PELE BAUCH is a choreographer and arts manager. Pele joined The Field in 2004 after benefiting from its programs for six years. From 2001 to 2004, Pele was Development Officer for government and individual support at The Joyce Theater Foundation. She has also held development positions at the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Young Dancers in Repertory. As a choreographer, Pele presented a sold-out season at Joyce SoHo this past July. Her choreography has been selected for presentation at many venues including HERE’s 2002 American Living Room and the Best of the American Living Room, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Danspace Project at St. Marks Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, Performance Space 122, Dixon Place, and BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Pele pronounces her name "pelly." http://www.pelebauch.blogspot.com/

 

PATRICIA BURGESS is a composer, producer and musician. Her multi-media production Reflections of the Watermoon was presented by World Music Institute and Mutable Music at Merkin Concert Hall. It featured Joan La Barbara as Amelia Earhart. Other works include the opera, The Dream of the Four Directions, and music for theater classics including The Seagull. Collaborations with Ariane Smith include Lysistrata-The Human Cartoon, The Decameron and The Venus Cycle. Burgess studied composition with Dr. Dominick Argento, jazz with Dr. Ruben Haugen and Dr. Joe Viola and world music with Jerry Granelli. She worked with the Art Ensemble of Chicago in the study of new music. She served as Resident Composer for the Independent Theater Company of New York. She currently works at The Field as the Finance Manager.

 

AUDRA DIAHANN LANG welcomed the opportunity to continue her service to New York City’s performing arts community by joining The Field staff as Manager of the Sponsored Artist Program in 2007. Audra received a crash course in the challenging needs of independent performing artists, while working with the multi-disciplinary, Williamsburg art space CAVE. In 2004, she helped CAVE make the transition from a studio/gallery space, supported financially by the artists-in-residence, to a non-profit organization. Along with assisting in the day-to-day administration of CAVE’s gallery space and four artist studios, she managed a year-long residency program for Vietnamese artists sponsored by The Ford Foundation and produced the 2nd New York Butoh Festival (NYBF). In the first year of fundraising ever for the NYBF, she secured grants from the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, MAP Fund, Goethe-Institute, and the Japan Foundation; corporate support from UNIQLO clothing, Sapporo Beer, and the Village Voice; and co-presented events with the Japan Society, Yale University, Purchase College, the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Pancetta Movement, and Theater for the New City. Prior to CAVE, Audra primarily worked within the visual arts community, including work for Paris-based Yukiko Kawase Gallery, NY-based M.Y. Art Prospects, and the art magazines, Art & Auction, the International Guide to Art Fairs & Antique Shows and the contemporary Flash Art. She attended Barnard College/Columbia University focusing on East Asian Religious Study and Sanskrit.

 

MICHAEL HELLAND loves to make dances and stuff like dances. While studying Community & Environmental Planning and Dance at the University of Washington he began exploring the role of live performance in contemporary society and has been developing a unique body of work that addresses the human body in relation to the communal body. As a Brooklyn-based dance artist, originally from Seattle, his choreographic work has been presented in venues across New York City and beyond, including Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Joyce SoHo, and Studio 303 (Montreal) among others. In May 2007 Michael presented his first full-evening work, THE DRESS UP SHOW, an interactive live-art installation and contemporary dance performance, at the Chocolate Factory in Long Island City. In 2008 he presents THE DRESS UP PARTY in SCOPE New York at Lincoln Center, and is performing with Big Art Group, RoseAnne Spradlin, Faye Driscoll, and long-term creative cohorts Daniel Linehan and robbinschilds. Michael is the curator of BRINK, a quarterly performance series at Dixon Place, and also helps to coordinate AUNTS, a grassroots social performance event series. He was a 2006 BAX Space Grant Recipient and his work has toured on multiple occasions through the New Dance Alliance Exchange. Michael has served on artist-based panels with the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and New Dance Alliance and was a guest teaching artist with the Sundown Salon Schoolhouse in Dancing 9 to 5 at the Whitney and Animal Estates at the Armory. In addition to working in marketing at The Field, Michael has worked as a finance associate and planning guru with multiple nonprofit arts organizations and artists. www.myspace.com/michaelhelland

