Essential to every Dark Dining event are performances by artists who engage the imagination and stimulate the senses of the blindfolded diners. Among the artists who have contributed their talents to Dark Dining Projects:
Click on letter of performer's last name:
Dana Salisbury (Creator/Director of Dark Dining Projects)
Bora Yoon at the exquisite De Seversky Center
Yael Acher (Flute)
A native of Tel Aviv, Acher graduated with a degree in Classical Flute form the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. Instrumentalist and composer, she works in contemporary, classical, electronic, jazz and hip hop idioms and leads junk “KAT” and Modiano. She has performed in NYC at the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Bargemusic, Church of the Transfiguration, and Roulette. Also at Susan Dellal Centre for Modern Dance in Tel-Aviv, the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, and Lille 2004 in France. She has collaborated with choreographers Kim Itoh (Japan), Tim Rushton (UK), and Ellis Wood (NYC). She has received numerous awards and been recognized by the Fulbright Commission. www.modianomusic.net
Melissa Aldana (Saxophone)
Born in Chile in 1988, Aldana began her musical studies with her father, Marcos Aldana at the age of seven. She won international contests, "Bravo Bravissimo" and "Quiero Ser Una Estrella" and performed in Milan. A member of Chile’s jazz scene, she gained the respect of her colleagues. In 2006, she was invited to perform with Randy Brecker and also met the great Danilo Perez who invited her (and her father) to perform in the Panama Jazz Festival. He brought her to Boston to audition at Berklee College of Music. There, granted the Berklee Presidential Scholarship, she graduated with a bachelor on Saxophone Performance. Now living in NYC, Aldana just released her first album, "Free Fall" under Greg Osby’s record label, Inner Circle.
Noah Baen (Installation Artist)
A visual artist whose work focuses on Nature and the relation of humans to the natural environment, Baen’s primary art form is site-specific installation, constructed with plant material and found objects gathered at or near the site. These installations, which are often ephemeral, may be sited outdoors with living plants as well as indoors in gallery and museum settings. They can be seen in the 59th Street subway concourse and community gardens in New York City. As a community artist, Baen has directed a number of collaborative public and site-specific projects including murals, garden designs and landscape reclamation. As an art educator he led Family Art Project at Wave Hill, the world-renowned public garden and cultural center in the Bronx from 1990 to 2010, and conducted numerous art-in-education residencies.
Amy L. Baumgarten (Associate Director and Dancer/Embodier)
Baumgarten has been dancing most of her life. At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, she matriculated as a Linehan Artist Scholar with a full scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Dance Performance and Political Science. Along with dance, Amy has honed her skills of the senses through her work with The Alexander Technique, The Feldenkrais Method, Body Talk, Chi Kung, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Yoga, and Pilates. She incorporates these sensitivities into her work as a founding member of Dana Salisbury and The No-See-Ums, Salisbury's dance company which creates “unseen dances” for blindfolded audiences. She also works with the dance/theater company, From the Desk of Sarah Seely, is a certified Pilates instructor, and pursues her own choreographic endeavors which include multi-disciplinary collaborations with composers, photographers, and visual artists.
Brian Bender (Musician)
A player (trombone, trumpet, melodica, keyboards, percussion) and composer, Bender has performed with O.J. Ekemode and the Nigerian All-Stars, Kotoja (African World-Beat), Ibrahima Camera, Black Rebels (African Reggae), La Perfecta (Salsa/Merengue) and the Berkshire Bateria Escola de Samba (Brazilian). He currently performs with the The Pangeans (World Beat), the Wholesale Klezmer Band, Lucky Seven (Caribbean Ska) and Big Bandemonium (Celtic). He has performed in the Cape Verde Islands (West Africa), Egypt, Israel, and throughout the United States including at Carnegie Hall and the Presidential Inauguration of Bill Clinton. Visit: www.brianbendermusic.com
Natalia Bernal (Vocalist)
Chilean born vocalist Natalia Bernal studied at Escuela Morderna de Música in Chile and Berklee College of Music in Boston MA. Quickly becoming a fixture of New York City, she has performed with some of the city’s leading figures on the Jazz and Latin Jazz scene. May 2010 saw the release of her debut CD, La Voz de Tres, (www.lavozdetres.com). The recording includes four Bernal originals as well as songs from Brazil, Cuba, the Andes plains and the United States, bridging styles between North and South America seamlessly. www.facebook.com/nataliabernalmusic
Silvia B. Birklein (Dancer/ Embodier)
A dancer, certified movement analyst, and dance therapist in Germany, Birklein, who now works in the U.S., received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research and a M.A. in Dance Therapy/Counseling Psychology from Antioch University. She is director of the Center for Movement Informed Psychotherapy (MiP).
Bliss Blood (Singer/ Songwriter)
Bliss Blood began her career as vocalist and songwriter in the band Pain Teens in Houston and continued to write music and perform with The Moonlighters and Delta Dreambox, among other bands, in New York City since 1995. Her most recent project is the duo Evanescent with guitarist Al Street. www.blissblood.com
Amelia Uzategui Bonilla (Dancer/ Embodier)
Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Bonilla trained in ballet under the tutelage of Meredith Baylis. In 2007, she graduated from Juilliard's Dance Division with Scholastic Distinction and received the Inter-Arts Award for leadership in educational outreach. She currently serves as a teaching artist for inner-city youth through Artists Striving to End Poverty and Young at Arts. She has led outreach projects in New Orleans, Florida, New York City, and throughout Peru. Amelia can be seen performing this fall at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, the New Museum, and The Metropolitan Opera.
Alexandria Brinae Ali Bradley (Vocalist and Tap Dancer)
Bradley has been singing and tap-dancing all her life. A member of Savion Glover's tap dance company, "TiDii", for four years, she has performed at the Cannes Film Festival in France, the 2002 Winter Olympics, The Nijinsky Awards Show in Monaco, "Improvography" at the Joyce Theater in New York City and in the Atlanta, GA production of "Bubblin' Brown Sugar" starring Diane Carroll. She has been an adjunct professor of tap dance at Queens College and Long Island University and is a co-director of the "Tapology Tap Festival For Youth" in Flint MI along with her sisters and father.
Siobhan Burke (Irish Step Dancer)
Introduced to traditional Irish dance at the age of four during a family vacation to Ireland, Burke studied at McDermott Academy in Holyoke, MA, David Rae School in Tralee, Ireland, and at the Griffith Academy in Hartford, CT. From 1998 to 2004, Siobhan ranked among the top five dancers in New England, qualifying annually for the World Championships and placing in the top ten at the 2004 North American Championships. As a senior in high school, she received an ARTS Award in Dance from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, one of twenty young dancers from throughout the U.S. to achieve this honor. Last year, Siobhan joined the North American company of Riverdance for the show’s 10th Anniversary tour of the U.S. and Canada.
Darrah Carr (Irish Step Dancer)
Named one of the “Top 100 Irish Americans of the Year” by Irish America Magazine, Carr has been active for over a decade in both the Irish and modern dance communities as a choreographer, dancer, educator, and writer. Her company, Darrah Carr Dance, specializes in ModERIN: a unique blend of traditional Irish step and contemporary modern dance. Carr is an Adjunct Professor at Hofstra University and has been a Guest Choreographer at Adelphi University and Queensborough Community College. She is a frequent contributor to Dance Magazine and Dancer and is the North American Editor of the Dance Insider. www.darrahcarrdance.com
Cintia Chamecki (Tap Dancer) www.cintiachamecki.com
Amanda Chapin (Dancer)
Performer, choreographer, teacher, Chapin is on faculty at the Northfield Mount Hermon School and is a founding member/director of The HodgePodge Dance Enthusiasts. Her work has been presented at The Limon Institute, Trinity College, Mount Holyoke College, and throughout Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley.
