melt summer 2003 archives

>info

melt summer 2003 faculty bios

note: bios for David Beadle, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and Sara Shelton Mann temporarily missing from this list

Irene Dowd is on the faculty of the Julliard School and Canada’s National Ballet School. Author of Taking Root to Fly, she has maintained her own studio and private practice for over 30 years in NYC. Irene choreographs for Peggy Baker, Margie Gillis and other solo dancers. Her work has been taught in schools and dance companies across the US and Canada.

Doug Elkins began his career in dance as a B-Boy, before graduating from SUNY-Purchase. He is a “Bessie” Award winner and the recipient of significant choreographic commissions and awards. Doug has taught and performed throughout N. America, the UK, Europe, Asia and Brazil, and has created original work for numerous dance companies. He has been the artistic director of Doug Elkins Dance Company since ‘88.

Neil Greenberg has been making dances since ‘79, receiving fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, NYFA & the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts and a “Bessie” Award for the choreography of Not-About-AIDS-Dance. He has created two commissions for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. A former dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (‘79-86), he has been on the dance faculty of Purchase College since ‘87. He served as Dance Curator at The Kitchen from ‘95-99. His technique classes are influenced by his studies of Klein Technique with Barbara Mahler, Alexander Technique™ with June Ekman, and Body-Mind Centering® with RoseAnne Spradlin. He is currently working on a new multimedia project, Partial View, which will presented at DTW in April '05. For more information, www.neilgreenberg.org

Tere O'Connor has been making dances since '82, creating over 30 works for his company, as well as commissioned works for dance companies. He has received a fellowship from The Guggenheim Foundation ('93), three "Bessie" awards ('88, '99, '05) and grants from the NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, Jerome Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Harkness Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Arts International, Philip Morris Inc and Altria Group, Inc. He recently completed a new solo, Indoor Man, for Mikhail Baryshnikov. In January ‘05, the company began a new work while in residence at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and will continue with creative residencies in NYC at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and DTW. This new, full-length work, entitled BABY, will premiere at DTW in March ‘06. In fall ‘05, FROZEN MOMMY was performed at the International Festival de Danse in Cannes, France.

Chrysa Parkinson is a dancer and teacher in Brussels and NY. This year she is performing with Deborah Hay (US), Thomas Hauert/Zoo (BE), and Jonathan Burrows (UK), and has been a member of Tere O'Connor Dance since '86. Her teaching is influenced by Irene Hultman, Jennifer Monson, Barbara Mahler, Rose Anne Spradlin, David Zambrano, and her fellow performers. Since '98, Chrysa has been involved in an ongoing investigation of performance, technique, and improvisation with AT DeKeersmaker's company Rosas, and with the training program P.A.R.T.S. Chrysa teaches workshops internationally and at Movement Research. In '96 she received a "Bessie" Award for Sustained Achievement.

Susan Rethorst has created dances since ‘75, recently becoming more involved in lecturing and writing about dance. Since ‘95, she has divided her time between NYC and Amsterdam, teaching and making work throughout Europe and the US. She was a ‘85 “Bessie” Award recipient, has received numerous commissions from the Jerome Foundation, and awards from the NEA, NYSCA, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, NYFA, Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Shelley Senter has been involved with experimental and post-modern dance for 20 years, touring throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Russia as a performer, choreographer, director and teacher. She has worked independently and with many artists in NYC, West Coast and international dance communities, including Bebe Miller, Yvonne Rainer, Nina Martin, Susan Rethorst, Wally Cardona, Linda K. Johnson and AXIS Dance company, among many others. She danced with the Trisha Brown Company from ‘86-‘91 and has continued to work with the company as a guest artist, directing special projects and staging Brown’s choreography throughout the US and abroad. Senter has been critically recognized for her distinct approach to movement and is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique™, which she teaches worldwide. She was recently awarded a San Francisco Bay Area Isadora Duncan (“Izzy”) award.

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 six years, she has also worked with many other NY-based choreographers. She received a “Bessie” Award for performance (’85) and for choreography (’03), has shown her own work since the mid-‘80s and teaches regularly in the US and Europe.

Reggie Wilson is Artistic Director of Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group, an electric company of dancers, shouters (singers) and actor/performers that has toured, collaborated and taught nationally and internationally. The company has been the vehicle for his choreography since '89. Wilson draws from the movement languages of the blues, slave and spiritual cultures of Africans in the Americas (and The Continent), and combines them with post-modern elements to create what he sometimes calls "post-African/Modern dances" or "Neo-hoodoo dance."