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Summer MELT 2009 faculty bios
Irene Dowd is currently on the dance faculty of the Juilliard School and the Canada’s National Ballet School, as well as the Hollins University/ADF MFA program in dance. Author of Taking Root to Fly, she has been teaching dance and kinesthetic anatomy for 40 years. Irene has choreographed for Peggy Baker, Margie Gillis and other solo dancers. Her work has been taught in schools and dance companies across the US and Canada.
Ori Flomin’s work has been seen in New York at Dance Theater Workshop’s Split Stream, Fresh Tracks and the Barnard project, Movement Research at Judson church, DanceMopolitan at Joe’s pub and internationally in Austria, Japan and Israel. He is currently the assistant to the artistic director of Stephen Petronio Company, for which he danced from 1991-1999. He also had the pleasure of dancing in the works of Neil Greenberg, Molissa Fenley, Kevin Wynn, Michael Clark and Maria Hassabi, among others.
He has been teaching as a guest artist at ROSAS and P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), Sasha Waltz Company (Berlin), ImpulsTanz (Vienna), The Place (London), National Ballet of Marseille (Marseille), SEAD (Salzburg), Uvgrape Festival (Sicily), as well as DNA and Movement Research in New York City.Neil Greenberg: Merce Cunningham Dance Company ‘79-86; Dance By Neil Greenberg ‘86 – present; Dance faculty – UC Riverside (currently), Purchase College and Sarah Lawrence College (previously); Dance Curator, The Kitchen ‘95-99; Fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, NYFA, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, among other awards; “Bessie” Award for Not-About-AIDS-Dance (‘94); most recent project: Really Queer Dance With Harps, which premiered at DTW in ‘08, and continues his investigation into the nature of meaning-making. For more information: www.neilgreenberg.org.
Miguel Gutierrez is a Brooklyn based artist who makes dance/performance pieces, different kinds of music, and poems. He creates group work in collaboration with dancers, visual and music artists as the director of Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, and he also makes solos. His work has been presented throughout the world and has received support from several foundations. He loves teaching and encouraging people to do their thing. www.miguelgutierrez.org
K.J. Holmes is an independent dance artist exploring improvisation as process and performance since 1981. Her influences include Contact Improvisation, BMC®, Yoga, Authentic Movement, Release techniques, Martial Dance, world vocal studies, and contemporary dance and theater. She is currently a student of the Sanford Meisner technique at the William Esper Studio. She teaches and performs throughout the world and has collaborated with Simone Forti, Image Lab and Steve Paxton, among many others. K.J. is a 1999 graduate of the School for Body-Mind Centering® and has a private practice in Dynamic Alignment and Re-integration in Brooklyn, N.Y. where she lives. She is adjunct faculty at NYU/Experimental Theater Wing, as well as continuing to teach through Movement Research.
Ishmael Houston-Jones’ improvised dance and language work has been performed in NYC, across the US, in Europe, Australia and Latin America. He has taught many movement, improvisation and writing workshops, notably at the EDDC (The Netherlands), American Dance Festival, Seattle Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation (SFADI) and at the San Francisco Festival of Improvisation. More info at http://ishmaelhj.com.
Daniel Lepkoff considers movement as an ever-present living dialogue with our environment. His work explores, in detail, the form and composition in these interactions. He is known for his commitment to this research as a way of composing performance works and as a body of knowledge about how to move and live in the world.
Joe Levasseur has worked closely on lighting and production with many contemporary dance artists, including John Jasperse, RoseAnne Spradlin, Sarah Michelson, David Dorfman, Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Ashleigh Leite, Jennifer Monson, LeeSaar the Company, Anna Sperber, Megan Sprenger, Christopher Williams, and Pavel Zustiak. Levasseur received a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for his body of work for the 2007-08 season.
Barbara Mahler, a graduate of Hunter College, and formerly of the Susan Klein and Barbara Mahler School of Dance, has been involved in the movement arts for 30 plus years, as a choreographer, performer, and teacher. A master teacher in Klein Technique, she brings to her classes the experience and depth of knowledge that accompanies the re-training and re-education of her own body. She has been a Movement Research Artist-in-Residence twice, has an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is a movement consultant at Hunter College, and is on the Advisory Council of the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She maintains a private practice in Zero Balancing and other hands-on healing modalities. Her teaching and choreography have traveled worldwide. www.barbaramahler.com
Juliette Mapp is a dancer, teacher and choreographer based in NYC. Juliette has worked with many choreographers including John Jasperse (with whom she received a “Bessie” for outstanding performance), Vicky Shick, Deborah Hay, Jennifer Monson, Iréne Hultman, Neil Greenberg and Stephanie Skura. Juliette has taught and performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. She has been on the faculty of The George Washington University, Hunter College and Fordham University. Juliette was a 2004-05 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence. She received a “Bessie” last year for her evening-length piece Anna, Ikea, and I.
