2006 Dance

July 27th, 28th, & 29th, at 6pm

Austin Dixon

Originally from North Carolina, Austin received her BFA in dance, Cum Laude, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is currently working towards a masters’ degree in traditional oriental medicine at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.

Between classes, Austin dances, choreographs, and teaches yoga. She has worked with such choreographers as Ann Robideaux, Amanda Selwyn, Alexx Shillings, and Gaetan Pettigrew. Austin has just begun to show her own work in NY and looks forward to what the future holds for her.

July 27th, 28th, & 29th, at 6pm

The Erica Essner Performance Co-op

Originally from New York, Erica Essner attended Bard College for Dance Composition and received her BA in Art & Social Change at the New College in San Francisco. Her dance training includes: graduate studies at Mills College, and technique training with the Merce Cunningham Foundation, NY; Academy of Ballet; and Alonzo King, Margaret Jenkins, Ellie Klopp, Joe Goode, Ellen Webb, and Janice Garrett.

Most recently, Essner was selected for The Bessie Schonberg Choreographers Residency at The Yard 2005. Essner has been a recipient of the CASH grant for her work in collaboration with long-time composer Erik Ian Walker; together they created over ten works for the stage. This summer, her work will be presented as a part of the Inside/Out series at Jacob’s Pillow.

July 27th, 28th, & 29th, at 6pm

InkBoat

Shinichi Koga has twisted and turned from physical theatre to dance to photography to filmmaking. His investigation of body and the pre-expressive state grips the work throughout. Since age 8, judo training under his father, 5 year US champion Yuzo Koga. Suzuki Theatre training (flavors of Noh, Kabuki, Flamenco…) under Yukihiro Goto. Butoh training developed under Akeno Ashikawa, Akira Kasai, and Koichi and Hiroko Tamano.

In 1988, Shinichi founded and directed the Vox Theatre Performance Group in San Luis Obispo, Ca, producing numerous theatre/dance works combining video, puppets, and live performers. He taught and directed children’s theatre in San Francisco over 5 years. His film entitled “The Onion Cellar” played at the SF Roxie Theatre as part of the 1993 FAF Independent Film Festival. Shinichi currently directs and choreographs Ink Boat in the San Francisco Bay Area, touring occasionally in Europe and Japan.

July 27th, 28th, & 29th, at 6pm

Tara Madsen

Tara Madsen, originally from New Jersey, earned her MFA in Performance and Choreography from Smith College in May of 2006. She is currently living in Philadelphia and performing with the Tania Isaac Dance Company. Tara has performed her solo choreography at various venues such as the American College Dance Festival, PS 122 in NYC, the Solar Powered Dance Festival 2005 in NYC, The Monterey Dance Fest in California, The Durham Arts Council in North Carolina and The 28th International Choreographer’s Showcase in Barcelona and Madrid.

This August, her duet “One” will be performed at the International Choreographers Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland presented by Dance-Forms Productions. In May of 2004 she received her BA in Dance from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania where she was awarded the “Outstanding Choreographer Award.” Tara is thrilled to be invited back again this year.

July 27th, 28th, & 29th, at 6pm

Kayoko Sakoh

Kayoko Sakoh is a native of Japan. She started her dance career with Mihoko Yamada in Kagoshima, Japan, where she won a ‘New Artistic Talent’ award. In Japan, Ms. Sakoh had choreographed, performed, and taught dance for both children and adults. Since coming to New York, she has studied at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and with Dr. Alfredo Corvino.

Ms. Sakoh has performed with Kristin Jackson Dance, Chen & Dancers, Ernesta Corvino’s Dance Circle Company and others. Since 1993, she has been a member of Rod Rodgers Dance Company. The pieces choreographed by Ms. Sakoh in New York have been performed at the Theater for New City, LaMama, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York University, Dance Space, the HERE Arts Center and BAX.

August 3rd, 4th, & 5th, at 6pm

Chris Ferris

Chris Ferris is the artistic director of Chris Ferris & Dancers, the curator for the SWEAT Modern Dance Series, and the coordinator for SWEAT Outdoors. She has been presenting her choreography and dancing in the New York area for over nineteen years. Her work is based on an exploration of movement from a sculptural, dynamic and emotional point of view. Its focus is to bring you design in space and time with a human element.

