|
|
Faculty Bios
Chris Aiken
 |
| photo by Erik Saulitis |
Chris Aiken is a leading international teacher and performer of dance improvisation and contact improvisation. Over the past two and a half decades his work has evolved through ongoing investigations of performance, composition, movement technique and design. His work has been significantly influenced through the somatic practice of the Alexander Technique, ideokinesis, yoga and the work of Ida Rolf. Chris has performed and collaborated with many renowned dance artists including Steve Paxton, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Peter Bingham, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung and Angie Hauser. He has received numerous awards for his artistic work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as commissions from the Walker Art Center, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop and the National Performance Network. Chris is an Associate Professor at Ursinus College where he co-founded and directs the dance program. |
Monica Bill Barnes
 |
| photo by Julie Lemberger |
Monica Bill Barnes is a New York-based choreographer and performer. She has created twelve evening-length dance works, numerous site-specific events and several cabaret numbers for her company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Since moving to New York from her native California in 1995, Barnes’ choreography has been produced in over twenty venues in New York City including Symphony Space, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Dancemopolitian at Joe’s Pub and Fall for Dance at City Center. Recent commissions include Danspace Project, Summer Somewhere (2007), DanceNow’s 10 Year Anniversary Project, I feel like (2008) and 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival, Another Parade (2009). She has been a Guest Artist at the North Carolina School of The Arts, Vassar College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Connecticut College, Florida State University, James Madison University, Steps on Broadway and Dance New Amsterdam's Modern Guest Artist Series (1999 to present). Barnes holds an MFA from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in philosophy and theater from the University of California at San Diego. |
Christal Brown
 |
| photo by Alan Kimara Dixon |
Christal Brown (choreographer, educator, performer, writer, activist) is a native of Kinston, North Carolina, and received her BFA in dance and minor in Business from the UNC at Greensboro. Brown has toured, nationally, with Chuck Davis' African-American Dance Ensemble, Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, and has apprenticed with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. She spent three years with Urban Bush Women as a principal performer, community specialist and apprentice program coordinator. Brown is the Founding Artistic Director of INSPIRIT (2002), a performance ensemble and educational conglomerate dedicated to bringing female choreographers together to collaborate and inspire audiences. INSPIRIT has performed at Aaron Davis Hall, Danspace at St. Marks Church, Joyce Soho, The Lincoln Theater of Washington, DC, and various other venues across the country. Through the growth of INSPIRIT, Brown has launched a nationwide youth initiative for teen girls called Project: BECOMING. Currently, Brown is a resident at Tribeca Performing Arts Center and a Visiting Lecturer at Middlebury College.
|
Omar Carrum
 |
| photo by Dutch Rall |
Omar Carrum is a founding member of the internationally touring dance company, Delfos Danza Contemporánea, where he continues to serve as a choreographer and dancer. He has been a featured performer in over 60 works of dance, theater, and opera, working with an international roster of choreographers performing in some of the world’s most prestigious theaters and festivals for dance. In 2000 he was awarded as the Best Male Dancer at the 21st Annual INBA-UAM National Choreographic Competition. As a dancer, he has been the recipient of the FONCA grant (National Fund for Culture and Art in Mexico) in 1995 and 2001, and the FOECA grant (State Fund for Culture and Art in Mexico) for artistic development in 2001. In 2009 he became recipient of a 3-year FONCA “Scenic creators with trajectory.” In 2009 he became the first Mexican choreographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship to develop his project: Armoire for hate, fragility and uncertainty. In 1998 he co-founded, with Claudia Lavista and Victor Ruiz (Artistic Directors of Delfos), La Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán, which has emerged as one of the leading dance conservatories in Mexico and Latin America. |
Debra Cash
 |
| photo by Christopher Fitzgerald |
Debra Cash has written about dance, performing arts, design and cultural policy for print, radio, television and the internet. During the year she gives pre-concert talks, provides program notes and moderates panels and events sponsored by regional arts presenters including World Music/CRASHarts and Wesleyan University. A longtime consultant to the National Endowment for the Arts and New England Foundation for the Arts, Debra taught dance history and world dance at Emerson College and has served on panels and nominating committees for the LEF Foundation, The Yard and The Boston Foundation. For 17 years she was dance critic for the Boston Globe, followed by a five year stint at National Public Radio's award-winning WBUR Online Arts website. Debra is delighted to be returning to Bates as Scholar-in-Residence. She earned a Master of Design Studies degree at Harvard and maintains an active career as a user-centered design manager and researcher.