Yvonne Meier, originally from Zurich, Switzerland, has been living, making dances and teaching in NYC, since 1979. Her 25-year dedication to improvisation has been strongly informed by Releasing Technique and Authentic Movement, culminating in the creation of her own “Score Technique.” In 1995 she received a “Bessie Award” for her audience interactive piece “The Shining.” She has taught and performed throughout the US and Europe, and is currently an Artist-In-Residence at Movement Research.
Sarah Michelson coming soon
Jennifer Monson is the artistic director of iLAND – interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance. Her projects iMAP/Ridgewood Reservoir and BIRD BRAIN are based in the investigation of the relationship between environment and embodied practice. She is currently teaching at the Dance
Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as part of an initiative to bring environmental issues to the forefront of the university and the community at large.Jeremy Nelson coming soon
Jennifer Nugent is a performer, teacher, and choreographer. She was a member of David Dorfman Dance from 1999-2007, receiving a “Bessie” in 2006 for her performing work with the company. In NY Jennifer has danced with Daniel Lepkoff, Nina Winthrop, Lisa Race, Yin Mei, Doug Elkins, Bill Young, and Colleen Thomas. She continuously collaborates with Paul Matteson and is currently working with Martha Clarke. Jennifer has taught and performed at festivals and universities throughout the United States, Korea, Russia, and Vietnam.
Tere O’Connor has been making dances since 1982 and has created over thirty works for his company. The company has performed throughout the US and in Europe, South America and Canada. O’Connor has created numerous commissioned works for dance companies around the world, among these have been solo work for Mikhail Baryshnikov and works for the Lyons Opera Ballet among numerous others. O'Connor is a 1993 Guggenheim Fellow. He is a 2009 recipient of Map Fund award and Creative Capital grant. He is the recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art Award, National Dance Project Awards, and Arts International’s DNA Project Award. He has received three "Bessie’s” - for Heaven Up North (1988), for Sustained Achievement (1999) and most recently for Frozen Mommy (2005). He is also a recipient of repeated grants from many other funding organizations and foundations.
O’Connor was recently appointed full professor at University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. He lives in there one semester a year and spends the rest of his time working with his company and on various other research aspects of his choreography. He is an active participant in the New York dance community mentoring young artists, teaching, writing, curating and volunteering in various capacities. In 2008-09 O’Connor’s company continues touring the recent work RAMMED EARTH around the U.S., including in New York at the Baryshnikov Art Center. They will premiere a new work at Dance Theater Workshop in November of 2009.Susan Rethorst has been making dances since 1977. She has just received her second 'Bessie' for 208 East Broadway, Part 2: Suitcase Dreams. Rethorst has been a teacher of choreography since about 1988. Currently she divides her time between making work, teaching and writing on choreography.
Ann Rodiger is the founder and director of the Balance Arts Center and the Alexander Technique Teacher Training Course. She has extensive experience and training in dance, movement analysis and observation, movement fundamentals and awareness, and in Labanotation. Ms. Rodiger has taught in several major universities including Illinois-Champaign, Hawaii-Manoa, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Currently she teaches the BAC Teacher Training Course and the Balance Arts Center Floor Class which she developed by combining her knowledge and experience of over 25 years with the Alexander Technique, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Feldenkrais, Yoga and various dance techniques. She also has a private practice in New York City and works regularly with dancers and professional singers of all styles. Outside of New York, she teaches annually in Berlin and offers various workshops within the U.S. Ms. Rodiger graduated from the Urbana Center for the Alexander Technique in 1982. She also holds a Masters Degree in Dance from the Ohio State University and a B.S. in Dance from the Universtiy of Oregon.Shelley Senter has been involved with experimental dance for more than 25 years, touring throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Russia as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. She has been critically recognized and awarded for her distinct approach to movement, both as an independent artist, and as a collaborator with many distinguished artists, and is an official transmitter of the seminal work of influential artists such as Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer. A renowned teacher of the Alexander Technique, her work is known for its influence in multiple artistic disciplines around the globe.
Vicky Shick, an independent dancer and choreographer, has been involved in the NYC dance community since the late 70s. A member of the Trisha Brown Company for 6 years, she has also worked with many other NY-based choreographers. She received “Bessies” for performance (1985) and choreography (2003), has shown her own work since the mid-80s and teaches regularly in the US and Europe. This year she is a Guggenheim Fellow and presented a new piece at Danspace Project in April.
Hailed by Ms. Magazine’s end of the century issue as “a choreographer making great leaps forward into the 21st century” Donna Uchizono is the “Bessie” award winning Artistic Director of Donna Uchizono Company. A popular teacher, Uchizono has taught classes and workshops and toured her company extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America.