Mascher Space Co-op

An Evening of Improvisation and Community-oriented Works-in-Progress

About Moderator Brigitta Herrmann:

Brigitta Herrmann, dancer, choreographer has been creating works since 1962, integrating dance, music, media and text into a style uniquely her own. A native of Germany she graduated from the Mary Wigman School of Dance in Berlin. As choreographer she received Fellowship Awards from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for her outstanding work as artistic director and choreographer for the Group Motion Company and Ausdruckstanz Theater. She has performed and taught extensively, travelling throughout the US and Europe. While completing her MA in Somatic Psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, as co-director and facilitator of the Group Motion Workshop her commitment to the creative process is ongoing and her passion for artistic expression persists through independent choreography and performance.

The Choreographers…

About Nicole Bindler:

Nicole Bindler, (b.1977) BA., LMT., is an experimental dance artist whose work ranges from complex personal and political commentaries to abstract explorations of form. Her movement vocabulary is inspired by her studies of Modern Dance, Butoh, Contact Improvisation, Yoga, Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais and Martial Arts.

She has choreographed over fifteen original dance works and has performed over 100 improvised dances in cities throughout the U.S., Canada, Argentina and In Berlin. Some notable venues include, Links Hall, Williamsburg Art neXus, The Joyce Soho, The Somerville Theater, The Creative Alliance, The Theater Project, The Kennedy Center.
In August 2004, her solo “Places I’ve Never/Been” was performed in Quito, Ecuador by dancer, Stephanie Sherman.

Bindler has performed in The High Zero Festival, The Transmodern Age Festival, The Shawinigan Street Theater Festival, The Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, the D.C. Improvisation Festival, the Performance Mix Festival and the nEW Festival.

Bindler holds a degree in Muscular Therapy from the Muscular Therapy Institute and a BA in Dance and Poetry from Hampshire College. Some of her most influential teachers have been Wendy Woodson, Felice Wolfzahn, Cathy Caraker, Rythea Kaufman, Jessica Newman, Deborah Butler, Debra Bluth and David Brick.

She has taught New Dance, Improvisation, Contact Improvisation and Experiential Anatomy in Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia and throughout Argentina. She teaches Contact Improvisation at Susan Hess Studio in Philadelphia. She also teaches massage fundamentals at the Massage Arts Center in Philadelphia.

Bindler has performed in the work of Linda Diamond, Heather Azano-Brown, Brenda Divelbliss, Jennifer Hicks, Debra Bluth, Ju-Yeon Ryu, Leah Stein, Zaitoun Dance Troupe and has collaborated with dancers Hana van der Kolk, Lailye Weidman, Alli Ross, Joe Burgio, Daniel Abraham, Teresa Czepiel, Jessica Newman, Melisa Putz, John Luna, Emily Sweeney, Ayako Kato and Asimina Chremos.

She has worked with many experimental musicians including Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley, Jonathan Vincent, Vic Rawlings, Mike Bullock, John Berndt, Katt Hernandez, Chris Cooper, Kyle Bruckmann, Ernst Karel, Axel Dorner, Andrea Neumann, Annette Krebs, Dan Breen, Andy Hayleck, Kristen Toedtman, Audrey Chen, Le Quan Ninh, Carol Genetti, Susan Alcorn, Sean Meehan, Kate Porter, Helena Espvall, Leonel Kaplan, Leandro Barzabal, Tim Feeney, Jack Wright, James Ilgenfritz, Tim Albro, Gene Coleman, Raed Yassin, Christine Sehnaoui, Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui, The Signal Quintet, Gregory Reynolds and Reuben Radding among others, and with visual artists, Janene Higgins, Walter Wright, Paul Santoleri and Bilwa.

Bindler recently completed a dance for the camera, “Rosemary, That’s for Remembrance”, with collaborator, Loren Groenendaal. She is a member of the Spontaneous Performing Artists Network, dances with PIMA Group and she directs the 20 member company: “Amnesiac Music and Dance”, formerly the Philadelphia New Dance and Music Ensemble, which was featured in the Sept 2006 issue of Philadelphia Magazine.
About Jodi Netzer:

JODI NETZER is a multi-faceted Performing Artist (Dance, Theater, Stilt-Dancing, Puppetry & Masks, Installation Performance), freelance
Graphic Designer, Video Artist and Editor, Sound Collagist, Poet, and Visual Artist. As part of Jodi’s many endeavors, she was the Founder,
Artistic Director, Programmer, and Featured Performing Artist for The Bumpin’ Big Top, a circus that ran for 2 years during the Philadelphia
Fringe Festival. Graphic design credits include Art Director of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Book Designer for Whirlwind Press, and
Graphic Designer for many other artists and non-profits. Video credits include creating projections for Group Motion Dance Company and a Dance Film presented in Dance Boom!. Jodi has worked with Spiral Q Puppet Theatre and Bread & Puppet in addition to touring nationwide with puppet shows. She also was the lead organizer of the famous puppet-making warehouse that was preemptively shut down during the 2000 Republican National Convention demonstrations. Jodi has an eclectic improvisational dance theater movement style that closely resembles Butoh with Modern and African dance influences. Her work is often community based and participatory with themes of interconnectivity, holistic health and well-being, environmental issues, socio-political awareness and arts advocacy – utilizing the arts as creative communication and expression for cultural unification and intellectual enhancement. Jodi often collaborates with Michael B. Schwartz (murals, painting, drawing, arts education, community arts organizing) on local and national projects, workshops and presentations. For more info, contact Jodi at 267.334.7857.

