melt winter 2004 archives
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download brochure (PDF format)melt winter 2004 faculty bios
Chris Aiken is a leading international teacher and performer in the field of dance improvisation and Contact Improvisation. His movement experience includes dance, theater, Contact Improvisation, compositional improvisation, Alexander Technique™, yoga, release techniques and athletic training. Chris has performed and collaborated with many renowned dance artists including Steve Paxton, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Peter Bingham, Andrew Harwood and Angie Hauser. He has been presented the Walker Art Center, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, DTW and Bates Dance Festival, among others.
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
Ishmael Houston-Jones' improvised dance and language work has been performed in NYC, across the US, in Europe and in Latin America. He has taught many movement and dance improvisation workshops, notably at the EDDC in the Netherlands, American Dance Festival, and at the San Francisco Festival of Improvisation. In ’90, he and writer Dennis Cooper presented The Undead at the L.A. Festival of the Arts. In ‘89 he collaborated with filmmaker Julie Dash on the video Relatives, which was aired nationally on the PBS series Alive TV. Houston-Jones and Fred Holland shared a "Bessie Award” for their Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders. Currently he is part of Unsafe Unsuited, an ongoing improvised trio with Keith Hennessy and Patrick Scully. Houston-Jones' essays and fiction have appeared in the Movement Research Performance Journal, Contact Quarterly, FARM and Mirage.
Yvonne Meier was born in Zurich, Switzerland. Since arriving in NYC in ‘79 she has shown her work at The Kitchen, Danspace Project, PS 122, PS 1 and Etc. among others. She has received funding from NEA, NYFA, Franklin Furnace and Etc., and won a “Bessie” Award for her piece, The Shining. She also teaches release technique, Authentic Movement and scores. Her work Mad Heidi, Part I and Limpopo, I and II was presented by Danspace Project in Spring ‘05. Her new work will premiere at The Kitchen in March ‘06. Yvonne was a ’04-’05 MR A.I.R.
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.
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.
Donna Uchizono, the “Bessie” award winning Artistic Director of Donna Uchizono Company, was hailed by Ms. Magazine’s end of the century issue as “a choreographer making great leaps forward into the 21st century.” A Guggenheim Fellow, Uchizono has received many grants in support of her work, including NEA, two NYFA fellowships, Rockefeller, Jerome, Creative Capital among others. A popular teacher, Uchizono has taught classes and workshops and toured her company extensively throughout the US, Europe and South America.
Gwen Welliver performed with Doug Varone and Dancers from ‘91-00, and in ‘00 joined the Trisha Brown Dance Company as rehearsal director. Gwen is a winner of a “Bessie” Award for Sustained Achievement in dancing. She has taught at numerous studios, festivals and universities in the US and abroad including the ADF, Bates Dance Festival, Dansens Hus (Denmark), International Summer School of Dance (Japan), Kalamata International Dance Festival (Greece), and the Moscow Contemporary Dance Summer School 'TSEH', and was on faculty at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts from ‘95-‘00.