Janet Charleston (Dancer/Embodier)
Janet danced for many years in the companies of Lucinda Childs and Douglas Dunn, and has enjoyed working with an array of other artists including Christopher Williams, Kota Yamazaki, David Parker, RoseAnne Spradlin, and Robert Wilson and Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach). She has shown her own work in New York, Illinois and Chile. A faculty member of the Merce Cunningham Studio, Janet has also taught in university dance programs, most recently the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she was a visiting lecturer while earning her MFA in Dance. Abroad, she has taught and performed with SEAD (Salzburg), Palindrome (Germany) and as a Fulbright Scholar in Santiago de Chile.
Ailish Claffey (Dancer/Embodier, Dublin, Ireland)
Having studied at Trinity College in Dublin and Laban in London, Claffey started her career with Irish Modern Dance Theatre and choreographer Sara Rudner. She went to Daghdha Dance Company as part of the DMP, has worked with the Slovinian Experimental Theatre Company, Via Negativa, and been Dancer in Residence, Kerry County Council. She holds a Certificate in Theatre Directing, NUIM. Her work has been performed in venues throughout Ireland, New York, and Canada. Interested in finding new ways of communicating with audiences, she uses Laban Movement Analysis as a choreographic tool. She recently received a choreographic bursary award from The Arts Council, Ireland; her work is kindly supported by Dance Ireland.
Montzerrat Contreras (Dancer/Embodier)
Dancer, choreographer and researcher, Contreras is a graduate of the dance conservatory at the National Fine Arts Institute of Mexico. She has a BFA in modern dance from the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico and a MA in Performance studies from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has done research and developed dance projects in her home country of Mexico as well as in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Belgium, Germany, England and the United States. She is a Fulbright Scholar and has received grants from CONARTE, FONCA and DanceWeb. Currently, she creates solos and assists Meredith Monk as a researcher for her upcoming productions.
Temple Crocker (Theater Artist)
A theater artist and educator, Crocker makes interdisciplinary and collaborative performance works as well as objects and installations. In San Francisco, she performed with Campo Santo, Art Street Theater, Torque Dance Theatre and Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians. In 1996 she co-founded the experimental performance ensemble STRANGEFRUIT with Annie Kunjappy and Rowena Richie. The research process that accompanies the making of a piece draws on variety of sources including literature, philosophy, the natural and social sciences, alternative medicine, homespun recipes and visual art. Weaving together personal and universal mythologies In Baltimore, she collaborated with visual artist/performer Jackie Milad at the first Transmodern Age Festival and presented work at spare room, CHELA, Creative Alliance and the Baltimore Theatre Project. She has worked with the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York and is on the theater faculty at Towson University and University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Evanescent (Music)
Evanescent is a duo project featuring Bliss Blood (The Moonlighters, Pain Teens) on vocals and ukulele, and Al Street on guitar (Sugarman Three, Sweet Divines). They formed the band Evanescent to write original songs in the summer of 2010. Their songs are erotic, sensual, stripped-down rhapsodies to longing, love, heartbreak, and secret desires, and tap into musical styles from across the sound spectrum, from flamenco to jazz to punk rock to North African music, anchored by Al Street's lyrical, virtuosic guitar, and Bliss Blood's dreamy, cinematic, and deeply amorous lyrics. www.blissblood.com/index_ev.html
Matt Darriau (Musician)
Saxophonist, clarinetist, ethnic-woodwind specialist and composer, Darriau’s background is in the fertile and eclectic milieu of the New England Conservatory of Music's Third Stream Program of the early 80's. Balkan, Klezmer and Celtic folk idioms have helped shape his esthetic and passion for creating new and unusual music. Besides his long term membership in the Grammy winning Klezmatics, he leads his Gypsy Balkan rhythm quartet, Paradox Trio (with five cd's out), and Ballin’ The Jack, an avant-swing septet (with two cd’s on Knitting Factory records). He is active as composer-musician in numerous New York ensembles, Roberto Rodriguez Septet (Tzadik records), Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars (Piranah records), Disasto Totale (with Yuri Lemeshev of Gogol Bordello), the recently formed Yusef Lateef Project, and the Recycled Waltz Orchestra. He has been awarded grants and commissions from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and is a regular in New York’s downtown jazz and new music scene. www.myspace.com/mattdarriau
Leanne Darling (Violist/Composer)
She has appeared with virtuoso oudist Simon Shaheen in Carnegie Hall, with poets Robert Bly and Clarissa Pinkola-Estes at the Omega Institute, and with the Cedar Lake Ensemble's premiere performance in Chelsea. Her work on Toy Box Theatre’s The Landlord earned her the Best Original Music award from the New York Innovative Theater Awards in 2007. She has worked with choreographers Jodie Gates and Ann Robideaux. A classicaly trained violist and former assistant principal with the Florida West Coast Symphony, Darling now specializes in Arabic music, jazz, blues and composes her own repertoire for solo viola and loops. www.leannedarling.com
Jackie Dodd (Dancer/Embodier)
A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in dance and anthropology, Dodd has worked as a choreographer and movement teacher with underprivileged youth, Parksinson’s Disease patients, and ex-convicts, as well as with trained modern dancers. Recent and ongoing projects include Earth Celebrations, Hudson River Pageant, and the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Art, Nature, and Dance's StrataSpore (a platform for collective knowledge about mushrooms). Her work has been shown at various locations in St. Louis and at the White Wave Dumbo Dance Festival in Brooklyn.
Michelle Dorrance (Dancer)
Katie Down (Musician)
Sound artist, composer, performer and sound designer for theatre, film, video, and dance, Down plays flutes, ukuleles, guitar, didjeridu, and glass harmonica as well as a host of homemade percussion instruments. She performs regularly the infamous ukulele group, The Ukuladies! She has traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and South Africa with different theater companies working as a performer, sound designer, and teacher of voice, improvisation, and clowning. As sound designer, she has created numerous sound scores and original music for Off-Broadway and regional theatrical productions including Palace of the End (Epic Theatre), Cecilia’s Last Tea Party (Passage Theatre), The Rivals (Hudson Valley Shakespeare), Faust (Target Margin), Trouble in Paradise (The Hourglass Group), Innocents (Ripetime), Good Heif (New Georges), Serendib (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and many others.
www.katiedown.com , www.myspace.com/katiedownmusic
www.myspace.com/theukuladies
Kermit Dunkelberg (Actor)
Actor and Managing Director of the Massachusetts-based Pilgrim Theatre Research and Performance Collaborative, co-founded with Kim Mancuso in Poland in 1986, Dunkelberg is also a frequent collaborator with the Ko Festival of Performance in Amherst, MA. He recently completed a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. His articles and reviews on contemporary performance have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Forum, American Theatre, and The Drama Review. He has taught theatre at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wesleyan University, New York University, and Hamilton College.
Lesley Farlow (Dancer)
A choreographer, dancer, actress and vocalist, Farlow has performed with Douglas Dunn, Phyllis Lamhut, Moses Pendleton, Ann Carlson, Marta Renzi, director Ping Chong and Meredith Monk, among others. Her own dance/theater work has been produced in NYC, throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Acting credits include productions Off and Off-Off Broadway and regional theatre. Choreographic credits include plays at the Public Theater, CSC Repertory Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival and Yale Cabaret. She is on the faculty of the Theater and Dance Department at Trinity College.
