Co-Directors

Cristina is a dance artist, scholar, curator and cultural manager. She trained at the London Contemporary Dance School where she gained a Postgraduate Diploma with distinction. She danced and toured across Europe with Edge, the Postgraduate Company of LCDS. As a dancer, she performed works by Hofesh Schechter, Jonathan Lunn, Charles Linehan, Maresa Von Stockert and Yann Lheraux, Darell Jones, Arno Schuitemaker and Chris Aikens among others. In Ireland she danced for Daghdha Dance Company and Myriad Dance Company. From 2007 until 2013 she was the co-director of Legitimate Bodies Dance Company, the dance company in residence at Birr Theatre and Arts Centre and supported by The Irish Arts Council, Offaly County Council and Offaly Local Development Company. She is also the initiator and artistic director of I.F. O.N.L.Y. the first and only festival in Ireland dedicated to dance solos. As a curator and cultural manager, Cristina has worked closely with local and national authorities, securing fundings and co-operations between different institutions and agencies.

She has taken part in the Atelier for Young Festival Managers IZMIR 2011, organized by European Festivals Association, together with the International Izmir Festival as well as several conferences focusing on cultural policies and dance. Cristina holds and MFA in Dance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she also works as event coordinator for the Theatre and Dance Department.

Recent awards include "DanceWEB European Scholarship" Vienna 2008, two Bursary Awards and several travel awards from The Irish Arts Council and a mobility grant from the European Cultural Foundation. Her thesis (un)W.R.A.P./ Un-doing Writing Research And Performance was a week-long event featuring ground breaking artist Trajal Harrell and important scholars Andre Lepecki and Ryan Platt. The theme of the week was the intersection between theory and practice in dance making. This initiative received full support from the Theatre and Dance Department of CU and a university grant for innovation in the humanities.
Cristina is a full time professor in the Licenciatura de Danza at Universidad De Las Americas, Puebla.

Born in Switzerland of Mexican and scientist parents, Carolina received her B.Sc. from the National Autonomous University of México and a Diploma in Advanced Studies (DEA) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is currently finishing a dance degree in the Universidad de las Américas Puebla.

Carolina is interested in action as a generator of reality. She is working on integrating other media into dance discourse in order to go beyond the conventional scenic space, questioning the nature of performance. She collaborates as a multidisciplinary artist with the project: 'streetscape + soundscape, aural architecture of a urban geography' of the Art Theory and Contemporary Media group in UDLAP, supported by a CONACyT grant.

She has studied dance in Mexico City, Barcelona and Vienna (ImpulsTanz). As a member of the company DanzaUDLAP, under the mentorship of her teachers Mayra Morales and Ray Eliot Schwartz, she has danced in various cities of México. She was selected to attend the International Workshop on Performance leaded by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and La Pocha Nostra, and she has been invited to show her work at the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival.

Ray Eliot Schwartz

Ray Schwartz is a movement artist and activist who has spent the last 26 years committed to consciously developing an experiential understanding of the body. He is interested in supporting people in attuning themselves towards a greater clarity of intention in technical and improvisational dancing, as well as in the practices of everyday life.

Since 1999, he has represented the integration of Somatic Movement Education and Dance practice on multiple occasions as a member of the faculties of the American Dance Festival, the Bates Dance Festival, MELT, the Movement Research educational intensive located in NYC, SFADI, and the Colorado College Summer Dance Festival. He has also taught, performed and conducted research extensively in the U.S, Europe and Asia. His training includes high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts and a BFA in Dance from Virginia Commonwealth University. Additional study includes certification as Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering, Certification in the Feldenkrais Method, training in Zero-Balancing, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and Traditional Thai Massage.

Schwartz, as well, has maintained a practice of working with individuals over the same span of time. When his work with individuals has been a primary focus, it often takes the shape of bodyworker in residence at dance festivals, or in intensive periods of work with clients referred to him by the Instituto de Psicologia Profunda in Mexico City.

While studying for the MFA at the University of Texas at Austin, he balanced academic research with a commitment to service and activism within the Austin, Texas arts scene. He directed Sheep Army/Elsewhere Dance Theater, taught classes in dance, movement, and body-work, researched the aesthetic and pedagogical implications evoked by the integration of somatic movement education and contemporary dance forms among other activities

Click this link to download a PDF and read his Master's Thesis:

Exploring the Space Between: The Effect of Somatic Education on Agency and Ownership Within a Collaborative Dance-Making Process

Currently Schwartz is serving as the Coordinator of the Licenciatura en Danza en la Universidad De Las Americas Puebla in Cholula/Puebla, Mexico. As part ofhis work there, he initiated and co-directs Performática: Foro Internacional de Danza Contemporánea y Artes de Movimiento. This congress gathers together an international cadre of practicing dancers, choreographers, theorists, and teachers of contemporary dance and related movement arts. They convene workshops, roundtable discussions and performances with the goal of facilitating international and intercultural exchange of dance practices, knowledge, theory, and culture as related to discourse of bodily movement, expression, and philosophy. He is also a research associate with the Center for Body Mind Movement, and has been an invited guest lecturer at the Institute for Kinesthetic Education in Durham, North Carolina.

http://blog.udlap.mx/danza/

Technical Director

In 1999, he graduated as an Electronical Engineer with a major in Communication from UDLA. He then went on in 2004, to receive his MBA, at the same institution, specializing in Services Marketing.

He is currently UDLA's Head of the Scenic Arts Lab. Since 2003, he has been appointed as Technical Director of UDLA Danza, UDLA Ballet, Teatro UDLA, Opera UDLA, Performática and the Sunny Savoy Company. He has participated in national and international festivals such as:

• Performática 2007 & 2008
• ITI-UNESCO's Encuentro Nacional de los Amantes del Teatro 2006
• Jaime Sieber, Rip Parker and Ellen Bromberg's Hidden Sky, at the Temporada Cultural UDLA Fall 2005
• ITI-UNESCO's First National Congreso of Scenic Arts, Quetzalcóatl 2005
• V Festival de Danza Contemporánea Zona Centro, Saltillo 2006
• Muestra Internacional de Danza Oaxaca, 2005
• Ciclo Solo Mujeres, Teatro de la Danza, DF 2005
• 2° Festival Poli Sensorial, Morelia 2004
• Festival Enésimo, Guadalajara 2004
• 6° Festival Internacional de Puebla 2004
• Extremadura 7: Gran Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporánea, Monterrey 2004
• 6° Encuentro Internacional de Escuelas Superiores de Teatro 2003

He has also collaborated as sound engineer with rock bands.

From 1995-2000 he worked as technician within the Events Department at UDLA, which produces around 400 cultural events per year.

Since 2003 he has been teaching Scenic Production at the university, focusing on montage, set design and lightning design for theatre, dance and performance pieces. He also works as advisor for future graduates.

His lightning designs have granted him awards, such as Mayra Morales' De la A a la Z, within 2007's Festival Poesía en Movimiento.

His first performance, Eclipse, was first shown at Performática 2007.

Selection Committee 2014

Presenting Artist/Contributor Bios

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | J | K | L | M | P | R | S | T | W | Y | Z

Amanda Martin

AMANDA MARTIN holds a BFA in Dance from Florida State University. Before moving to Athens GA, she danced her way through New York City on bridges and fire escapes and stairs. She worked with a number of artists including Tom Pearson/Third Rail Projects, Julie Mandle Performance and Stephen Koplowitz. She is a founding member of Underground Dance Society, a collective of artists experimenting with traditional and site-specific dance for the Athens community. She currently owns |b a l a n c e| studio where she teaches both Pilates and GYROKINESIS® instruction.. 