|
Natalie Desch
 |
| photo by by Phil Knott |
Natalie Desch, a Doug Varone and Dancers company member since 2001, is a native of New Castle, PA, where she began her dance training under the guidance of Deborah Parou. After receiving her BFA and the Martha Hill Prize from the Juilliard School, (Benjamin Harkarvy, director,) she joined the Limon Dance Company where she performed from 1996-2001. A faculty member at Hunter College, Desch has also taught at the Bates Dance Festival and at the 92nd Street Y, the Limon Institute and Dance New Amsterdam in New York City, and has staged the works of Doug Varone, Jose Limon and Jiri Kylian. Her choreography has been presented at various venues around New York City and throughout the country. |
Clyde Evans Jr.
 |
| no photo credit |
Born in Trinidad, Clyde Evans, Jr. began dancing hip-hop in 1983. He traveled, internationally, as lead dancer with Rennie Harris Puremovement to perform and instruct throughout Europe, Africa and Brazil. He has collaborated in performances and major concerts for artists such as TLC, Chubb Rock, Mark Wahlberg, and Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. He has also acted in feature films as well as danced in music videos. Clyde began his own company in 2001, Chosen Dance Company, for which he has created numerous works such as "From tha Hip" a Hip-Hop play, and worked with the likes of the SunnyD Tour, Finishline, and the NFL Super Bowl.
|
Michael Foley
 |
| photo by Kenneth Rothman Zane |
Michael Foley has been involved in the professional dance world for over 20 years. He started dancing at Bates College under Marcy Plavin where he earned a BA in English and Spanish. Michael has performed, internationally, in the companies of over two-dozen choreographers, including Doug Elkins, Kevin Wynn, Seán Curran and Eun Me Ahn. He has taught workshops and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Central America, The Caribbean and Mexico, and has taught on the faculties of New World School of the Arts, Bates College, Florida Dance Festival, and Dance Space Center in NYC. He also teaches technique and has set choreography for the Cirque du Soleil organization. Michael has maintained choreographic residencies at the University of Texas, University of Florida, Cornish College of the Arts and Harvard University, among many others. His choreography can be found in the repertories of dance companies throughout the U.S., as well as in Cuba, Mexico and Italy. He formed his own company, “Michael Foley Dance”, in 1994 touring the U.S. and Europe. Michael has a 26-year affiliation with the Bates Dance Festival where he has been a student, emerging choreographer, faculty, and co-director of the Young Dancers Workshop from 1996 - 2007. He holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington and is, currently, an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of South Florida. He also directs a yearly study abroad program in Paris. In 2009 Michael was a Fulbright Scholar working with Delfos Danza in Mazatlan, Mexico. |
Heidi Henderson
 |
| photo by Nikki Carrara |
Heidi Henderson is the choreographer for elephant JANE dance, a pick up company in RI. She has received two Choreography Fellowships from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. elephant JANE dance has performed at the South Bank Centre (London), International Festival of Dance (Korea), Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Festival and in New York City, Boston and Rhode Island. Heidi has danced in the companies of Bebe Miller, Nina Wiener, Peter Schmitz, Sondra Loring and Paula Josa-Jones. She received her BA from Colby College and MFA from Smith College and is in her seventh year as Assistant Professor at Connecticut College. She has taught, nationally and internationally, as a member of Bebe Miller Company and Nina Wiener Co. and has been in residence or on the faculty at Amherst College, Bates Dance Festival, Brown University, Colby College, DanceSpace Inc., Dartmouth College, Hampshire College, Umass/Amherst, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University and NYU's Tisch Dance Summer Festival. Heidi is an occasional contributing editor at Contact Quarterly. For the 25th anniversary of the Bates Dance Festival, she edited a book of interviews celebrating this most marvelous dance home.
|
Ashley James
 |
| no photo credit |
Ashley James is a Pilates and yoga instructor based in Durham, North Carolina. She completed a 200-hour, year-long teacher training with Yoga on High in Columbus, OH, with Martha Marcom. Her Pilates certification is through The Kane School, where she studied anatomy, classical Pilates equipment, and dynamic movement with Kelly Kane. In New York City she taught at Mark Morris Dance Center, Bridge Pilates, Sixth Street Pilates, The Yoga Room, as well as privately. In 2009 she taught at Bates Dance Festival and American Dance Festival. Ashley has had the honor of studying with Kathy Grant, Blossom Crawford, Tim Miller, Rodney Yee, Thomas Myers, Mark Whitwell, Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi. She draws on her experience in fields as varied as Feldenkrais, Reiki, Thai Yoga Massage, Yamuna Body Rolling, and bodywork. Ashley’s classes are infused with awareness as the vehicle for exploratory fun.
