Linda Austin With a background originally in theatre, Linda Austin began making performance and dance in 1983, with her first piece presented at the Danspace Project at St. Marks Church in New York CIty. As an active participant in the downtown New York performance community, she presented work at Performance Space 122, the Danspace Project, the Kitchen, and Movement Research at Judson Church. From 1992 to 1994 she lived and made work in Mexico, returning in Mexico City in 1998 for a two-month residency sponsored by Movement Research and funded by the U.S./Mexico Culture Fund.
In 1998, needing a more expansive and stable environment for the creation of work, Linda moved to Portland, Oregon, bought a small church which became her studio, and, with lighting designer Jeff Forbes, founded the performing arts non-profit, Performance Works Northwest. Since then,Austin has perfomed in Northwest New Works at both On the Boards and as part of PICAs TBA Festival; as well as at Conduit. the Echo Theatre and at Performance Works NorthWest. In August 2004, with 10 other Northwest choreographers, she participated in a pilot project of the Regional Dance Development Initiative (National Dance Project/NEFA) in Seattle. In 2005, she participated in Deborah Hays Solo Performance Commissioning Project in Findhorn, Scotland and performed her adaptation of Hays Room at the 2006 TBA Festival in Portland.
Currently Austin is working on a collaborative project called circus me around with composer Seth Nehil and architects Ean Eldred, Richard Garfield, John Kashiwabara & Peter Nylen to premiere in the fall of 2005. Architecture, simultaneous dances, complete and partial views,, and spatialized sound are some of the elements of this project.
Supporters of Austins work have included The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The New York Foundation for the Arts, Movement Research, the U.S./Mexico Cultural Fund, Oregons Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Her writing has appeared in The Movement Research Performance Journal, Tierra Adentro (Mexico), the literary journal FO A RM and a 2003 collection from MIT Press, Women, Art & Technology.
Corrie Befort Dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and teacher, Corrie Befort has been dually based in Tokyo and Seattle since 2005. In Seattle she self-produces evening-length performances, and has been presented in numerous festivals and showcases. She has created commissioned works and held residencies in Seattle, Minneapolis, and Belgium (ROSAS/PARTS). Her dance films screen in US festivals and in Tokyo and are distributed by IndieFlix.com.
In Seattle Corrie danced with MSS/JPP - Mary Sheldon Scott Jarrad Powell Performance (1998-2005), and Sheri Cohen & Co. (2001-2004). She is currently dancing with Natsuko Tezuka.
In spring of 2006 Befort’s solo work, “One Too Early” with musician Tim Olive toured Japan and 8 major US East Coast Cities.
Befort’s new work, “Salt Horse," created in collaboration with Seattle artists Beth Graczyk, Angelina Baldoz, and Jason E. Anderson will premiere in Yokohama’s STspot (www.stspot.org) May of 2007. A US premier follows the next fall in Seattle at On the Boards (tbc) (www.ontheboards.org).
Befort’s work has been supported by WSAC, Bossak/Heilbron, the Mary Levine Foundation, Artist Trust, and the Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, among others.
Contact:
Corrie Befort / Dancer, Choreographer, Filmmaker, Teacher - SEATTLE / TOKYO / YOKOHAMA
Corinna B. Patnaude, DCMA Japan, PSC 477 Box 39, FPO AP 96306 - 2739
phone: 090-6499-5288 (for US callers: 612/605-3696)
email: corrispondance@hotmail.com
website (film distributor): www.IndieFlix.com
TAHNI HOLT / MONSTER SQUAD Under the artistic directorship of Tahni Holt, Monster Squad has been performing throughout the northwest since 2001. In the past five years Monster Squad has created a series of works with on-going collaborators and contributors. They include visual artist Marty Schnapf, media artist Emily Bulfin, costume designer Jayme Hansen of Fleshtone/birds of prey, musicians Menomena and performance artist David Eckard. They have performed through On The Boards, PICAs TBA Festival, Bumbershoot and Disjecta to name a few. Monster Squad continues to be supported through regional and city project grants and receives local support from businesses and individual donors. Currently they are working on a multi projector installation with collaborator Emily Bulfin to be performed in the spring of 2007.
Along with Dance artist Linda Austin, Tahni performed her adaptation of Room, a solo commissioned by Deborah Hay in Pica’s TBA 06 Festival. She is a Portland native who returned home after completing her BFA from Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. Along with choreographing Tahni is a dancer and educator. Locally she danced for Mary Oslund + Co. for 3 years and continues to dance in diverse and interesting projects. She has taught dance and composition at Reed College and was on faculty at Lewis and Clark College this past spring. She continues to teach at Conduit Dance and at Oregon Ballet Theater as part of their outreach staff.
Cyrus Khambatta Cyrus Khambatta is the Artistic Director of The Phffft! Company founded out of New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing in 1989. Working from a theater and improvisational dance background, from 1989-2001, he and his company performed in downtown New York City venues such as P.S. 122 and Judson Church and spent a considerable amount of time performing in Europe with a base of operations in both Paris and NYC.
Highlights from this period included presentation of his work through a three-month residency at the Centre d’Art et D’Essai in Rouen France (‘91), performances at The Spoleto Festival USA (‘93), The Young Choreographers Festival in Caracas (’97), The World Expo in Lisbon (98’) and The Aula Magna at University Central in Caracas (2000). His work received the support of The Manhattan Community Arts Fund, The Harkness Foundation For Dance, Meet the Composer, The Morrison & Foerster Family Foundation, The Danielle Agostino Foundation, Elf Aquitaine, The Florence Gould Foundation, and The Oaklawn Foundation.