Ana Patricia Farfan

Mexican choreographer and writer, Ana Patricia studied Spanish Literature in the UNAM and ballet and contemporary dance in the Mexican Dance Academy of INBA. At the moment she is an MFA candidate at University of Maryland. She is interested in both dance theory and practice. in 2010 she funded a Journal about Dance Research called Centrifuga. Her work has been presented in the Teatro de la Danza, Black Box of Centro Nacional de las Artes, and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Maryland, amongst others. Ana had the pleasure of working for choreographers such: Marcela Ponce and Tere O'Connor. Recently she collaborated with the Source Festival in Washington and her piece ¿Qué hice esta mañana? Was performed as a work-in-progress at the Movement Research in NYC. She taught theory and technique classes in the Academia de la Danza Mexicana and at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana. In 2011 she received a fullbright-Garcia Robles, and in 2012 and 2013 the Partnership for Excelence in the Performing Arts, the Fellowship of Universidad of Maryland, and the prize for Artistic Education 2009 y Art Education 2001. One of her interest is to research the use of the image of San Miguel en traditional Mexican dances from Puebla. When choreographing she looks at the way metaphor works and how it moves the dramaturgy forward. She loves to search for meaning through dance. http://anapatriciafarfan.wix.com/anafarfan

Anadel Lynton Snyder

She is a co-founder and investigator in the National Center for Research, Documentation and Information About Dance (CenidiDanza). She is also a creator and performer of artistic actions; teaches community dance, movement/expression/communication workshops for indigenous, feminist, community and cultural organizations. She teaches lectures and seminars for the use of alternative spaces using popular culture as a source, Laban movement analysis, improvisation as a tool for creative process amongst others. She is the conducts the program "Dialogues and Perceptions Between the Public and the Creator". She was a dancer in Ballet Nacional, Ballet Independiente, and Ballet Tropicanas. She has received several fellowships and scholarships form Artes por Todas Partes (GDF), FONVA, Performagia, Sociedad Mexicana de Coreógrafos (SOMEC), the 6º Festival de Nueva Danza y Música, as a co-founder of the CenidiDanza and Ballet Independiente. She is a social anthropologist (ENAH), has an MFA on artistic education and research, movement analyst( Laban-Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies and Body Mind Movement).

Andrea Chirinos Brown

Andrea is a choreographer, teacher and dancer. She has a BFA in contemporary dance from MaryMount Manhattan College and Boston Conservatory. At the same time she attended Merce Cunningham's studio in NYC. She attended costume, graphic design and serigraphy workshops at The Fashion Institute of Technology of New York. When she went back to Mexico she participated on the Dance Education Certification Lin Duran. During the last three years she certified in contemporary art with Patricia Marti and attended ongoing classes and workshops on Gaga in NYC and in Mexico. She began with her project "Proycto Mitrovica" in NYC in 1998 with pieces such as Galaxina se cayó!, El Aprendiz, and Mi amigo eterno. On her return to Mexico in the year 2000 she continues with her project making pieces such as La línea de la fe , Restaurante Tesuyo, Hotel Irina, Ritual de los Habitual , Ambiente Familiar , Velorio, El Libro Vaquero del Amor y Corredor Sombras , Exterior Tarde. In the year 2009 she wins the first National INBA UAM award with her piece Enredos. A year later her project is nominated as best artistic proposal by the Mexican magazine Chilango and the Festival del Centro Histórico. During 2011-2012 Andrea travels to NYC for a seven month residency for the Gallery Location ONE with support from the Mexican Culture Institute where she develops a movement project based on the concept of time. Currently Mitrovica premiered its last piece "Club Mitrovica imagen + Movimiento with the support of Producciones Calero, Un Teatro y la Coordinación Nacional de Danza. Andre is currentlu a movement laboratory and movement technique teacher at the Academia de la Danza Mexicana and teaches workshops in different spaces for movement.

Andrea Vazquez

Ms. Vázquez-Aguirre earned a BFA in choreography from Escuela Nacional de Danza Clásica y Contemporánea in Mexico City and earned her MFA from The College at Brockport, SUNY, as a scholar under FONCA, the government council for the culture and arts in Mexico. She has danced in professional companies in Mexico and the United States, such as Bill Evans Dance Company, Geomantics Dance Theatre, Dramadanza and Jaguar de Agua (now Compañía Artes Transformáticas). She complements her work as an educator in the art of dance with a multidimensional approach to the physical body, along with interdisciplinary projects. She often draws inspiration from poetry, prose and visual arts. Currently, she is serving as visiting assistant professor at The University of Texas at El Paso.

Aníbal Castelán

Aníbal holds a Modern and Classical Dance BA from BUAP. He began his activity as a contemporary dancer and performer in different collectives participating in national and international programs. He is constantly participating in projects for Institutions and Cultural Programs (Alas y Raíces, Conafe, Pecdaem, Fonca, Pecdap), this has allowed him to have a wide experience in creative processes for social and community collaboration. He is currently a dancer, director and choreographer for the Kin-Mu collective as well as a Pecdap dance fellow with his piece "The Cold Monster"

Anne Burnidge

Anne Burnidge is a contemporary dancer, educator and choreographer originally from the Chicago area. She has an MFA in choreography from Ohio State University and a certification in Laban Movement Analysis from the Integrated Movement Studies program at the University of Utah. She is an Associate Professor of Dance at SUNY Buffalo and is the artistic director of Anne Burnidge Dance (www.anneburnidgedance.org ). Her choreography has been presented at national and international venues including daCi World Dance Summit (Taiwan), Toronto International Dance Festival (Canada), Triskelion Dance Center (NYC), American Dance Guild Festival (NYC), Goose Route Dance Festival (WV), Cool New York Dance Festival (NYC), Philly Fringe Festival (PA), and Ruth Page Center for the Arts (Chicago). Burnidge has received numerous grants and awards to pursue and present her creative research including two New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Strategic Opportunities Stipends. In addition to dancing in her own work, Burnidge has performed in works by dance luminaries Bebe Miller, Meredith Monk, and Maguy Marin and has been a company member of Helander Dance Theatre, Open Door Theatre, and Buffalo Contemporary Dance. Burnidge specializes in teaching somatically informed contemporary modern and ballet technique, choreography, dance anatomy/kinesiology and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis. She is regularly invited to teach master classes in her areas of specialty by venues including Goose Route Dance Festival, Midwest RADfest, Penn State Summer Dance, Dance Masters of America and at the upcoming IADMS Safe and Effective Dance Practice - Preparatory Course at CU Boulder. She has also taught at Ohio State University, SUNY Brockport, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Columbia College Chicago. Burnidge’s scholarly research focuses on integrating somatic practices and anatomy/kinesiology with dance to develop healthy, holistic approaches to training dancers. She is on the board of directors of the American College Dance Festival Association and serves on committees of the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, where she regularly presents creative workshops and scholarly research.

Brenda Leticia Mayr Villalobos

She is a current beneficiary of the Programa de Estímulo a la Creación y Desarrollo Artístico del Estado de Puebla (PECDAP 2013) with her Project Grietas de la Libertad integrated by the Dance Improvisation Workshop for convicted women in the Social Rehabilitation Center (CERESO Puebla) and the projection of the video-documentary about its development. She is a dancer in Kamaremba Ensamble de Música y Danza Africana lead by the former dancer of Les Ballets Africains Karim Keita, dancer and choreographer in Colectivo de Música y Danza Africana Kuadrón Percussion (Puebla) whose goal is to show Puebla`s community one of its three cultural roots as well as sharing contemporary African culture. She is part of the Kin-Mu collective, it tries to impact society through art. She studied a BFA in dance at BUAP as well as independent studies in Puebla and in different states.