Alisa Fendley (Dancer/ Embodier)
A dancer/choreographer interested in intermedia and multi-sensory choreography, Fendley explores the intersection of dance, poetry, and film in her own work. Her choreography has been presented at The Raw Festival DanceNOW (NYC), The Rover SoHo, The Hatch Presenting Series, Triskelion Arts Comedy in Dance Festival, and The Tank. She also performs with Racoco Productions, Grounded Aerial, and Rocha Dance Theatre. www.fendleysfingerprints.com
Fast Forward (Musician)
He
makes music with almost anything. He studied music with Robert Ashley and David Behrman and toured extensively as a musician with The Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1994-2009. His culinary concert Feeding Frenzy for 5 musicians, 5 cooks, 5 waiters and the audience has been performed around the world to great acclaim. Forward is an advisor for the UMAMI food & art festival in New York and a regular guest professor at Kunstakademiet Bergen in Norway. He just returned from Hong Kong where he premiered 'Typhoon Shelter" his new work for six Chinese musicians. http://www.mrfastforward.com
Miguel Frasconi (Musician)
A composer and improvisor who uses glass objects, electronics, and "de-evolved" instruments to create music that sounds from a uniquely imagined tradition. His instruments have been called "a beautiful menagerie of pealing contraptions" (Time Out NY), while his music has been called "lyrical and stormy" (New York Times). His recent activities include a new score for choreographer Alonzo King, performances with electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, a newly commissioned work for Gamelan Son of Lion, and concerts with the composers collective Ne(x)tworks. He is currently artist in residence at Harvestworks electronic media studios. Visit www.myspace.com/miguelfrasconi.
Claire Garabedian (Musician, Seattle WA)
An accomplished baroque and modern cellist, Garabedian has performed and recorded with many orchestras and chamber ensembles including Seattle Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque, American Baroque, BostonBaroque, Portland Baroque, and the Portland Symphony. She conducts the community-based “New Baroque Orchestra” and is completing a certificate program to become a music practitioner playing music at the bedside of the sick and dying. She can be heard on the Harmonia Mundi, Centaur, Diaphonica, BMG, Dorian, and Koch International record labels.
Cody Geil (Violinist/Composer/Vocalist)
Cody has been playing violin since she was 3 1/2. Originally from Chicago, IL., she graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. After graduating in 2004, Cody moved to New York City, where she is a freelance violinist (performing and recording) and private teacher. She has played in the Kanye West string section, with Christina Aguilera and tours frequently with her electric string quartet. Recently, Cody has been writing and recording original compositions which can be found on iTunes. Cody's sound is a unique combination of world music with an urban twist. www.codygeil.com
Breanna Gribble (Dancer/Embodier)
Having begun her dance training at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, Gribble continued dancing at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX where she received a B.F.A. in Dance Performance. Now based in New York City, she is the Associate Artistic Director of Mari Meade Dance Collective. She also dances with Caliince Dance, Angelo Dance Project, and Jin-Ju Song-Begin’s project based work.
Arnold Hammerschlag (Trumpet)
Growing up in the Seattle area, Hammerschlag played in jazz bands, symphony orchestras and brass quintets. He attended the Cornish College of the Arts where he studied with Julian Priester, Jerry Granelli, James Knapp, Hadley Caliman and Jay Clayton. In 1994 he moved to New York City where has played with Aaron Alexander, Greg Wall, Alex Harding, Matt Darriau and Patricia Woods. He has played in groups such as the Zagnut Circus Orchestar, Klezmerfest!, the Simcha All-Stars, Ballin' the Jack and Les Fauves. His original music from trumpet, flute, piano and drums is documented on the full length CD Sailing Neptunes Waters, featuring Ethan Iverson (The Bad Plus), Michel Gentile and Owen Howard (available at CDBaby).
Ashley Handel (Dancer/Embodier)
Handel holds a B.F.A. in Dance and Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts and has studied at the London Contemporary Dance School in England. Since moving to New York City, she has worked with choreographers Emily Faulkner (Emily Faulkner/Wind-Up Dances) and Zoe Scofield (zoe | juniper), and Dana Salisbury (Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums). Currently she is an apprentice with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and is performing in Company XIV's 'Snow White.' In addition to being a dancer, she is a writer and singer.
Gillian Harwin (Musician/Vocalist)
A multi-instrumentalist (vocals, upright and electric bass, guitar, ukulele, musical saw, kalimba, kazoo, jaw harp, percussion) and composer from California, Harwin recently relocated to New York. She has performed and taught in the US, Caribbean, North Africa, Europe and Latin America. Appearing regularly in NYC with her own group, an eclectic mix of jazz, blues, funk and Afro-Latin, she also works with the Latin ensemble, Movimiento, Gillian is promoting her debut album, Whiskey Sandwich. www.gillianharwin.com
Kristin Hatleberg (Dancer/Embodier)
A modern dancer and trapeze artist, Hatleberg is a member of Eva Dean Dance and Fly By Night Dance Theater. She freelances for various other artists.
Liadain Speranza Herriott (Dancer/Embodier, Dublin, Ireland)
Classically trained in Monte Carlo and Madrid, Herriott has worked across Europe for companies including Cannes Jeune Ballet, Opera Royal de Wallonie and Opera Ireland. Based in Brussels for four years, she was greatly influenced by her involvement in David Hernandez's (Damaged Goods, ROSAS) Performance Hotel. She works dance into installations with plasticiens, electronic musicians and light artists. A recipient of Irish Arts Council and Dance Ireland awards, she has made and performed work in India (Bangalore Dance Collective), NYC (Dance Theater Workshop), Brussels (www.brxlbravo.be) and Dublin. Her sound/movement based research Suck and Blow Project has recently been selected for residency at www.danscentrumjette.be.
Bohdan Hilash (Musician)
A player of clarinets, Hilash has performed with several of the world's leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra and with some of the leading figures in jazz including Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Holland, and Phil Woods. His diverse performance career encompasses projects which include orchestral, operatic, solo, chamber, jazz, and ethnic music, as well as music for film, theater, and television. Hilash is especially active in the field of contemporary music and has given the premieres of numerous new compositions written for him in performances throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His recordings can be heard on the CRI, Mode, CCNC, Nonesuch, Chandos, Finlandia, CBC, and Koch labels.
Shelley Hirsch (Singer)
An "an unorthodox, extraordinary fusion of vocalist, composer and performance artist " whose work has been presented on 5 continents, Hirsch has staged multimedia solo pieces, performed hundreds of concerts of improvised music with great musicians, can be heard on dozens of CDs, composed music for and appeared in films, and written radioplays. She has been awarded grants by Creative Capital, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts (in music composition, new forms, interarts and performance art categories), Mary Flagler Carey Trust (in the music for theater and recording categories) and New York State Council on the Arts (in electronic music). Visit: www.shelleyhirsch.com
K.J. Holmes (Dancer/Embodier)
An independent dancer, singer, poet and body worker who explores improvisation as process and performance, Holmes works solo and in collaboration with such artists as Simone Forti, Lisa Nelson, Karen Nelson and Scott Smith, Stephanie Maher and Steve Paxton. She teaches, directs and performs at festivals, universities and venues throughout the world including Jerwood Space, London; P.A.R.T.S., Brussels; ImpulsTanz, Vienna; EDDC, Arnhem, among many others. Her influences include Contact Improvisation, Body Mind Centering, Yoga, Authentic Movement, Alexander and Feldenkrais techniques, Martial Dance, world vocal studies and contemporary dance and theater. She is adjunct faculty at New York Universityís Experimental Theater Wing.