 

JAMES SCRUGGS wrote and produced a multi channel video installation called Disposable Men, a piece about NYC police shootings of unarmed black men; it had a private showing in DUMBO in May of 2000. In June of 2002, based on Disposable Men, the installation, he was awarded a Performance Art Grant from Franklin Furnace to complete a work in progress showing of Disposable Men. He was one of seven writers chosen to be a part of Naked Angels Writers Lab where his ten minute play, Thuggish, was performed in February of 2003. In March 2003 he was selected to be a resident artist at HERE Arts Center. Disposable Men was chosen to be included in the season of shows produced by HERE, and was performed in February 2005 for 8 days and was brought back for 4 weeks in June 2005. In January 2005 he received a grant from Edith and Bel Geddes Grant for an upgrade in design work on Disposable Men. In February 2005 he received a fellowship from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts for artistic excellence.

 

CASSIE TERMAN is a performer, writer, and teacher. Since moving to New York in 2004 she has performed her improvisations and physical theater work at CRS, Issue Project Room, Solar One Festival, Chelsea Art Museum, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Cave, and Symphony Space among others. She works extensively with Ruth Zaporah in Action Theater and is a Senior Teacher of that form. Currently she is a member of Company so.go.no and the Reflex Ensemble, as well as producing solo works. She holds an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University and is on Faculty at JFK University in Berkeley, CA. She has a long history of arts administration and is delighted to be serving The Field as Finance Manager. www.cassieterman.com

 

JENNIFER WRIGHT COOK has worked on both coasts as a dance/theater performer and in arts management. As a performer she worked with the San Francisco based, Joe Goode Performance Group, 1997-2004, and in New York with Dance by Neil Greenberg, Sarah Skaggs, Mark Dendy, Bill Young and Victoria Mendoza. Since 2004 Jennifer has been working on a dance/theater trilogy of solos ("Terror Alert: Elevated: Orange: There's a Jumper on the GW Bridge and He's the First Boy I Ever Kissed: Part Two: The Madrid Solo; Part One: The San Francisco Solo; and Part Three: A Thing Worn: Adam and Eve), which have been performed in Madrid (Centro Nuevo Creadores; commissioned by www.y1y.org), in New York (Danspace Project, The Bridge, Chez Bushwick's Shtudio, Gene Frankel Theater), in San Francisco (Summerfest/ODC and Dance Mission) and in Portland, OR. Jennifer will premiere new work at Danspace Project in March 2008 in a shared evening. In February 2007 Jennifer performed in the world premiere of Charles L. Mee’s Gone at 59E59, directed by Kenn Watt and produced by the Fifth Floor. In addition, Jennifer has taught dance and composition in Laos as part of DTW's Mekong Project (2004), nationally with the Joe Goode Performance Group, and as a Fieldwork facilitator. In the field of arts management, Jennifer has more than 10 years of experience. In northern California she was Development Director of Vector Theater, and in New York she was the Director of Development for the Working Theater (www.theworkingtheater.org) from 1995-1998 and 2005-2007, and she is on the Advisory Board of Breathing Room Productions (www.etty.org) and Banana, Bag & Bodice (www.bananabagandbodice.org). Jennifer happily joined The Field in January 2006.

 

 

KEVIN AUGUSTINE is artistic director of Lone Wolf Tribe, a puppet theatre ensemble creating original work for adults since 1997. Acting in the plays he writes while animating the puppets he makes, Kevin brings to life highly theatrical productions, at once emotional, visual, brutal, and poetic. He has performed internationally, including The HARARE International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, and has been sponsored by The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre, Dance Theater Workshop and the Painted Bride in Philadelphia. Kevin's show, ANIMAL, was commissioned by HERE's HARP residency in 2003, invited back in 2004 and published in the 2005 NYC Plays & Playwrights Anthology. His latest show, BRIDE, will debut at PS122. Lone Wolf Tribe has been funded by NYSCA, The Jim Henson Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Puffin Foundation, Puppeteers of America and The Axe Hougton Foundation, Kevin’s productions have won Excellence Awards at both the NYC and SF Fringe Festivals. www.lonewolftribe.com