Carol Montealegre

Carol is a visual artist, her work is mainly concentrated in the art or performance to generate live artistic interventions using installation, dance, drawing and video. She studied social anthropology and is an amateur contemporary dancer trained mostly In the Escuela Danza Común (Bogotá), Movement Research (NY) and UVA (México). She is currently studying an MFA in Visual Arts at UNAM (México) where she is researching about the disrupted temporality of artistic events. She works independently but has also collaborated with visual and scenic artists such as Lorena Woulffer, 2boys.tv, Sandra Gómez, Miguel Jara, Cristina Ochoa, Ariadna Franco, and Julián Zuluaga.

Cinthia Pérez Navarro

Originally from Puebla, she graduated from a BFA in Dance at the UDLAP under the guardianship of Ray Schwartz and Mayra Morales. She is interested about how the relationship between improvisation and movement practices nurture our daily duties, this has led her to integrate contact improvisation as a life practice. She has had the opportunity to share this practice with people such as Nancy Stark Smith, Chouhy, Catalina, Ruth Ferrari, Mariana Casares and Lichi Sánchez (Uruguay). Autarco ARfini and Gustavo Lecce (Argentina), Fernanda Leite (Brasil), and others. Her inspiration and motivation for this practice have driven her as a young independent artist to have a concern about fostering a sense of community and physical-mental health through dance, play and improvisation. She is currently part of Colectivo de Arte Espontáneo ProAgrupa participating and creating bonds between Mexico City and Puebla's communities through Teatro Espontáneo-PlayBack performances. Finally, her concerns about community work linked to artistic practices, and how they generate change platforms and political activism have led her to be a part of the Therapy in Narrative Practices course led by the Colectivo en Pácticas Narrativas in Mexico City.

Claudia Landavazo

Claudia Landavazo graduated in Spanish Literature from the University of Sonora. She is a contemporary dancer and a choreographer. She holds a degree in choreography from the University of Baja California and the Hellenic Centre in Theatre of the Body. She has studied Profound Psychology in the Escuela Mexicana de Psicolgía and she is now enrolled in the Psicodrama training in the EMPS. She has been the recipient of FONCA grants in Mexico City to develop her choreographic projects "La teatralidad en la danza , Una Letra Silenciosa and Reflejos" with grants from FECAS for projects with the community using dance, soul therapy, therapy and movement for sheltered women, Authentic Movement. She is the co-founder of Proagrupa A.C. (Group processes for the transformation through arts). At the moment, she keeps working with different groups, as well choreographing, performing and coordinating different projects with the Colectivo Arte Espontáneo de Participación.

Darío Bernal-Villegas

Daniel Jiménez García

David Silva Carreto

Director of Herejes Danza Interdisciplinaria, co-founder of Rodará, and co-director of the Festival Internacional Rodará, pantomime, circus and clown. He studied with different teachers like: Jorge Domínguez, Othón Téllez, Mauricio Nava, Phillipe Amand, álvaro Argáiz, Antonio Salinas, Magdalena Brezzo, Gabriela Medina, Marcos Ariel Rossi, Joaquín López Chaz, Carolina Jiménez Gerardo Solís, Vicente Silva, Silvia Unzueta, Shanti Oyarsaval, Victoria Rivapalacio and Antón Reza, Ana González, Gerardo Delgado, Federico Castro, Alicia Sánchez, Leticia Alvarado, Bernardo Rubinstein, Raúl Catalán, Roberto Mendiola, James Donlon (USA) Eric de Bont (España), Mary Fitzgerald (USA), Armando Holzer (Venezuela), Andrew Harwood (USA), Domingo Pau (Cuba) amongst others, as well as with different artists taking part in the Performatica Foro in 2008 and 2009. Some of the workshops he attended are: Professional Development, Téchnique NAPP (coNtacto, APoyo, imPulso), Scenography, Direction, Video Danza, Choreographic composition in alternative spaces, Acting for dancers I and II, Lighting for dance and theatre, music for choreography, improvisation, Contemporary Dance, Release, Limon, Physical Theatre, Contact Improvisation, Ballet, Graham. He has taught workshops in dance and physical theatre in different places like: Encuentro Internacional del Movimiento Performática (2012, 2009 y 2008); Compañía de danza Codanza Holguín, Cuba (abril 2011); Escuela de Artes Manuel Muñoz Cedeño, Bayamo Cuba (2011, 2010, 2009 y 2006); Compañía Antonine Artuad;, Compañía de Teatro Alas, de Bayamo Cuba (2006); Frente de Danza Independiente en Quito, Ecuador (2005); Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Puebla, Centro de Desarrollo del Arte y la Ciencia A.C. Instituto Dámicis, Colegio Libre de Estudios Universitarios Campus Puebla.

Denisse Cárdenas Landeros

Born in Hermosillo, Sonora and grew up in Mexico's City where she started her artistic development since very young. Graduated from the BFA on Dance in the Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Her dance training was mainly influenced by the Laban and Barteineff principles, the philosophy of the Humphrey-Limon's technique, improvisation and somatic techniques such as Topf and Skinner Release and Body Mind Centering and by teachers and artists such as Oscar Velázquez, Alan Danielson, Rip Parker, Ray. E. Schwartz, Zap McConnell, Silvia Mamana and Mark Taylor. She has collaborated independently in multidisciplinary initiatives with artistic associations, social and/or environmental, for the contemporary dance diffusion, principally with groups and companies in Mexico City, Puebla and the United States such as El Semillero, Colectivo Mano de Tierra, @Hand Productions, Colectivo TOMATE, CODACO, Cava-Parker Dance, the company Sunny Savoy, Colectivo 2Z, Malva Danza, Caída Libre, among others, in video dance projects, performance and site-specific interventions.

As a complement to her artistic development she has realized photography studies, environmental education, artistic education and pedagogy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and added a therapeutical and communitary focus. She coursed the Diplomado en Prácticas Narrativas with the Colectivo en Prácticas Narrativas (Mexico City), and somatic studies in Body Mind Movement México. She has received the support from diverse institutions, she was granted a scholarship as an Intérprete con Trayectoria del Consejo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes en Puebla (2012), Estudios en el extranjero del FONCA (2009), Beca de Intercambio e Itinerancias por parte de la Secretaría de Cultura del Estado de Puebla (2009), the Instituto Limón en Nueba York (2009-2010), the American Dance Festival (2009), El Centro de Investigación y Estudio de Técnicas y Lenguajes Coporales en Buenos Aires, Argentina (2006), Los Talleres en la Ciudad de México (1999-2003), and the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (2003-2008).

Diana Morales Sánchez

Choreographer and dancer, Diana graduated from Universidad de las Américas Puebla 2010. She is interested in the relationship between audiovisual media and dance. She dances for Mudanza and is the recipient of a grant the FOCAEM 2013.

Erin Crawley-Woods

Erin Crawley-Woods is a teaching artist and bodyworker who grew up dancing in the hills of West Virginia. She is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Maryland, College Park where she recently presented her thesis project, Visible Seams, a site-specific sound/dance/video installation for the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. From 2007-2011 she was a Repertory Company member and Director of Community Outreach at Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During that time she created arts integration curriculum guides, coordinated community dance projects and managed the on-going development of Keshet’s nationally recognized Outreach Dance Program for Incarcerated Youth. In addition, she taught creative movement for young children, pre-professional dance training for teens and physically integrated dance for all ages. In 2006 she completed the Wholistic Bodywork program at the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts and is a licensed member of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork and Thai Healing Alliance International.