Nancy Hughes (Dancer/Embodier)
Holding a BA in Dance from Texas Woman's University, Hughes is an active performer, teacher, and choreographer. She has performed with companies in New York, Texas and Colorado. In Massachusetts, she has worked with Katrina O'Brien and Madelyne Camera. She has been a guest artist at Colorado College and taught dance in Baltimore and at Manitou Springs Arts Academy. She is co-artistic director of Lost Arts Dance based in Jersey City, NJ and a Pilates teacher in Longmeadow, MA.
Margaret Irwin-Brandon (Clavichord)
At the top of her form at an "early keyboard," Margaret Irwin-Brandon has been a featured performer on the organ in festivals in Europe, Mexico, South America and the US. For her New York debut as harpsichordist, she presented J.S. Bach's entire "Well Tempered Clavier" at Weill Recital Hall. She recently concluded a West Coast tour of clavichord recitals. In 1989 she founded and for 15 years directed the Arcadia Players Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble in Western Massachusetts.
Chikako Iwahori (Dancer)
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Iwahori moved to NYC in 1995 to continue her study of tap dance. Since then she has worked with “Feraba African Rhythm Tap” and “Dha Fuzion”. Currently she works with “Manhattan Tap”, Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista's group “Beat the Donkey” as well as Max Pollak’s “RumbaTap” touring the USA & Europe.
Emily Jeffries (Dancer/Embodier)
A New York based dancer and choreographer, and Co-Artistic Director of TrioDance Collective. Jeffries hails from Ohio and obtained her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Kent State University. Her performance credits include: Cirque Du Soleil, Danzare Dance, Judith Jacobs of Urban Bush Women, Barbie Diewald, in the Off-Broadway play Neither Heaven Nor Earth and as a Soloist with BalaSole Dance Company. Her choreography has also been seen throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens at Mark Morris Dance Group, The Ailey Citigroup Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, Triskelion’s Collaborations in Dance Festival, Green Space, and The Cunningham Studio among others. www.triodance.com
Silvie Jensen (Mezzo-soprano)
Singing in many genres from Gregorian chant to opera to contemporary compositions, Jensen has performed with Ash Lawn Opera, Stonington Opera, Riverside Opera, Bronx Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, Mannes Baroque Ensemble, and Friends and Enemies of New Music. She has appeared as a soloist at the Barbican in London with Ornette Coleman, and at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall singing the works of Meredith Monk. She has soloed with Christopher Caines Dance Company, and is a frequent recitalist in New York and elsewhere.
Daisy Jopling (Violin)
Born in London, now living in NYC, Joping spent 12 years living in Vienna and touring the world with the creative string trio “Triology” with whom she recorded four CDS, two with BMG RCA Victor. www.triology.cc. She played solo a concerto in the Royal Albert Hall in London at the age of 14 and before 30,000 people at the opening of the Vienna Festival in May 2005. She participated in writing music for many films, including two in Hollywood, “Spanglish” and “The Road to El Dorado”, and has written the music for a NYC puppet show. She has just released her first solo album, "Key to the Classics" with producer Bojan Dugic. www.daisyjopling.com
Derrik Jordan (Musician)
A recording artist, award-winning singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist (electric violin, guitar, percussion, piano and voice), producer and teacher, Jordan is fluent in everything from Soul to Samba, Jazz to World Music, Pop to Spoken Word. His many self-produced recordings reflect these eclectic interests, but it’s his live performances that truly bring all these forces together. . “Creating live music is a sacred trust. That moment of ecstatic communion when performer and audience become one is one of life’s greatest experiences.” www.derrikjordan.com
Matt Kanelos (Musician)
Singer, songwriter and pianist, Kanelos has a vocal style that calls to mind Paul Simon and Will Oldham, a songwriting concept in the realm of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and a touch at the keyboard reminiscent of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. He appears regularly as a band leader and an accompanist at New York music venues such at the Living Room and Rockwood Music Hall. www.mattkanelos.com
Elise Knudson (Singer/Song Writer/Dancer)
Finding inspiration in the less explored areas between traditional disciplines, Knudson creates work that spans both dance and music. Her work is performed widely and includes commissions by EarSay, Arts & Science Collaborations, the Third Annual Transportable Environment Conference in Toronto and the 10th Annual Kites on Ice Festival in Wisconsin. She has performed at the historic 'WindArt' residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. A member of both Risa Jaroslow’s and Jody Oberfelder’s dance companies, she has also danced for Noemie Lafrance, Yoshiko Chuma, J. Mandle, Christopher Williams and Laura Peterson. Her next album is due out in April
www.airelise.com and http://profile.myspace.com/airelise
Susie Kozawa (Musician, Seattle, WA)
A sound artist, composer and performer, Kozawa works with soundscapes, sound collages and site specific installations in which the gathering of sounds is a primary activity. She explores different acoustic spaces using musical instruments she has made out of found objects, kelp, modified toys and human voice. Her work has been presented at Bumbershoot, New Music Across America Festival, Center on Contemporary Art, Empty Space Theatre, On the Boards, the Goodwill Arts Festival, Soundwork Northwest, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and the Seattle Aquarium. She has had wide ranging collaborations in dance, theater and multimedia projects and has received awards from the Seattle Arts Commission, Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission, and the Ford Foundation. She is a founding member of Aono Jikken Ensemble that specializes in live sound and music for Asian silent films.
Katherine Kramer (Jazz Tap Artist, Miami, FL)
Kramer's has performed with tap masters Honi Coles and Gregory Hines, jammed with Wynton Marsalis, choreographed for Robert Redford in "The Horse Whisperer," and collaborated with many musicians, including Ray Anderson, Virginia Mayhew, Rebecca Mauleon and Michael Spiro. She has toured her one-woman show, "Rhythms of the Heart," from Alaska to South America and is currently working of an evening-length work, "Stop Look Listen," which will premiere at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach, Florida in June 2008 and feature 8 musicians and 5 dancers. www.KatherineKramer.com
La'Aerial (Singer/Songwriter)
La'Aerial has performed at legendary venues including The House of Blues & The Hard Rock Cafe and taught vocal lessons in Los Angeles and New York. She has been featured on MTV's The Score, sung backup on Live! with Regis & Kelly and The Tonight's Show with Jay Leno. Appearing regularly in NYC with an R&B, Soul/Jazz band, La'Aerial is promoting her debut album, “Now Or Never”. www.myspace.com/LaAerial
Barbara Lanciers (Theater)
A company member and the resident choreographer for The Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf in New York City, Lanciers has trained extensively with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company. She performed in the SITI Company production of Hay Fever (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and served as Anne Bogart's assistant on Death and The Ploughman. Lanciers is an Anne Bogart endorsed teacher the Viewpoints training method for theatre practitioners. She holds her MFA in Theatre from Towson University. Barbara is currently living and working in Budapest, Hungary on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Stephanie Larrière (Dancer)
Gina Leishman (Composer and Multi-Instrumentalist)
Leishman has written for the theater, opera, dance, film and concert stage, garnering numerous awards. She leads various ensembles including Kamikaze Ground Crew, Mr. Wau-Wa and In My Skin. Her interest in glass led to the design and building of the glass tiers, a sui generis instrument that has in its turn led to collaborations with numerous artistsincluding Marcus Rojas (tuba), Kenny Wollesen (percussion) and Miguel Frasconi (glass and toy piano). Her recordings can be found on New World Records, Koch Jazz, Busmeat and GCQ Records. www.ginaleishman.com
Ariel Lembeck (Dancer/Embodier)
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Brown is honored to have worked with dance-makers such Stefanie Nelson, Ivy Baldwin, Camille A. Brown, Kay Cummings, Gus Solomons Jr., Douglas Dunn, Meredith Monk, among others. In 2008, she co-produced and performed in Dance Theater Workshop’s CPP Performance Lab. She has performed in various New York theaters, including La Mama, DTW, and Madison Square Garden, as well as site specific settings at the Guggenheim Museum, Sternberg and Rector Park. She currently dances with Mari Meade Dance Collective.
