Today's guest is Jessica Chen. Jessica is a choreographer, teacher and Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT, a 501c3 non-profit modern dance company based in NYC. In 2013, Jessica made a miraculous journey back to the stage after suffering a horrific car accident, which rendered her in a coma for 13 days after 8 hours of brain surgery. She shares her story and fight to live through her work as a choreographer, speaker, and Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT. As a freelance choreographer, her work has been seen Off-Broadway, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and TEDx.
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Today's guest is Michelle Manzanales. Michelle is a choreographer and dance educator originally from Houston, TX. She is the Director of the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance, but lends her artistic voice to all facets of the organization led by CEO and Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro (MSP podcast no. 77!). She began working with Eduardo in 2003 as a dancer for his company Luna Negra Dance Theater of Chicago where she also served as Rehearsal Director and as Interim Artistic Director. Michelle has created works for professional dance companies, universities, and schools across the nation. www.ballethispanico.org
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Today's guest is Lucy Sexton. Lucy is a Brooklyn born choreographer, producer, and administrator who works in the fields of dance, theater, film, and advocacy. She is currently Executive Director of the cultural advocacy organization New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, working for equity and support for culture for all New Yorkers. Beginning in 2009, she has served as Executive Director of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, building them for the first time into an independent organization. As a dance artist she works with Anne Iobst; together they create and perform the dance performance duo DANCENOISE which was founded in 1983.
Come to The Bessies! Monday, October 14 at NYU Skirball:
For more info on Movers & Shapers and this episode:
http://themovingarchitects.org/podcasts/
Today's guest is Ivy Baldwin. Ivy is a New York-based choreographer, performer, teacher, and founder of Ivy Baldwin Dance. Since 1999, she has created 17 works for her company, including, most recently, commissions from BAM (Next Wave Festival), Philip Johnson Glass House, the Joyce Theater, Abrons Arts Center, the Chocolate Factory, and the Wooden Floor. Baldwin has received many awards and fellowships, including from the Guggenheim Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and New York Foundation for the Arts, and has been an Artist-in-Residence with BAM, Movement Research, ArtistNe(s)t (Romania), Manitoga and CPR (currently), and the 92nd Street Y (upcoming).
For more info on this episode and Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast: themovingarchitects.org/podcasts
Today's guest is Jennifer Muller. Jennifer is the Artistic Director/Founder of Jennifer Muller/The Works, and has been an influence in the dance world for over 50 years. She is known for her visionary approach and innovations in dance/theater, multi-discipline productions, incorporating the spoken word, live and commissioned music, artist-inspired décor, media and unusual production elements. Muller has created over 125 pieces, including seven full evening productions, collaborating with such artists as Keith Haring, Keith Jarrett, Yoko Ono, David van Tieghem, Burt Alcantara, Marty Beller and Jeff Croiter.
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Today's guest is Stephanie Acosta. Stephanie is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist who blends performance with practice-based research, making work in response to, while also creating, site and space. Engaging ensembles in facilitated processes, she creates fleeting performance works that challenge site, space, and perception to bring about shared experiences.
A Cuban American born and raised in Miami, Stephanie works extensively with unseen histories, performance, experimental radio, and film. Acosta continues an ongoing collaborations with Intrinsic Grey Productions including on experimental feature film The Ladies Almanack, which recently had its world premiere at Outfest LA and is currently screening at national and international film festivals. Currently, Acosta heads up the monthly performance series Sunday Service with co-creator Alexis Wilkinson. She can also be found working on a new publication with longtime collaborator Rory Murphy under the name NO ONE IS ANYWHERE, as well as on the upcoming premiere of her multi-platform performance Good Day God Damn at the Chocolate Factory Spring 2020, and touring nationally and internationally with This Bridge Called My Ass created alongside collaborator Miguel Gutierrez and featuring an all Latinx cast of performance misfits.
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Today's guest is Zvi Gotheiner. Born and raised in kibbutz Mesilot in northern Israel, Zvi began his artistic career as a violinist and began dancing at age seventeen, joining the Bat-Sheva Dance Company after serving in the army. Zvi arrived in New York in 1978, and founded ZviDance in 1989, creating more than twenty-five works for his company. Zvi is a highly regarded ballet teacher, described by the New York Times as the “Zen Dance Master of New York.” Most recently, Zvi received distinguished teaching awards from the American Dance Festival and the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center’s Playing Field.
