Artists

2017 PHILADELPHIA ARTISTS

Lee Fogel – Meg Foley – Loren Groenendaal – Beau Hancock – JungWoong Kim – Julius Masri – Megan Mazarick –  Marion Ramirez – Jenny Sawyer – Zornitsa Stoyanova

Lee Fogel is an ISMETA Registered Somatic Movement Educator, Reiki practitioner, and process-oriented artist with over a decade of experience teaching improvisational dance/movement, body awareness, self-care, and grounded leadership to socially conscious visionaries.  She sees improvisational arts (witnessed, performed, communal) as a powerful context for personal growth and healing for both witness and creator, and is ever-curious about the ways creative process can support community and global transformation.  Lee is the Director and Founder of The Visioning Body and a board member of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.  She has an MA in Dance and Somatic Wellbeing from the University of Central Lancashire, a BA in Dance and Visual Arts from Oberlin College, traditional Reiki training and mentorship, and four years of mission-driven entrepreneurial training.  Throughout all of her work she is devoted to kindling appreciation and respect for the richness of being alive in our bodies.  Learn more about her practice at www.VisioningBody.com

photo by Lindsay Browning

Meg Foley is a Philadelphia-based performer and choreographer and co-creative director of The Whole Shebang, a public dance and collective arts space in South Philly. Her work has been presented locally by Thirdbird, FringeArts Festival, Bowerbird, Vox Populi gallery, Little Berlin Gallery, Icebox Project Space, and outside Philadelphia in NYC, Canada, and Poland. An improviser and a queer person, Foley is interested in the embodied potential for a more pliable sense of self and of relationship. Her dances explore the 24hr body, tracking our identities and emotional experiences to a physical core, placing the experiential act at the center. Working from physical actualities and body‐based research, since 2010 she has developed an improvisational practice, action is primary, where all aspects of the body become material: movement, voice, location, emotion, relationship, attention, herstory, and representation. This research informs tiny daily dances (she has performed a dance everyday at 3:15pm since October 20, 2012) as well as an exhibition of the research in Spring 2016, that will feature self-determined, improvisational solos created collectively by the collaborating performers. Foley is a 2012 Pew Fellow in the Arts and 2012 Independence Foundation Fellow and the first dance artist to be a member of Vox Populi Gallery. She teaches dance improvisation, composition, performance practice, and critical theory at University of the Arts. Foley received a BA in Dance from Scripps College in California in 2004 and a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from Laban Centre London in 2003. www.movingpartsdance.org

Loren Groenendaal is a dancer, improviser, choreographer, movement educator, and curator. She is the founding artistic director for Vervet Dance through which she presents most of her creative work. Groenendaal is Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and holds an MFA in Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a BA in Dance and Visual Arts from Oberlin College. Described as “a playful interrogator of ideas and sensations” by Jonathan Stein of thINKing Dance, Loren Groenendaal is passionate about playing, thinking, and feeling through movement and finds the most immediate liveness in this play during improvisation. As an improviser, she enjoys showing a visual analog to the present sounds, highlighting the space, and interacting with the present life, whether performer, audience, or other life. Groenendaal organizes several improvisation events in the Philadelphia area, the monthly H-O-T Series of Philadelphia, a performance series with improvised music and dance, a weekly contact improvisation (CI) jam, a weekly CI class, and occasionally an Underscore and other Improvisation performances and classes. As an improviser, her performance highlights include Akimbo (MD), the Biennial of Performance and Sound Art in Acton (MA), fall experimental music festival (PA), Floft (MA), Frantasia (ME), the H-O-T Series of Philadelphia (PA), Philly Fringe Festival (PA), Red Room (MD), Sonorium (MA), and XFest (MA). Ongoing collaborations with musicians include flandrew fleisenberg (percussion, PHL) and Melinda Faylor (piano, NYC).  Additionally, she is a dance educator of children and adults with Koresh Dance, Take the Lead Studio, and the University CIty Arts League and has been a guest or adjunct faculty member at Arcadia University, DeSales University, Juniata College, Muhlenburg College, Temple University, University of the Arts, and University of Pennsylvania. She currently dances with Swarthmore College’s Balinese Gamelan Semara Santi, Katherine Kiefer Stark’s The Naked Stark, and Jenny Roe Sawyer’s From the Earth Dance Project and has danced for Philadelphia area companies/artists: the Indonesian Cultural Club, Mereminne Dancers, Philadelphia New Music and Dance Ensemble, and pima group

