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Faculty Bios
Chris Aiken
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| photo by Erik Saulitis |
Chris Aiken is a leading international teacher and performer of dance improvisation and contact improvisation. Over the past two and a half decades his work has evolved through ongoing investigations of performance, composition, movement technique and design. His work has been significantly influenced through the somatic practice of the Alexander Technique, ideokinesis, yoga and the work of Ida Rolf. Chris has performed and collaborated with many renowned dance artists including Steve Paxton, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Peter Bingham, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung and Angie Hauser. He has received numerous awards for his artistic work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as commissions from the Walker Art Center, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop and the National Performance Network. Chris is an Assistant Professor at Ursinus College where he co-founded and directs the dance program.
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Jennifer Archibald
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| Photo - © Arthur Fink Photography |
Jennifer Archibald, founder and artistic director of Arch Dance company, graduated from the Alvin Ailey School, She has performed across the U.S. including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Aaron Davis Hall, Lincoln Theatre, The Duke on 42nd Street Theatre, Abron Arts Centre and Judson Memorial Church, as well as in Europe and Canada. Jennifer staged various off-Broadway shows working with casts from Bring in Da Noise Bring in Da Funk and Cats, and choreographed Carousel, The Music Man, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Pippin for professional theater companies. She also choreographed for the NBA New York Knicks City Dancers and The Alvin Ailey School, served as a movement specialist and a choreographer for singer Shaggy and actresses Sarita Choudury and Audrey Tautou-Amelie. She currently serves on the faculty at Steps on Broadway, Dance New Amsterdam, Bates Dance Festival and Florida Dance Festival. She recently completed a solo project performing Joan of Arc for choreographer Michael Foley in France.
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Ananya Chatterjea
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| photo by Darren Johnson |
Ananya Chatterjea envisions her work in the field of dance as a “call to action” with a particular focus on women artists of color. She is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Theater Arts and Dance and Director of Graduate Studies of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She is also the Artistic Director of her company, Ananya Dance Theatre, a dance company of women artists of color who believe in dancing to energize a future that is full of hope. Ananya believes in the integral interconnectedness of her creative and scholarly research and in the identity of her art and activism. Her book, Butting out! Reading cultural politics in the work of Chandralekha and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2004. Ananya recently performed in Osaka (Dance Box Festival), Jakarta (Indonesian Dance Festival), Kuala Lampur (Sutra Dance Theater), and Minneapolis (Southern Theater). She was recently recognized as one of the “21 leaders for the 21st century,” and was among the “7 who will not be stopped,” by Women’s E-News, a national women-centered news organization.
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Nora Chipaumire
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| photo by Antoine Tempe |
Nora Chipaumire was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe, during the war of liberation revolution. A self-exiled artist now based in New York, she investigates the collaborative process within cultural, political, economic and technological identities of African contemporary life. Chipaumire is a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) 2007-08 Choreographic Fellow. She is also a recipient of National Dance Project (NDP) Tour Support in 2007-08. Chipaumire received a Jerome Travel and Study Grant to study in Senegal and Mozambique in 2007. She was honored with the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts in 2007. She is featured in the documentary Movement (R)evolution, and the upcoming Nora Chipaumire: a Physical Biography. Chipaumire has lead classes and workshops internationally in a wide variety of settings both on her own and as a member of Urban Bush Women with whom she is currently Associate Artistic Director and performer. Ms. Chipaumire is 2007 Bessie Award winner. |
Heidi Henderson
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| photo by Scott Lapham |
Heidi Henderson is the choreographer for elephant JANE dance, a pick up company in RI. She has received two Choreography Fellowships from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. elephant JANE dance has performed at the South Bank Centre (London), International Festival of Dance (Korea), Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Festival and in New York City, Boston and Rhode Island. Heidi has danced in the companies of Bebe Miller, Nina Wiener, Peter Schmitz, Sondra Loring and Paula Josa-Jones. She received her BA from Colby College and MFA from Smith College and is in her fourth year as Assistant Professor at Connecticut College. She has taught nationally and internationally as a member of Bebe Miller Company and Nina Wiener Co. and has been in residence or on the faculty at Amherst College, Bates Dance Festival, Brown University, Colby College, DanceSpace Inc., Dartmouth College, Hampshire College, Umass/Amherst, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University and NYU's Tisch Dance Summer Festival. Heidi is a sometime contributing editor at Contact Quarterly. Last year, for the 25th anniversary of the Bates Dance Festival, she edited a book of interviews celebrating this most marvelous dance home.