Prior to relocating to New Mexico, Erin lived and worked in New York City where from 2002-2005, she was company manager for PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER. She has performed in the US and abroad with the Nancy Meehan Dance Company, Leslie Satin & Dancers, Sara Rudner & Company, Australian choreographer Russell Dumas, and the Irish Modern Dance Theater. Erin received her B.A. in theatre, dance and French from Sarah Lawrence College in 2001.

Elba Irma Emicente Sánchez

Elba Emicente, graduated in dance at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla. In the last 5 years she has worked in the field of direction and production, mainly in Puebla. She has worked with several dance companies based in Puebla and has taken part in several national (DF, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, Puebla) and international (Maine, EUA) festivals. She has presented at conferences at UNAM (Mexico) and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is the technical director of the collective KIN-MU, which belongs to herself, Daniel Jiménez and three other artists. The collective is working interdisciplinarly and in July 2012 they staged their first work Diálogos de Luz, fusing dance, music and lighting.

Fósforo EscenaMóvil

Fósforo EscenaMóvil is a company directed by Patricia Rodriguez y Raúl Rosas since 2010. In 2012 began with their professional work with "Tripulación a bordo", participating in different festivals around the DF, Mexico City, Hidalgo and Oaxaca. They got the 3th place on Video+danza TVUNAM, first reality show UNAM. Their work has been taking part of different dancefilm festivals in México, France, Uruguay, Argentina and Germany. Patricia has a Choreography Degree on the Escuela Nacional de Danza Clásica y Contemporánea. She is general assistant of Manga Video y Danza and she has worked in collaboration with Granja Centro Arte. Patricia has been giving composition workshops and her work has been present outside and inside Mexico. Raúl got a Dance Degree on the Escuela Nacional de Danza de Mazatlan. He has worked with different dance companies and taught on the Academia de Danza Mexicana. Now a days, he's teaching at the Allume Centro de Artes en Movimimento and work with the company Peripecia A.C.

Gina Battistich

Gina Battistich is a movement artist, Feldenkrais practitioner and organizer (e.g. at dancetheaterperformance departement/ ttp WUK, Arada Festival, KiosK59 a.o.) from Vienna. She studied dance and performance art in Vienna, Amsterdam and Linz and completed the international Feldenkrais training programme (director: Jeremy Krauss). She has been working with the method since, combining it with dance and movement research. In 2008 she received a Danceweb scholarship. Current collaborations include the emotion research laboratory The vanishing moment with Lottaleben and kunst)spiel and the performance collectives F8 and Rosidant. Among others she worked with Iris Julian, Adriana Cubides, Lux Flux, Valeria Primost and Joachim Kapuy.

Jaguar Danza Acción

Jaguar Danza-Acción is a collective born in 2012 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The collective is formed by 6 artists from different places in Mexico. They all share the same passion about producing, creating, and promoting dance within different types of audience. One of their interests is to bring movement back starting off from the exploration and observation of the individual's action. That's how through contemporary dance and the technical and interpretative dance, developed with different choreographers, they look for versatility and capacitiy of adaptation as artists- stage performer.

Janet Schroeder

Janet Schroeder is a percussive dance artist, scholar, and teacher, with a particular interest in tap dance, Appalachian clogging and body percussion. She maintains her physical practice of these rhythmic dance forms by creating and presenting choreography as well as taking and teaching classes throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Schroeder’s current research traces the historical and cultural roots of percussive dance in the U.S. These explorations of rhythm in dance have taken her to Mexico, Appalachia, Chicago, New York City, and the Berkshires. Schroeder toured professionally with Rhythm in Shoes; she holds an MFA in Dance from The College at Brockport; and she is a first year doctoral student in Dance Studies at The Ohio State University.

Javier Alejandro Pérez Caicedo

was born in the city of Quito ( Ecuador ) on April 17, 1986 , he began his dance Studies at 19 years, in the Metropolitan Dance School of National Ballet of Ecuador ,the front of Independent Dance in the project "Future Yes", and the National Dance Company of Ecuador, he becomes a professional Ballet Dancer as Cast of the Contemporary Chamber in August 2007 to August 2010 , he joined the professional Dance School of Mazatlán in September 2010 , where actually is coursing his fourth year of Bachelor of contemporary Dance and in 2011 he entered the cast of Exodus contemporary Dance ( Mexico ) Director Joshua German and Viral Dance Collective Scenic ( Mexico ) Director Andrea Holguin, in August 2011 . In July 2011 , forms and rules the Latitude Zero Dance Ecuador - Mexico project, an exchange project of performing artists for productions, research and exchanges between artists from Mexico , South America and Ecuador , also performs as a teacher in residence of the Company Ecuador national Dance 2012- 2014y the National Ballet of Ecuador from 2013 to 2015 . He has participated in : International Meeting of Contemporary Dance Gerardo Delgado ( Ecuador National Ballet ) 2008 . 12th Culiacán Choreography Competition 2010 Hector Chavez . International Meeting of contemporary dance José limon 2011-2012 . Meeting of young creators Tijuana 2011-2012 (Lux Boreal ) . 13th Culiacán Choreography Competition 2011 Hector Chavez . Festival Mobile scene , Mazatlán 2012. Moon Water Project in 2012 , Dance in unconventional spaces Scholarship Council citizen of the city of Mazatlan ( Mexico ) 2012. International Festival of Theatre Scene 2011-2012 Mazatlan . International Cultural Festival Revueltas - Durango ( Mexico ) Project Art in progress , interdisciplinary Laboratory Mazatlan in April 2013 . International Dance Festival 2013 Morelia (Morelia , Mexico ) guest performance artist Contemporary Art Center of Quito ( Quito - Ecuador ) from 2013 to 2014 taught workshops: • Beta Lab Company (Tijuana , Mexico ) , July 2011 Contemporary Technique . • National Dance Company of Ecuador ( Quito - Ecuador ) in July 2012 , Technical Workshop and Workshop Contemporary Cast choreographic composition and independent dancers. • Malitzi stagecraft ( Cuautla , Mexico ) August 2012 Technical Workshop contemporary and assembly. • International Theater Festival Mazatlan Scene 2011-2012 , Contemporary Technique Workshop . • The Tempest Contemporary Dance Company (Morelia , Mexico ) in December 2012 , Contemporary Technique workshop . • National Ballet of Ecuador Quito - Ecuador 2013 , Mixed Media Workshop • National Contemporary Dance Company of Ecuador Quito Ecuador , Contemporary Mixed Media Workshop in July 2013 . • International Dance Festival in August 2013 Morelia Contemporary Mixed Media Workshop . Morelia ( Mexico ) . • International Cultural Festival Revueltas August 2013 Contemporary Mixed Media Workshop . Durango ( Mexico ) .

Jeff Wallace

Jeff Wallace is based in Lafayette, Indiana, and has been accumulating experiences and insights through movement teaching and performance for many years. His primary influences are Contact Improvisation, Contemporary Dance, Physical Theater, his past career in neuropsychology, and daily life. He has taught at numerous colleges and universities, and has performed and taught on 4 continents and in 8 countries. Jeff ‘s performance credits include the US premiere of Tino Segal’s installation of Kiss at Chicago’s MCA, the development and premiere of Adam Noble’s physical theater work Terminus, the premiere of Karl P Henning’s Ambiguous Strategies – Composition for clarinets, violins, percussion and dancer, and as movement coach for the Vitalist Theatre’s production of Mark Ravenhill’s Pool (no water). He has performed in numerous other choreographic and improvisational dance works in venues including the Kennedy Center, the Dora Stratou Theatre in Athens, Club M in Tokyo, and the National Opera House in Guatemala. He has taught dancers, actors, opera singers, and special needs children. Over the course of his life, he has acquired a B.S. in Chemistry, a M.A. in Clinical/Counseling Psychology, and a passion for movement.

