to 1986 and also performed with Switzerland's Zurich Operhaus, Germany's Hamburg Ballet and Italy's Ballet de Torino. Shonach’s advanced studies in Spiraldynamik® have become the major influence in her method of teaching classical ballet. She studied Spiraldynamik® while also completing her MDEd. The combination of these two advanced trainings has dramatically informed her approach to teaching technique through the integration of Spiraldynamik® principles. Through her collaboration with acclaimed choreographers she has developed a deep understanding of what today's dancers need in the way of a classical base for contemporary performance. Shonach founded her own school in Zurich in 2009 and also teaches, internationally, in Japan, Spain and Germany.
Kendra Portier
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Kendra Portier is a performer, teacher, and dance-maker based in NYC. Currently, she is performing with David Dorfman Dance, Vanessa Justice Dance, Alexandra Beller Dances, and Annie Kloppenberg & Co. She serves on the faculty at Dance New Amsterdam, and is creating under the moniker, BANDportier. Originally from Ohio, Kendra was born and raised commune style, trained and performed with BalletMet, and received a BFA in Dance from the Ohio State University. She has since had the fortune of working with brilliant beings such as Lisa Race, Jennifer Nugent, White Road Dance Media, Hoi Polloi, Nicole Wolcott Dance, and has created numerous collaborations with Launch Movement Experiment. Additionally, Kendra has been a guest artist at and/or commissioned by numerous colleges, universities, festivals, dance facilities, tattoo shops, and galleries for her creative works spanning from fine arts to choreography, the flesh to the canvas, tiny drawings to tiny dances. http://www.kendraportier.com/BAND/Home.html
Karl Rogers
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Karl Rogers dances with David Dorfman Dance and is an Assistant Professor at The College at Brockport. He completed a MFA in choreography and is pursuing a PhD in critical dance studies from the Ohio State University. He has taught at colleges, universities and festivals around the world, most notably as co-director for the Young Dancers Workshop at the Bates Dance Festival since 2009. Rogers has danced in projects with Terry Creach, Paul Matteson, Alexandra Beller and Heidi Henderson’s Elephant Jane Dance and many others. His first introduction to dance was through improvisation and it continues to remain a vital part of his artistic life.
Kwame Ross
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Kwame A. Ross is a performer, choreographer, musician, and community activist, formerly from New York City and now a resident of Tallahassee, Fl. For the past thirty years, Kwame has been engaged in the preservation and continuum of African culture through the arts and community service. He has served as Cultural Ambassador to Egypt and Associate Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women. Kwame is Artistic Director of African Drum and Dance Ensemble of Tallahassee, Fl. He is working, in collaboration with Michael Wimberly, on a community project for the Azores Islands. Kwame is in the process of developing a new performance arts company called, Lumbe Project. http://www.prophecymusicproject.org/kwameross.htm
Ray Eliot Schwartz
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| Photo by Jason Akira Somma |
Ray Eliot Schwartz received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and MFA from University of Texas-Austin. He is the Co-director Performática: Foro Internacional de Danza Contemporanea y Artes de Movimiento. Ray co-founded four contemporary dance projects in the southern U.S.: Sheep Army, The Zen Monkey Project, Steve’s House Dance Collective and THEM. He has been a guest artist for diverse student populations in communities, colleges and universities in the U.S., Indonesia, and México. Ray has served on the faculty of the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, MELT, the ZMP Summer Dance Intensive, the Colorado College Summer Dance Festival and SFADI, among others. His somatic studies include certifications in Body-Mind Centering and the Feldenkrais Method. Additional studies include Zero-Balancing, Gross Anatomy, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and Traditional Thai Massage. Ray is a research associate at the Center for Mind Body Movement and has been a guest lecturer at the Institute of Kinesthetic Education. He currently serves as Coordinator of the Dance Program of the University of the Americas-Puebla in México.