 

KAREN BERNARD is an eclectic creator and solo performer whose work has appeared at the Royal Albert Hall as part of Captain Beefheart's Magical Band British tour to conceptual live performance at the Tate Gallery in London in collaboration with artist David Tremlett. In New York she produced several full-length concerts of her work between 1986 and 1998 at Dia Center for Arts and produced at numerous venues including BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, PS122 and The Kitchen. She has performed, taught and lectured throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. In 2005 she co-published a handmade book "Removed Exposure", based on her live performance of the same name in collaboration with Montréal artist Gray Fraser/Production Gray, her daughter Alex Wixon and Newfoundland photographer Sheilagh O'Leary. She has received support through the Experimental Television Center, Meet the Composer, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Puffin Foundation, The Field's Independent Artist Challenge Program Grant and Movement Research Artist in Residence. She received a 2006 BAX10 award for the founding and development of New Dance Alliance's Performance Mix Festival. Since 1992, Karen has created twenty solo works and one group work in Fieldwork and continues to be inspired as a participant and facilitator.

 

TANYA CALAMONERI came to New York after nearly a decade of working in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene as an arts administrator and performer. Among her roles, she was Executive Director of Dancers’ Group, a Co-Director at 848 Community Space and Temescal Arts Center, Founding Faculty Member of the Experimental Performance Institute at New College, and a company member of inkBoat, a Butoh performance company, and Kim Epifano’s Epiphany Productions. In New York, she has helped found Studio 111, and is a member of The Fifth Floor, so.go.no. and CavEnsemble performance companies.

 

Since forming Elsie Management in 1995, LAURA COLBY has represented over twenty-five performing arts touring companies from four continents, coordinating tours to over two hundred global venues. She has served as Project Manager, forming presenter and funding consortiums to support the development, creation, and touring of new works for her clientele. She has served as Tour Coordinator for ten National Dance Project supported projects. In 2001, Colby founded Dance/USA’s Agents and Artist Representation Council and served as the Council’s Founding Chair for three years. Colby served on the board of Dance/USA and is presently the President of NAPAMA (North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents).  A frequently invited speaker, she has conducted numerous workshops for artists and artist representatives throughout the country for performing arts service organizations and at industry convenings.  She was the initiating facilitator between Dr. Edward Fishkin, Medical Director at Woodhull Hospital and Medical Center and the performing arts community in the creation of ArtistAccess, the groundbreaking healthcare program for artists and arts workers begun in May, 2005. Colby graduated with a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School.

 

Chair and Artistic Director of the Dept. of Dance at Barnard College of Columbia University, MARY COCHRAN has performed and taught on every continent except Antarctica. Ms. Cochran’s professional career began at eighteen as a member of Nikolais Dance Theatre from 1981-1983 and continued as a soloist with Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1984-1996. In 1998 and 1999, Ms. Cochran was the Director of Taylor 2 creating and implementing innovative outreach programs around the country. Ms. Cochran currently performs in highly theatrical works by Sara Hook and creates and performs her own movement-based monologues. Prior to arriving at Barnard Ms. Cochran taught at numerous colleges and conservatories including Mills College, Harvard, University of Michigan, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. At Barnard, Ms. Cochran has begun collaborative projects between Barnard and NYC cultural institutions such as Dance Theater Workshop, City Center, Symphony Space, WAX, the Brooklyn Museum and Dance New Amsterdam. She completed her M.F.A. at University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in the spring of 2005.

 

COREY DARGEL is a composer, lyricist, and singer of songs that "smartly and impishly blur the boundaries between contemporary classical idioms and pop" (New York Times). His debut album, Less Famous Than You, was named one of the top ten albums of 2006 by Time Out New York. He has performed on bills with Joanna Newsom, Final Fantasy, Grizzly Bear, Anti-Social Music, Young People, and others. In 2006 he was featured on the American Composers Orchestra's season at Carnegie Hall and was selected by The New Yorker’s music writer Alex Ross to participate in "Composers on the Edge" as part of The New Yorker Festival. Dargel is a 2006-2007 resident artist at HERE Arts Center. Other residencies include the MacDowell Colony, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Dramatists, and the North American Cultural Laboratory. He is the recipient of the 2007 Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theater for Murphy, an ongoing collaboration with playwright Honor Molloy. His music-theater piece, Removable Parts, premieres September 6-15 at HERE Arts Center, directed by Emma Griffin.