Jessie Laurita-Spanglet

Jessie Laurita-Spanglet is a teaching artist, choreographer, and performer currently pursuing her MFA in Dance at the University Of Maryland. Since coming to Maryland, Jessie has danced with Tere O’Connor, Adriane Fang, Sharon Mansur, Alvin Mayes, Stephanie Miracle, Graham Brown, Connor Voss, Sarah Beth Oppenheim, and most recently, the Dance Exchange. Jessie is a Stott Pilates certified Pilates Instructor through the Balance Body Pilates Training Center in Richmond VA, and a 200 hour Interdisciplinary Yoga instructor through the Nosara Yoga Institute in Nosara, Costa Rica. Jessie was raised in the rolling hills of Charlottesville, VA, where she had the great pleasure of studying with and dancing for Katharine Birdsall, as well as teaching dance and Pilates in various studios, recreation centers, and arts spaces. Jessie earned her BFA in Dance from the North Carolina School Of the Arts.

Joanna Rotkin

Joanna is an interdisciplinary dance artist based in Colorado. She is the artistic director of TinHOUSE dance, bringing contemporary and experimental dance to diverse audiences through performance, creative research, and education. TinHOUSE dance has received multiple awards from the Boulder International Fringe Festival (including their 4th Encore! Award this past September for their sold-out run of The Great Green); Most Innovative Performance at the Jamestown Arts Festival in 2009; and Best Performance in Flagstaff, AZ in 2008. In November of 2010, Joanna was invited to be part of a month long site-specific dance project that traveled down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, resulting in the dance film DanceDownRiver. Joanna’s work is rooted in juxtaposing the virtuosic nature of dance with the bizarre nature of what it means to be human. She gathers her physical research through improvisation, collaboration, somatic practices, and site-specific studies. Past performances have used washtubs filled with corn meal, hanging parasols, food that is duct taped to a dining room table, and dances performed in alternative spaces (i.e., creek beds, mountain tops, strip malls, coffee shops, art galleries, buses) to evoke the sublime hilarity and pathos that comes from living in an unstable world in an irrational body. She holds an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Bennington College and a BFA in Dance and Improvisation from Prescott College.

Julie Rothschild

Julie Rothschild has been making and performing dances for 30 years. She is an Alexander Technique Teacher and a Certified Personal Trainer. She credits her teachers and mentors, especially those from Western Reserve Academy who gave her encouragement and a bit of a push to pursue this path of creativity and movement education. Julie has performed, directed, taught and lived throughout the US. Her dances have been staged in Colorado, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, Georgia, Mexico and Ireland and she has presented Dance and Alexander Technique workshops throughout the US as well as in Spain, Switzerland, Ireland and Mexico. Julie currently lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and 2 sons. Her daily walks with her dog Olive are when and where her wildest ideas seem possible.

Karen Harvey

Karen Harvey is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She has been choreographing dances and site-specific experiments for fourteen years and her work often engages artistic collaborations across disciplines. Karen‘s choreography has been presented in NYC by Judson Church’s Stuffed Series, WestFest, Center for Performance Research, Famoso Festival, Cool NY Festival, The Futurists (indie rock band) and internationally in Tokyo, Kyoto and Vienna. She is also a founding member of Antititled Dialogues - an improvisation performance collective in NYC. As a performer, Karen has had the pleasure of working with a range of international artists including Neta Pulvermacher, Rebecca Lazier, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Pascal Rambert, Dai Jian, Rick Moody, Renee Archibald, Christopher Williams, Pichet Klunchun, Katie Swords, Brenda Daniels and We Are Your Friends (experimental A cappella group) among others. She received early training in postmodern philosophy and composition at the Governor's School of North Carolina as well as studied at the American Dance Festival, Impultztanz in Vienna, Tanzfest in Berlin and Studio Harmonic in Paris. Karen holds a BFA in Contemporary dance from NCSA (2004) where she was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.

Katharine Birdsall

Katharine Birdsall is an independant teacher, choreographer and performer of contemporary dance. She collaborates with musicians, dancers and other choreographers to create new dances whenever the rest of her life gives her a chance. To date she has never recreated a dance or formed repertory. There is no particular reason for this! She has a small private practice teaching the Alexander Technique. Her background is in classical ballet, modern dance, The Alexander Technique, release technique, contact improvisation, tai chi, and yoga... pretty much in that order. Among others she has worked with Ray Schwartz, Zap McConnel, Julie Rothschild, Deborah Hay, and Diego Martinez Lanz.

Karen de Luna

n 2004 she is invited to join the Mexican dance company Delfos as a dancer and their school EPDM as a teacher. During the 7 years with them she studied with and worked with artists such as Laura Aris (Wim Vanekeybus), Janusz Subicz (Pina Baush), Vladimir Ilich Rodrígues (Cortocinesis), Magdalena Brezzo (Camerino 4) Michael Foley (Universidad del sur de Florida), Carmen Werner (Provisional Danza), Kathleen Hermesdorf (La ALTERNATIVA), Andrew Hardwood (AH HA!), Andea Scot (Universidad de del Sur de Florida), Ray Schwartz (UDLAP) Miguel Mancillas (Antares), Lourdes Luna (Cressida), Alejandro Vargas, and Cuahutemoc Nájera.

With Delfos she toured to countries including Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, USA, Peru, Canada, Singapore, Czech Republic, France and South Africa. Took part in residencies at American universities, in the Millenium 2004 season at Centro Nacional de las Artes and the Palacio de Bellas Artes season both in Mexico City. Also participating in Mexico Now 2004 at the Joyce Theatre in New York, 14 Festival Don Quijote in Paris France and the XXIII Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato and Queretaro. She collaborates on the project Lazo with the company Antares and creates several choreographic projects with students from EPDM which are presented in the festivals Cultural Mazatlan and Jose Limon.

She has received support through the Programa de Estímulo a la Creación y el Desarrollo Artístico from the state of Jalisco, in the Desarrollo Individual category, in 2005-2006 and in the Jóvenes Creadores category in 2008-2009.

After 7 years of collaborating with Delfos in early 2010 she decides to create her own project based on interdisciplinary creations and explorations, Proyecto al margen.

She collaborates with La Alternativa formed by the dancer Kathleen Hermesdorf and the musician Albert Mathias (San Francisco) in the project MOVIMIENTO Graffiti and in the making of the dance film Tiempos Inertes (fragmento) with the American visual artist Dutch Rall, collaborator with David Lynch.

She has taught workshops and set work in institutions and with companies such as UDLAP (Universidad de las Americas Puebla), UDG (Universidad de Guadalajara) and Lux Boreal in Tijuana.

After being a finalist in the Reality Show: Opera Prima @elcolectivo she relocated to Guadalajara where she currently develops her own work in multidisciplinary projects, is on faculty at the Instituto Superior de Artes Escena 3, and teaches at various Mexican and international institutions.

