| LIQUIDBODY DANCE COLLABORATORS |
| Caryn Heilman, choreographer and dancer, danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company for ten years, appearing onstage around the world and in several film and television projects including the Academy award-nominated documentary film Dancemaker. Building on the professional and artistic foundation she received from her years with Paul Taylor, Caryn has embarked on a radically new form of dance performance and choreography. Her first LiquidBody performance was at Jacob's Pillow in 1999. |
| Nana Simopoulos, composer and musician (sitar, bouzouki, voice, didgeridoo), draws her music's melodic color from the map of world cultures. She artfully blends sounds and textures from around the world. Indian sarangi master Ustad Sultan Khan accompanies her on her last two releases, After The Moon and the new Daughters Of The Sun #1 on the New Age and World radio charts. Other albums include Pandora’s Blues, Wings and Air, Still Waters and Gaia’s Dream. Performances include appearances with Oscar winner Tan Dun as a soloist on sitar in Marco Polo with the New York City Opera and the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy. She has also performed widely with her ensemble in venues such as Montreux and appears on their compilation CD Live at the B&W Montreux Music Festival, Vol. II. She performed at Symphony Space in the Wall to Wall Joni Mitchell event and at the Kennedy Center for the Women in Jazz Series. She has written numerous commissions for films and dance companies for festivals and choreographers such as Peter Pucci for Pucci Plus Dancers and the Joffrey Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, American Dance Festival, Ballet Hispanico, and LiquidBody. She has conducted and performed her original music with ensembles at the Joyce Theatre, on Broadway, at the American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow. She recently wrote music for opera diva Lauren Flanigan and performed with her at the Met and Symphony Space. Last May Nana wrote the music for the TONY winning Acting Company's adaptation of American Dreams, Lost and Found. |
Michael
Latham, dancer, has a BA degree in Human Movement
Studies, which sought to connect the elements of biology, kinesiology,
physiology with the social and aesthetic aspects of movement. He
studied ballet with Joel Dabin of the Paris Opera Ballet and performed
with Connecticut Ballet Theater and Sono Dance Academy, where he became
a teacher and choreographer. His interest in exploring the possibilities
of body consciousness led him to Emily Conrad's work in Continuum, at
the same time his interest in theology led him to explore the possibilities
of the body as a portal to a "universal consciousness." Thus
RheoGenesis was born and he now leads workshops and individual private
sessions in New York. He also finds himself once again a dancer,
using the work as a performer with LiquidBody. |
Nicole
Sclafani, dancer, is a graduate of Hofstra University
where she received a B.A. in dance. After graduating she attended
the American Dance Festival on scholarship. Nicole has worked with
Mexican dancer/choreographer Oscar Valasquez and is a member of NowDance
and Robin Becker Dance. She is happy to be working with LiquidBody. |
Nadine
Helstroffer, dancer, French-born, has been presenting
her choreography in the U.S., Canada and France. Her work includes
Threshold, Slivers of Sky and Migration. As
a dancer, Nadine has toured Asia and the U.S. with Sin Cha Hong's Laughing
Stone for 15 years. She founded in 1998 the ResonanceBody workshop
which explores the link between meditation and movement and has been teaching
at the Zen Center of NY, NY Insight Meditation Society, the New School
University, and Bowling Green State University, Ohio. In 2002 she
choreographed and danced in Tibet and created a digital film, Prajna
Paramita, in collaboration with filmmaker, John Bush. |
| Luisah Teish, writer, storyteller and performance artist, is internationally known for her performances of African, Caribbean and African-American folklore and feminist myth. She is the author of Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals and Jump Up: Good Times Throughout the Season with Celebrations from Around the World. She teaches at New College of California, John F. Kennedy University, and Naropa, Oakland. She is vice president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and the founder of the School of Ancient Mysteries/Sacred Arts Center in Oakland, CA. |
Dawn
Avery, cellist and vocalist, on 1998 Grammy-nominated
album, Breath of Heaven by Grover Washington, has been touring and recording
her work around the world as a soloist and with her critically acclaimed
group CELLOVISION! Her CD True was released this summer. She has worked
with David Darling, Phillip Glass, Sting, John Cage, John Cale, Ornette
Coleman, Reza Derakshani, Luciano Pavarotti, Glen Velez, Baba Olatunji,
Sussan Deyhim, Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Sharp, Tanya Leon, NJ Symphony,
NY City Opera and the Soldier String Quartet. Her work as composer/performer
has been featured all over the world: Lincoln Center Outdoors Festival,
Merkin Hall, Gschwendt Musikwinter Festival, Amsterdam Festival, Musicales
Visuales, New Music Across America, Montreux and Helsinki Jazz Festivals,
Prague, Saalfelden and Banlieu Bleu Festivals, the Shakespeare Project,
Knitting Factory Festivals, Soho Arts Festival, New Directions Cello Festival,
the Bottomline, the Bitterend, and throughout NYC. She has recorded on
countless labels, movies and numerous radio programs |
| Greg
Beyer, percussionist, is a solo percussionist,
specializing in repertoire that places non-western instruments into the
context of contemporary musical thought. Second-prize winner of the 2002
Geneva International Music Competition, Beyer has given solo performances
and masterclasses throughout the United States and Europe. He has given
both the World and American premieres of Heinz Holliger’s, Ma’mounia,
and also performs the works of Iannis Xenakis, Roger Reynolds, James Dillon,
Javier Alvarez, Elliott Carter, and actively commissions new works for
solo percussion. Of primary importance to him is his project, O
BERIMBAU – an endeavor that involves ethnomusicological research
on the berimbau and other related musical bows, and the active composition
and commission of new works for this ancient instrument. Beyer has presented
this project at the 2001 and 2002 Percussive Arts Society International
Conventions, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Manhattan
School of Music, and Lawrence University. His most recent multi-media
composition for berimbau, Bahian Counterpoint (Hommage à Steve
Reich), received its world premiere at the Banff Centre for the Arts this
past November, and has since been seen by audiences around the world.