In 2001, looking for a more focused environment in which to create work, he moved his base of operations to Seattle. Since this time, he has created numerous works presented in the Pacific Northwest at On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center, Western Washington University, UMPQUA Modern Dance Project (OR), Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, McCallum Theatre (CA), Nantes University and The Choregraphic National Centre of Tours (both in France) as well as others. For this work, he has received support from 4Culture, Seattle Arts Commission, and The Bossak Heilbron Charitable Trust, and The Florence Gould Foundation. Notable commissions include Spectrum Dance in Seattle, The Ririe Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City and a dance theater rendition of Swan Lake for The Cornish College Theater Department.
In September 2003, he received California’s Daman New Choreography award and in August 2004, was selected for the Regional Dance Development Initiative (National Dance Project/NEFA) in Seattle. He has taught at universities and other organizations through out Europe, the Eastern U.S, Venezuela and the Pacific Northwest. In 2007, he opened a studio in Seattle, built on the same property as his home. This serves as the primary base of operations for the company, although it still maintains a small New York City office.
Currently he is working on two projects. The first is a series of international collaborations between his company and that of Collective Entre Deux based in Tours France and Suzy Blok based in Amsterdam, Holland. Performances of both of these projects will be presented at a festival produced by Phffft!, Beyond the Threshold: Seattle International Festival of Dance occurring annually in November in Seattle. The second, The People’s Choreography Project, is a series of dance works inspired by the ideas of 3-4 diverse members of the public who will be apart of the creation process. The final performance of the dance works will examine the lives of different aspects of society, the rich, poor/homeless, young and old etc. It will also include a video documentary of the process with interviews of each of the members of the public sharing their experience of the project.
Contact:
Cyrus Khambatta
5609 34th Ave SW,
Seattle, WA 98126
phone/fax:
(Seattle) 206/935-0459; (New York City) 212/404-7808
email: cyrus@PHFFFT.org
website: www.PHFFFT.org
Amy O'Neal
Amy O'Neal is a performer, choreographer, teacher and the co-director (along with Zeke Keeble) of locust (music/dance/video company) based in Seattle. Amy teaches contemporary dance technique and funk regularly at Velocity Dance Center and has taught and/or conducted residencies at the University of Washington, University of Idaho, University of Oregon, Lane Community College (Eugene, OR), Northwest Vista College (San Antonio, TX), and Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle, WA). Her work has been commissioned by Spectrum Dance Theater, Moving Current in Tampa, FL, and Seattle Theatre Group's Dance This...where she collaborated with Sonia Dawkins and Savion Glover. As a performer, she worked with the Pat Graney Co. for 3 years, was a 6-year member of Scott/Powell Performance, was the lead singer of the Seattle band Marrow for 3 years, and performed in Mark Haim's acclaimed Goldberg Variations. Amy also frequently collaborates with musician/comedian, Reggie Watts. For locust, Amy has received funding from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the international DanceWEB scholarship, the Mary Levine Fund, Artist Trust (Fellowship '05, GAP '04,'06), 4 Culture, the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation of the Arts, the National Performance Network, and the Creative Capital Foundation. Amy holds a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts and will be choreographing for Cornish Dance Theater in spring 07. She will also be a guest lecturer at the University of Washington and will conduct a residency at Texas Women's University also in '07.
Mary Sheldon Scott, Choreographer Mary Sheldon Scott’s choreography researches active words with physical outcomes – lifted, climb, broken, pushed, pressed, twisted, falling, replace, stretched – through divers physical manipulations and the use of sets and props to create unique physical challenges. Never aiming directly at an emotional outcome, Scott enters the choreographic space with a belief that dance is a profound physical language that serves as a conduit to the body’s internal, archetypal knowledge. Her research is rooted in the conviction that the movement territory most deeply connected to our humanity lies within the genuine and tangible struggle of the performer to forge an authentic relationship through disciplined action between the body and each movement.
Mary Sheldon Scott is an Artist Trust Fellowship recipient in choreography, has received individual awards from 4Culture, Artist Trust GAP Program, and the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs/City of Seattle, and has been awarded three Creative Residencies at Centrum. Commissions include the Cornish Dance Theater and the d9 Dance Collective. Since 1993 Scott has been working in a dedicated collaboration with nationally renowned composer Jarrad Powell, and in 1994 they formed the dance company Scott/Powell Performance.
Upcoming projects include two new dance works for Scott/Powell Performance: Locate, which will premiere as part of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Celebrate Seattle Festival, and Geography, an evening-length work that will premiere on On the Boards’ 2007-2008 Northwest Artist Series and will tour to the Myrna Loy Center/Helena Presents.
Scott holds an MFA in Choreography from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She serves as Choreographer and Artistic Director for Scott/Powell Performance and is Co-Director of the Composer/Choreographer new performance series. Scott also works extensively in visual medium.
For more information please visit scottpowell.org.
Contact:
Mary Sheldon Scott
Scott/Powell Performance,
P.O. Box 18574,
Seattle, WA 98118
phone: 206/760-2555
email: mail@scottpowell.org
website: www.scottpowell.org
Minh Tran
Minh Tran is artistic director of Minh Tran & Company, a contemporary dance company based in Portland, Oregon. Tran’s unique cross-cultivation of eastern and western dance forms speaks to his use of cultural expression as a catalyst for breaking down cultural and racial barriers and results in a body of work that is at once abstract and emblematic, physical and spiritual, personal yet universal.