Beau Hancock is a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Beau earned his MFA in Dance from Temple University, where he was a University Fellow and recipient of the Rose Vernick Choreographic Achievement Award. While at Temple, he assisted Dr. Luke Kahlich with the Liverpool Project, researching the creative process through digital media and in collaboration with Johns Moores University in Liverpool, England. He also received a Temple Provosts Commission on the Arts grant to complete a semester-long study of improvisational performance and collaboration. In 2009, he was the Cleveland Art Prize/Kathryn Karipides Scholarship recipient, a national prize for summer dance study. Beau was a founding member of the Bowery Dancers, a Lawrence, Kansas-based movement collective. He began choreographing in Kansas, receiving his first grant from the Lawrence Arts Commission in 2003 to produce an evening-length work with fellow Bowery Dancer Ellie Goudie-Averill. In 2007, Hancock and Goudie-Averill cemented their working relationship with the founding of Stone Depot Dance Lab, a team of performing artists whose mission is to create honest and experiential dances. Stone Depot will premiere a new work Casual Fridays in mid-February 2012 at the Lawrence Arts Center’s Regional Choreography Festival. Beau’s own choreography has been presented at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Wesbeth Art Gallery, Movement Research at DTW, the Flea Theater, and Chi Movement Arts Center as a part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and the Painted Bride Arts Center as a nEW Festival Artist-In-Residence. In 2010, he presented a site-specific performance in Clark Park, West Philadelphia in conjunction with the Bodies of Text series sponsored by the Philadelphia Center for the Book. Beau was a Choreographic Guest Artist at Georgian Court University and with Catalyst Dance Company at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts High School, and has taught master classes and workshops at the University of Kansas, Indiana University, Wayne State University, Juniata College, Girard College, and Café Dance (in Austin, Texas). He is currently adjunct faculty member at both Temple University and Rowan University. As a performer, Beau has had the pleasure to work with Ben Munisteri Dance Projects, Ellen Cornfield/cornfield dance, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, Merian Soto/Performance Practice, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Bronwen MacArther/MacArther Dance Project, Olive Prince Dance, and Miro Dance Theatre.

Jung Woong Kim was born and raised in South Korea. From a young age he trained for in different kinds of martial arts and korean traditional dances. He became very interested in the energy exchange of the bodies and the movement discipline of protection and play. He graduated from Korea National University of the Arts in Seoul with a degree in choreography. As a dancer he was a member of the Korea, Japan, China Dance Exchange Project 2002, with whom he toured in Asia. In Seoul he collaborated and performed extensively with award winning Trust Dance Company with whom he toured across the Korean country, as well as Kathy Duck’s improvisational group in Amsterdam. His choreographic work has been supported by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture and Arts Council Korea to produce full evening choreographs in a number of Seoul venues in which he has collaborated with visual artists and sound designers. He collaborates with film maker Fred Hatt, in the creation of site-specific films in New York and Philadelphia. His most recent choreographic works have been presented at Asian American Theater Conference at Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia, University of Richmond in Virginia, The Iron Factory and Conwell Dance Theater in Philadelphia; movement research- Judson Church, Flushing Town Hall in New York. Currently he continues to develop his site-specific work and his collaborations with Germaine Ingram, Marion Ramirez and Bohob Rainey. He has a vast experience teaching Contact Improvisation, including a weekly class at the Park Avenue Armory in New York as part of Moving Theater’s residency and guest teaching in numerous universities and centers including Earthdance, University of Richmond, Korea National University of the Arts, Japan’s contact improvisation community classes, Chonbuk National University among other. Currently he teaches CI and co-hosting with Marion Ramirez the monthly jam in Philadelphia. He studies Deep Listening (with Pauline Oliveros) as a member/ performer/ teacher for Leah Stein Dance Company. With this company he performs regularly and has taken part of the teaching artists team through the 3 year dance residency at SLA (high school).