It uses simultaneous audio and video elements to create an environment
for the berimbau that is simultaneously playful, intelligent, original,
and idiomatic for the instrument. The piece garnered a 2003 ASCAP Standard
Award for its consequent multiple performances. In 2004, he will travel
to Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil, as an invited Fellow of the Sacatar Foundation
Artist Residence, to spend two months creating new music for berimbau,
furthering the intention and scope of this project.. |
| Laia
Cabrera, multimedia artist, graduated in Media at
the UAB (Autonomous University of Barcelona), and Co-founded, with Maria
Litvan, the theatre and film company Vertiginosas (islands) established
in Barcelona and New York in 1997. Ms. Cabrera is the recipient
of several awards including the KrTU to Young Creators by the Department
of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Kodak and Color Lab
award for Best Cinematic Film for Under Influence (16mm). Her
interdisciplinary education has lead her to work in many areas from film
to music compositions, theatre productions, video, television and research
projects. Her work as a filmmaker includes Invisible (16mm),
Under Influence (16mm), Lines (16mm) and Dropped
(mix-media) among others. She has done camera work for films like
Mi Visa de Modelo, Faking It, Getting there,
It is the Cause, The One Who Thought Wanted to Leave but
Never Left and her own films. As a writer, she has published
her books Caducidad del Sentido and Arpegio del Desamor,
as well as various articles in magazines and the press. She has
written two plays produced and staged in Barcelona: L’Estança
and De la Tierra a las Estrellas. She has also directed
two research projects in film and theory: Any Lumiere (granted
by the University of Barcelona) and Neutral Identities (winner
of the grants KrTU, Culture Department of the Catalan Government).
As a composer she has written music for theatre plays: El Retorn d’Ulises
(Sala Artenbrut, Barcelona), Borderline (Loewe Theater,
NY), Pelleas and Melisande (French Institute NY), and Obsessions
(Recipient of the John Golden Award). She has also composed music
for several films: aTrapped, Julia Vs. Julia, Under Influencend
Invisible, in addition to documentaries, videos and performance events. |
| Zohra Zaka, video artist and filmmaker, has an wonderful kinesthetic sense for movement that has enriched LiquidBody's performances of Beacon. She is also working on LiquidBody media's documentary of visionary Continuum Movement founder, Emilie Conrad. |
| Maria
Litvan, video artist and filmmaker, started to train with LiquidBody
in 1999, and has been working on media and dance projects with the company
since then, the most recent of which include the documentary on visionary
Continuum Movement founder, Emilie Conrad and exciting interactive multimedia
performance projects in development for premiere this fall. After
completing her degree in dance and in acting at El Col.legi del Teatre
in Barcelona, Spain, Maria moved to New York where she graduated in theater
and film from Hunter College, and completed her film studies at the New
School University. Ms. Litvan is the recipient of several awards
including the John Golden Award, the Walter Prichard Eaton Award, and
the John Gassner Award. Her own work includes About That One
Who Thought Wanted to Leave But Never Left (16mm film,) Strip@ease
(16mm film,) Julia Vs. Julia (16mm film,) Lines (16mm
film,) Falling Apart (digital film,) It Is the Cause (digital
film,) Obsessions (theater,) Borderline (theater,) Les
Cinc Pometes (theater.) |
| Gisela
Stromeyer, set designer, and New York based architect comes from a
family of fourth generation German tentmakers. Her sensuous creations
can be found in a variety of locations such as private homes, stores,
showrooms, theater sets, promotional events and office spaces. "My
achitecture training taught me how to perceive and define spaces and to
turn my vision into a built form. It was my experience as a dancer, however,
that allows me to sense space as movement. Spaces are fluid.
Architecture can be so linear and rigid. It's usually not shaped like
the human body, so it rarely reflects our natural longings for softness,
flexibility and flow. We long for spaces that not only contain us,
but allow our spirits to soar as well." Gisela has been honored
with five awards for Outstanding Achievement in Design and Fabrication
by the IFAI and Best of Furniture Award by ID Magazine. |
| Paul
Wirhun, set and costume designer, focuses his artwork
on eggs. “I believe that eggs are events - not simply objects.