Frank London (Musician)
New-Yorker/Berliner, trumpeter/composer/producer/showman, London leaps with ease between styles, countries, and collaborators., He is featured on over 250 CDs with artists as varied as John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, DJ Dolores and Maurice El Medioni. His compositions and soundtracks for film and theatre stand alongside his Grammy award and the German Record Critics' Award. There's a nod to pop culture with a spot on HBO's Sex and the City. He has taken part in numerous groups- the Klezmatics, Hasidic New Wave, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars, Les Miserables Brass Band, the Klezmer Conservatory Band. www.myspace.com/franklondonmusic
Douglas MacKenzie (Musician)
MacKenzie studied South Indian rhythmic patterning and the mrdangam under the late T. Ranganathan and continued his study under Karaikudi R. Mani, Palghat Raghu, and Ramnad Raghavan, each a renowned drummer in India. He is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship to collect and transcribe the compositions of Ranganathan. His drum, the two-headed mrdangam, is a barrel-shaped instrument made from the wood of the jackfruit tree, capable of producing as many as 15 distinct sounds through the sophisticated technology of its multi-layered drumheads. He also plays the kanjira, a lizard skin tambourine, and the morsing, a metal mouth harp through which he recites drum syllables. He is a guitarist as well. He maintains a practice in Movement Therapy and Bodywork, with offices in New York and Western Massachusetts.
Dana Marie (Dancer)
Trained at School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center and North Carolina School of the Arts, Marie has worked with Mimi Garrard on a dance for film portrait series seen on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Most recently, she participated at the Creative Time’s Democracy in America opening performance event at the Park Avenue Armory. www.danamarie.org
Erin Markey (Dancer/Embodier)
A Brooklyn-based performing artist and writer who creates original music and knows her way around a brass pole. Markey recently returned from the controversial 2008 Sex Worker's Art Show Tour, where she performed excerpts from her newest solo musical, Puppy Love: A Stripper's Tail. Her work was included in the 2007 Lincoln Center Director’s Laboratory and has been produced and showcased in galleries, museums, theatres, salons, clubs, bars, cabaret spaces, parties, and academic conferences such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Joe's Pub, Performance Studies International at Brown University, Baltimore's Walter's Art Museum, Here Arts Space, Baltimore’s Creative Alliance Gallery, The Green Room, Galapagos Art Space, Unisex Salon, 3LD, London's Club Wötever, Mo Pitkin's, and frequently at Dixon Place.
Adam Matta (Vocal Percussionist)
A vocal percussionist and vocal sound effect artist, Matta has performed with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, Bora Yoon, Kenny Muhammad, Sxip Shirey, Shara Worden, and Beatboxer Entertainment, at venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, Madison Square Garden, and Town Hall. His music can be heard on "The L Word: Season II, Sessions," released on Tommy Boy Records. He is a 2007-08 Artist in Residence at Cornell University, where he produces live events and beatboxes for multiple dance classes every week. www.myspace.com/adammatta and www.adammatta.com
Ingrid Matthews (Baroque Violin, Seattle, WA)
Music Director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and one of today's most respected baroque violinists, Matthews won first prize in the prestigious Erwin Bodky International Competition for early music in 1989. She performs extensively as a soloist and guest director with leading ensembles including the New York Collegium (Manhattan), Musica Angelica (Los Angeles), New Trinity Baroque (Atlanta), the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and many others. She has recorded eight solo CDs and dozens of chamber music collaborations.
Amy Mazzonna (Irish Step Dancer)
Mazzonna received her intensive Irish dance training at the Griffith Academy in Hartford, CT, where she began studying in 1991. She has excelled in regional, national, and international competitions, traveling to Killarney, Ireland to take part in the 2003 World Championships. Just back from a six-month tour with the hit show Magic of Ireland—in which she performed the lead role—she has danced professionally in Canada, the U.S., Germany, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. She is a member of the Griffith Celtic Dance Company.
Will McEvoy (Double Bassist, Composer)
As a performer McEvoy has played in many settings from contemporary jazz and classical orchestras to improvised duets with dancers. In New York City, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, and numerous house parties, artist lofts and small clubs. What sets McEvoy apart from other bassists of his generation is his focus on solo repertoire and performance practice, with particular influence from Dadaism, Surrealism, and modernist composition. His current projects include Mutasm, a revolving cast that performs extended works, duets with dancer Hadar Ahuvia, the New York Jazz Band, and other free lancing performances.
Camerin Allgood McKinnon (Dancer/Embodier, Washington, D.C.)
McKinnon has a special interest in multi-sensory experiences inspired by a close relationship with her brother who is both blind and mildly autistic. She received her BFA in Performance and Choreography from University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May 2007. Now based in Washington D.C., she works at Dance Place and Mason/Rhynes Productions and apprenticing with Gesel Mason Performance Projects. She enjoys teaching all ages and is particularly interested in special populations.
Kenneth Metzker (Percussionist, Miami, FL)
Metzker has performed with Rebeca Mauleon, Michael Spiro, Jimmy Branley. His work has taken him to Cuba, Brazil, Europe, and the Caribbean. In Brazil, he appeared with Cia. Vata in Fortaleza and with Dona Zefinha in Pernambuco at Carnaval '05. He freelances in Miami, recording and playing original music with the world fusion group Lanzallamas Monofonica. Over the past 3 years, he has collaborated and performed with jazz tap artist and choreographer, Katherine Kramer, in numerous settings, including the Soul to Sole Festival in Austin, TX, and festivals in Brazil, Montana, New York and Miami.
Camila Meza (Jazz Singer, Guitarist, Composer)
Chilean jazz singer and guitarist, Meza blends jazz harmonies and feel with diverse rhythms from Latin America. Critics have described her music as "breathtakingly beautiful". At the young age of 24, she has already recorded two albums for the Chilean Record Label Vertice Records and performed widely in South America, Europe and United States. Camila Meza moved to New York in 2009 and has become a regular artist at New York City Jazz clubs such as Tutuma Social Club, Bar Next Door, Caffe Vivaldi, Shrine, Puppet's Jazz Bar, and Fat Cat. www.camilameza.com
Amy Mielke (Embodier)
An actor for TV and film, voice talent and award-winning mixed media artist, Amy recently retired at age 38 from a 17-year stint in business communications to move to an arts-inspired community in Hartford. "I'm through with being on the hamster-wheel, unless it's part of my artwork.' Amy hopes to inspire others to follow their true course, by collaborating in artistic ventures and coordinating art shows. She resides at Hartford ArtSpace.
Mari Meade Montoya (Dancer)
Meade, a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts, started Mari Meade Dance Collective (MMDC) in 2009 after receiving the Kenan Fellowship at Lincoln Center Institute. MMDC has performed in NYC at Clark Theatre at Lincoln Center, Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dumbo Dance Fest, The Tank, Green Space, The Rover, and, in NC, at the Asheville Fringe Festival. The company received a Brooklyn Arts Council grant for their next project, a full evening at St. Cecilia's. She also dances with Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums.
