Jamie Jewett is the director of Lostwax Multimedia Dance, a company that seeks to examine the visceral cusp between installation, performance space and narrative through the use of technology. Jewett has choreographed, across the U.S. as well as in Asia and Europe. He has been an artist in residence at HERE Center for the Arts in New York, at STEIM in Amsterdam, and currently at Perishable Theater in Providence, RI. His works such as After the Fall (Danspace at St. Mark’s), as well as Seven Veils (HERE), Rest/Less (HERE,), Snowblind (University of Michigan IMMEDIA commission), Kindly Bent to Ease Us, and as far back to the evening length works Glyph (1996), Cloud In Trousers (1997) utilize interactivity and cinematic imagery coupled with live video. The Other Paper (Columbus, OH) called Jewett’s Wexner Center award-winning film Auslander (Lincoln Center) “A glimpse of Ohio film brilliance.” His on-going collaborations with author Thalia Field also include an online multimedia piece, Zoologic. Mudra, with Matthew Peters Warne, was featured at the 2007 Spark Festival Gala Concert. His recent work MELT was a commission from the Firstworks Providence Festival, where it premiered. Jamie received his BA in Dance and Buddhist Studies from Naropa University, an MFA in Dance and Technology from the Ohio State University, an MA from Brown University’s MEME@Brown program. He also completed his PhD in New Media and Performance at Brown. He currently teaches at Dean College and the Rhode Island School of Design where he also directs research, technology, and computing for the Digital + Media graduate program. Jamie was a 2010 State of Rhode Island Choreographic Fellow. In 2011, Lostwax was voted the best dance company in Rhode Island.
Aaron Henderson’s videos and installations attempt to break down the ways that humans activate gesture. Recent projects examine the personal, cultural and political ramifications of all action, from intimate gestures to displays of super-human acrobatics. Well acquainted with movement, he threw himself into walls and off of platforms for STREB Extreme Action, an acrobatic performance company from 2002-6. He also designed projections for this and other projects which have been presented at ICA Boston, the International Festival of Art & Ideas (New Haven, CT), Wolf Trap (Vienna, Virginia), Bumbershoot (Seattle, Washington), the Oriente Occidente Festival (Verona & Trento, Italy), the Festival Paris and many other theaters, colleges and festivals across the country. These projects were aided by NYSCA and Creative Capital MAP grants. Aaron co-founded LOSTWAX, and edited and founded the International Thought Exchange, a now defunct mail art organization.
R. Luke DuBois is a composer, artist, and performer who explores the temporal, verbal, and visual structures of cultural and personal ephemera. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University, and has lectured and taught worldwide on interactive sound and video performance. He has collaborated on interactive performance, installation, and music production work with many artists and organizations including Toni Dove, Matthew Ritchie, Todd Reynolds, Michael Joaquin Grey, Elliott Sharp, Michael Gordon, Bang on a Can, Engine27, Harvestworks, and LEMUR, and was the director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra for its 2007 season. An active visual and musical collaborator, DuBois is the co-author of Jitter, a software suite for the real-time manipulation of matrix data. He appears on nearly twenty-five albums both individually and as part of the avant-garde electronic group The Freight Elevator Quartet. He teaches at the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center at NYU’s Polytechnic Institute. His records are available on Caipirinha/Sire, Liquid Sky, C74, and Cantaloupe Music. His artwork is represented by bitforms gallery in New York City.
Polly Hall is a maker and starter. She recieved an M.A. from Brown University in Computer Music and Multimedia (2006) and a B.A. in Multimedia Literature and Composition / English from Amherst College (2004). She lives in New York. In March 2007, Polly co-founded Antfood Music + Sound Design with Wilson Brown. She left the company in March 2010. Polly is currently freelancing as a composer, sound designer and producer. She is reading words, thinking thoughts, listening to music and working on some fun projects. She enjoys speculating on the future and eating toast.
Jen Rock is a New England based Lighting Designer whose work has been seen across the Northeast. Favorite recent credits include: Kuttner and Kropf’s On An Average Day. The Gamm Theatre: Mauritius, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet. Perishable Theatre: 1:23, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Anna Bella Eema. Totem Pole Playhouse: The Complete History of America (abridged), Unnecessary Farce, Ruthless! Stoneham Theatre: The Dinosaur Musical, Marathon. Connecticut Repertory Theatre: The Skin of Our Teeth, The Arabian Nights. Jen holds an MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Connecticut. www.jenrockdesign.com
BLINKING PERFORMERS
Shura Baryshnikov studied modern dance with Alison Mott, Dana Holby, and Zoe Mass Fyfe at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont. There, she also studied puppetry, mask, and physical theater with Eric Bass of Sandglass Theater. Since Marlboro, Shura has developed theatrical work and performed with Steven Buescher of Workhorse Theater and Laura Munoz of Pequeno Teatro de Danza. Shura has also studied intensively with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York City, training in the Viewpoints and Suzuki methods of actor training. Most recently, Shura performed as a guest artist with American Dance Legacy Institute and looks forward to her involvement with Jamie Jewett and Lostwax Productions.