 

CHRIS ELAM’s Misnomer Dance Theater has been the subject of a Business Week feature video-cast featuring the company’s work building new audiences through the creation of an online internet model. The company served as a case-study for Fuel-4-Arts, the largest online arts organization, in which Misnomer responded to questions about new ways of building relationships between audiences and dance companies. Elam has recently been booked to lecture and be on a panel at Brown University's entrepreneurial speaking series, as a social entrepreneur in the arts and was selected to be the keynote speaker for the Weston Creative Arts awards ceremony. Misnomer Dance Theater has performed in over 100 theaters throughout the United States (CA, CT, FL, MA, ME, NC, NY, RI, VA), Cuba, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, France, Ukraine, Holland, and Turkey. NYC productions include The Skirball Center, Symphony Space, Danspace, PS 122, DTW, Joyce SoHo, and The River-to-River Festival. In addition to performances, Misnomer regularly conducts international projects teaching, researching, and choreographing dance. www.misnomer.org

 

Shyly courting the limelight, composer and librettist EDWARD FICKLIN has found his way in the new music world -- and discovered his voice as an artist -- working with collectives like the New York Composers Circle and the South Oxford Six. Trained in classical composition and English literature at the University of Denver, he finds inspiration in the small details and sounds of everyday life. Passionately pursuing operatic ambitions, he has realized his works in a number of unusual venues, like a store window near Grand Central Station, a disused (and abused) bank lobby near the World Trade Center, lofts, a former movie theater, and a number of churches of various denominations. Edward hopes someday to find his way to the Metropolitan Opera.

In 2003 he formed the Voyeur Theater Ensemble, an ensemble dedicated to his work for the stage (any stage, that is) and is actively involved in the composers collective The South Oxford Six. Edward also serves on the Artists Advisory Council of Fractured Atlas, a national service organization for independent and self-producing artists. Visit his relentless audio blog at www.soundbiting.org.

 

JASON GROTE's work has been presented at Baltimore Centerstage, Boston Court, The Brick, chashama, Clubbed Thumb, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, CUNY's Prelude '06 Festival, Denver Center Theater, The Edmonton Fringe, The Flea, The Glej Theater (Ljubljana, Slovenia), HERE, The Lark, The Lincoln Center Directors' Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, The O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, The Orchard Project, P73, Playwrights' Horizons, Portland Center Stage, Salvage Vanguard, Soho Rep, and The Williamstown Theater Festival workshop. Honors include nominations for the Kesselring Prize and the Weissberger Award; an NEA Grant via Soho Rep; a Sloan Commission from Ensemble Studio Theatre; The P73 Fellowship; and "Best New Play" (for 1001) from Denver's alternative weekly, Westword. Current and upcoming projects include productions of 1001 in New York (visit 1001nyc.com for info) and Seattle (with ACT) and a collaboration with the performance group Radiohole. He teaches at Rutgers University, is a member of PEN and New Dramatists, and a contributor to Comedy Central's "Indecision 2008" blog. Visit him at www.jasongrote.com.

 

STEVE GROSS has been involved with The Field since it began its life as a service organization in 1987. In addition to the various roles he has occupied at The Field, Steve has taught fundraising and arts administration courses at New York University and The Juilliard School, and served as Dance Curator at The Kitchen. As an artist, Steve's performances have been produced by organizations such as Dance Theater Workshop, Performance Space 122, and theaters outside New York City. His work has been supported by various grants, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Steve left his staff position at The Field in June 2006 and remains on the Board of Directors. Steve is currently a psychologist/psychotherapist in independent practice. www.doctorstevegross.com

 