Stephan Moore (Music)
A composer, performer, audio artist, sound designer and curator, Moore is based in Brooklyn and Providence. His creative work currently manifests as electronic studio compositions, improvised solo performances, sound installation works, scores and sound designs for collaborative performance pieces, and sound designs for unusual circumstances. Evidence, his long-standing project with Scott Smallwood, has performed widely and released several recordings over the past decade. He has created custom music software for a number of composers and artists, and has taught workshops and numerous college-level courses in composition, programming, sound art and electronic music. He curates the annual Floating Points Festival at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, where he also serves on the Art Advisory Board. From late 2004 to mid-2010, he performed over 250 concerts with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, serving as their sound engineer and music coordinator, and as a touring musician. www.oddnoise.com
Carol Morgan (Trumpet)
A jazz trumpeter originally from Texas, Morgan is a composer, author and college professor. A Juilliard graduate and now in Manhattan, her discography includes four CD's as a leader. Her two most recent recordings are available for purchase at her label’s website www.bluebamboomusic.com. Recent performing venues include Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center, NYC), Small's Jazz Club (NYC), The 55 Bar (NYC), Blues Alley (DC), the Playboy Jazz Festival (The Hollywood Bowl, LA), and The Lionel Hampton Jazz Club (Paris).
Rachel Mundy (Shakuhachi/Japanese Bamboo Flute)
Rachel Mundy is an artist and music historian living in Manhattan. A player of the shakuhachi, or Japanese bamboo flute, she has a Master's degree in musicology from the Hartt School. She has taught at the Hartt School, the University of Washington, and New York University. She recently performed at the Sakura Matsuri Festival in Brooklyn.
Dafna Naphtali (Music)
A
singer/instrumentalist/electronic-musician from an eclectic musical background (jazz, classical, rock and near-eastern music), Naphtali composes/performs experimental, interactive electro-acoustic music using her custom Max/MSP programming for sound processing of voice and other instruments, and also interprets the work of other composers. With her large variety of projects with well regarded musicians in the US, Europe and India, she has received awards from NYFA, NYSCA, Franklin Furnace, American Composers Forum and American Music Center, and recorded several CDs, including “What is it Like to be a Bat?” a digital punk trio with Kitty Brazelton (on Tzadik). www.dafna.info
KT Niehoff (Dancer/Embodier, Seattle, WA)
Niehoff is the Artistic Director of Seattle’s Lingo Dancetheater. Established in 1996, Lingo is an interdisciplinary performing ensemble, presenting adventurous and athletic works of dancetheater around the world. Most notable engagements include performances in Canada, Japan, Ecuador, Cuba, at UMass Amherst, TN's Vanderbilt University, MS's Delta State University, Minneapolis' Southern Theater, Seattle's On the Boards, and the west coast Bagnolet Platform. The company has received support from institutions such as Meet the Composer/Composer/Choreographer Project, Arts International/The Fund, and The National Dance Project. www.lingodance.com
Sari Nordman (Dancer/Embodier)
A native of Finland, Nordman came to the US in 1993 to study dance. After receiving her certificate in dance from Nikolais & Louis Dance Lab. in 1995, she began presenting her choreography in concerts of her own production, as well as in festivals and events in the US and Finland. She has danced with choreographers Douglas Dunn, Naomi Goldberg Haas, Susan Rethorst and Melinda Ring. In 2011, she will perform at The Kitchen, at Yale, and in S. Korea as a member of Dean Moss' company. In February, her own work will be presented at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She holds an M.F.A. degree in modern dance from NYU / Tisch School of the Arts. www.myspace.com/sarinordman.
Colm O'Hara (Trombone, Dublin, Ireland)
O’Hara studied Trombone at the Music Hochschule Luzern and The Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he received an honours degree in Music Performance. He has performed at international festivals such as the North Sea and Copenhagen jazz festivals. In 2007, he toured China with The European Youth Jazz Orchestra. he is currently developing the concept of spontaneous composition in groups such as "The Troupe" and "Unruly Behaviour."
Ulrike Ottinger (Text)
A German artist whose challenging films, staged works, texts and photographs have won international acclaim, Ottinger’s work was honored in 2004 by retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Tate Modern in London and Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofia. Her newest artist-book “Ulrike Ottinger Image Archive” is about to appear.
Lisa Parrott (Musician/ Composer)
Originally from Australia, composer & woodwind player Parrott moved to New York in 1993 to study with saxophonists/composers Steve Coleman and Lee Konitz. A leader and side-person in NYC, her baritone saxophone playing placed 5th in the 69th Annual Downbeat Readers Poll. She has performed worldwide and at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Blue Note Jazz Club, and with Dave Brubeck, Nancy Wilson, Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops, Diane Schuur, Gregory Hines, Rachel Z, Cindy Blackman, Gunther Schuller & Jason Linder’s Big Band. She is a member of DIVA Jazz Orchestra, leads her own trio, co-leads a quartet with her sister Nicki Parrott, and freelances in New York. www.lisaparrott.com
Susan Pereira(vocalist, percussionist)
Leader of the acclaimed Brazilian jazz group Sabor Brasil, co-founded with drummer Vanderlei Pereira, Susan Pereira has appeared at a variety of notable festivals and clubs including the Savannah Jazz Festival, the Hartford Jazz Festival, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), B.B. Kings, Iridium, Birdland, Zinc Bar and the 55 Bar. Apart from Sabor Brasil, Susan has performed as a vocalist and/or percussionist with many top names in Brazilian jazz as well as in traditional samba percussion ensembles, both in the U.S. and Brazil, at venues such as the Blue Note, the Kennedy Center, the Syracuse Jazz Festival, the Village Gate and Rio de Janeiro’s Armazén Digital Leblon and Sambodromo. Susan Pereira and Sabor Brasil’s recently released CD is Tudo Azul (Riony Records). http://susanpereira.com
Sarah Pillow (Vocalist)
Vocalist/lyric coloratura soprano Sarah Pillow is equally at home in jazz and classical repertoire. Her jazz festival appearances include the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland; her work as a classical musician spans from Monteverdi to Mozart to John Cage. Sarah performs regularly with her jazz trio, her early music ensemble "Galileo's Daughters", and as a soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S. www.buckyballmusic.com
David Pleasant (Musician)
A multi-faceted percussion virtuoso, rhythm effects vocalist and lecturer, Pleasant specializes in African-American traditions. As a Fulbright Senior Specialist, he presents his work at universities and institutions worldwide. A composer/performer and soloist, he has worked with artists such as: Audra McDonald, Regina Taylor, Graciela Daniele, Micheal John La Chiusa, Jonathan Tunic, Wynton Marsalis, Erykah Badu. Gullah/Geechee culture has influenced his work which has been featured from Broadway to television to dance. He has collaborated with major choreographers and companies such as Jawole Zollar (Urban Bush Women), Ron Brown, Dianne McIntyre, Jane Comfort, Padro Harris, Marlise Yearby, Abdel Salaam (Forces of Nature), Batoto Yetu, Step Afrika! He has been a featured performer and/or consultant for: Nightline; Disney Channel; Reading Rainbow (PBS); ABC Evening News; Brave New World (ABC) and numerous PBS showings. www.DavidPleasant1.com
Monya Pletsch (Audio Artist)
An experimental sound artist from Switzerland, Pletsch invented the platform for "zooterrain" in Hamburg, coordinates dorkbot.swiss meetings and organizes "tune(in) festival" Zurich for Free 103.9. In New York, she has worked at Harvestworks and Chelsea Art Museum and with Ikue Mori, Aki Onda, Shelley Hirsch, Kenta, dj Olive, Okkyung Lee, Martin Baumgartner, Joke Lanz, Hans Joachim Pfammatter, Roli Von Flue, and Jasch.