Julius Masri is a multi instrumentalist based in Philadelphia, and is a performer/ composer for the city’s modern dance community at large. Born in Tripoli, Lebanon, he moved to the States in 1990, and picked up drumming a year later. He studied with famed Philadelphia instructors Carl Mottola and Elaine Hoffman Watts, and, as an undergrad at Bard College, AACM’s Thurman Barker, Richard Teitelbaum, and grammy award winner Joan Tower. As a drummer, Julius can be seen playing in such bands as hasidic punk group Electric Simcha, psychotic Ragtime duo Mahogany Stompers, free-rock trio Lionshead, thrash metal duo Night Raids, Van Sutra with guitarist George Draguns, and improv situations with reedist Keir Neuringer, guitarist Nick Millevoi, and many more. He also performs on circuit modified keyboards in duos such as Superlith, with Trombonist Dan Blacksberg (Deveykus, Anthony Braxton Quartet), Thurman Barker duo, and electronic music phenoms Charles Cohen and Joo Won Park. In the past few years, he has also focused on Arabic music, bringing his personal experiences into the musical language. A number of choreographed pieces he has performed and/or composed music for include: Pia Mater, by Nicole Bindler May 2012; SHARE!, by Gabrielle Revlock Nov 2012; Onliest, by Curt Haworth May 2012, Nov 2013; DESTROY//, by Leyya Mona Tawil May 2013, (Takoma Park/DC Chapter); Centurion, by Gregory Holt Nov 2013; and You & Me, by Tara Rynders Sept 2014.

Megan Mazarick is an American choreographer, teacher and dancer. Her choreographic research has been supported by Cairo’s Contemporay Dance Night (2014), Poland’s Stary Browar Art Stations (2013), Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Next Stage Residency (2013), an Independence Fellowship (2011), Live Arts Brewery Fellowship (2010-2011), Susan Hess Choreographer Project (2209-2010) and CEC’s New Edge Residency (2009). Her choreography has been presented most frequently in Philadelphia (Live Arts Festival, nEW Festival, Philadelphia Dance Projects, PARD, etc.) and New York City (Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, Dance New Amsterdam). She has also toured work internationally (Egypt, Poland, and Australia) and throughout the US (San Francisco, Minneapolis, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and West Virginia). She has performed with Keith Thompson, Marianela Boan, Merian Soto, Anonymous Bodies, and members of Lower Left. She has her MFA from Temple University, her BFA from UNCG, and currently teaches at Rowan University.

photo by Bill Hebert

Marion Ramirez is a Puerto Rican dance artist. She is interested in collaboration and the practice of improvisation as a way to bridge movement languages, empower self-knowledge, relate and respond to cultures, people and different environments. She graduated from the Laban Center in London, UK with a BA in dance studies and was a University Fellow at Temple University in Philadelphia where she completed an MFA in Dance, with a focus in Community Arts. Marion is particularly interested in choreographing interdisciplinary work in which she incorporates and plays with her formal training in contact improvisation, contemporary dance, baile popular (Latin American social dances), flamenco, physical theater, pantomime, ballet, martial arts training and somatic movement practices, such as Body-Mind-Centering, Kinetic Awareness. Throughout the years she has performed her own work and collaborated with inspiring choreographers by touring venues and locations in Puerto Rico, Cuba, UK, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, South Korea and the US. As a performer she currently collaborates with Merian Soto and Jungwoong Kim. She was a year long artist in residency 2007 at the Hyo Jung Dance School in South Korea and will be Artist in Residence Spring 2015 at The Iron Factory in Philadelphia. Most recently she directed and performed Musa Paradisiaca a full evening performance involving cooking, live music and delicious dancing which she continues to develop and expand. For more information- www.marionramirez.com.