Born in Vietnam, Mr. Tran immigrated to the United States in 1980 as a political refugee. In addition to receiving dance training in classical Vietnamese opera at the National School of Fine and Performing Arts in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), he holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Washington and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration / Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from Portland State University.
Mr. Tran has created over thirty choreographic works since 1989. As both a dancer and choreographer, his work has received numerous grants, fellowships and commissions, including: the Paul G. Allen Foundation, the Regional Arts & Culture Council; White Bird / Tiffany & Company New Works Fund; Oregon Arts Commission; Oregon Ballet Theatre; Portland State University's Contemporary Dance Season; the Portland International Performance Festival; BodyVox; ArtExplosion: A Festival of Asian American Performing Arts; Crossing East Heritage Festival; San Francisco Performances; San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Seattle's On the Boards; UCLA?s Asian & Pacific Performance Exchange Initiative (APEX); New York?s Dance Theater Workshop Suitcase Fund?s Mekong Project with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.
In 2003 Minh Tran & Company was awarded a production and touring grant from the Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Altria Group, Inc.
Minh Tran & Company has been presented by White Bird, Portland, OR; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), Portland, OR; Chico Performances, Chico, CA; Sierra Arts, Reno, NV; Helena Presents, Helena, MT. The Company is scheduled be presented by Alaska Dance Theater, Anchorage, AK in the Spring 2007. Mr. Tran's work has also been performed internationally in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Contact: Minh Tran, Artistic Director
Minh Tran & Company,
4110 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, PMB# 180,
Portland, OR 97214
phone: 503/233-0996
fax: 503/236-9547
email: info@mtdance.org
website:
www.mtdance.org
Cheronne Wong Cheronne Wong, originally from Malaysia, has been choreographing since 1993. Locally her work has been produced at many venues including On the Boards, King County Performance Network, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Velocity, Western Washington University and LadyFest.
Her company has toured/taught nationally and internationally at Jacobs’ Pillow Dance Festival (MA), Mulberry Street Theater and Judson Church in NYC, Wexner Center (OH), and National Arts Academy (Malaysia). She has received commissions/residences from Mulberry Street Theater (Jerome Foundation), NWAAT, Centrum Arts, Aono Jikken Ensemble; and grants from 4Culture, Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Bossak/Heilbron and Allied Arts.
In 2004, she was one of ten artists selected to participate in the pilot year of the Pacific NW Dance Lab sponsored by the New England Foundation for the Arts. She is a founding partner of Open Flight Studio – a collectively-managed dance studio in the University District (www.openflightstudio.org).
Ms. Wong’s inspirations come from her heritage and global travels, social issues, and research/artworks of artists. She is fascinated by the unexpected crossover of cultural/ artistic boundaries. In 2005, she created a site-specific performance piece Pollinate which was tailored for an urban Seattle setting (through a busy 4 way intersection) and a Washington suburb (hanging under a bridge and traversing through a park). Her latest project sub-Rosa (based on the mystery of number radio stations and global espionage) will premiere in September 2007 and includes collaborations with composer Amy Denio and sculptor Dave Stevenson.
Alex Martin
Alex Martin is a choreographer, performer, fashion insurrectionist and costume designer. She was Co-Artistic Director of Seattle’s BetterBiscuitDance (with choreographer Freya Wormus) for eight years, and currently works as an independent artist in performance and design projects that defy easy categorization.
Alex’s most recent work was her first Intentional Wardrobe Project, a year-long solo entitled The Brown Dress (www.littlebrowndress.com) that ended July 7, 2006. In her brown dress, Alex lived for 365 days; danced onstage at On the Boards and Consolidated Works (Seattle); fueled a wide-ranging online dialogue; and rode a wave of national and international media attention that crested on the Today Show (NBC).
The Intentional Wardrobe Projects continue with a new 365-day project, a radical 100% closed-loop recycling wardrobe for 2006/2007. New performance pieces are also in development. Alex’s very first visual art show will be presented by Garde Rail Gallery (Seattle) in 2007.
Alex Martin’s dances for the stage (and her site specific works) have been presented by partners including On the Boards, Bumbershoot, Velocity Dance Center, University of Washington Summer Arts Festival, Centrum Arts, Western Washington University, Buttrock Suites, Bellevue Arts Museum, LadyFest Seattle, Seattle PRIDE, Richard Hugo House, the ROMP Festival in Victoria BC, and ODC Theater in San Francisco on the SCUBA National Touring Alliance. Her work has received support from Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, King County/4 Culture, Artist Trust, and Centrum Arts Creative Residencies.
Alex Martin’s costume designs have been commissioned by many Seattle companies – notable collaborations include Lingo dancetheater, LeGendre Performance, d9 Dance Collective, and MSS/JPP Mary Sheldon Scott Jarred Powell Performance.
Alex Martin and Freya Wormus live with their son Ari in Columbia City, Seattle. They are founding partners at Open Flight Studio (www.openflightstudio.org).