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Today's guest is Francesca Harper. Francesca is an internationally acclaimed, multifaceted artist. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Francesca Harper Project and former principal dancer with Ballet Frankfurt under William Forsythe. Francesca has choreographed works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Tanz Graz, Hubbard Street II, and Dallas Black Dance Theater, and enjoys her appointment as an adjunct professor at New York University and the Juilliard School. Francesca was awarded a two-year choreographic fellowship with Urban Bush Women, providing support toward her latest dance-theater work An Unapologetic Body. She is committed to works rooted in artistic expression, empowerment, and social awareness.
For more info on this episodes and other interviews on Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast:
http://themovingarchitects.org/podcasts/
Today’s guest is Jacqulyn Buglisi. Choreographer, dancer, educator and advocate, Jacqulyn Buglisi co-founded Buglisi Dance Theatre in 1993 following an illustrious career as a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. She leads the annual Table of Silence Project 9/11, a site-specific performance ritual for peace performed at Lincoln Center by 180 dancers, six musicians and chorus of nine, and seen via live stream across the U.S. in all 50 states and worldwide in 129 countries. Buglisi Dance Theatre will be performing as part of the upcoming Women/Create! A Festival of Dance at NYLA in NYC.
Women/Create! A Festival of Dance
2018 Season New York Live Arts
Celebrating the Innovation of Women in Choreography
June 11-16, 2019
More Info: womencreatedance.org
During this 8th season, Armitage Gone! Dance, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, The Francesca Harper Project, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Helen Simoneau Danse, and Katarzyna Skarpetowska (featuring The Richmond Ballet) come together for a distinguished week of programming that celebrates women creators and their unapologetic voices in the dance world.
We are taking a break in April, with new interviews coming in May. In the meantime, you can catch the company behind the podcast performing in a series of performances this spring.
NYC, Boston, Pittsburgh! We are coming your way! For tickets to Elevate: A Triple Bill of Female Choreographers with Bryce Dance, The Moving Architects, and Shana Simmons Dance, go to www.themovingarchitects.org/elevate
April 17-18 / The Mark O'Donnell Theater at The Actors Fund Arts Center (Brooklyn)
April 19-20 / The Dance Complex (Boston)
May 4 / Point Park University, George Rowland White Performance Center (Pittsburgh)
Today's guest is Eva Dean. Eva is the founder and Artistic Director of Eva Dean Dance, based in Brooklyn and established in 1985. Eva has a rich history as a Brooklyn-based choreographer of site-specific and theatrical contemporary dance, and is also a community leader mentoring other female choreographers and founding Union Street Dance studio. Known for rich visuals and genre-defying theatricality, the company has been featured on both the local and international stage. Notable NYC credits include The New Victory Theatre (Victory Dance 2018), The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, The Brooklyn Museum and The Children’s Museum of Manhattan among many others. Also known for site-specific immersive dance, the company has staged numerous public productions in Prospect Park (Brooklyn, NY).
Today's guest is Oxana Chi. Oxana is a choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, curator, and author. She founded the company Oxana Chi & Ensemble Xinren in Berlin, Germany in 1991 and moved to New York City in 2015. In 2018, she was listed in the Dance Enthusiast’s 2018 “A to Z” of People Who Power the Dance World. She is featured in several publications and films, and is the main protagonist of the movie Dancing Through Gardens. Chi is accompanied in this podcast by her main collaborator Dr. Layla Zami, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Performance + Performance Studies MFA Program at Pratt Institute and interdisciplinary artist (music, poetry, theater, film).
Today’s guest is Michele Wiles. Michele danced with American Ballet Theater from 1997-2011, beginning in the studio company and promoted to soloist in 2000 and principal in 2005. Michele left the position in 2011 to start BalletNext with the vision to pair classically trained dancers and live musicians in a collaborative setting that encourages risk taking and a focus on process.
Today's guest is Dunya Dianne McPherson. Dunya is a dancer, NEA choreographer, Shattari Sufi Master Teacher, Founder of Dancemeditation™, and author of Skin of Glass: Finding Spirit in the Flesh, a memoir about dance as a spiritual path.
Today's guest is Eduardo Vilaro. Eduardo joined Ballet Hispánico as Artistic Director in August 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since it was founded in 1970. He has been part of the Ballet Hispánico family since 1985 as a dancer and educator, after which he began a ten-year record of achievement as founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, he is a frequent speaker on the merits of cultural diversity and dance education.
Today’s guest is Jody Oberfelder. Jody is a director, choreographer, and filmmaker, who creates visceral experiences for audiences, onstage and in alternative sites. Her work has been shown extensively internationally as well as at Jacob’s Pillow, MASS MoCA, The Yard, Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York Live Arts, and her immersive heart-themed work 4Chambers was performed 86 times: in an historic home on Governors Island and in a former hospital in Brooklyn.