Max Pollak (Musician/Dancer)
Internationally traveled musician/dancer Max Pollak, Austrian by birth, has performed and taught all over the world (including Cuba) with many famous artists like Ray Brown and Danilo Perez, his group RumbaTap has been featured at the Joyce Theater and Jacob's Pillow; his style has been incorporated into Cuban folklore by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cubas legendary Rumba group. www.rumbatap.com
Sara Procopio (Dancer/Embodier)
Procopio is a Brooklyn-based artist and graduate of Hollins University where she earned both her undergraduate and master's degrees in dance. She is a founding and current member of Shen Wei Dance Arts who teaches classes and workshops throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her recent U.S. teaching engagements include Hollins University, the American Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, Peridance Capezio Center, Marymount Manhattan College, University of the Arts and the Paolo Grassi School in Milan.
Jonathan Melville Pratt (Musician)
Pratt is a singer, composer, percussionist, pianist, actor, dancer, director, producer, and curator. As a dancer, he has worked with such choreographers as Jennifer Nugent, Netta Pulvemacher, Andrea Woods, David Dorfmann, and Lisa Race. His has composed and performed music for choreographers Mimi Garrard Dance Company, Jennifer Nugent, Jonah Bokaer and also composed music for theater works premiering at NYC’s Public Theater and Ireland’s Abbey Theatre. Recently commissioned to compose music for choreographer Larry Keigwan, Pratt is also musical directing his own original score for a 10-play cycle, Euripides The Greeks, directed by Brian Mertes, and is hard at work on his solo project, The Dive. www.thedivemusic.com
Claudia Rahardjanoto (Dancer)
Having performed in tap dance shows throughout Europe (Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium) and been on tour with "Magic of the Dance", "Dancing Feet" and "Dancing On Common Ground", Rahardjanoto moved to New York City in 2003. Since then, she has danced alongside Dianne 'Lady Di' Walker and Mable Lee, Michelle Dorrance, Andrew Nemr, Max Pollak, Michael Minery, Pascal Hulin, and many others. She is currently working with Andrew J. Nemr's CPD Plus, Roxane Butterfly's WORLDBEATS, Jared Grimes' TADAH and Susan Hebach's TAP COLLECTIVE.
Val Ramos (Flamenco Guitar)
Over the past 21 years, Ramos has gained international reputation as one of the premier Flamenco guitarists in the United States. He has performed in the United States, Spain, and Puerto Rico and has recorded and released three albums of original Flamenco guitar and ensemble compositions. Hailed as "the best of classical Flamenco brought to modern standards" (Rootsworld.com) and as "a hidden treasure of Flamenco in the Americas...superb musicianship..." (Flamenco Connection), Val toured Sapin with his ensemble (Val Ramos Flamenco Ensemble) in July 2005 under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy in Spain. For more, visit www.valramosflamenco.com
Malina Rauschenfels (Musician)
Cellist and composer Rauschenfels attended the Eastman School of Music and Juillard. At Juilliard she began collaborating with and being inspired by dancers. She has written for or worked with Misnomer Dance Theater, Laura Flowers, Elisabeth Motley, Luke Wiley, Human Kinetics Movement Theater and Jody Oberfelder, among others. Her compositions have been performed at Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie's Weill Hall. Her choreography has been performed at the Zenon showcase, the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, and City Center Studios in NY.
Julia Ritter (Dancer/Embodier)
Deputy Chair and Undergraduate Director for the Department of Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Ritter has been awarded three Fulbright Awards by the United States Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs for her creative research abroad. She has presented her work in Russia, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Canada, and the Czech Republic. She has received support from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The American Music Center, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Puffin Foundation and The New Jersey State Council on the Arts (2004 Choreographic Fellowship for artistic excellence). www.performancegroup.org
Pedro Rodriguez (Guitar)
Guitarist, arranger, composer and teacher, Rodriguez’ style is deeply rooted in the blues, but his love for jazz is open to many styles. He studied at Universidad Católica de Chile and Freie Universität in Germany, and continued with a Masters in Jazz from William Paterson University. He has performed with guitar masters: Gene Bertoncini and Paul Meyers, amongst others from the New York Jazz circuit. www.myspace.com/pedrorodriguezmusic
Neil B. Rolnick (Composer/ Musician)
A pioneer in the use of computers in performance beginning in the late 1970s, Rolnick includes unexpected and unusual combinations of materials and media in his music. He has performed around the world, and his music appears on 15 CD’s. Though much of his work has been in areas which connect music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of “experimental” music, his music has always been highly melodic and accessible. Rolnick teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, where he was founding director of the iEAR Studios. www.neilrolnick.com www.youtube.com/neilrolnick
Raul Rothblatt (Musician)
Classically trained cellist, Raul Rothblatt performs with several groups. He plays Hungarian folk music with Eletfa and West African music with Kakande. He is the composer/bandleader/African fiddler of Dallam-Dougou, which combines West African melodies and Hungarian grooves. He is co-founder of Jumbie Records Artist Management, a world musiclabel that is a partnership of similarly diverse bandleaders/arts managers. The nyenyeru, the one-string violin featured at Dark Dining, comes from the Fulani (or Peul) people of Guinea, West Africa. Its body is made of gourd, its face is a lizard skin, and both the bow and the string are made of horsehair. For more, visit www.JumbieRecords.com.
Kamala Sankaram (Musician)
Musician, composer, vocalist, Sankaram has collaborated with the Philip Glass Ensemble, the Wooster Group, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, eighth blackbird, Phil Kline, David T. Little, Corey Dargel, Taylor Ho Bynum, the Dogs of Desire, and Anti-Social Music, among others. She can be heard on numerous recordings. Her own compositions have been performed at American Opera Projects “Opera Grows in Brooklyn” series, at HERE Arts Center, the Stone, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Santa Fe New Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Kurba Center: Kiev, and were featured on the 2009 21C Liederabend. Her original, full-length, multi-media steampunk singspiel, "Miranda" premieres at HERE Arts Center in January 2012.www.kamalasankaram.com
Melanie Sroka (Vocalist/Multi-Instrumentalist )
Sroka has worked with such varied projects as Shokazoba Afrobeat Battalion, Soul Diva Betty Harris of New Orleans, and The Black Rebels Reggae band. She also performs her own originals and jazz standards with hergroup Skatmandu. For more, visit www.myspace.com/melodiemusique.
Despina Sophia Stamos (Dancer/Embodier)
A dancer/choreographer, Stamos’ work has been presented in New York City at such venues as Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, PS1, and aboard in Greece, Puerto Rico, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Her interest in site-specific work began in 1998 when invited to participate in Julie Atlas Muz' 24 Hours on the Staten Island Ferry. Since then, she has performed and organized events in a plethora of locations including Times Square, the NYC subways, piers, parks and gardens. As a dancer she has worked with Chen and Dancers, Hikari Baba and Dancers, Anahi Galante Dance Theater and the National Caravan Theater. She is currently dancing withBlum Dance Theater, Vanessa Walters, the Daisy Spurs and the MDC, as well as working on product X 4.0 with the modern dance awareness society. http://www.tmdas.org
Ashni Sunder (Dancer) Sunder studied at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, New York University, Dance New Amsterdam, and West African song and dance at various gyms in Harlem. She has performed with Melinda Lee, DanceTheater Etc, LoveSpaceMusic- Alter-Native Movement, POW and Monstah Black! She is a core member of DUNDERBELLY.