Charya Burt -
Artistic Director, Charya Burt Cambodian Classical Dance Company
Charya is a graduate and former dance faculty member of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As an expert in classical and folk dance, she has performed in various countries and across the United States. In 2001 she was granted the Isadora Duncan Award for individual performance. She regularly conducts workshops and continues to teach Cambodian dance throughout California. With the 2002 California DanceMaker Grant she created Crogauk Tip (The Magic Peacocks)based on a Cambodian folk dance where she uses Western instrumentation fused with Cambodian instruments and melodies. Through the 2004 Irvine Dance in California Program she choreographed an original classical dance piece, Romlik Kun Kru Knom (Forever My Ancestors), honoring Khmer dance traditions. She recorded music for her new works with the 2006 Fund for Folk Culture. Witha Theater Bay Area CA$H Grantshe is currently choreographing an original piece, Velear Dar Chruar Knear("Intersections Through Time"), based on her own experiences as an immigrant artist. Her current grant from the Irvine Dance in California Program will allow her to create Pkaa Kolab Khiev (Blue Roses), exploring the life of a Khmer Princess inspired by Tennesseee Williams, The Glass Menagerie. Currently, Charya is the artistic director of the Charya Burt Cambodian Dance Company in Windsor, California.
Contact:
Charya Burt
Charya Burt Cambodian Dance Company
899 Foothill Drive,
Windsor, CA 95492
phone: 707/838-2938
Hearan Chung
Hearan Chung, professional dancer, choreographer, and artistic director of the Northern California Korean Dance Association, has mastered various fields of Korean dance including Court, Folk, and creative dances, beginning her training at age 5. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in dance from one of Korea’s leading universities, Ewha Women’s University. With a passion to cultivate talent in young dancers, Ms. Chung has over 20 years of teaching experience in leading Korean universities; a great many of her students are now leaders of dance in Korea. Additionally, she was the leader of Chang Mu Dance Company, an organization that produced Korean contemporary dance. Ms. Chung’s dance is characterized by elegance and her choreography incorporates symbolic elements of water, wind, and soil to demonstrate her interpretation of the spirit of Korea. Throughout the span of her career, she has choreographed over 40 works of dance and published four theses. She has been invited to perform i n the US, Italy, Japan, the UK, France, Spain, and China. With the motive of observing various kinds of dance from different cultures, she immigrated to the US in 2001. She then established the Northern California Korean Dance Association. She has held several workshops at various colleges and has choreographed for four annual performances of a Korean youth musical group in SF. She has also been nominated for the 2006 Isadora Duncan Award. Her numerous performances include her participation in the 2002 and 2005 Ethnic Dance Festival, the Asian Art Museum, Women on the Way, and more. She was also featured in the 2006 SPARK Program.
Colette Marie Eloi -
Artistic Director, El-Wah Movement
Colette Eloi has dedicated her life to sharing with the world the rich traditions and cultural history of her parent's native Haiti. She has performed across the US, Spain, Cuba, and the south of France as a dancer with various groups including Petit Le Croix, Dimensions Dance Theatre, Nuba, Ropa y Raja Peruvian Dance and Beya's Brazilian Dance Company. Her foundational dance training came from UC Berkeley and The Malonga Casquelourd Center for Performing Arts, formerly the Alice Art Center, and includes jazz, ballet, modern, Dunham Technique and many traditional folkloric styles. She studied dance in Haiti with the famed Madame Bauthier and Fofo Alexandre. To complement her understanding of the intricacies of Haitian drumming with master drummers such as Frisner, Boga, Fanfan Louis and Jean Michel.
Colette's vision as a choreographer is to dance a through-line of the African experience as it manifests in the traditional movements of the Diaspora, a vision that was first realized with a dance group she co-founded called Reconnect. She choreographed the first off-Broadway production of Tim Rice and Elton John's Aida for which she was nominated for a Shellie Theatre Award. Her work has been presented at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and at numerous Ethnic and Cultural Dance Festivals. She teaches Haitian dance at local schools, universities and dance camps, and has taught for Dimensions Dance Theater's Rites of Passage Program for the last seven years. Most recently, Colette choreographed a piece in Tribute of Ms. Dunham's legacy, 97 Yanvalou Dancers "A Living Birthday Card." Ms. Katherine Dunham recently passed away in June of 2006.
Colette created El Wah Movement in 2005 to further her artistic vision. With a batter of 8 dancers and 5 drummers, the troupe's repertoire includes traditional Haitian folkloric song and dance pieces as well as African Diasporic fusion pieces. In additioni to performing at local dance venues and school assemblies, the company maintains a close relationship with the local Haitian community. The next performance will be on February 4th at Ashkenaz in Berkeley in honor of Haitian Flag Day. In April, the company will travel to Haiti for a month-long dance-study tour.
Shuang Sabrina Hou
Shuang Sabrina Hou, Founder and Artistic Director of Peony Performing Arts, is an award winning Kunqu opera singer. She is the fourth generation descendant of a performing arts family from Beijing that excels in the Kunqu Opera. After graduated from Beijing Conservatory of Opera, she held the seat of lead actress in the Beijing Northern Kunqu Opera Theater (1988-1996) and also hosted drama programs at Chinese Central Television and played leading roles in films and T.V. dramas.
In 1990, Sabrina played the leading role in The Ba Mian Feng, an ancient costume Kungfu movie, China Youth Film Studio. In 1995, she was recognized as one of 276 Chinese movie stars of the 20th Century by an encyclopedia - type reference book, “Chinese Film Stars” edited by the most authoritative scholars in film industry in China. In 1996, she was invited to travel to Japan to be the leading actress of Beijing Northern Kunqu Opera Theater for “The 50th Anniversary of Domin Center for the Performing Arts,” performing in Tokyo.