|
Kim Konikow
 |
| no photo credit |
Kim Konikow has a varied background in the arts as a presenter, arts manager and administrator. As a consultant through artservices & company for over 28 years, Ms. Konikow has been engaged in projects that facilitate artistic growth and build community with a focus on organizational development. Her work experience includes: Executive Director for The Mesa, an arts & humanities residency center in Southern Utah; Executive Director for the statewide service organization Minnesota Dance Alliance; Associate Director for Art Awareness, a residency and performance center in upstate New York; and Director of Special Events at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music. Current work includes annual conference coordination with the national service organization Dance/USA, and chairing Utah’s Washington County Arts Council. Ms. Konikow has served extensively as a site visitor and panelist for several regional, state and national organizations. She holds a BA in Art History and Theatre from George Washington University in Washington, DC and a dual MFA in Arts Administration and Theatre Direction from Brooklyn College/City University of New York.
|
Michel Kouakou
 |
| photo by Shamou |
A native of the Ivory Coast, Michel Kouakou is an active performer of both traditional and contemporary dance. He began his career studying dance, acrobatics, and Marionette Theater in his home country. After receiving several prizes in Abidjan for dance, he continued his study of contemporary dance with Germaine Acogny at L’Ecole de Sables in Senegal. As a dancer, he has worked with choreographers such as Germaine Acogny (Senegal), Seydou Boro (Burkina Faso), Bud Blumenthal (Belgium), Arata Kitamura and Kota Yamazaki (Japan) and Georgio Rossi (Italy). In 2003, he formed his own company, Daara Dance, for which he has created and performed works in the U.S., Holland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Palestine, Belgium, France, Tunisia, Chad Republic, Ivory Coast, and the Czech Republic. As a teacher, Michel has given workshops throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. Currently, Michel is performing with Reggie Wilson/ Fist and Heel Performance Group and is a guest faculty member at UCLA.
|
Claudia Lavista
 |
| photo by Martin Gavica |
Claudia Lavista is a dancer, choreographer and teacher, who has been involved in arts since the age of eight. In 1992 she founded DELFOS Contemporary Dance along with Victor Ruiz. The company has since grown into one of Mexico’s foremost internationally touring modern dance troupes. Claudia has received many awards for her outstanding artistic works including Best Female Dancer in 1998, 2002 and 2005, and “One of the 10 Best Mexican Dancers of the XX Century” by the specialized critics in 2001. In 2008 she received the prestigious National Arts Creators Fellowship from the Mexican National Endowment for the Arts. She has been a featured performer in over 70 works of dance, theater, video and opera, working with an international roster of choreographers and performing in some of the world’s most prestigious theaters. Claudia has created more than 40 choreographic works and has collaborated with theater and opera directors, photographers, video artists, poets and other choreographers for nearly two decades. In 1998 she created, along with Victor Manuel Ruiz and Omar Carrum, La Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán/EPDM, which has emerged as one of the leading dance conservatories in Mexico and Latin America.
|
Rachel List
 |
| photo by Julie Lemberger |
Rachel List has performed across the U.S., and in Canada, Mexico and Europe as a member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, The Vanaver Caravan, Partridge/Benford/Dance/Music and The New York Baroque Dance Company, with whom she is still performing. She directed and choreographed for her own company from 1985-1995 and was the founder and director of Manchester Dance, a summer workshop in Vermont, from 1987-1997. Ms. List holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee and has taught professional ballet classes in New York City since 1978 (currently at Peridance). She is the Director of the Dance Program at Hofstra University and has taught at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Barnard College, Queens College (CUNY), the Paul Taylor Summer Institute, the Balettakademien (Stockholm, Sweden) and Danse Projektet (Copenhagen, Denmark). Ms. List has presented master classes and lecture/demonstrations in Baroque dance at Juilliard, Columbia University, Swarthmore, Vassar, Bard Graduate Center and F.I.T. and has served as a period movement consultant and/or choreographer for the Pearl Theatre and the Bronx Opera Company. She is very pleased to be returning for her thirteenth summer at the Bates Dance Festival. |
Victoria Marks
 |
| photo by Beatriz Schiller |
Victoria Marks creates dances for the stage, for film, in community settings, and for professional dancers. Her work addresses the body itself, as it serves as a touchstone for larger discourses on wellness, desire, rhetoric and power. Victoria is a Professor of Choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA where she has been teaching since 1995. Before taking her post at UCLA she lived in London, where for three and a half years she worked on her own choreographic projects and served as head of choreography at London Contemporary Dance School, a conservatory for the training of professional dance artists in Europe. Marks is a 2007 EMPAC award winner for the creation of a new dance for the camera, a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow, and has received recent grants from the Irvine Foundation, the NEA (2005) and the Cultural Affairs Council. In 1997 she was honored with the Alpert Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. Over the course of her career she has been the recipient of multiple grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, among others. She has received a Fulbright Fellowship in Choreography, and numerous awards for her dance films.