Laura Bartczak

Laura Bartczak is a film artist, photographer, and dancer. She has been commissioned by numerous choreographers to photograph their works, including Talya Epstein and Kathinka Walter. Her films have been shown at venues around New York City, including the Center for Performance Research. She dances in the work of Hadar Ahuvia and Lindsey Drury, among others. Bartczak works solely with non-digital photography and film forms, most recently making her first 8mm film. Her previous films have focused on the Stop-Motion Animation as applied to dance choreography. She is fascinated with the issue of time as it emerges in the mechanics of pre-digital photographic equipment.

Lilly Castro Marengo

I Was Born in the town of Arecibo, bo . Hato Arriba in Puerto Rico . I began dancing at the age of 13 despite of the economic situation, which did not stop my Studies. I graduated from New York University Bachelor of Arts . I graduated as a lawyer at the University InterAmerican Law School of Puerto Rico, while still dancing . My knowledge of dance began with Dr. Norma Carranza, Carlota Carreras (First dancer and current rehearsal director of Concert Ballet) Junito Betancourt ( RIP), Leonor Constanzo. During University I was part of the Kaleidoscope Company ( 1980) directed by Judith Schwarth in addition to working with students presenting their works in progress in different venues, including the Puerto Rican Vazquez Viveca. After my performing career, I decided, 17 years ago, to dance, educate and assist children with physical challenges, emotions and post-traumatic disorders. I decided to return to school to update my knowledge and work with the community. I went back to NYU, Steps on Broadway, I attended various seminars, Prof. Anne Green Gilbert certification's program in the Brain Dance method, Adapted Creative Dance in Cuba with Georgina Farignas, Lynn Simmons for kinesiology and body work, Finish Jhung ballet, and all the seminars provided annually by the National Dance Education Conference. This last institution being an integrated school where everyone is equal and there are no barriers . For me dancing is not only movement is education , training , no locomotor motor development therapy ,fun , self-esteem and much love. NO doesn't exist in my vocabulary. My students and my family have been fundamental in my life and in my choreography. As educador I offer human sensitivity, self-esteem and development for the younger generation in schools, give them a smile and provide security for my students. My method is gradually offering new Tools to public schools and teachers to try to avoid dropouts. By educating through dance we are moving bodies and helping our society with the POWER OF EXPRESSION.

Lindsey Drury

Lindsey Drury builds self-contradictory dance systematics. She works with the idea that movement is itself multiplicit, full of frictious directives, intents, and interpretations. She builds works of performance as problems, providing the performers situations with which to contend. She looks for ways in which people navigate unsolvable embodiments. She assumes that if something cannot be done correctly, it is worth performing. Over the last number of years, Drury’s research has focused on issues of authority and transmutability in dance. She created Run Little Girl (Cunningham Studio, 2012) through a space grant at Gibney Dance to place 20 fragments of choreographed dance material created and rehearsed for 4 years under the microscope. She composed the development and performative intent of the work over a microphone as it unfolded, and thereby re-envisioned a singular body of material for a multiplicity of directive schematics over a four-show run of the work. I am My Shitty Little Box (Danspace, 2011) was a duet with an audience member in which she exchanges clothes with them and performs a solo both as them and for them. Further projects include a dance opera to be staged at Momenta Art in New York City for 5 weeks in September of 2013, The No Wave Performance Task Force (an open-source organization of performers and community members that investigates modes of feminist performance), her in-home residency program through which she has hosted artists in need of housing from all over the world since 2009, and The Woods Cooperative, a artist-run rehearsal space-share in Ridgewood, Queens. Drury has further curated an international artist-series called Post-Dance as a part of the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, and has peformed for Peruvian artist Amapola Prada and choreographer Yvonne Meier, among others.

Lisette Foncerrada Rivadeneyra

Lisette Foncerrada has a degree in dance from the University of the Americas Puebla. She is an actress, singer and dancer who began all these arts when she was 3 years old. Foncerrada studied the Cuban classical technique, also she has diplomas of musical theater from schools in Buenos Aires and New York. She has attended different courses, workshops and classes in schools and universities recognized by masters of international stature in cities like Boston, DF and Havana. Some of the teachers who have guided her technical and artistic training are: Dario Petruzio , Paula Tirelli , Jorgelina Balerdi , Matías Cazeaux , Justin Boccitto , Lane Napper and Jim Cooney ( They all active teachers in Act Musical Theatre & Art Argentina and Broadway Dance Center, New York) . Lisette has performed in various theaters of Puebla, as well as different countries. She has a vast classic, contemporary and musical theater repertoire. Her passion is not only dance, she really loves singing and acting. Currently she is working on her own academy, Eli –Ce, and on the project "14:59" of the Musical Theatre Studio in the city of Puebla.

Mandy Greenlee

As an artist I value working in both a contemplative and chaotic manner, touching the sacred and the profane. My intention is to create felt experiences, insightful outlooks, and shifts in perception into the perplexing and implicit human condition. My work expands into inclusion of varied audiences, working site-specifically and shifting proscenium viewing. I guide performance into a participatory manner and strive to dismantle assumed dualistic relationships between viewer and dancer. Humor inspires me as I shed light onto intense subject matters, revealing absurdity and unexpected perspectives by colliding various vantage points on a subject, and traversing both the reverent and irreverent. Excavating a range of experiences, from gesture to task-oriented movement, I combine physical theatre, emotional and energetic states along with my technical dance training in post-modern/contemporary dance. My extensive background in energetic and somatic awareness and attunement deeply informs how I work with shifted states of consciousness. Furthermore, my signature values as a teacher acknowledge the whole being rather than just the whole person. Play, focus, intentionality, connection to more than the physical, and unleashing unique creative expression are my core principles. My classes take a mindful and focused approach to awaken the senses and work through clear structures in the body to move into the poetics, imagination and improvisation of movement. Valuing strength and fluidity as a way to prime the body for facile mobility and awareness of other dancers, we traverse from the deep internal and expand out to the external, modulating between these polarities and exploring the spaces in between. I am currently pursuing my MFA at University of Colorado in Boulder. Previously I danced professionally in California’s Bay Area. I was awarded an artist-in-residency in Santa Cruz supporting me to direct and produce an evening-length show. I also had a collaborative dance-theatre company Fire-Within; worked with Sha and Blah Productions, LaLeeLee, Atelier 5, Frey Faust, Nita Little, and Joe Goode..

Margaret Behm

Margaret Behm holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has studied with and performed the works of Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser, Sydney Skybetter, Christopher Huggins, Erika Randall and Kim Olson, among others. She has also studied Gaga and performed Batsheva Dance Company repertory under the direction of Uri Shafir and Ron Amit. She has performed at the Boulder and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals, her own choreography has been showcased in many student productions, and she has attended SaltDanceFest and Bates Dance Festival. Margaret currently resides in her hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado where she is a Director of Mountain Moving Company and performs with High Performance Dance Theatre and Chris Harris’ Louder Than Words Dancetheatre.

Mayra Gracida Lome

Mayra Gracida has a graduate degree in Choreography from the National School of Classical and Contemporary Dance at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico. Gracida was a scholarship holder of the Artistic Stimulus Creation Program of the National Council for Culture and the Arts 2012. As a dancer, she was part of the contemporary dance company Fifth Element for 8 years, under the guidance of the teacher Karina Cepeda. She has participated in contemporary works by choreographers like Beth Megill, Karina Cepeda, Mary Fitzgerald and Jennifer Tsukayama. She has been in important competitions, presentations and tours in Mexico, United States and Cuba. As a choreographer, some of her works are: "Sola como la luna", "Contrapuntus XIII", "Al pie de su cama", "Cuarto Menguante" and others that have been presented in the National Arts Centre, the National Museum of Art and in some cities of Cuba.