Arriving in the U.S. in 1997, Sabrina advanced her studies at the University of San Francisco, while continuing her activities on the stage. She has been a featured solo performer with the San Francisco Gu-Zheng Society, Melody of China, and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, and has given lecture-demonstrations on Kunqu Opera at Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, University of San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum, and Pacific Lutheran University. She has performed as a Chinese folk singer in a musical tribute to singer Paul Robeson (portraying Chinese Opera star Mei Lanfang) with flutist James Newton, and participated in the 2004 Paris Jazz Festival with prominent American jazz musicians. In February 2006, Sabrina was chosen to participate in the New England Foundation’s Bay Area Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) at ODC Theater. In May 2006, she had a leading role as Pan Jin-Liang in the critically acclaimed new opera The Grand Seducers by San Francisco-based composer Gong Situ. In December 2006, she will perform Kunqu opera in Beijing with Beijing Kunqu opera Theater.
Kyoungil Ong -
Artistic Director, Ong Dance Company
Dancing since the age of four, Kyoungil Ong received her training for ballet and modern dance in Korea, where she graduated with top honors from the prestigious Seoul Arts High School, and from Sungkyunkwan University where she earned her B.A. in dance and her M.A. in Physical Education. While in college, she won the coveted Gold medal for the adult women's competition in the prestigious 25th annual Dong-A Dance Concourse. Ms. Ong was an instructor for Seoul Arts High School, Seon Hwa School of the Arts, and Sejong University.
Ms. Ong gained national acclaim as Lead Dancer for the National Dance Company of Korea, performing at prestigious stages worldwide, including the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the 1998 World Cup in France, and venues throughout Japan, Germany, Italy, and the Americas. She has worked in collaboration with Japanese and Chinese dancers for various Drum Dance performances, through which she was able to explore new directions in choreography.
Of her American achievements, Ms. Ong has completed multiple performances for the Asian Art Museum, World Arts West’s People Like Me, Asian American EXPO, The Works to Work, and more. In her concert, Merging of East and West in Korean Dance, for the Asian Art Museum, which was supported by the Bay Area CA$H Grant, she strove to bring out the hidden beauty of traditional Korean dance. The Ong Dance Company was selected to receive the Ethnic Dance Choreography Commission Award from World Arts West and The San Francisco Foundation.
Sharlyn Sawyer -
Ballet Afsaneh
A director, producer and dancer/choreographer for her own dance companies since the age of eighteen, Sharlyn Sawyer founded Ballet Afsaneh in 1986. In 1991, the organization assumed nonprofit status as Afsaneh Art & Culture Society (AACS). Ms. Sawyer has served as the executive director of the 501(c)3 since 1997; while simultaneously continuing her role as artistic director of Ballet Afsaneh. AACS has expanded to include an extensive community outreach program offering integrated arts and Farsi language studies, multi-media publications, and an international exchange program.
A prolific artist, Ms. Sawyer has choreographed dozens of new works and expanded traditional Central Asian art forms for contemporary theatrical venues. With over thirty years of experience as a producer and director for numerous presentations, she is considered to be a pioneer of Central Asian performing arts. She is also an accomplished videographer and graphic designer. Ballet Afsaneh presents an annual home season, 2006 premiers include:
Safar-e Zamaan: Time’s Journey, Choreography: Sharlyn Sawyer, Aliah Najmabadi - assistant.
Shaab-e Shiraz, Choreography: Sharlyn Sawyer Composers: Mohammad Nejad and Gloria Rohani.
Ms. Sawyer has received achievement awards from various Iranian-American and Afghan cultural organizations including: The Persian Center, the Iranian-American Society of New York Inc, Persian Students Association of Stanford University, Society of Afghan Professionals, Afghan Women’s Alliance International, and the Afghan Coalition. In 2003, she received an Individual Artists Award in Choreography from Marin Arts Council. In 2005, Ms. Sawyer and Afsaneh Art & Culture Society was sought out by a local philanthropic organization, the Christensen Fund, to spearhead a project supporting the research and local development of dance and related arts in the remote Pamir Mountain regions of Tajikistan in Central Asia. Find out more about the Tajik Dance Initiative at: <http://www.baacstajik.blogspot.com>
About the organization:
Afsaneh Art & Culture Society is dedicated to promoting the dance, music and poetry of the historic Silk Road regions of Central Asia. We endeavor to educate and promote understanding of these diverse and enduring cultures, to support artists in their role as community visionaries, and inspire people through the presentation of both traditional and new works. Our organization serves an important focal point for the dissemination of Central Asian culture and the participatory cultural arts of the San Francisco Bay Area Iranian- and Afghan-American communities. Presently with global tensions at an all time high, we are actively engaged in creating a positive profile through the expressive arts to represent these important new US communities to the general public.
Ballet Afsaneh and AACS are supported in part by grants from the California Arts Council, Arts Council Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, City of San Jose, Marin Arts Council and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, the James Irvine Foundation, The Christensen Fund, the Zellerbach Family Fund, and LEF Foundation.
Alseny Soumah
Previously of Les Ballets Africains and the Ballet Merreilles D’Afrique in his home country of Guinea, Alseny Soumah relocated to the United States in 1995, illuminating and influencing the music and dance scene from coast to coast with his dancing, enthusiastic teaching, and choreography.
Since moving to the Bay Area, Alseny has developed productive and exciting artistic relationships with various African and African American dance companies. Some of these relationships include Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, Dimensions Dance Theater, and Bantaba West African Dance Company. He has collaborated on projects with these companies as choreographer, musician, and featured guest artist. He has also been a guest instructor for Dimensions Dance Theater’s Rites of Passage program, a free program for youth ages 8-18.