Shamou
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| photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen |
Shamou’s music career began at an early age in his native Iran where he also studied and performed as a dancer with the Iranian National Ballet. He began his formal music training in Tehran, studied with teachers from the Royal College of Music in London and completed his training at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is known, nationally, for his collaborative work with dancers including the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Co., Mark Morris Dance Company, ODC/San Francisco and Prometheus Dance Company. He has contributed music to several CD compilations and has released his own solo CDs entitled Spirits Dance, Traces, Nebulae and Shodjah with his former band by the same name, and Live at CCE with his ensemble, Loopin. Shamou has taught hand drumming, percussion, music for dance and body music across the country in a wide variety of settings. http://www.shamou.com/
Alex Springer
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Alex Springer, originally from Farmington Hills, Michigan, studied dance under the direction of Lisa Campos DeWitt and Toi Banks. He graduated with honors from the University of Michigan with a BFA in dance and a minor in Movement Science. Since relocating to NYC, he has had the pleasure of working with such artists as Amy Chavasse, Leyya Tawil, Lizzie Leopold and Elizabeth Dishman, among others. Alex choreographs with his wife, Xan Burley, and has produced work in various venues in NYC, Chicago and Detroit. Alex joined Doug Varone and Dancers in 2008.
Martha Tornay
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Martha Tornay founded the East Village Dance Project (EVDP), a dance development program for ages 4 to 19, in New York City in 1997, under the non-profit organization GOH Productions. In the Fall 2010, she opened her own space Avenue C Studio in the East Village, a studio that is home to all EVDP classes and to the Teen Repertory Company. EVDP presented the first Teen Dance Festival at La MaMa in Fall 2010. Prior to launching her teaching career, Martha graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy and received a Fine Arts Award in dance technique and choreography. Martha has over three decades of intensive classical ballet and modern technique studies with dance masters such as Mme. Gabriela Darvash, Gretchen Ward Warren, Robert Brassel and Merce Cunningham; and performed for 18 years with regional and international ballet and modern dance companies in the US and Israel. For the last nine years, Martha has been teaching at NY University’s Experimental Theater Wing, Bates Dance Festival and for the Louisville Ballet School. http://eastvillagedanceproject.com/
Nancy Stark Smith
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Nancy Stark Smith first trained as an athlete and gymnast, leading her to study and perform modern and postmodern dance in the early 1970s, greatly influenced by the Judson Dance Theater breakthroughs of the 1960s. Nancy danced in the first performances of contact improvisation in 1972 and has since been central to its development as dancer, teacher, performer, writer/publisher, and organizer. She has traveled extensively throughout the world teaching and performing contact and other improvised dance work with Steve Paxton and many other favorite dance partners and performance makers, including Julyen Hamilton, Jeff Bliss, Ray Chung, Andrew Harwood, Peter Bingham, Karen Nelson, and musician, Mike Vargas. She co-founded Contact Quarterly, an international dance journal, in 1975 which she continues to edit, produce, and publish along with other dance literature. Her work and writings are featured in the books, Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader, and Composing While Dancing: An Improviser’s Companion. Her first book, Caught Falling, came out in 2008. She lives in western Massachusetts. http://nancystarksmith.com/
Doug Varone
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| photo by Cylla von Tiedemann |
Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, and fashion. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for more than two decades. His work has been singled out for its extraordinary physical daring, vivid musicality, and genius for capturing through movement the nuances of true human interaction. He is the recipient of numerous honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies) and a 2006 OBIE Award. In addition to his own company, Varone has been commissioned by numerous dance companies: including the Limón Company, the Graham Company, Bern Ballet (Switzerland), Rambert Dance Company (England), Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Uppercut Danse (Denmark), AnCreative (Japan), among others. His dances have also been staged on more than 70 college and university programs. Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the President's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. http://www.dougvaroneanddancers.org/
Nejla Yatkin
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| photo by Lois Greenfield |
Nejla Y. Yatkin, Artistic Director of NY2Dance is originally from Berlin, Germany, with Turkish roots. Yatlin graduated with a professional concert dance degree from Die Etage - a Performing Arts College in Berlin, Germany. She is active as a teacher, performer and choreographer at national and international festivals. Yatkin has created works for a range of companies, as well as evening-length and site-specific works for her own company, and dances for film, theatre and opera. Recent commissions include Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Washington Ballet, Darpana Performing Group (India), Baltimore Ballet, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble and River North Chicago. Yatkin has received commissioning and performance awards from Arts International, the National Performance Network, the NEA, the Kennedy Center, the D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities, The Turkish Cultural Foundation and the University of Maryland. She is also the recipient of five awards from the Metro D.C. Dance Awards, including “Outstanding Individual Performance," "Best Scenic Design," "Best Multi-Media Performance" and “Best Overall Production” in a small venue. Yatkin has been an Artist in Resident at the University of Notre Dame since 2008. The New York Times recently described her as “…a magician, telling tales and creating worlds with understated images and movement.” www.ny2dance.com