|
Donna Mejia
 |
| photo by Jon Crispin |
Donna Mejia is a choreographer, lecturer, teacher, administrator, and performer specializing in contemporary dance, traditions of the Arab and African Diaspora, and new fusion traditions in world Electronica. She is authorized to instruct the Silvestre Modern Dance Technique (an esoteric, codified system of contemporary Brazilian dance technique). For twelve years she served as Managing Director of the award-winning Harambee African Dance Ensemble of CU-Boulder under Professor Emerita, Letitia Williams. She taught at Colorado College for 10 years, was nominated for a Pikes Peak Area Artist Award, and directed the Colorado College International Summer Dance Festival. Donna joined the faculty of Smith College in 2006 as Guest Artist-in-Residence to teach history, theory and technique courses. Donna also directs The Sovereign Project, a nonprofit arts collective dedicated to a reverent connection to the body by addressing social repression, gender distortion and acts of physical and emotional violence.
|
Shonach Mirk-Robles
 |
| no photo credit |
Shonach received her classical training in some of the world's best schools, including the School of American Ballet, The Royal Ballet School of London and Maurice Béjart's MUDRA. She was a member of Bejart's famed Ballet of the Twentieth Century from 1974 to 1986 and also performed with Switzerland's Zurich Operhaus, Germany's Hamburg Ballet and Italy's Ballet de Torino. Shonach’s advanced studies in Spiraldynamik® have become the major influence in her method of teaching classical ballet. She studied Spiraldynamik® while also completing her MDEd. The combination of these two advanced trainings has dramatically informed her approach to teaching technique through the integration of Spiraldynamik® principles. Through her collaboration with acclaimed choreographers she has developed a deep understanding of what today's dancers need in the way of a classical base for contemporary performance. Shonach founded her own school in Zurich in 2009 and also teaches, internationally, in Japan, Spain and Germany.
|
Cynthia Oliver
 |
| photo by Arthur Fink |
Cynthia Oliver is a (New York Dance and Performance) BESSIE award-winning choreographer whose work - a melange of dance, theatre and the spoken word - incorporates textures of Caribbean performance with African and American aesthetic sensibilities. She has danced with numerous companies including the David Gordon Pick Up Co., Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and Bebe Miller Company. She was named "Outstanding Young Choreographer" by reviewer, Frank Werner, of the German magazine Ballet Tanz and has had her dance film, AfroSocialiteLifeDiva, aired on European television’s Canal Arte and 3sat. Cynthia has recently premiered her new work, Rigidigidim De Bamba De: Ruptured Calypso, which is touring the U.S. in 2009-2010. She holds a PhD. in performance studies from New York University and is an Associate Professor in the dance department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
|
Karl Rogers
 |
| photo by Arthur Fink |
Karl Rogers, co-director of the Young Dancers Workshop, is celebrating his 10th summer at the Bates Dance Festival. He is a member of David Dorfman Dance and has danced in projects for Jennifer Nugent + Paul Matteson, Colleen Thomas, Terry Creach, Melinda Ring, Tami Stronach, Hoi Polloi, and many others. He completed an MFA in Choreography (2003) and, is currently, a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University. His own work has been shown at venues across the country. Most recently, he is working on a series of duets, collaborating with Heidi Henderson and Megan Durham-Wall, and a new evening-length solo that investigates Victorian Dandies. |
Laura Selle-Virtucio
 |
| no photo credit |
Laura Selle Virtucio began her movement training as an athlete in Sioux Falls, SD. In 1995, she moved to Minneapolis to pursue dance and now holds her BFA from the University of Minnesota. Among her greatest accomplishments, she counts her long partnership as a company member and choreographers’ assistant with Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater and Shapiro & Smith Dance. With these companies, Laura has danced as a featured performer on stages nationwide, including the Joyce Theater (NY), Annenberg Center (PA), The Guthrie (MN), the Southern Theater (MN) and has set numerous repertory works across the country. Laura is also a member of Carl Flink’s Black Label Movement and has performed as a dancer in productions with the Minnesota Opera. As a teacher and performer of jazz dance, Laura was influenced by her work with jazz choreographers Cathy Young, Danny Buraczeski and Zoe Sealy. She has served as affiliate faculty in the dance programs at the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. Laura is a recipient of the 2007 McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, a 2007 Sage Award for Best Performer and was named Best Dancer 2001 by City Pages of Minneapolis. In her spare time, she enjoys social dance and performs with the Minneapolis Salsa Movement. |
Dawn Stoppiello
 |
| photo by Piro Patton |
Dawn Stoppiello is a choreographer, dancer and media artist who has dedicated her career to computer-mediated live performance. For twenty years she has created choreography for bodies interfaced to computers through sensory systems. Her current interest is how her relationship to computer technology has infiltrated her choreographic practice. With composer/media artist Mark Coniglio she is co-founder of Troika Ranch, a dance-theater company committed to creating hybrid, media intensive performances. Stoppiello has received multiple honors from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA including the 2004 Statue Award for continued excellence in her field. Troika Ranch has been honored with a (New York Dance and Performance) BESSIE Award, an honorary mention at Prix Arts Electronica, and the “Eddy” award from Live Design magazine. Troika Ranch’s current work loopdiver (2009) was commissioned by the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, NE. Troika Ranch’s work has been presented in the U.S., Monaco, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Stoppiello lectures and teaches widely on computer-mediated performance. Stoppiello received her BFA in dance from CalArts and was a member of the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. Her writings on Dance & Technology have been published by Leonardo Journal, Movement Research Journal, Dance/USA Journal and several books focused on media and art practices.