Paige Fredlund

Paige Fredlund is a former Cunningham fellow, studying under full scholarships and presenting work at the Cunningham Studio for multiple years. She studied African dance in Ghana and continues to be an active collaborator with the African dance community in York city. Most recently, she was commissioned by the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, and most recently danced an ASL restaging of Yvonne Rainer's Trio A at Judson Church for deaf activist Austin Epik. Paige performs in New York City as a part of the feminist performance art group No Wave Performance Task Force, with Lorene Bouboushian, Kaia Gilje, and for film artist Laura Bartczak  

Paula Rechtman Bulajich

Originally from Mexico, Paula studied at The Place, the London Contemporary Dance School, graduating with a BA in 2006 and with an MA in 2008. During her time in the school she went to en Purchase College (SUNY), New York as an exchange student. At the moment she is an independent artist based in Mexico City, and she is interested in creating creative relationships with other dance and multimedia artists, as well as teaching contemporary dance to share her experience working and studying abroad. As a choreographer she has received several fellowships from FONCA, and has presented her work in London, New York, Chicago, Spain, France, Croatia, India, Indonesia and Mexico. Some of her choreographic work is part of the repertory of Fóramen M company. As a dancer she has worked with companies like Phoenix Dance Theatre, Jagged Antics, Jean Abreu Dance y Oskola Projektua in London, Foramen M. Ballet, CEPRODAC, Dam Van Huynh y Mariana Bellotto in Mexico. Throughout her career she has taught contemporary dance and choreography for different levels and in many places, like Fóramen M, Malitzi Arte Escénico in Cuautla, and in the Centro Morelense de las Artes in Cuernavaca.

Rachael L. Shaw

Rachael L. Shaw is an independent dancer, choreographer, educator, and Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst. Currently, she is temporary faculty at the University of Wyoming, teaching technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals. In 2006, Rachael co-founded and choreographed for R Squared Dance Company. Her live work has been shown at the University of Utah, Virginia Commonwealth University, Sugar Space in Salt Lake City, UT, LiveArts in Charlottesville, VA, and at Performatica in Puebla, Mexico. Her dance for camera work has been selected for dance dance, the FMAD Film Festival and the International Student Film Festival in Salt Lake City, UT. Nicholas Webster is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Philosophy as a graduate student at the University of Wyoming. His areas of specialization are Ancient Greek philosophy, ethics, and ecosophy. Nicholas’ previous degrees are in Biology, Environmental Studies, and Environmental Humanities. He was invited to present at the 5th Biennial Margaret Dauler Wilson Conference and is the author of (Cosmopolitan) Bioregionalism.

Rachel Oliver

Rachel Oliver, originally from Missoula, MT, is a free-lance dancer, choreographer, and movement instructor. Rachel graduated with a double major in biochemistry and dance from Beloit College and is currently in her final year of pursuing an MFA in Dance at CU Boulder as an Arts and Sciences Fellow, while working with the You & Me Performance Project and performing as a guest artist with Missoula’s Bare Bait Dance Co. As a performer, Rachel has also had the opportunity to perform professionally at venues throughout the country with Chicago based company ecnDanceworks (now The Moving Architects), San Francisco based companies Double Vision, Dance Theatre/Shannon and Presidio Dance Theatre; and West Virginia Dance Company, among others. Rachel is an interdisciplinary choreographer focusing on collaboration in order to bring her interest of personal interactions and experiences alive. By exploring autobiographical stories of the artists, Rachel teases out facets of each experience to shape a persona based on biography, in order to promote reflection and commentary. Rachel’s choreography has been presented across the country through her own independent work, commissioned for Trillium Performing Arts Collective, selected for performance at the West Virginia Dance Festival, and presented at the Philly Live Arts & Fringe, as well as the Boulder International Fringe Festival. Currently, Rachel has been awarded a residency at the ATLAS Institute in Boulder, CO; for her upcoming evening length piece, Settle. As a dance educator, Rachel offers efficiency of movement through somatic study, in order to help each student understand basic anatomical knowledge, encouraging them to understand how to organize their proper alignment, to make intelligent movement choices and perform articulate movement. Physically charged phrase work, emphasizing efficiency, specific gestures, unexpected directional change, momentum and virtuosity fill Rachel’s contemporary modern choreography and pedagogy. In her more balletic work, Rachel pulls the speed and specificity of neo-classical ballet, and fuses it with the release of the upper body into spirals and openness.

Rebeca Hernandez

Rebeca Hernandez was born and raised in Mexicali. She has a B.A. in World Arts and Cultures/Dance from UCLA. She danced and toured with Taller de Danza Contemporánea de la Universidad Autonoma de Baja California in Mexicali and with Compañía Jorge Domínguez in Tijuana from 2002-2007. Rebeca’s choreographic process includes site-specific work, music and dance improvisation, public interventions and interdisciplinary work between musicians, multimedia artists and visual artists. Rebeca’s latest dance project, BEYOND CONTROL will be part of Carolina Caycedo's visual art residency and exhibition at 18th Street Arts Center's Artist Lab Series in Los Angeles (November 2013), and was part of Rebeca’s summer 2013 UCLA Hothouse Dance Residency Program. As a recipient of a 2012 National Performance Network/Performing Americas grant in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs/Cultural Exchange International program, Rebeca was able to do a one-month residency in Mexicali, Mexico. She had a season of 28 performances and directed a short dance film. This residency involved field work in a ranch, where dancers learned how to ride horses. Rebeca has choreographed and performed in the following venues and events in Los Angeles: Pacific Standard Time’s Tresspass Parade; PERFORM! NOW! a performance art festival curated by Dino Dinco in collaboration with performance art group Fundacion Wanna Winni; full length piece presented at the Pieter Performance Art Space for Choreographers’ Showcase; MexiCali Art Biennial at Otis College of Art and Design and the Vincent Price Art Museum and 24th Street Theater. Rebeca also presented a piece for the site-specific performance art festival L.A Road Concerts. Internationally, Ms. Hernandez has performed as a soloist for the Festival de Danza Contemporánea de Cabaret in Mexico City (2011 and 2013). She also took a group of L.A dancers to Mexicali and Tijuana to perform for the MexiCali Art Biennial in 2009 and 2010 and for the Dia Internacional de la Danza in 2013.

Rebecca Levy

Rebecca is an educator, choreographer, and performer who has lived and worked in Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Jacksonville. She serves as Professor of Dance at Florida State College at Jacksonville where she directs the dance repertory company. She is founder and artistic director of Jacksonville Dance Theatre, a modern dance company providing choreographic, performance, and educational opportunities for dancers living in Jacksonville. She was founder, and served as co-artistic director of the Los Angeles based B.E. Productions Dance Company for eight seasons. She holds her MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts, is registered Certified Yoga Instructor, and Power Pilates Certified Pilates Mat I & II Instructor. Rebecca's choreographic work has been featured in festivals and concerts throughout the country. Most recently her choreography has been produced at the New Seeds Festival for Women Artists, Emerging Choreographers Showcase in Pasadena, CA, The Cambridge School of Weston, MA, Episcopal School of Jacksonville, NewGrounds in Tampa, FL, the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, and Case Western Reserve University. Rebecca participated in the 2012 NES Artist Residency program in Skagastrond, Iceland where she created an award winning Dance-Film, and was a contributing film-maker to Globe Trot, a film project directed by Mitchell Rose and choreographed by Bebe Miller premiering in 2014. As a performer, she works with many notable choreographers and companies, and toured nationally for six seasons as a soloist with Lineage Dance Company.