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| Photo by Abigail Miller |
Christine Holt
Christine Holt's love of yoga grew naturally out of her lifelong passion for dance and the healing arts. She graduated summa cum laude from Connecticut College with degrees in dance and psychology, and counts Dan Wagoner as one of her most cherished mentors. She co-founded Varoom Group dance collective in 2001, and continues to perform in NYC. Christine received her yoga teaching certification through OM Yoga Center (NYC), and continues to study vinyasa and Iyengar-based yoga with Susan Orem, Dana Strong and Rodney Yee. Drawing from her dance background, her yoga classes blend the graceful flow of vinyasa with a solid grounding in anatomy and alignment. She is a strong advocate of yoga as a practice for cultivating balance and mindfulness in life, both on and off the mat.
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Tania Isaac
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| photo by Steve Belkowitz |
Tania Isaac is originally from St. Lucia and is currently based in Philadelphia. Her company, Tania Isaac Dance, has presented work throughout the U.S., Japan, England and the Caribbean. She is a recipient of a 2004 Rocky Award for her evening length work home is where I am as well as for her solo performance in Rennie Harris’ Facing Mekka. Tania has taught at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College and given workshops and classes at Matsuyama and Ehime Universities, Michigan State and Rowan College. She is a Commonwealth Speaker with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and has been a guest artist-in-residence at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Bennington College. Tania is a former member of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Urban Bush Women and Li Chiao-Ping Dance.
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Larry Keigwin
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| photo by Tom Caravaglia |
Larry Keigwin's prolific and wide-ranging dance career began as a back-up dancer on Club MTV. In addition to Larry's choreographic work as Artistic Director of KEIGWIN + COMPANY, his recent commissions have included works for The New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, The Juilliard School, The NYU/Tisch School and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Other choreographic credits include work with the pop band Fischerspooner, “Mr. Showbiz” Murray Hill and as an Associate Choreographer for both the The Radio City Rockettes and the Off-Broadway musical The Wild Party. As a dancer Larry has worked with Mark Dendy (Bessie Award 1998), The Metropolitan Opera and Julie Taymor for her recent film Across the Universe. In his spare time, Larry has created Keigwin Kabaret, a fusion of modern dance and vaudeville acts. http://www.LarryKeigwin.com/ |
Kim Konikow
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| photo - no credit |
Kim Konikow has a varied background in the arts as a presenter, arts manager and administrator. As a consultant through artservices & company for over 27 years, Ms. Konikow has been engaged in projects that facilitate artistic growth and build community with a focus on organizational development. This comprises research, evaluation and reporting, assessments, project and event management and strategic planning for nonprofit arts organizations as well as independent artists. Her work experience includes: 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. Ms. Konikow has served extensively as a site visitor and panelist for several regional, state and national organizations. She holds a dual MFA in Arts Administration and Theatre Direction from Brooklyn College/City University of New York. |
Rachel List
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| photo by Julie Lemberger |
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, with whom she is still performing. She 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. Ms. List 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 Peridance). She is on the faculty of Hofstra University and Queens College (CUNY) and has also taught at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Barnard College, 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, Bard Graduate Center and F.I.T. and has served as a period movement consultant and/or choreographer for the Pearl Theatre and the Bronx Opera Company. She is very pleased to be returning for her tenth summer at the Bates Dance Festival. |
Victoria Marks
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| photo by Beatriz Schiller |
Victoria Marks creates dances for the stage, for film, in community settings, and for professional dancers. Her work addresses the body itself, as it serves as a touchstone for larger discourses on wellness, desire, rhetoric and power. Victoria is a Professor of Choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA where she has been teaching since 1995. Before taking her post at UCLA she lived in London, where for three and a half years she worked on her own choreographic projects and served as head of choreography at London Contemporary Dance School, a conservatory for the training of professional dance artists in Europe. Marks is a 2007 EMPAC award winner for the creation of a new dance for the camera, a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and has received recent grants from the Irvine Foundation, the NEA (2005) and the Cultural Affairs Council. In 1997 she was honored with the Alpert Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. Over the course of her career she has been the recipient of multiple grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, among others. She has received a Fulbright Fellowship in Choreography, and numerous awards for her dance films.
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Gregory Maqoma
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| photo by John Hogg |
Gregory Maqoma is the founder and artistic director of Vuyani Dance Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has trained in South Africa and Belgium. As a choreographer, teacher, dancer and artistic consultant, Gregory has taught and presented work in the U.S., Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Finland, Burkina Faso, Austria, Nigeria, France and South Africa. He has won several awards, accolades and nominations in South Africa and internationally including FNB Dance Umbrella Choreographer of The Year, Standard Bank Young Artist of The Year, Rolex Mentor and Protégé Award Finalist, Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award Finalist. Maqoma also serves as Associate Artistic Director for Moving Into Dance and as Artistic Director of The Afro Vibes Festival in the Netherlands. He teaches at several institutions in South Africa and Europe.