Melody Takata -
Artistic Director, Gen Taiko
Trained in taiko, shamisen, and odori both in the U.S. and Japan, Melody Takata is a multidimensional artist who integrates music and movement of taiko and odori with elements of modern dance and contemporary music forms. Gen Taiko is an intergenerational performance and training program that transmits Japanese culture through taiko, folk dance, and other folk forms.
Ms. Takata has been involved in various collaborations with different dance and theater companies, including Sambasia, a project that integrates Japanese taiko and dance with Brazilian music. Her music compositions have been featured in Hidden Internment, a recent film by Casey Peak documenting Japanese Latin internment; and Naomi Quinones’ One Woman Show, produced by Asian American Theater Company. In 2004, Gen Taiko performed in the Ethnic Dance Festival, and in 2005, co-produced with Asian Improv aRts, a series of works for their 10th Anniversary that culminated at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In 2005 she was also awarded a grant from the Alliance of California Traditional Arts (ACTA) to work with Madame Fujima Kansuma Kai in Los Angeles on a joint project called Satori (Awakening of Spirit) in celebration of Japantown’s 100th year anniversary and 75th Anniversary of Obon in North America. Furthermore, she has self-produced a theater performance called Tsukimi, an interdisciplinary work in celebration of the moon in Japanese culture.
Ms. Takata is a leader in the San Francisco Japantown community, actively promoting the role of the arts in the community’s cultural, spiritual, and economic revitalization. She is a resident artist at the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern California. She organizes and curates cultural arts projects that build collaboration between artists, merchants, and community organizations such as JCCCNC, National Japanese Historical Society, Nihonmachi Little Friends, Japantown Merchant Association, and Japanese Community Youth Council, and Asian Art Museum.
Vishnu Tattva Das -
Founder-Director, Odissi Vilas: Sacred Dance of India
Vishnu Tattva Das is a dedicated artist who has devoted himself to perfecting the art of Odissi. Vishnu began his training in dance with Smt. Jhelum Paranjape, director of Smitalay Dance Company in Mumbai, India. He then traveled to Orissa for intensive studies with Padmavibhusan Kelucharan Mohapatra at the Odissi Research Center in Bhubaneshwar.
Vishnu is recognized as one of India's prominent male Odissi dancers and choreographers, and has received acclaim for his performances throughout India, Italy, Canada, and the U.S. He has presented hundreds of solo performances, lecture-demonstrations, and master classes. He has also collaborated, choreographed and performed with many dance artists in India and the U.S.
Vishnu brings to his chosen art form a vision of beauty, refinement, grace and spirituality, imbued with a divine inspiration, which permeates each step of his dance.
He is the founder-director of Odissi Vilas: Sacred Dance of India, a recent recipient of funding from the California Alliance for Traditional Arts and the Marin Arts Council. In 2006 he was chosen as one of nine culturally specific dance artists to participate in the Regional Development Dance Initiative, a project of the National Dance Project and the New England Foundation for the Arts. He is a founding member of Kala Sri Sangha, a group of professional Odissi dancers in the San Francisco Bay Area whose interest is to collectively promote Odissi dance.
Performances :Vishnu has performed throughout India, including the following venues: Tata Theater, NCPA: National Center for the Performing Arts, Nehru Center, Homi Bhabha Auditorium and on Doordarshan National Television. He toured Italy with Ileana Citaristi and has performed throughout the U.S. with Festival of India. Performances in the San Francisco Bay Area include: St. Aidans in New Dimensions of Odissi Dance with Rudrakshya, Nritya Sangham at the Marin Center, Parampara at the Playhouse, Stanford University for Krishna in Springtime for their Asian Cultural Initiative; the ITA (International Transpersonal Conference), Palm Springs with Barbara Framm for the Centennial Celebration of Joseph Campbells birthday; the Asian Art Museum; San Francisco Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; U.C. Berkeley; Solo Guest Artist with Ballet Afsaneh at the Marin Center and Mexican Heritage Plaza,; the Institute of Noetic Sciences; Pt. Reyes Dance Palace; Open Secret Cultural Center; Osher Jewish Community Center; Theater of Yugen, Noh Space; and Cultural Integration Fellowship.
Bonifacio Valera, Jr. -
Founder & Artistic Director, Barangay Dance Company
Founded in 1987, Barangay Dance Company is a San Francisco-based Filipino folk dance company whose mission is to preserve the cultural heritage of the Philippines through the presentation and propagation of Philippine folk dance and music.
Mr. Valera studied dance, majoring in dance ethnology and music education at San Francisco State University under Dr. Nonzitsi Cayou and Dr. Jerry Duke, and took several years of ballet, modern and jazz dance at the City College of San Francisco and San Francisco Ballet. He, along with members of Barangay Dance Company, occasionally return to the Philippine to conduct Philippine dance researches and attend workshops, including the annual national Philippine folk dance workshops in Manila sponsored by the Philippine Folk Dance Society and workshops with Bayanihan Dance Company, the national dance company of the Philippines, and with the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, under the direction of respected Philippine dance anthropologist Ramon Obusan.
In addition to working with Barangay Dance Company, Mr. Valera works with student and community groups: choreographing, consulting, lecturing and/or conducting workshops and master classes in Philippine folk dancing. For five years, he served as the Vice-Chair of the Alliance of Filipino American Performing Artists (AFAPA), a non-profit organization whose primary objective is to serve as an umbrella organization for all existing Filipino-American cultural arts groups.
