Mascher Space Co-op

Nicole Bindler – Dawn Ann Bryant – Christ Center for Dance – Marcel Williams Foster – Christina Gesualdi –  Green Chair Dance Group – Emily Lawrence & Tori Herchenroether – Lela Jones – Pink Hair Affair – Emma Morehouse – Kate Speer – Katherine Stark – Annie Wilson

Biographies and Links

Nicole Bindler, Philadelphia based choreographer, improviser, educator and bodyworker, is a body-based performing artist whose work ranges from personal and political commentaries to abstract explorations of form. She has choreographed over twenty original performance works and has performed over 200 improvised dances since 1999. Her work has been shown throughout the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Berlin, Tokyo, Beirut and Quito, Ecuador.

She has been presented by High Zero Festival, Transmodern Age Festival, Shawinigan Street Theater Festival, Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, D.C. Improvisation Festival, Fireside Festival, Performance Mix Festival, nEW Festival, X Fest, Bowerbird, CEC New Edge mix, First Person Arts and Irtijal09’. Her work has been supported by Philadelphia Dance Projects, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and Dance Advance.

Bindler has an extensive somatic education, including a BA in dance from Hampshire College, a degree in Muscular Therapy from the Muscular Therapy Institute and a certificate in Embodied Anatomy Yoga from the School for Body-Mind Centering. She also has many years of private study and practice in Pilates, Feldenkrais and has studied Anatomy Trains with Tom Myers. She has taught New Dance, Improvisation, Contact Improvisation and Experiential Anatomy in Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle and throughout Argentina. She taught massage fundamentals at The Massage Arts Center of Philadelphia and is currently teaching Fundamentals of Dance at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

She has performed in the work of Linda Diamond, Willi Dorner, Katsura Kan, Brenda Divelbliss, Jennifer Hicks, Debra Bluth, Ju-Yeon Ryu, Leah Stein and PIMA Group. She has collaborated with dance artists: Cyrus Khambatta, Hana van der Kolk, Alissa Cardone, Corrie Befort, Gabrielle Revlock, Curt Haworth, and Asimina Chremos, among others. She has also worked with many experimental musicians and visual artists.

Bindler performs in a trombone/movement duo: “Nicole Bindler and Dan Blacksberg teach you the Breathing Gym,” and a sound/movement duo with Andy Hayleck: “When We’re Older.” She is currently working on a dance for the camera “Wave Upon Wave,” directed by composer Gene Coleman, to be screened at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts in April 2011. She is a member Mascher Space Cooperative and curates the StudioSeries at Studio 34 in West Philadelphia. Bindler will participate in Deborah Hay’s Solo Performance Commissioning Project in Findhorn Scotland in August, 2011.

Green Chair Dance Group is a dance-theater company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since its inception, Green Chair has been a uniquely collaborative project, and continually seeks to choreograph highly original movement with a focus on interpersonal relationships, intense physicality, and humor.

Emma Morehouse is from various plains, bays and mountains. She graduated from Bennington College in 2009 and has recently moved to Philadelphia. While living in Vermont she danced for Paul Matteson, Gwen Welliver, and Joseph Poulson. She has studied in Mexico and Japan with Ray Schwatrz and Min Tanaka, respectively. Her own work has been presented at the AUNTS Roadshow in Brooklyn, and at Mascher Co-op in Philadelphia. She also does work in the visual arts.

Christina Gesualdi is originally from Bristol, Pennsylvania.  She has been figuring out “the dance thing” in Philadelphia for eight years now.  A graduate of The University of the Arts, Christina has performed in the work of Curt Hawoth, Silvana Cardel, Meriam Herve-Gil, and Merian Soto.  Christina has recently enjoyed dancing for Zornitsa Stoyanova’s Here[begin] Dance Co., PIMA Group, and readySetGO!.  She is an Artist in Residence and co-administrator at Mascher Space Co-op and has embraced the space and community as an outlet for much of her work.  Her choreography and collaborations with other local dancers has also been shown at The Arbons Art Center in New York, <fidget> space, Plays and Player’s Theatre, and Mount Vernon Dance Space.  She is a founding member of Pink Hair Affair Dance Collective, a group of friends who have supported and bounced ideas off of each other since college graduation.  Through Pink Hair Affair, Christina has had the opportunity to choreograph and perform in numerous works for The Philly Fringe, a site specific work entitled, “In Memory of the Deathtrap”, and short cabaret-style works at bars, clubs, and other awesome nooks and crannies of the city.  She is currently independently choreographing a piece to premiere in the Spring that peels away at layers of attention.  Having studied dance in Germany, New York and North Carolina and tai chi and yoga in Taiwan, Christina is aching to travel some more and fill her creativity, body, and stomach with lovely ideas, images, and delicacies.