JAY HOUSE is the Private-Sector Programs Manager at Americans for the Arts. Prior to coming to work for Arts & Business Council of Americans for the Arts, Jay was the manager of programs and outreach at The Field, where she coordinated over 50 workshops a year, facilitated management workshops and artists' residencies, and was part of the team that initiated the Artists' Congress. Before this, she worked as the membership manager at Advertising Women of New York and in marketing positions at the Wall Street Journal and Cybergrrl.com. Jay has also served as producer, company manager, stage manager, and costumer for several artists in NYC. She is also a co-founder of the Aegean Cultural Project, a new organization dedicated to promoting arts and culture of the Aegean Sea region. Jay has also led writing workshops for New York Writers Coalition and has served on their Strategic Planning committee. Jay graduated from Hampshire College with a B.A. in American cultural studies, and is presently studying Modern Greek and Greek Dance.

 

ANDY HORWITZ currently lives in New York City, where he has worked as the producer at Performance Space 122. He has produced theatrical and literary events in NYC since 1995. He edits the alternative performance blog Culturebot.org, and co-produces The WYSIWYG Talent Show, the first-ever all-blogger series of readings and performances. He is also a writer and performer. His writing has appeared frequently at Nerve.com as well as other publications. His solo performances have been presented at numerous venues including HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place and P.S.122.

 

Author of the blog Art Fag City, PADDY JOHNSON is a web designer and art critic who lives and works in Brooklyn. Her writing has been featured in the New York Observer, Flavorpill, FlashArt, NYFA Current, ArtKrush and has built and maintained several websites viewed by over 25,000 people monthly. She has lectured at Yale University and the Whitney Independent Study Program and will be attending the icommons conference this year in Croatia as a visiting critic. Paddy also writes a regular column on art film and video for The Reeler.

 

AMY KAIL has shown her dances in performance spaces throughout New York City including The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, The Kitchen, Dixon Place, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Music Under Construction, Movement Research, The Community Center at Westbeth, The Cunningham Studio and Joyce SoHo. She has collaborates with many artists including Matt Aiken, Peter Bulow and Reiko Kawashima. As a dancer, she performed with Barbara Mahler, Anna Sokolow, Ruby Shang and Nancy Topf. Amy is currently a Teaching Artist with Lincoln Center Institute, Orchestra of St. Lukes and Mark DeGarmo and Dancers. She directed the Fridays at Noon Program at The 92nd Street Y and led workshops for students from 1997-2006. Amy graduated from The Juilliard School’s Dance Division and received a two year certificate from the Dance Education Laboratory at The 92nd Street Y. She has been involved with The Field as a participant and facilitator over the last ten years.

 

JODI KAPLAN runs a personal "boutique agency" where she books dance companies on extensive tours throughout the US and internationally. Additionally, she consults with both established and newly formed dance companies in developing stronger artistic programming and performing engagements. Over the past ten years, Jodi Kaplan & Associates (www.bookingdance.com) has booked tours for dozens of dance companies throughout the USA (including long-term residencies in New Orleans, Chicago, and Wisconsin), South and Central America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Guatemala), and Europe (Turkey, Germany, Spain). Her current roster includes Margie Gillis (South America/Europe), Molissa Fenley and Dancers, American Repertory Ballet, David Parker & The Bang Group, and Rebecca Stenn/PerksDanceMusicTheatre. JK&A also has a Boutique Roster of diverse dance companies including 10 NYC BR and 10 National BR companies that receive conference representation/touring guidance throughout the year. She has booked millions of dollars in touring for her artists and works regularly with theaters such as The Joyce Theater and the World Financial Center in NYC. Jodi has a BA from Smith College and a MFA in film from Columbia University. In addition to her booking work, Jodi is a dance filmmaker.

 

RICH KIAMCO is a solo theater artist. His show UNACCESORIZED won an Overall Excellence Award for Solo Performance at the NY Fringe Festival and Best Solo Show at the Montreal GLBT International Theatre Festival. Rich was featured on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, WE channel's Three Men and a Chick Flick, Q Television's Queer Edge and was honored to co-host a private event with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. His writing appears in Queer Stories and TAKE OUT: Queer Writing From Asian Pacific America.