Jenny Roe Sawyer is a choreographer, improviser and dance artist who has been practicing dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She first fell in love with improvisation 15 years ago while a student at Oberlin College and has since studied with many great teachers like Nancy Stark Smith, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, KJ Holmes, Kirstie Simpson and The Architects. She has performed improvisation in and around Philadelphia since 2005 as part of Amnesiac Music and Dance, The Philly Contact Collective, the H-O-T Series, the Studio Series and the Falls Bridge Improvisation Festival, among others. Jenny is also the founder of From The Earth, a dance company whose mission is to connect humans more deeply to the natural world. From The Earth creates original site-specific choreography and offers outdoor nature-based movement classes and workshops. These experiences are designed to offer participants meaningful ways to re-connect to nature through their own physical, emotional and somatic experiences. From The Earth’s latest work UPSTREAM premiered in the water of the Wissahickon Creek in 2012 and was presented at the Morris Arboretum in 2013. www.jrosawyer.blogspot.com

photo by Bill Hebert

Zornitsa Stoyanova is a performance artist based in Philadelphia, PA. A native of Bulgaria, she holds B.A. in Dance and Sound Design from Bennington College, VT. After concluding her studies in VT she moved to Philadelphia, where she started creating, producing and presenting performing art and video under the name Here[begin] Dance. In 2008 Zornitsa was a fellow with Headlong Performance Institute, where she focused on abstract character building, clowning and interactive theatrical performance. Later that year she studied with Deborah Hay.  Her studies with Hay sparked a new interest in performance presence and deconstruction of communication.  Since then, Zornitsa has sought out professional development opportunities researching art practices in abstracting the body and looking for potential for meaning. She has studied with Miguel Gutierrez, Michelle Boule, Ishmael Houston Jones, Fay Driscoll, Luciana Achugar, Danny Lepkoff amongst others. In 2011 she was an invited artist in Meet the Next Generation program, part of eXplore Dance Festival in Bucharest, Romania, where she studied with Meg Stewart. This influenced her tremendously and furthered her research in identifying abstracted gestural movement and theatrical presence.  Mylar reflective material and custom lighting are integral part of her most recent work and in September 2015, she is starting a yearlong residency at <fidget> space in Philadelphia. Zornitsa also teaches improvisation technique for performance and has done so in Philadelphia, France and recently in her native Bulgaria. Since moving to Philadelphia, Zornitsa has choreographed and performed numerous dances, improvisations and human installations.  Her work has been presented by Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts, Bowerbird, NEXUS Gallery, The New Edge Mix Festival, Etc. Series, StudioSeries, Inhale Performing Series, The A.W.A.R.D. Show! Philadelphia, Spiel Hhr, New York Dance Exchange as well as Mascher Artist in Residency show.  Apart from Philadelphia, she has also shown work at Joyce SoHo, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church in NYC, Hubbart Hall in Cambridge, NY, Wanted Festival in Rennes, France, her native Sofia, Bulgaria, as well as Budapest, Hungary.  Zornitsa has danced with Emergent Improvisation Project, based in Vermont, Lionel Popkin Dance, Group Motion Dance, Idiosyncrazy Productions, <fidget>, Nicole Bindler and others in Philadelphia.