Mia Theodoratus (Harp)
Harpist Mia Theodoratus fuses North Indian Classical, free improv, Classical technique with a bit of rock and roll glitz. She has played at the Herod Atticus in Athens, the Glamour Club in Shanghai, Red Cat In LA, just about every stage in NYC and many places in between. Past and present groups/artists include the Citizen's Band, Adam Dugas, Baikida Carrol, Neuvo Butoh Harpa, Leona Naess, Roscoe Mitchelle, Charlie Hayden and Casey Spooner.
Gwendolyn Toth (Clavichord)
Director and founder of New York City's period instrument ensemble, ARTEK, Toth has also conducted at Sadler's Wells Theater in London with the Mark Morris Dance Group; the Skylight Theater in Milwaukee; Kaye Playhouse, Merkin Hall, and BAM in New York City, and for the German Radio Broadcasting system. A performer of early keyboard instruments, she has performed in early music festivals and on radio throughout the United States and Europe. Her discography includes a CDof Bach's Goldberg Variations on the lautenwerk, and a CD of organ works by Heinrich Scheidemann. In contemporary music, Ms. Toth has worked with John Cage, Rhys Chatham, Petr Kotik, Dave Soldier, Louis Andriessen, and Elliot Sharp at BAM Next Wave Festival, The Kitchen, Bang on a Can Festival, Cage Nachttage in Köln, and others. www.artekearlymusic.org
Elijah Tucker (Guitar, Voice, Drums, Mandolin)
With roots in DC, Philly and New York, Tucker plays and sings regularly. In addition to his work as a bandleader, he has worked with J Mascis, Wah!, Krishna Das, Amii LeGendre, UpRiverDownTown Dance Company, Danica Dora, Matt Jones, The Nields, Tracy Grammer, Billy Jonas, Al Petteway and Amy White, George Clinton, The Slip, Brad Meldau, Joe Lovano, Chris Parrello, Pete Levin, Dave Veslocki, Mark Wixom, Akie Bermiss, Gregg Glassman, John Esposito and others. In 2009 he released his first solo record, “Generous Music," whose fans include Phish lyricist Tom Marshall. www.elijahtucker.com
Tony Vacca (Musician)
An innovative American percussionist best known for his work on the giant xylophones (balafon) of West Africa, Vacca has made a habit of pushing the already adventurous conventions of World Music into new territory, both as a soloist and as the leader of his World Rhythms Ensemble. He has recorded and/or performed with pop icon Sting, Senegalese Afro-pop star Baaba Maal, Jazz trumpeter and World Music legend Don Cherry, poet Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, Senegalese Hip-Hop stars Gokh-bi System, and Massamba Diop, Senegalese master of the tama or talking drum. www.tonyvacca.com
Jennifer Walshe (Musician)
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Walshe is a composer, vocalist and improviser. Her work is concerned with sound as a living, breathing organism, the explosion of gesture and movement into theatre, the intersection of text, image and noise. Her works have been performed and broadcast all over world and awarded with many prizes. From 2006 to 2008 she was composer-in-residence in South Dublin County for In Context 3. In 2007 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York. During 2004-2005 she lived in Berlin as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm.
Stefanie Weber (Dancer)
Artistic director of Creatures of Habitat, Weber is a grassroots multi-media artist specializing in rhythm tap dance. A drummer, singer, costume maker, and poet, she often incorporates sound and spoken word in her performances. Her work has been seen at Jacob's Pillow, La MaMa, New York Dance Center, The Audubon Society, DanceSpace Center, Dance New Amsterdam, WhiteWave, Williamsburg Art Nexus, Topaz Arts, Bowery Poetry Club and various festivals. She is a faculty artist for CATA: Community Access to the Arts, where her work was featured in the documentary Rhythm & Hues.
Ophra Wolf (Dancer/Embodier)
Choreographer, dancer, actress, and multimedia artist, Wolf is the founder and artistic director of Pursue the Pulse Media Arts Collective with whom she has created and performed work in NYC, London, Amsterdam, Sao Paolo, Helsinki, Brussels, and Gent. In Israel she worked with Rina Sheinfeld Dance Theatre, in London with Ground Level Theatre Company and Company 333, and in New York with NACLTheatre and the FireFly Collective. When she's not dancing, she spends her time helping people find more ease, comfort and pleasure in their bodies through her Brooklyn-based business, Force and Flow Integrated Bodywork. www.forceandflow.com
Josephine Yeh (Dancer/Embodier)
Yeh's dance practice is informed by the movement principles of ballet, Limon, Graham, Cunningham, Pilates, and physical therapy. She has danced for Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch, Andrea Haenggi, and Chih-Chun Huang.
Bora Yoon (Musician)
A multi-instrumentalist, composer and performer, Yoon creates architectural soundscapes from everyday found objects, chamber instruments and digital devices. Featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal for her musical innovations, she explores where sound connects to the subliminal through the timbre languages of the voice, violin, water, ancient Tibetan singing bowls, cell phones, music boxes, glockenspiel, guitar, found sounds, and electronics. Using a sound designer’s approach to performance composition that is steered by a penchant for a song, she can ably tune to sizzling bacon fat and harmonize to the whir of a G5, creating music that plays with sensory associations and spatial idiosyncrasies, with much spontaneity and little regard to the classifying genres of instrumentation. www.myspace.com/borayoon, www.borayoon.com
Sarah Young (Dancer/Embodier)
Young has performed the works of choreographers such as Hilary Easton, Steven Koplowitz, Ann Robideaux and Alexx Shilling, and toured with David Dorfman’s Underground. She earned her BFA at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study indigenous dance in Zimbabwe. In 2002, Young founded Flying Art, an international exchange of art among youth (www.flyingart.net). The most recent exchange involved youth from rural Morocco, where Young worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2008-10. She currently performs with the Treehouse Shakers, bringing modern dance and storytelling to young audiences, Dana Salisbury’s Dark Dining Projects and Unseen Dances.
Yukari (Flute)
An emerging flutist and composer based in New York City, Yukari has performed at top notch venues such as Carnegie Hall, Blue Note, Tribeca film festival, Tokyo Jazz festival. Her leader album ”Dreams” was recorded with Ben Monder, Thomas Morgan, Greg Osby and Greg Hutchinson and released from Inner Circle Music in 2010. She has toured US, EU, Japan and Korea. Yukari is a finalist of NFA Jazz Flute Master class, a cultural ambassador of Japan foundation and a Pearl Flute clinician. She studied Jazz at Manhattan School of Music. www.yukariflute.com
Mark “Moti” Zemelman (Dancer/Embodier)
A performer and teacher of Contact Improvisation, Zemelman’s recent engagements include Earthdance (USA), DanceBase (Edinburgh), Circuit-Est (Montreal), Zodiak Festival (Helsinki), Villa Sumaya (Guatemala), and Centro de Investigación Coreográfica (Mexico City). Among his respected teachers are: Nancy Stark Smith, Andrew Harwood, Ruth Zaporah, Danny Lepkoff, Martin Keogh, and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.An original member of Wire Monkey Dance, he currently dances with the Silver Swimmers, plays vocal-electronic music, is a board member at Earthdance Retreat Center in Massachusetts, practices yoga, Action Theater, stilt-walking, modern dance, and clowning. He also designs and moderates the new international Contact Improv resource website, www.contactimprov.com.
Elizabeth Zimmer (Actor)
Writer and former Senior Dance Editor at The Village Voice, Zimmer has performed in the work of Christopher Williams, Joshua Fried, Lynn Marie Ruse, and the Instant Shakespeare Company.