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Gabriel Masson
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| photo by Jeffrey Brown |
Gabriel (Gabe) Masson’s career as a choreographer, performer and teacher spans 20 years. He has toured the world in the companies of Hannah Kahn, Rosalind Newman, Lucinda Childs and Doug Varone. In 1997, in NYC, he formed Gabriel Masson Dance (GMD) as a vehicle for his creative output. Since then, the company has garnered rave reviews for their powerfully physical, deeply human dancing. Masson’s work has been lauded as “breathtaking” (NYTimes) and possessing a “choreographic voice rich in emotional range.” (SDUnion Tribune). GMD is now based in San Diego, CA where it had a critically acclaimed West coast premiere in October 2006. As a freelance choreographer, Masson’s recent projects include Distance, commissioned by Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre; and Pillow Stories, commissioned by 3rd Law Dance/Theater. Masson’s work has been supported by the NEA, NYSCA, NEFA, the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer and various private donors. He is currently a guest artist at the University of Colorado/Boulder for the 07-08 academic year. |
Paul Matteson
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| photo by Bob Handelman |
Paul Matteson lives in New York City as a choreographer, performer and teacher. He is co-artistic director with Jennifer Nugent of Nugent+Matteson Dance with 2007-2008 performances at Rhode Island College, Middlebury College, Velocity Studios in Seattle and Danspace Project in New York City. Paul is originally from Cumberland, Maine, received an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College, and a graduate degree from Bennington College. He was a member of David Dorfman Dance and Race Dance from 2000-2005, receiving a Bessie in 2002 for performance. He danced in Terry Creach’s company from 1996-2003. He has also worked with Kota Yamazaki, Peter Schmitz, Chamecki/Lerner, Jamie Cunningham, Neta Pulvermacher, Susan Sgorbati, Helena Franzen and Keith Johnson. He has been a guest artist at numerous universities and festivals and is currently a visiting artist at Bennington College and Hofstra University.
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Shonach MIrk-Robles
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| photo - no credit |
Shonach 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. She has also studied dance therapy and grown through her own choreographic experience. 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 has her Masters in Dance Education and is licensed to teach Spiraldynamik which she incorporates into her ballet workshops. Recently she has been teaching internationally in Japan, Spain and Germany.
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Jennifer Nugent
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photo by by Arthur Fink
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Jennifer Nugent is originally from Miami, Florida. She was a member of David Dorfman Dance from 1999-2007, receiving a Bessie in 2006 for her performing work with the company. Jennifer has also worked with Martha Clarke, Daniel Lepkoff, Lisa Race, Shen Wei, Nina Winthrop, Yin Mei, Gerri Houlihan & Dancers and Mary Street Dance Theatre. She has been a guest artist at universities throughout the U.S., as well as the American Dance Festival and Florida Dance Festival. She is co-artistic director with Paul Matteson of Nugent+Matteson Dance with 2007-2008 performances at Rhode Island College, Middlebury College, Velocity Studios in Seattle, Florida and Danspace Project in New York City. Jennifer will be teaching technique classes in 2007-2008 in New York City and is happy to be back for her second summer at the Bates Dance Festival.
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Te Perez
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| photo - no credit |
Teresa (Te) Perez, a native New Yorker, holds a BA in Dance and certifications in Pilates, Gyrotonic, Yoga, Anatomy of movement and Touch for Health. She teaches private/group Pilates & Yoga and is on faculty at DNA (1997), Hofstra University (2006) and Queens College (2002). Te has guest taught throughout the United States, annually in Quebec, Canada (2004) and recently in Holland and Spain (2007). Frequently, she has been commissioned to choreograph for small independent companies, student workshops and concerts. While continuing to choreograph and perform, Te has been studying towards a masters in health and healing since February 2007.
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Karl Rogers
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| Photo - © Arthur Fink Photography |
Karl Rogers is a performer, choreographer and teacher based in Brooklyn, NY. His first introduction to dance was through improvisation and it continues to remain the vital part of his artistic life. Karl currently dances with David Dorfman Dance. He has also danced in projects with Terry Creach, Melinda Ring, Sara Sweet Rabidoux’s hoi polloi and PearsonWidrig DanceTheater. Originally from Tulsa, OK, Karl defected to the Midwest, where he graduated with a degree in Educational Studies and Theatre from Knox College, and then trained at the Dance Center – Columbia College, simultaneously serving as its Academic Program Coordinator. He co-founded an improvisation company, IRIS dance, and has taught improvisation and contact improvisation in universities and community settings. In 2003, Karl completed an MFA in Choreography from the Ohio State University, where he was the first artist to receive the University’s top award, a Presidential Fellowship.
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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 with the Iranian National Ballet as a dancer. 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, and Shodjah with his former band by the same name, and Live at CCE with his current ensemble, Loopin. Shamou has taught hand drumming, percussion, music for dance and body music across the country in a wide variety of settings.