 

FRAN KIRMSER has worked for over twelve years, producing, promoting and fundraising for dance and theater. Collectively she has raised millions of dollars in institutional funding and corporate sponsorships for hundreds of companies. She has held positions in Development, Public Relations, Management, or Booking and Representation with the following organizations: Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall, Doug Varone and Dancers, Sandra Cameron Dance Center, Pentacle. She is a founder of manhattan theatre source where she served as Producing Artistic Director. Currently Fran is producing August Wilson's Radio Golf on Broadway nominated for four Tony Awards. Recently she founded Made to Move, Inc. - a non-profit dedicated to the advancement of public knowledge of the art of dance and theatre and co-created and produced the commercial musical "SIDD" based on the novel "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse. Additionally Fran has worked on the development of new theatrical works with Circle in the Square Repertory Theater and Musical Theatre Works among others. She is a graduate of Skidmore College with continuing education at NYU Tisch School of Dance and Columbia University. www.frankirmser.com

 

JAKI LEVY serves as the Director of New Media for Misnomer Dance Theater in New York City (www.misnomer.org). In this role, he has revamped Misnomer's online presence and marketing initiatives. He has developed an online Presenter Partnership & Audience Initiative. This new model has caught on, most notably with the Martha Graham Dance Company. During a 3 week Summer residency at Skidmore, Jaki helped the Martha Graham Dance Company break new ground by producing the company's first-ever live web broadcast of an open rehearsal (www.clytemnestraproject.com). Jaki has presented at Dance/USA's Winter Conference and leads workshops at The Field. He has also sat on various marketing panels, was a guest lecturer at Hofstra's Dance Department, and presented in Toronto at Soundstream's New Models of Distribution Conference. He plays an active role in merging dance, theater, video, and technology. His multi-disciplinary career began at NYU Tisch where he holds a Masters Degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, with a concentration in Arts and Technology. His thesis project included a full research project on the field of dance and emerging trends and forecasts for the next 10 years. He was among the first ever to receive the Digital Incubator Grant from Cisco. In addition to his theater work, he has acts as an online consultant for numerous arts organizations in NYC, leads workshops, and teaches courses in video production, and web design. He is an active member of the NYU Alumni association. Read more here: www.jakilevy.com/blog

 

SHALEWA MACKALL, choreographer, dancer and educator has studied, performed and created dance from childhood. She has named her work as a contemporary choreographer and her dance company, <I>Movement for the Urban Village</I>. It is a style of dance grounded in the varied social and spiritual movement traditions of the African Diaspora from the Ancient Mali Empire to Hip-Hop and Club Dance. As a dancer, Shalewa has performed nationally and internationally with many companies including, Maimouna Keita African Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Giwayen Mata, Ballethnic, Nadia Dieudonné and Feets of Rhythm and Harambee. Additionally, Shalewa has lectured on contemporary social dance at leading universities across the country and regularly teaches West African Dance in New York City.

 

FERNANDO MANECA (www.manoiseca.org) is a theatre/performance artist of several disciplines -- audio/music, installation, movement, theater, storytelling, and video. Since 1992, his work has been presented throughout NYC including BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dixon Place, St. Mark's Church, HERE Arts Center, The Ontological Theatre, and the 92nd Street Y among others. As a choreographer, composer, director, set and audio designer and video-maker, Fernando has received commissions from a plethora of performing artists and companies in NYC, Los Angeles, Rhode Island, and Portugal. Recently, Fernando directed and designed BETWEEN THE BOOKS, a scene for IN PRAISE OF FOLLY, a multi-artist, site specific interpretation of DON QUIXOTE, produced by Peculiar Works Project. Other commissions include: co-directing PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL produced by Peculiar Works Project; set design for AS ABOVE SO BELOW by Incidents Physical Theater; audio and set design for STAY choreographed by Shannon Hummel. Fernando's work has received support from the Brooklyn Arts Council, BAX, HERE Arts Center, and Meet The Composer. In 2002, HERE Arts Center co-produced a two-week run of JUST LIKE A MAN and TODAY I AM FEELING A BIT LESS CYNICAL, created during a two year artist residency at HERE. Fernando was recently an Artist in Residence at BAX where he began developing DRINKING THE KOOL-AID, a solo theatre/performance piece dealing with assimilation, mass marketing, politics, religion, and believing without questioning.