Luis Valverde - Director, Peruvian Dance Company
Luis Valverde is musician, dancer, and researcher of Andean Art. Member of a family of artists, he began his career in Lima in 1991 taking his first steps into the Peruvian arts under special training with Master of Music Americo Valencia Chacón and later with renowned Dance Master Edgar Meza Arestegui. He has received also instruction from great musician Edgar Espinoza and master dancer Jorge Talaviña. He has been twice Director of the legendary Conjunto de Zampoñas of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos where he studied and worked for several years, investigating peruvian folklore as well as visiting remote towns and villages in the Andes, learning many different styles of traditional dance and music. He also has been member of the celebrated ensemble Brisas del Titicaca, the Center for Peruvian Music Research (CIDEMP), the Center of Folklore of the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos (CUF), and participated in many festivals and events.
In 2000 he moved to San Francisco as Director of Ballet Antakella in the Tradicion Peruana Cultural Center. He worked also as instructor of Andean Dance in the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and artistic adviser for other Peruvian ensembles starting and intense activity in the Bay Area which included dancing and choreographing for both, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and its educational program "People Like Me" while sharing the stage in many venues with Bay Area Artist such as Eddy Navia, Sukay and Pachamama, Jaranon y Bochinche, Nayo Ulloa, Lalo Izquierdo, etc.
Member of the International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO), Luis Valverde founded the Peruvian Dance Company in 2002. This ensemble is considered by specialized critics to be the most prominent Peruvian dance troupe in the Bay Area.
Valverde's work is permanently intended to bring the extraordinary variety of the Peruvian Dance (easily more than 5000 different dances from more than 100 ethnic groups along the Andes, the Amazonia, and the coastal region of Peru) to the American audiences with special emphasis on the staging, adaptation, and performance of both traditional Andean and Afro-Peruvian dances.
Paige Barnes Paige Barnes is an independent choreographer, performer, and teacher from Seattle. She is a co-founding member of Open Flight studio and Locate Performance Group. Since 1996, Paige has performed and produced independent shows with collaborative partner Pablo Cornejo in Ecuador (1996-1997), Mexico and Cuba, and throughout the Seattle area. She has received choreographic and educational awards from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, City of Seattle Arts and Cultural Affairs, danceWEB scholarship (Vienna, Austria), Washington State Arts Commission, The Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation and Artist Trust. She recently presented “Molt,” an evening commissioned by Consolidated Works that toured to Minneapolis and Philadelphia through SCUBA’s national touring program.
Previously Paige has performed with choreographers Mary Sheldon Scott/Jarrad Powell Performance (Seattle) and Shona Curley, Lizz Roman and Lea Wolf (San Francisco). She has also directed a modern dance company for teens, Anomaly (2000 -2002), taught and choreographed for Velocity Dance Center summer intensive Strictle Seattle, Sitka Fine Arts camp summer program (2002 and 2003), Julia Morgan Center for the Arts (2000) in Berkley and instructed creative movement to children at an Ecuadorian youth center, C.A.E. Paige is a certified instructor of the Gyrotonic Expansion System and teaches at Gyrotonic Seattle. She received a BA in Dance and Geography from the University of Washington.
Tracy Broyles
Tracy Broyles is a dance artist who has lived in the Northwest for almost a decade. Her work has been called "transformative," with "raw physicality and psychological lures" and she has choreographed, directed and self-produced three evening length works: "Tendency to Exist" 2000, "creation:imperfect" 2003, and "...he was costuming angels" 2004. She contributes to many shared evenings, including events curated by Performance Works Northwest, Conduit and 10 Tiny Dances. In 2004 she founded Theory 1:dance to unite her work under a common name, and create an arena for her ongoing exploration of psychology, archetype, and the unconscious. From 2002-2004 she was a cofounder of The Water St. Project, a space for contemporary performance, classes and rehearsals. Tracy has taught ongoing classes at Conduit and Center for Movement Arts as well as been a guest instructor at Lewis and Clark College. Before moving to the west coast Tracy received her BA in Visual Performing Arts/ Dance from UMBC (Maryland.) She is a recipient of the 2006 Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists, recently attended the Natinal Dance Projects Dancelab Intiative and will be attending a residency at Caldera Arts in 2007. Tracy/Theory 1:dance will be premiering a site-specific work 2007.
Gillmer Duran
Born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Duran studied at the Fundacion Arte Nuevo for two years and in 1993, moved to the capital to train with Roumen Rachev and Ruta Butviliene. Mr. Duran has danced professionally with the National Ballet of Caracas, Ballet NuevoMundo, Danzahoy, Tulsa Ballet Theatre and this is his fourth season with Eugene Ballet / Ballet Idaho. He has worked with choreographers such as, Vicente Nebrada, Luz Urdaneta, Jacques Brocket, Maria Rovira, Mauricio Wainrot, Robert Battle and Daniel Pelzig among others. He is also, an independent choreographer based in Boise, Idaho who has created pieces for Drop Dance Collective, The Woman Space Foundation (Fundraiser event for abused women in Eugene-Oregon) and collaborated with Toni Pimble in the Eugene Ballet/ Ballet Idaho’s last production “Pink Martini”. The National Dance Project and the New England Foundation for the Arts recently selected him as part of the Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI), in Portland-Oregon, among nine other dance artists from the Pacific Northwest region.