Tori Lawrence & Emily Herchenroether (Lawrence-Herchenroether Dance Company) Founded by Franklin & Marshall College graduates (Tori Lawrence & Emily Herchenroether), LHDC is a Philadelphia-based modern dance company that produces the work of site-specific choreographer Tori Lawrence. The Company is comprised of a group of innovative movers, improvisers, architects, videographers, musicians, and choreographers. Constructing environments that stimulate the visual, tactile, and aural sensations, we transform the ordinary into realms that take one far into the extraordinaire– from the proscenium stage to installations, to off-site locations such as factories, elevators, and glass box entranceways, each performance acts as a portal, translocating the viewer to a parallel world. Experimenting with movement, videography, fabric, lighting, text, and other creative elements, we transcend that which is known– venturing far into areas that are unique, rich, and bold.

Pink Hair Affair currently has nine co-directors, residing in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Portland. The collective premiered at the 2007 Philly Fringe Festival, garnering critical acclaim and the “Best Fringe Dance Find” pick by Janet Anderson of City Paper for their shows Mindfall and Speaking of SomeBody. Pink Hair Affair explores the nature of collaboration, aiming to fully support the co-directors’ individual artistry through community and cooperation. In 2008, they created and premiered in memory of the deathtrap, a site specific work directed by Anne MacGillivray Wilson. Other evening-length shows include: oOOoOoOo (Fringe 2008) and A Sympathetic Listener (premiered at the WOW Festival in San Fransisco). Pink Hair Affair’s work ranges from formal to improvisational, humorous to athletic, and conceptual to satirical. The energetic, fluid exchange of ideas within Pink Hair Affair cross-pollinates to forge a new vision of contemporary dance.

Co-directors Christina Gesualdi, Laura Jenkins, Kaleigh Jones, Jackie Koch, Lauren Mathis, Rachel Slater, Christine Steigerwald, Anne MacGillivray Wilson, and Ashley Wood all studied dance at The University of the Arts where they graduated in 2007. In addition to the shows listed above, Pink Hair Affair has made appearances in The 2008 Rockies Award Show, The Mascher Cabaret at National Mechanics, and local band, Jotto’s, music video. The collective looks forward to upcoming opportunities such as: performing a repertoy piece at Contempra Dance at The Painted Bride in May ’09, a collaboration with film-maker Jarryd Meyer, and a Fringe 2009 debut.

Kate Speer’s work ranges from performance and choreography to research scholarship. She holds a BA in dance and biology from Swarthmore College and has studied with such artists as David Dorfman, Michael Foley, Robert Een, Odile Duboc, Leah Stein, and Lisa Kraus. Speer is a 2009-2010 New Edge Mix Artist and an artist-in-residence at Mascher Space Co-op. Currently, she is dancing with Anne Marie Mulgrew and Dancers and Philly Contact Collective. In Philadelphia, she has performed in the 2009 Philly Fringe, Please Touch Museum’s Dancing Days, the first annual GLBT Arts Festival,   and Willi Dorner’s bodies in urban spaces in the 2008 Live Arts Festival. Speer also supports the Philly dance community administratively as General Manager for Leah Stein Dance Company and as an intern for Headlong Dance Theater, the nEW Festival, Group Motion, and Here[begin] Dance. Speer’s newest research project which examines the choreographies of David Dorfman, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Jérôme Bel was presented in 2009 at Dance Under Construction XI Conference at UCLA. Her own choreography has been presented at ETC Performance Series and React/Dance’s South Philly Salon.  (Photo by Deborah Boardman)

Lela Aisha Jones is the Founder and Projects Producer of FlyGround (Movement Education and Artistic Projects). A Tallahassee, Florida native, and a resident of Philadelphia, PA, Lela is a multi-faceted artist with a fluid nomadic foundation.

FlyGround experiences are in a genre of their own. Through rigorously researched music and movement as well as film, we bring together home-grown (US) and international world-renowned artists for arts collaborations that present indelible, contemporary cultural tapestries. Our work is focused on the translineages of Afro peoples world-wide funneled through a grounded, contemporary US vibe–specializing in Afro Pop, Ghanaian, Guinean, and Afro Brasilian cultures. FlyGround has been serving the United States and beyond since 2005 through performances, workshops, and educational residencies and currently curates a new Philadelphia production for emerging African American women choreographers titled The Requisite Movers.

 

 

Katherine Kiefer Stark is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher committed to the belief that the world is socially constructed and that we create rather than merely discover its significances. This philosophy is the driving force behind her work. She also has a quirky sense of humor that comes through in her movement vocabulary, choreography, and teaching style. Katherine received her BA in dance in 2002 from Connecticut College and her MFA in Choreography in 2009 from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Katherine’s work has presented by One Arm Red, American Dance Festival’s Acts to Follow, Choreo Collective, Goose Route Dance Festival, Asheville Fringe Festival, Greensboro Fringe Festival, Fringe Wilmington Festival, Last Mondays, and Etc. Series. Katherine has danced in Connecticut, Philadelphia, New York, West Virginia, Rhode Island, and throughout North Carolina performing contemporary work by various choreographers including John Gamble, Courtney Greer, Lacy James, Luis Lara Malvacias, Meredith Monk, Deganit Shemy, Christina Tsoules Soriano, and BJ Sullivan. She has been a member of CTS Dance, the John Gamble Dance Theatre, and Immediate Theatre – an improvisation collective – as well as collaborating with Courtney Greer.