 

SARA NASH is currently the Senior Producer at Dance Theater Workshop, where she has been a member of the programming staff since 2003. Prior to this, Sara was the International Programming Assistant at Tanec Praha, an international contemporary dance festival based in Prague, CZ, and worked as a Program Associate in the Performing Arts department at the British Council in London. Sara has served on selection panels at Dance Theater Workshop for the Outerspace Creative Residency program, Fresh Tracks, and The Mekong Project and for Performance Space 122’s Avante-Garde-Arama series and the Solar One dance festival. She graduated Magna cum Laude from Mary Washington College in 2001 with a degree in Theater and Dance.

 

SUSAN OETGEN performs new music and experimental theater as a solo artist, as the leader of the band Likeness to Lily, and as a member of Accinosco. She is also the host and producer of the Opera Salon @ Caffè Vivaldi and Operations Associate at American Composers Orchestra. Susan is currently participating in the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s 2007 Composer Mentorship Program.

 

BOB OST is an award winning playwright, composer and lyricist whose credits include the off-Broadway revue Everybody's Gettin' into the Act. His musical Finale! won two national awards, and was a finalist at the O'Neill; his dark comedy Beast was presented in the first season of Playwright's Horizons; his plays The Necessary Disposal and Breeders have been finalists in three national competitions each. He has written and produced several cabaret revues, won a 2004 OOBR Award for writing and directing the one-woman Songs Are Like Friends with Vickie Phillips, and currently has another one-woman show in development, A Musical Journey with the Songs of Brel, Weill and Aznavour. He has worked for 30 years in advertising as a copywriter and creative director, ran his own ad agency, and currently does marketing consultation for the Midtown International Theatre Festival and other theater clients. Bob is the founder of Theater Resources Organization (TRU), created to educate and support people in the business of the arts, with an emphasis on producers and self-producing artists. He is a member of ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.

 

CARLA PETERSON is Artistic Director of Dance Theater Workshop, since fall, 2006. She is responsible for leading the institution’s overall artistic vision and designing programming that advances dance and live performance in New York City and worldwide. From 2002-‘06, she served as the Executive Director of Movement Research (MR); while there, she received a 2005 New York Dance and Performance Award a.k.a. The Bessies in recognition of her leadership in directing MR. From 1996 – 2006, she also worked as a writer, project manager, project development advisor and fundraiser for independent artists, such as Tere O’Connor, Jennifer Monson, and Susan Rethorst, and for arts organizations, such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, SURDNA Foundation, Association for Performing Arts Presenters, National Performance Network, and National Association of Artists’ Organizations. From 1993–‘96, Ms. Peterson was Director of Inter/National Projects at Dance Theater Workshop. From 1988–‘93, she was Assistant Director of Performing Arts at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Ms. Peterson received her M.F.A. from The Ohio State University in 1983.

 

VITO SCLAFANI, a native New Yorker, has course work in Psychology from the State University of Stony Brook and a BA in Public Accounting from Pace University. Having worked for KPMG, Peat Marwick and other public accounting firms, Vito realized the need for more personalized service and expertise required by the arts community and the small business community and established his own firm, Vasco Accounting, in 1990. For the past eighteen years his firm has been servicing the arts and entertainment community. "I find that the small business and arts community in New York appreciates the personalized attention my firm is willing to give them," says Vito Sclafani.

 

RACHEL SCHROEDER is a transdisciplinary performing artist who writes, choreographs, performs, directs, dramaturges and teaches. She has collaborated on projects in France, England, Wales, Zimbabwe and the United States. A grantee of the Manhattan Community Arts Fund awarded by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in partnership with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for the development of Heliantha, she has performed original solo works at P.S. 122, JoyceSoho, 92nd St. Y, Here Arts Center, Dixon Place, Chashama, White Wave, OneArmRed, Jennifer Muller/The Works studio, Michael Howard Studios, Lark Theater, Berkshire Theater Festival and Simon’s Rock College. Teaching credits include Dartmouth College, Wellesley College, Hofstra University, Pace University, CAP21, Berkshire Theater Festival, Wingspan Arts at the NEST+M school, Create-a-Play at PS 11, Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique (London), and University of Bangor (North Wales) and the Creative Center.