FORMER ARTISTS


Adam Kerbel is a dance and theatre artist who thrives on collaboration and improvisation. Originally from the northern Los Angeles area, Adam trained in acting in New York City and works additionally in Philadelphia, PA in experimental and ensemble-created performance works. He maintains ongoing artistic relationships in several US cities. He is a founding member of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, an emerging physical performance company whose playful honesty invites audiences to witness the humility of their ensemble. Adam is also an artists in resident at Mascher Space Cooperative, a home for new dance in Philadelphia. He has been an actor since 2012 with Applied Mechanics, an ensemble of artists that collaborate to make work that challenges conventional ideas of theatrical space, narrative, and audience. He has also performed as both an actor and dancer with Opera Philadelphia, Moth Dance-Theater, Amelia Charter, and KJ Holmes.

Asimina Chremos was born in Toronto, Canada. Her mother was raised in Virginia, and her father is a native of Central Greece. Since childhood, Chremos has brought playful curiosity and incisive intelligence to her exploration of dance as a creative practice, lifestyle, career, and evolving philosophy. She began her artistic career as a ballet dancer and has since moved into improvisational and experimental dance, often performing with improvising musicians.  Over the years, she has gained depth from study and practice in Bartenieff Fundamentals, Butoh, Body-Mind Centering, Contact Improvisation, Feldenkrais Method, Klein-Mahler Technique, Shambhala Buddhism, and various styles of yoga.  Asimina Chremos is a dancer/artist with interest in the continua between form and flow, nature and culture, repetition and change, and discipline and pleasure. Asimina also creates works of freeform lace crochet. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

ITALY  ARTISTS

Interpreti Spazio Seme

Leonardo Lambruschini
Danzatore e performer, insegna Contact Improvisation. Conduce laboratori sperimentali di movimento e improvvisazione per bambini e adulti in italia e all’estero. Co-fondatore di Spazio Seme Centro Artistico Internazionale per la produzione artistica, formazione, ricerca e sperimentazione sulle arti in movimento. È co-organizzatore dell’ItalyContactFest, festival italiano di contact improvisation. Organizza workshop intensivi internazionli di contact improvisation. Tra le ultime produzioni di teatro danza realizzate: “La Guardia del Corpo” con Francesco Botti ed Eleonora Ciampelli, “DEO GRATIAS” con Francesco Botti, “Contacto” con Abraham Hernandez, “Tarantella Rituale” con Gianni Bruschi e “Cimosa” con Caterina Testi (tutte produzioni Spazio Seme).

Gianni Bruschi
Cantante e attore, conduce corsi e laboratori su voce, movimento espressivo e teatro, oltre a seminari spettacolo interculturali sia in Italia che all’estero. Tiene laboratori di arte scenica ispirati alla ricerca sulla cultura popolare italiana e in particolare su tarantismo, canti e danze del Mediterraneo (Spazio Seme e Accademia dell’Arte di Arezzo, Goucher College – Baltimora, Boston University, Mulenberg College – Philadelphia). Con una carriera trentennale di attività teatrale e concertistica alle spalle, dal 2001 Partendo da una formazione su Belcanto e canto Lirico con Slavka Taskova Paoletti, classici del Jazz con Silvano Grandi, canto Soul/Spiritual/Gospel con Nehemia Brown e “The Human Voice” con Kaya Anderson, Kevin Crawford (Roy Hart Center), si è esibito e ha diretto laboratori in Festival e teatri sia in Italia che all’estero: Stati Uniti, Francia, Irlanda, Tunisia, Egitto, Marocco, Albania, Grecia, India.

Francesco Botti
Attore e scrittore. Ha studiato presso “Scuola D’arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi” e si occupa di teatro di narrazione e di improvvisazione. Drammaturgo e autore di narrativa ha pubblicato nel 2011 il suo primo libro “Di corsa, di nascosto” (Guanda Editore). Co-fondatore di Spazio Seme Centro Artistico Internazionale per la produzione artistica, formazione, ricerca e sperimentazione sulle arti in movimento, conduce corsi e laboratori di recitazione, comunicazione e improvvisazione.  Tra le ultime produzioni “DEO GRATIAS” con Leonardo Lambruschini e “PIZZA, MAMMA e MANDOLINO” con Enzo Ferraro.