Her works have been presented at The Cunningham Studio, Dance Conversations at the Flea, Wave of Humanity, International Dance Festival, d.u.m.b.o. Dance Festival, Movement Research, Oasis, Fielday, Broome Street Corner Studio, Junnifer Muller/the Works, University Settlement, the 92nd St. Y, and many other venues.

August 3rd, 4th, & 5th, at 6pm

Meryl Green & Dimitra Reber

Meryl Green, born and raised in Worcester, MA, came to New York following graduation from Bennington College in 1961. She has been dancing, choreographing and teaching in the greater metropolitan area since she arrived. Following long stints at Marymount School in Manhattan and Greenwich Academy in Connecticut while also teaching at Y’s and many other studios, schools and community centers, she is presently Artistic Director of a multi-generational dance improv group in Greenwich, CT which has met weekly for 20 years . MAC (Moving Arts Collaborative) is always open to people who enjoy finding new ways to express themselves in movement. Meryl also leads a movement group at the Manhattan Mental Health Center. Recently, she has enjoyed working on a couple of articles about moving for NYC Plus, a New York newspaper for people over 50 edited by her daughter, Jennie Green. Read about troublesome feet and dancing at home by visiting NYCPlus.com

Dimitra Reber is Professor Emerita in Dance at Antioch College where she developed and directed the dance program for 31 years. She grew up in N.Y.C. studying at the New Dance Group Studio, went to the High School of Performing Arts and then to Bennington college where she and Meryl Green were students in dance together. After Bennington Meryl and Dimi danced together in N.Y. with Sophie Maslow and collaborated with 4 other dancer/choreographers to make a company called Repertory for Six. At Antioch she continued to perform and choreograph in the area and shared direction of an improvisational company called Dance Exchanges. Alexander Technique and other somatic practices became an important part of her personal growth and teaching. She currently teaches “Body Learning”,an eclectic practice drawing heavily on her Alexander work, as a private practice. She also sings Balkan music with a group of women in Yellow Springs Ohio, guest teaches in dance and works on the preservation of greenspace in and around the town.

August 3rd, 4th, & 5th, at 6pm

Mare Hieronimus

Maré Hieronimus is an interdisciplinary dance/performance artist whose work weaves together her interests in movement, light, sound, and the visual image. Before moving to New York in the fall of 2003 to attend graduate school in Dance at Sarah Lawrence College, she lived and worked in Washington DC. In 2003 she was a recipient of an Individual Artist Award in Choreography through the Maryland State Arts Council for her multimedia work surfacing, which included twenty plaster sculptures set by the performers, as well as video projection. While in DC she also collaborated with site specific dance artist Jane Jerardi to create her second multimedia piece, close.

Maré received her BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, and continues to be inspired by the visual medium. She is also a Certified Movement Analyst through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, which greatly informs her working process. She would like to thank Tamar Rogoff and the Solar One Powered Dance Festival, Elyse Sparkes, Marcy Schlissel, Sharon Mansur and William Catanzaro.

August 3rd, 4th, & 5th, at 6pm

RETTOCAMME

Emma Cotter received a BFA from the University of Michigan and has had works presented at the Construction Company, chashama, Jennifer Muller/the Works, Bowery Poetry Club, and the 92nd St. Y Fridays at Noon.

In February 2005, her dance group RETTOCAMME presented its debut season, Treading Water, at the Wings theater in the West Village and in May 2005 RETTOCAMME was presented as guest artists by Ellen Stakes Shadle/Danceworks, performing four works by Emma Cotter at Merce Cunningham Studios. More recently, RETTOCAMME has appeared in the chashama OASIS festival on 42nd St. and at a Renaissant Arts artist salon in SoHo. In February 2006, they presented a lecture demonstration and master class at the University of Michigan Dance Department. Emma was also the spring dance artist in residence at Greenwich Academy in Greenwich, CT.

August 3rd, 4th, & 5th, at 6pm

Adam Scher

Adam Scher, a Los Angeles native, began his dance training under Janet Rosten and the Advanced Dance Theater Group. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

By exploring the complexities of human emotions and relationships, Scher creates work that is highly accessible to his audience. He presents a versatile repertoire where each piece investigates different components of the human psyche. Drawing from many learned disciplines, Scher’s choreography embodies a wide range of movement styles from ballet to African dance. Using set movement phrases he directs his dancers through improvisational studies, which then become the skeleton for his works. Though a narrative arc carries many of his works, he takes advantage of this wide variety of movement vocabulary to deconstruct literal meanings and allow for personal interpretation.