They are the confluence of primal life-forces, sexual energies, that create
new life - new beginnings. The shells are memories of these events.
I have worked on eggshells since I was a child, learning the traditional
Ukrainian art of pysanky from my mother. Pysanky are talismen created
through batiking designs with specific intentions to use the egg's life-power
for a desired result. This cultic use of eggs informs my work to
this day - for I consider eggmaking a sacred magical art. Since 1990 I
have used this folk art to explore my fantasies, desires and cosmology.
During this period I have manipulated traditional processes with
innovative dyeing & brush techniques, etching, and mosaic to forge
a new visual language to write on this versatile, organic sphere. Each
egg is a spherical space, a continuously turning pictorial plane around
which images distort, challenging common perceptions. As a talismanic
event, the egg holds the possibility of recreating the known world. I
endeavor to combine all these properties to create a new art, a synthesis
of ancient design for a new worldview.” See his work on www.paulwirhun.com. |
Stacey-Jo Marine, lighting designer, has worked in over 30 countries and in all 50 states touring with dance and theater companies including Paul Taylor Dance Company, Taylor 2, STOMP (1st North American tour), New York Theatre Ballet, Dar-A-Luz (Tight Right White) and Lisa Giobbi Movement Theatre. Off-Broadway she was the production stage manager for the site-specific theatre company, En Garde Arts (Stonewall 25 and J.P. Morgan Saves the Day - Doug Elkins, choreographer) and assistant stage manager for And the World Goes Round - Susan Stroman, choreographer. Elsewhere in NYC Stacey-Jo has been the P.S.M. for Maureen Fleming, Theodora Skipitares, Cortez & Co., American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company, Dance Galaxy, Dance by Neil Greenberg and Youth America Grand Prix's 2003 Gala and NY competition. She is lighting designer for Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Performance Project and was glad to oversee her lighting for Ms. Kozlova's ballet, "Overcome," set on New Jersey Ballet last November. Stacey-Jo has been the technical director and production stage manager for the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College since August 2000 where she also teaches Dance Production, Stage Management for Dance and Lighting for Dance. |
| Philippe Vercruyssen, A.K.A. Philippe Versen, rigger, has performed his single trapeze act in Europe, Canada and the US for the past 25 years. He is presently a professional rigger in New York City. He is also the co-founder and co-director of the Circus Arts Camp at Purchase College. Philippe has opened CIRCUS TOWN in Pelham Manor, a venue to promote and teach circus skills to the public as well as professionals. For more information please contact Philippe at circusexprerience@aol.com. |
| Yoko Sugimoto, dancer, graduated from Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo, Japan with a BFA in dance where she received the Maresuke Kawano Prize for her artistic achievements in dance. Since moving to New York in year 2000, she has worked with Sue Bernhard, Stephan Koplowitz and Summer Morgan among others. She has also danced in UK London for the “TSUBAKI” project directed by Imaly Suganuma(‘02), and participated in the “The Encore International Dance Festival”(Canada/Quebec) in Laurie De Vito’s work(‘03). She is currently working with Robin Becker and Ramona Ganssloser. |
| Stacy Cohen, dancer, is originally from Denver, Colorado. Since moving to New York she has performed with Avodah Dance Ensemble, Liz Buehler/Gritty Cherries, and Robin Becker. As well as dancing, Stacy enjoys teaching the Gyrotonic Expansion System and studying various forms of healing techniques. |
| Christine Bard, percussionist, studied Classical percussion and Jazz drumming. Pushing the range and capabilities of percussion in her setups has always been of primary interest in her work. Since moving to NYC, Bard has worked in a lot of NY’s Downtown Music scene, and, like many Downtown musicians, she has ultimately performed a wide range of music, from Downtown Dub and Ambient to orchestra and ensembles at Lincoln Center; New Music at Merkin Hall and Avant Garde music at Contemporary Dance festivals. Her music has toured Europe, Korea, Brazil, Canada and Russia. She has performed solo concerts in Germany, Paris Holland and NYC. Her ensemble work has included the Microtonal Orchestra, the Harry Partch Ensemble, the Crosstown Ensemble, EasSide Percussion, The Trust, Shrek and God is my CoPilot. Christine has also performed and recorded with such artists as Marc Ribot, Steve Swell, Nana Simopoulos, Zeena Parkins, Jim Pugliese, Makigami Koichi, and Marc Feldman with John Zorn. She has been the recipient of several grants from Meet the Composer. In Seattle, she was recorded by NPR while performing the percussion music of (and for) composers Alan Hovhanness and John Cage at their birthday retrospective concerts, which was very influential in Bard's musical development. They passed on a sense of the possibilities for percussion in showing that composition/performance is ultimately illuminating the spirit of anything that can vibrate. |