Catherina Gynt
Danzatrice, performer e pittrice. Si laurea in Arti Performative a Torino, dove collabora come assistente alla regia e coreografa dei maestri Don Marasigan e Philippe Pierson. Dal 2013 collabora come performer con il centro artistico internazionale Spazio Seme di Arezzo, partecipando ad alcune produzioni teatrali quali “Cimosa” (spettacolo per tutta la famiglia al fianco di Leonardo Lambruschini)  e “Tarantella Rituale” (spettacolo di teatro danza a cura di Gianni Bruschi). Dal 2015 fa parte del corpo docenti dell’ADA (American Academy of Arts) Arezzo, per il corso di teatro danza tarantismo.

Matilde Bignamini
Danzatrice e performer. Ricerca forme differenti di movimento e d’espressione tra cui la musica e la danza creativa che pratica fin da piccolissima (1996) con Donata Zocca. Si diploma all’istituto tecnico ITSOS ALBE STEINER come fotografa. Comincia il suo percorso attraverso il circo contemporaneo danzando su funi e tessuti (all’associazione Lab. Quattrox4). Studia Teatro Danza con Clelia Moretti e Release Tecnique con Maddalena Borasio e Enzo Procopio. Nel 2013 frequenta la Formazione di danza ricerca contemporanea ARTISHOKE a Milano, per poi partire verso il nord Europa  (Bruxelles, Amsterdam, Francia e Berlino) a continuare la sua formazione in danza studiando con  insegnanti/coreografi di fama internazionale tra i quali Gabriella Maiorino, Germán Jauregui (Ultima Vez), Jeremy Nelson, Baris Mihci  e Frey Faust (Axis Syllabus), Mei-Tal, Ohad Naharin. Danza in varie performance di danza contemporanea e d’improvvisazione. È stata selezionata per il percorso formativo/performativo al Tanzfabrik di Berlino.

Mario Ghezzi
Performer e insegnante di yoga, vive e lavora in Toscana. Si forma con C.Zerbey e A.Certini di Company Blu e numerosi insegnanti di contact e improvvisazione tra cui L.Nelson, N.Little, KJ Holmes, K. Simson, J.Hamilton, M.Keogh. In quest’ultimo periodo l’interesse per l’improvvisazione è attirato dalla danza Butoh, che studia con A.Takenouchi.
Yoga, tai chi, meditazione, anatomia esperienziale, sono gli elementi che influenzano la sua pratica e le sue lezioni di contact improvisation.Da anni insegna regolarmente contact e yoga, collabora a progetti di improvvisazione in teatro e site specific con danzatori, attori e musicisti. Mario è co-organizzatore dell’ItalyContactFest, festival italiano di contact improvisation.

Chiara Zompa
È nata e attualmente vive a Bologna. Dopo tanti anni dedicati al pattinaggio artistico, scopre la danza contemporanea e il teatro fisico. Parallelamente al suo percorso universitario in antropologia culturale, approfondisce lo studio del floor work e della release techinque, oltre ad arricchirsi con esperienze di acrobatica e di contact improvisation. Viaggia tra Italia, Belgio, Spagna e Portogallo per seguire gli insegnamenti di Bruno Caverna, David Zambrano (Flying Low),  Luke Jessop e Jorge Jauregui Allue (repertorio Ultima Vez), Javier Cura e Leilani Weiss (Contact Improvisation), Atsushi Takenouchi (Butoh), Charlotte Zerbey e Alessandro Certini (Companyblu). Negli ultimi anni amplia il suo vocabolario espressivo praticando arti marziali quali la capoeira angola e l’ yi chuan ed intraprende un percorso di studio dell’Axis Syllabus con Lucia Palladino e Frey Faust.

TORONTO ARTISTS
Coming in late Fall of 2016.
If you are a dancer with extensive experience in contact improvisation and modern improvisational dance, please contact us.