About Mark O’Maley & Liz Staruch:

Reactionaries are a pick up company that strives to create visually motivated work in relationship to architecture and space while challenging the typical norms of dance and theater presentation. Past work includes MULTI-FAMILY GARAGE SALE at the Crane Art Center, NEW SLANG: EVERYTHING LOOKS PERFECT FROM FAR AWAY for the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, WHEN WILL YOU COME HOME at the Wilma’s DanceBOOM!, and DYING TO LEAVE for Brat Productions’ CAUSEWAY series.
www.reactionaries.org

A native of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, Mark has been Working in both lighting & scenic design for the past 16 years. Mark is the recipient of an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, and his work has been recognized with a 2006 Barrymore nomination (‘Outstanding Lighting Design’) for PLANETARY ENZYME BLUES with New Paradise Laboratories, as well as “Best Lighting Design” of the season by Philadelphia Weekly for 2000’s MISSION TO MERCURY for Pig Iron Theatre Company, 2002’s BRITNEY’S INFERNO with Headlong Dance Theater, and 2003’s THE GATE with Brian Sanders’ Junk was given honorable mention. In Philadelphia he has designed a wide range of projects with venues & artists including the Prince Music Theater, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Contemporary Stage Company, Brat Productions, The Bald Mermaids, Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theater, Chris Aiken, Peter Bingham, The Grand Opera House, Amtrak’s 30th Street Station, Moxie Dance Collective, Danny Hoch, The Wilma Theater, The Painted Bride and the Philadelphia Fringe/Live Arts Festival.

In New York City his credits include off-Broadway at LaMaMa E.T.C. & The Pearl Theatre Company, as well as projects at P.S. 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ohio Theater/Ice Factory Festival, The Joyce Theater, Flea Theater & HERE. Nationally and internationally his credits include work for American Repertory Theater, Northlight Theatre, River North Chicago Dance Company, Spencer/Colton Dance, 7 Stages, SummerStages Dance, Pilobolus, David Dorfman, Boston Ballet, Boston Playwright’s Theater, Portland Stage Company, Gloucester Stage Company, Harris Theater for Music & Dance (Chicago), Boston Center for the Arts, Orpheum Theatre/PhoenixStages, Naples Philharmonic Center, Dance Chicago, the United Kingdom’s Brighton Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, & Sadler Wells’ (West End), Italy’s Ravenna Teatro and Colombia’s Festival Imberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota.

Liz Staruch joined the Department of Theatre & Dance at West Chester University in the fall of 2004. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she is the faculty choreographer for WCU’s musical theatre productions, and received a national commendation for her choreography of Hair! by the American College Theatre Festival in 2005. Liz has worked in all aspects of theatre and dance as a choreographer, actor, dancer, lighting designer, and stage manager. She has toured with the North Carolina Dance Festival, the Greensboro Ballet, and was Company Manager for Group Motion Dance Theatre in Philadelphia. Before coming to WCU, she was on the faculty of DeSales University, Elon University (NC), The School of the Greensboro Ballet, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro where she received her M.F.A. in Choreography.

Byron Karabatsos (collaborator) is a Philadelphia based filmmaker. His work blurs the boundaries between fictional and documentary forms in an attempt to tell personal and engaging stories that leave viewers asking questions about the world in which they live.

His films have screened and won awards at several domestic and international festivals, including: the 25th annual Big Muddy Film Festival, the 25th annual Denver International Film Festival, the 10th annual Kansas City Filmmaker’s Jubilee, San Francisco’s Short Film Festival and Platforma International Video Festival in Athens, Greece. He’s also a recipient of grants from Philadelphia’s Independent Film and Video Association (PIFVA), Temple University, and Microsoft.

He received an MFA from Temple University’s Film Program. He also holds a BA and MPP from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He teaches film courses at Temple University, University of the Arts and La Salle University in Philadelphia.

His most recent film, 4021 PARKSIDE AVE., combines his passion for making films with his desire to effect social change.

About Erica Saben:

Erica Saben holds her BA in dance from SUNY Brockport and a graduate certificate in Jamaican dance and culture from Edna Manley College. She has performed with various groups including Buffalo Contemporary Dance, Amy Taravella Improvisation Ensemble, and The Diaspora Drum and Dance Ensemble. Since coming to Philadelphia in 2006 she has performed with “Miro Dance Theatre” and “The Opera Company of Philadelphia.” She is currently dancing with “Latin Nation Dance Company” and “The Give and Take Jugglers.” Erica’s solo works have been performed at various festivals including the Rochester Soundscape Society’s “Noise Awareness Days.”