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JoAnna Mendl Shaw
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| photo by Arthur Fink |
JoAnna Mendl Shaw is a choreographer and teacher whose work often stretches the boundaries of traditional dance. Establishing her early dance career in NYC, Shaw went on to complete an MFA at the University of Utah, teach, tour and perform with the Bill Evans Dance Company, teach on the faculty at Cornish Institute and direct her own Seattle company, Danceworks Northwest. She moved back to NYC in 1991, taught at NYU/Tisch, Princeton, Montclair State and began making works for and with athletes. Shaw currently teaches Composition on the faculty at The Juilliard School and Improvisation, Composition and Choreography in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program. In addition to lots of dances and site work for dancers, Shaw has choreographed for ice dancers, In-Line skaters and gymnasts. In 1998 Shaw began investigating the merger of dance and equestrian artistry and in 1999 formed The Equus Projects, a company of NYC based dancers who work in collaboration with high-level equestrians throughout the country to create performance works for dancers, horses and equestrians. Merging the worlds of arts and athletics, The Equus Projects has produced full evening performance works for arts and equine venues, performed with live orchestras and trained with internationally recognized equestrians. The Equus Projects tours throughout the U.S.
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Colleen Thomas
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| photo by Gary Noel |
Since moving to New York 20 years ago, Colleen Thomas has danced with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Bebe Miller Company, Nina Weiner Dance Company, Donald Byrd/The Group, the Kevin Wynn Collection, and Sung Su Ahn among others. She is artistic director for ColleenThomasDance. She also works with her partner Bill Young, and is an artistic director to Bill Young/Colleen Thomas and Co. (http://wgy2.home.att.net). Her choreography has been seen in Russia, Slovakia, Hong Kong, Estonia, Taiwan, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela and in the U.S. at Danspace Project's St. Marks Church, Joyce SoHo, Kaye Playhouse, SUNY Purchase, The Puffin Room, HUNDRED GRAND, Dance Space Center, Meredith College in Raleigh NC, California State University Long Beach, East Carolina University, The Ritz Theater in Minneapolis and the University of Wisconsin among others. Thomas began her education at SUNY Purchase and graduated with honors from SUNY Empire State College where she received a BA in Psychology. She received an MFA in dance from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She has been an adjunct Professor at Skidmore College, Long Island University's Brooklyn campus, and the New School. She is also a guest artist at Dance New Amsterdam. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University.
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Martha Tornay
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| photo no credit |
Martha Tornay is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and a recipient of the 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. After performing for over 18 years with regional and international ballet and modern dance companies she founded East Village Dance Project (EVDP). EVDP, a program of GOH Productions, is a pre-professional dance development program for students ages 4-16 in NYC. EVDP graduates have been accepted into professional dance academies such as Elliot Feld/Ballet Tech, School of American Ballet and the Alvin Ailey School. EVDP students have performed with Kids Café Festival, Vanaver Caravan Dance Festival, Keigwin + Company and at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors 2007. In addition to directing EVDP, Martha teaches dance technique workshops at New York University's Experimental Theater Wing, Bates Dance Festival and for Louisville Ballet School. |
Nicole Wolcott
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| photo by Tom Caravaglia |
Nicole Wolcott is a choreographer, teacher and performance artist based in New York City. In 2002 Nicole co-founded KEIGWIN + COMPANY with Larry Keigwin and continues to be the company’s Associate Artistic Director. She also directs MUX (muxlove.com), a multi-disciplinary performance art collective that interweaves video, live music and movement. An innovator of site specific performances and video environments, MUX performs in numerous venues around the New York metropolitan area and throughout South America. In addition to her work with K+C in New York, Nicole has performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, worked with site-specific choreographer Noemie Lafrance, appeared in music videos and concerts with FischerSpooner, and is a featured dancer in, Across the Universe, a feature film directed by Julie Taymor, www.nicolewolcott.com
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Cathy Young
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| photo by Erik Saulitis |
Cathy Young received her BA magna cum laude from Harvard University in Sociology and Women’s Studies, and her MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois. She is nationally recognized as a master teacher of jazz dance, and has conducted residencies at over 40 colleges around the country, as well as teaching at major U.S. festivals including Bates Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival and the international Open Look Festival, in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a performer, Cathy has danced with a number of companies including Zenon Dance Company and Danny Buraczeski’s JAZZDANCE! touring extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, and performing in prestigious venues such as the Joyce Theater in New York and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. For the past fifteen years she has been focused on creating her own work, a dynamic mix of styles and dance forms that intermingles jazz, modern, contact improvisation and social dance. She creates choreography for her own company, Cathy Young Dance, and has also been commissioned by professional companies and presenters including The Walker Art Center, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Pennsylvania Dance Theatre, Zenon Dance Company, The Minnesota Opera and internationally by Kannon Dance Company of St. Petersburg, Russia. Her choreography has been recognized with awards and grants from the McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Target Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, among others. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania.
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