Agnieszka Laska Agnieszka Laska danced 25-plus years with Balet Form Nowoczesnych AGH — a top Polish modern dance company, touring Europe and North America. She also choreographed extensively for leading Polish theatre companies in award-winning productions across Europe and at festivals: Edinburgh and Avignon, etc. In Portland since 2001, she founded Agnieszka Laska Dancers in 2003, creating numerous works, often to music of local composers Tomas Svoboda and Jack Gabel, usually with musicians on stage. ALD performs regionally and in 2005 toured to dance festivals in BC, Mexico. Ms. Laska was a finalist in the choreographic competition LENGUAJE CONTEMPORANEO in Monterrey, Mexico 2005. Ms. Laska collaborates closely with artists of different disciplines in Mexico and her native Poland.
Contact:
Agnieszka Laska
Choreographer
Agnieszka Laska Dancers
POB 82712
Portland, OR 97282-0712
phone: 503/715-1866
website: http://www.a-laska.com
Tere Mathern
Tere Mathern
(Portland, OR) has been professionally involved in contemporary dance for over 20 years as a performer, choreographer and eductor. She is co-director of Conduit Dance Inc, a nonprofit supporting contemporary dance artists, which also serves as home base for her company, Tere Mathern Dance. Her work has recieved support from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the NEA, Oregon Arts Commission, among others. She is a Certified Movement Analyst in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, and teaches regularly at Conduit. Recent projects include the evening length work elements: earth, air, fire, water, in collaboration composer Joseph Waters, and Grammar of Regret, which premiered in December 2005.
Sallyann Mulcahy
Sallyann Mulcahy (Helena, MT) is the Founder/ Artistic Director of Artisan Dance, Artist in Residence and Director of Dance at Carroll College, Artistic Director of Missouri River Dance Youth Ensemble, Choreographer and Master Teacher. Born in Helena, MT, she left home at an early age (13) to pursue training and a professional career in ballet. Her list of companies includes Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Finis Jhung’s Chamber Ballet USA, the New Jersey Ballet and Artisan Dance. Sallyann has been recognized for artistry and technical accomplishments in soloist and principal performance. Dancers from around the nation are drawn to Montana for her skills as a coach and choreographer. Some of the world’s most prominent teachers and choreographers of the last century have influenced her work that is based in a pure classical foundation inspired by the eclectic energies of contemporary dance.
Zoe Scofield
Zoe Scofield (Seattle, WA) studied ballet as a scholarship student at Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Boston. While there she started choreographing and won the Monticello Scholarship for Emerging Choreographers at the Regional Dance of America festival. Upon graduating she joined Prometheus Dance Company in Boston and performed with them throughout the U.S. and France. After receiving the Breaking Ground festival scholarship in Toronto Canada, Zoe moved to Toronto to dance with Bill James Atlas Dance Company, as well as study Ashtanga Yoga. Zoe moved to Seattle three years later to further her studies in yoga at The Samarya Center. Since moving to Seattle she has performed with several choreographers and has shown her own work at Under Construction, 12 Minutes Max and the Northwest New Works Festival. On the Boards commissioned Zoe for their Northwest Artist Series in February 2006, premiering her latest collaboration with Juniper Shuey and Morgan Henderson. Zoe has also curated On the Boards' 12 Minutes Max and will be showing her work at Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out series in August 2006.
Robin Stiehm Robin Stiehm (Ashland, OR) relocated to Ashland, Oregon in 2002, after dancing, performing and choreographing in Minnesota for 30 years. She danced for seven years with the MN Dance Theatre and six years with the New Dance Ensemble, both of Minneapolis. At New Dance Ensemble she worked with Bebe Miller, Ralph Lemon, David Dorfman and Donna Uchizono, among many others. Robin formed Dancing People Company in 1994 and the company performs her work in Eastern Europe, Minnesota and now regularly in Oregon. Robin has received choreographic fellowships from the McKnight, Jerome and Bush Foundations, the MN State Arts Board and the Oregon Arts Commission. Dancing People Company's work has been supported by the Sewell family Foundation and Arts International.
Contact:
Robin Stiehm
1551 Woodland Drive Ashland, OR 97520 (Personal Address: PO Box 459 Jacksonville, OR 97530)
phone: 541/941-6282
website (Dancing People Company): www.dancingpeople.com
Emily Stone
Emily Stone (Portland, OR) bridges dance and theatre worlds by being an actor, dancer, choreographer and director. Her work has been produced in both Seattle and Portland by PICA's TBA Festival, On the Boards' Northwest New Works and 12 Minutes Max, 10 Tiny Dances, Performance Works Northwest, Telegraph Arts, Velocity Studio and defunkt theater. As a dancer, she has appeared in work by Sheri Cohen, Linda Austin, Linda K Johnson, Corrie Befort, and Tahni Holt, as well as performed and directed for her own theater/dance company Salvage Yard. Emily is currently learning how to sing with Angelle Hebert and Phillip Kraft for their upcoming show this spring and recently improvised for 12 hours with NW dancers and musicians in the "12 Hour Play".
Kristen Tsiatsios
Kristen Tsiatsios (Seattle, WA) has been generating a dynamic hybrid of performance in the Pacific Northwest region for the past 10 years. She strives to push boundaries both personally and socially through the weaving of movement, character, visual design, and site- specific happenings. Her work has received funding support from Seattle Mayor’s of Arts and Cultural Affairs City Artist Program, 4Culture, Centrum Artistic Residency Program, and Allied Arts Foundation, and has been produced by On The Boards, Bumbershoot, artsEdge, Seattle Fringe Festival, Velocity Dance Center, Signal & Noise Festival in Vancouver, BC and the ROMP! Festival in Victoria, BC. She has independently produced site-specific and durational performance installations at the Henry Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle, the Experience Music Project, and Consolidated Works. She holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts and currently attends Goddard College with the intention of attaining a MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts.