 

JANET STAPLETON is an independent producer, consultant, and publicist in New York City. She divides her time between producing and managing artists’ projects, serving as a publicist for dance companies and arts events in New York City, and working on marketing campaigns for a variety of performance-related projects. She was the Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Dance Theater Workshop (1994-1999); Co-Managing Director of Dance Theater Workshop (1997-1999); Managing Director of the Stephen Petronio Company (1990-94); and is Co-Founder/Producer (with Richard Move) of the highly acclaimed performance series Martha @ Mother. As an independent marketing director she has coordinated major promotional campaigns for two citywide international dance festivals -- Dancing is the Isles (1998) and France Moves (2000) -- celebrating contemporary dance from the UK and France at multiple venues throughout New York City. She recently completed a marketing and press campaign for The New York Public Library’s Hellenic Festival, which included a variety of multidisciplinary events at multiple library locations throughout the five boroughs in New York City. Current/recent PR projects include work with the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Stephen Petronio Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, Dance Now/NYC Festival, Nicholas Leichter Dance, Celebrate Mexico Now Festival, Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre, Dance by Neil Greenberg, ODC/San Francisco, Chunky Move, Ralph Lemon/Cross Performance Inc., among many others. Current/recent management projects include work with Tere O’Connor Dance (since 2000), Yasuko Yokoshi (2004-2007), Zoe Scofield (since 2007) and Bill Shannon/CrutchMaster (1999-2005). She served as a mentor as part of Pentacle’s Help Desk program (2000-06).

 

DIANE VIVONA has worked professionally in dance as a performer, choreographer, educator, and arts administrator. Her performance credits include five years as a soloist with the Lewitzky Dance Company in Los Angeles and seasons with Ron K. Brown, Troika Ranch, and the Robert Kovich Company in New York. From 1996 to 1999 she lived in the U.K. and served as Technique and Choreography faculty for Laban Centre London. She is the recipient of a 1999 Bonnie Bird New British Choreography Award for her work in site-specific installations. Since returning to the US she has had a visiting professorship at Richard Stockton State College of New Jersey, taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Manhattanville College, and been part of the New Techniques Laboratory at the 92 Street Y/Harkness Center for Dance. Diane was Executive Director of The Field from 2002- 2004. She has worked with Creative Capital Foundation on their Professional Development Program, and is currently a consultant for The Field's Art-Based programs. She works for the arts consultancy firm David Bury & Associates and performs and choreographs in New York City.

 

SUSAN WILBER has utilized her 20 years of extensive development, restaurant and catering experience to create, strategize and implement high profile special events for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Orchestra of St. Luke's, The Field, Lutèce, wineries, major corporations, non-profit organizations, chefs, individuals and artists. Her innovative events have been featured in The New York Times, The New York Observer, The New York Post, Time Out New York, Nation's Restaurant News, The Wine Enthusiast, Beverage Media and on WQXR. Susan is also the founder and Co-Owner of East End Excursions, (www.eastendexcursions.com) a wine tour and events business providing corporate and individual clients with professionally guided tours of the best wineries on the East End of Long Island. From 1994-1998, Susan was the Director of Career Development Programs for The Field. She has also performed and produced a number of independent and original off-off Broadway productions as a solo performer and for other artists.

 

MARTHA WILLIAMS, founder of New World Coaching, is a Certified Personal Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and graduate of The Coaches Training Institute and has a diverse background that makes her an excellent resource in the area of leadership, creativity and management. She has been working with the artist community since 2000; leading "Artist Coaching Circles" that help artists work better and has designed extensive curriculum for managing issues that creative deal with when becoming leaders and managers of their work. Martha is also a performer and choreographer and Artistic Director of The Movement Movement (www.themovementmovement.org).