Katherine taught contemporary dance, dance appreciation, and introduction to dance as a teaching assistant at UNCG. In 2010, she was a guest artist at Enloe High School and the University of Texas, El Paso. Katherine enjoyed teaching release technique at Philly PARD in December and is looking forward to teaching release technique in February and contemporary choreographed partnering with Loren Groenendaal in April.

Katherine is the artistic director of The Naked Stark, a contemporary dance company she founded in 2009. Committed to the philosophy that works of art can stimulate social change, Katherine is interested in creating work that investigates and deconstructs social norms as well as work that explores the relationship of US citizens with the political process. Currently, Katherine is working on Rounds, an interactive solo exploring expectations for herself as girl/woman, and Goodnight War, a metaphorical funeral for war.

Marcel Williams Foster is a recent alumnus of Headlong Performance Institute (on a Post-Baccalaureate Fellowship) and his original choreography was featured in the 2009 Contempradance Collective and the Philadelphia LGBT Artists Festival. As a performer/collaborator he worked with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in Chicago, The Guthrie Theater, Pig Iron Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune and Simba Theatre International in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is interested in using the performing arts as a tool to better understand human behavior. As a former researcher for the Jane Goodall Institute, he hopes that the work he continues to create as an artist will examine behavior with equal rigor as the scientific papers he wrote featured in the American Journal of Primatology, Theater Topics Journal and Nature Magazine.

Dawn Ann Bryant graduated from Kutztown University with a B.F.A. in Related Arts, 1994.  She traveled to San Francisco, were she studied for two years with Leslie Friedman, and performed work created for her while studying with the Lively Foundation.  She then contracted with Maude Baum’s dance theatre, eba, in Albany New York.  Bryant choreographed work for eba during this time. She was given a full scholoarship by Bella Lewitzky for her choreographers’ intensive workshop in Los Angeles in 1996.  She showed work with Glue at the CEC and performed collaborations with University of Penn writing professor Tom Devaney and NY artist Todd DiCurcio for Philadelphia’s First Friday events in 1998 and 2001.  She took a break from dance/performance for the next few years, and earned her M.A. in Dance/Movement Therapy from Drexel University in 2003.  Bryant has performed with PIMA, a dance/performance group in Philadelphia, since 2007.  She has been a featured artist-in-residency at Mascher Space Co-op since 2009, having shown work at Mascher’s Fresh Juice concert November of 2009.  Bryant was part of the Burlesque show at the Annenberg Center January 2010.

Supporting Members and Partners of Mascher

<fidget> is a concept. Collaborators Megan Bridge and Peter Price use body, sound, and visual gesture to create live performance work that is time-based and concept driven: sexy, sci-fi, cybernetic, psychedelic multimedia dance theater. We have created more than a dozen performance works together since 2000; we work and live in a warehouse (thefidget space) in Philadelphia.

Because <fidget>’s work is conceptually driven, each project can be realized in a variety of formats: from fixed works for the theater to site-specific installations, improvisational structures, lecture / demonstrations, and informal gallery and studio presentations. Each work exists as a portfolio of several possible realizations.

Formerly working as Dance by Megan Bridge, Price and Bridge have been creating performance works together since 2000.Peter Price creates digital sonic and visual environments for live performance, and has a long history of collaboration with dance companies, performance artists, and musicians. He is currently researching and writing on the topic of resonance as a PhD candidate at European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Megan Bridge has worked as a dancer with international choreographers such as Jerome Bel, Willi Dorner, Rennie Harris, Lenni Basso/Akiko Kitamura, and Carole Brown. She holds a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase.

Zornitsa Stoyanova (Here[begin] Dance Co) is a native of Bulgaria and holds B.A. in Dance and Sound Design from Bennington College where she studied with Dana Reitz, Eva Kartzag, Susan Sgorbati, Susan Rethorst, Brendan McCall, Paul Matteson, Keith Thompson and Terry Creach. In 2008 she completed

Headlong Performance Institute, a post graduate program in Philadelphia, where she focused on abstract character building, clowning and interactive theatrical performance. That year she had the amazing opportunity to study performance and improvisation with Deborah Hay, and technique with Anouk Van Dijk’s dance company.  She is deeply inspired by those very different approaches and tries to incorporate Anouk’s Countertechnique ideas with Deborah’s performance and state quality.

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, 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,  her native Sofia, Bulgaria, as well as Budapest, Hungary.  Zornitsa also works professionally as a lighting, graphic and web designer and is the Membership and Rentals Coordinator for Mascher Space Cooperative, where she is in residence.

In early 2007 Zornitsa formed Here[begin] Dance Co. out of the need to name all her collaborations and curatorial events.  She is devoted to helping young and emerging choreographers and has used Here[begin] to produce and support just starting choreographers in and around Philadelphia.  She produces Current: an evening of dance and art and Dance Cinema Projects geared specifically to Philadelphia communities. Zornitsa also directs and self produces her own collaborative performances.