Shelby Hayhoe is from Minneapolis, MN where she started dancing when she was 4. She studied modern dance and ballet at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA where she studied with Teresa Heiland, Shawn Womack, Sara Simonis, and others. Following graduation, Shelby continued teaching and training in dance, and in 2007 Shelby choreographed and performed in a modern dance and visual arts performance as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival in collaboration with Jill Peterson. Now a graduate student in Providence, RI Shelby has started dance classes for kids that focus on creativity and the joy of movement, foundations that have driven her life-long love of dance.
Kim Johnson is a 2008 graduate of Rhode Island College with a BA in Dance Performance. In 2004 she graduated from the Boston Dance Teachers Training Program. Kim was a recipient of the RIC dance performance Special Talent Scholarship and a 2004 recipient of the Rosemary H. Medeiros Scholarship for the Performing Arts. Throughout her four years at RIC, Kim was a member of the Dance Company. Since 2004, Kim has been a faculty member at Rosemary’s School Dance Education in Warren, Rhode Island where she teaches modern, jazz, tap, ballet and hip-hop. In 2008 Kim attended and received a scholarship to study at the Bates College Dance Festival. She has also participated in the 2009 Frazier Festival: In Through With Around. Most recently, Kim performed in the Rhode Island College Faculty/Alumni show with choreographer and RIC faculty member Olase Freeman.
Elise Nuding is originally from London, England where she studied ballet and tap growing up. She is now based in Providence, RI where she enjoys both the dance scene and urban landscape. She was introduced to modern dance at Brown University where she is currently a senior, graduating in May 2011 with a degree in Archaeology. At Brown Elise dances with Dance Extension, a modern repertory company under the direction of Julie A. Strandberg, and has performed works by Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, David Parsons, Robert Battle, Maureen Fleming and Lisa Race among others. Elise has worked with Jamie several times over the last two years and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of creating this piece.
Michelle Struckholz has been studying dance since the age of four. With extensive ballet and modern dance training, she received her B.S. in Dance from James Madison University in 1997. Michelle then ventured to NYC where she studied dance with Jackie Villamil, David Dorfman, Kevin Wynn and many others, and performed with CORA. Two years later, Michelle landed and stayed in San Francisco for ten years and had the pleasure of working with Kathleen Hermesdorf and Albert Mathias of Motion Lab (now La Alternativa), Company Mecanique Dance Theater, Annie Rosenthal and Company, David Dorfman Dance, and EmSpace Dance. Michelle now resides in Providence, RI where she works as a personal fitness trainer, teaches modern dance at Motion Center, and performs with Jamie Jewett’s LOSTWAX.
Meg Weeks received her dance training at the Moving Company Dance Center in Keene, NH, studying modern under Paula Aarons and ballet under Reagan Messer. She is a member of Dance Extension, a modern repertory company directed by Julie Strandberg, and has performed works by Pilobolus, Donald McKayle, David Parsons, Kanji Segawa, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, José Limón, and Lisa Race. She attended the American Dance Festival in 2008, where she studied with Abby Yeager, Kurt Haworth, Lisa Race, and Ruth Andrien, and performed in her mentor Paula Aarons’ MFA thesis. She has spent time in Argentina and Brazil, where she studied tango, samba and capoeira. Meg began choreographing her own work in 2008, and since then she has produced two pieces for performance, and is in the midst of creating two more.
MELT PERFORMERS
Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez has worked in various cities, as a performer, teacher, choreographer, videographer and interaction designer. Her graduate studies in digital media have led her to explore collaborative works with artists from different disciplines. Her work has been presented in Korea, United States and Mexico, including Danspace Project, Mexico Now, Daegue International Festival and Sexto Encuentro in Mexico.
Ali Fischer, a native Kentuckian, has been dancing for the last 16 years. In 1995, after receiving a B.A. in fine arts from the University of South Florida, Ali’s dance career began in Salt Lake City, UT where she worked with Repertory Dance Theater. Since then, she has worked for numerous choreographers across the country such as Nancy McCaleb, Allyson Green, John Malashock, Stephen Brown, The Lower Left Collective, Lynne Wimmer, Lindsey and Jason Dietz Marchant, Elsa Valbuena, Eun Jung Choi, and Jamie Jewett. Ali currently resides in Queens, New York where along with making dance, she also is a professional of the healing arts using massage therapy, craniosacral therapy, and yoga to complete her movement practice.
Megan Mckenna – Whether she is skipping in the park, dancing on a roof, or reading children’s novels, Megan is committed to growing her imagination. In her worlds everyone is dancing. She is grateful for the friends from whom she has learned and with whom she has shared a stage, including Monica Bill Barnes, Larry Keigwin, and Ali Fischer. She currently resides in New York City.