|
Eddie Taketa
 |
| photo by Phil Knott |
Eddie Taketa holds a BFA in Dance Theater from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is the recipient of a 1998 (New York Dance and Performance Award) BESSIE for Sustained Achievement in Performance. Dancing professionally since 1982, Taketa has performed with such companies as the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Murray Louis Dance Company, and Nikolais Dance Theatre. He has also performed in the Jacob's Pillow's Men Dancers: The Ted Shawn Legacy. As a teacher, he has taught at numerous universities, festivals and studios throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Since 1995, he has been teaching and choreographing as Guest Artist in Dance at Connecticut College. He has been a member of Doug Varone and Dancers since 1994. |
Martha Tornay
 |
| no photo credit |
Martha Tornay is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and a recipient of the Fine Arts Award in dance technique and choreography. Martha has over three decades of intensive classical ballet and modern technique studies with dance masters such as Mme. Gabriela Darvash, Gretchen Ward Warren, Robert Brassel and Merce Cunningham. After performing for over 18 years with regional and international ballet and modern dance companies she founded East Village Dance Project (EVDP). EVDP is a pre-professional dance development program for students ages 4-16 in NYC. EVDP graduates have been accepted into professional dance academies such as Elliot Feld/Ballet Tech, School of American Ballet and the Alvin Ailey School. EVDP students have performed with Kids Café Festival, Vanaver Caravan Dance Festival, Keigwin + Company and at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors 2007. In addition to directing EVDP, Martha teaches dance technique workshops at New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing, Bates Dance Festival and for Louisville Ballet School.
|
Doug Varone
 |
| photo by Phil Knott |
Award-winning choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, television and fashion. His New York City-based, Doug Varone and Dancers, has been commissioned and presented, to critical acclaim, by leading international venues for more than two decades. His work has been singled out for its extraordinary physical daring, vivid musicality, and genius for capturing through movement the nuances of true human interaction. Varone received his BFA from Purchase College where he was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. He is the recipient of numerous honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a (New York Dance and Performance Award) BESSIE for Sustained Achievement in Choreography and, most recently, a 2006 OBIE Award. In addition to his own company, Varone has been commissioned by numerous dance companies including the Limón Company, Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Uppercut Danse (Denmark), AnCreative (Japan) and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. His dances have been staged on more than 30 college and university programs. He continues to work extensively in other media including opera, theater, film and television. |
Cathy Young
 |
| photo by Erik Saulitis |
CCathy Young received her BA magna cum laude from Harvard University in Sociology and Women’s Studies, and her MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois. She is nationally recognized as a master teacher of jazz dance and has conducted residencies at over 40 colleges around the country, as well as teaching at major U.S. festivals including Bates Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival and the international Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a performer, Cathy has danced with a number of companies including Zenon Dance Company and Danny Buraczeski’s JAZZDANCE! touring extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. For the past fifteen years she has been creating her own work, a dynamic mix of styles and dance forms that intermingles jazz, modern, contact improvisation and social dance. Cathy creates choreography for her own company, Cathy Young Dance, and has also been commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Pennsylvania Dance Theatre, Zenon Dance Company, The Minnesota Opera and the Kannon Dance Company of St. Petersburg, Russia. Her choreography has been recognized with awards and grants from the McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Target Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, among others. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania.
|
|
Return to top