Ruth Daniela Aguirre

Performance Artists and Choreographer, is currently a student at the Choreographic Research Center, where she developed her research on somatic and movement techniques. She has taken part in the following projects: Please Keep Silence, Where and Howl said Urbano (the latter in collaboration with the company Tea Performing Arts Company and The Third Movement). She has also taken various theoretical and practical courses with teachers like Yumiko Yoshioka, Natsu Nakajima, Alessandro Pintus, Taniel Morales, Ana González, among others.

Sven Doehner

Sven Doenher PhD, MFA, is originally from Mexico City. He holds an MFA by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a PhD in Clinical Psychology by the Newport University. He worked for a year in he department of Psychiatric Emergencies in Parkland Memorial Hospital un (Dallas, Texas) and studied Jungian and Archetypical Psychology (Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture & C.G. Jung Institute-Boston). He is now in the Body Mind Movement School.

Samuel Hanson

Samuel Hanson is a dance, performance and video artist based in the Salt Lake City, UT. As a performer, he has worked for/with an ecclectic mix of artists including Ashley Anderson, Yve Laris Cohen, Lindsey Drury, Paula Pfoser and others. His work has been seen throughout the western United States and in New York City. He has also been recently been writing dance criticism for 15Bytes.org, SLUG Magazine and the loveDANCEmore performance journal (loveDANCEmore.org). He holds a BA in Performance and Media from the University of Utah.

Sara Domínguez-Petersen

Sara Domínguez-Petersen is a multi-media and multi-cultural artist (Dance-Theater-Painting). She graduated from the dance school Lola Rogge Schule, in theatre from Die Schule für Schauspiel Hamburg. Those studies allowed her to begin her exploracion within the performing arts. She has choreographed and taught dance in several places. Her area of interest and speciality is the relationship between body, psyche and expression. For the past 25 years she has lived and worked as an independent artist between Germany, Catalunia and Mexico. In 1998 she received the grant from FONCA for young makers.

Sayuri Vergara Hernández

Sayuri Vergara Hernández as born in April 3, 1977 in Puebla, Puebla. Since she was a child, her passion was dancing and in 1995 she decided to study a dance degree at Universidad de las Américas Puebla.

STUDIES Dance degree. Universidad de las Américas Puebla. 1995-2000. Certified in dance therapy. Centro Universitario de la Danza. México, D.F., 2000.Certified in educational psychomotor activity. Universidad Iberoamericana. 2002-2003.Training course for pilates teachers (Mat, Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda, Chair). 2003. Training course in French language 1&2. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. 2002.

EXPERIENCE Dance department coordinator. Secretaría de Cultura de Puebla. 1999-2000. Realization of dancing and choreographic events in open and closed spaces like theatres and forums. Tracing of dance projects in collaboration with other departments. Project “Fin de semana en danza”; the main objective was to promote dancing activities over the weekends for the state. Special events focused on serving society as different centers and civic associations. Realization of dancing events in and off the state. Cultural events director. Casa de la artesana del DIF municipal, Puebla. 2000-2002. Coordinator of Danza Terapéutica for the elderly. Teacher in contemporary dance. Universidad Iberoamericana. 2000-2004. Teacher in pilates, body&mind. 2003-2006. Teacher in pilates and hip hop. Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla. 2005-2008.Director of Center for artistic and deportive development for kids. 2008-2013.

CHOREOGRAPHIES ¿A qué jugamos? – Secretaría de Cultura de Puebla. 2000. Últimos Prisioneros – Festival Internacional de Puebla. 2000. Dos cuerpos, dos mundos – Museo Poblano de Arte Virreinal. 2002.

Stephanie Lee

Steph Lee is a performing artist, dancer and sought-after arts marketing consultant. After winning the first public scholarship for dance in Malaysia, she made her way to Boulder Colorado where she studied Dance extensively at the University of Colorado. She has received immense physical training from professionals in the post-modern, contemporary, Gaga, ballet, African, jazz, hip-hop and contact improvisation communities including Gabriel Masson, Gesel Mason, Erika Randall, Michelle Ellsworth, Uri Shafir, Nada Diachenko, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Darrell Jones, Onye Ozuzu, KJ Holmes, Chris Aiken, and Rennie Harris. Steph is a former company member of Evolving Doors Dance, a Colorado-based dance company. Steph has also previously worked with Gesel Mason, Darrell Jones, Michael Foley, Nicole Dagesse (site specific work), and Gabriel Masson. Along with physical exploration, she partakes in somatic practices, methods of teaching, improvisation and choreographic development. Steph is currently studying Anatomy and Ideokinesis with Irene Dowd, the Alexander Technique with Ann Rodriger, and the Feldenkrais Method at the Feldenkrais Institute of New York. She also practices Yoga and Pilates extensively and is a certified NASM Personal Trainer. In the past, she studied the Alexander Technique with Nada Diachenko and Julie Rothchild, Pilates with Tambre Manno, Ideokinesis with Jayne Persch, and Yoga with Richard Freeman and Shannon Paige Schneider. As an arts marketing consultant, she has worked with over 10 arts companies on crowdfunding strategy, entrepreneurship, business plans/alternative business models, and touring work abroad. Her clients include the world’s first rock climbing dance company, Colorado’s national aerial dance company, the first LGBT-focused dance company in the MidWest, and a dance theater company based in Brooklyn New York. Combining all her training, Steph aims to create an intellectually and physically vigorous movement vocabulary and teaching practice as visible as her art. She currently: 1)Lives in New York City 2)Performs with Xavier Hagemen, Shantelle C. Jackson, and Liberation Dance Theater. 3)Studies Dance all over!

Stephanie Miracle

Stephanie Miracle is an independent choreographer, performer and teaching artist currently based in the DC area. As a performer she has had the privilege of dancing for Deganit Shemy, Elizabeth Dishman, Shannon Gillen & Guests, Laura Peterson Choreography, alexan/the median movement, David Dorfman Dance, Joseph Poulson, Susan Marshall and Company, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Graham Brown, PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER, and Deborah Hay. As a dance maker she has created works for bus stops, women's prisons, hallways, staircases, gardens and traditional theaters as well as dance for camera. Stephanie's choreography has been presented at Rooftop Dances (NYC), 100 Grand (NYC), Triskelion Arts (NYC), Round House Theater (DC), Dance Place (DC), Clarice Smith Center (MD), Supernova (VA), Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center (NYC). Stephanie has been award a Smith Scholarship Grant with which enabled her to spend two weeks at the ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna, the Kitchen of Innovation Grant 2012, the Merit Scholarship for Bates Dance Festival 2013, and a Block Grant for 2013/2014. In 2012 she was selected at one of nine dance artists from around the world to attend OMI International Artists Residency. Stephanie is a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Maryland where she is finishing her MFA in Dance. She is also a student Susan Klein and is nearing the end of her teaching certification in Klein Technique TM.

Stephanie Sherman

Stephanie Sherman is a Doctoral Candidate in Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. A professional choreographer and dancer who has worked in Ecuador, Chile, Costa Rica, Boston, and New York, she received her BFA in Hispanic Studies from Vassar College (2001), her MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (2009), and a teaching/choreography Fulbright at la Universidad Central de Ecuador in Quito (2005). Her dissertation research employs a critical dance studies, performance studies, and Third World feminist lens to understand how different choreographies of resistance function within distinct historical moments of crisis in Mexico City to potentially disrupt hegemonic definitions of Mexican nationalism by inserting embodied movement into traumatic space.

Tania Galindo Ramírez

Dancer, choreographer, BA in Latin American Studies from UNAM. The title of her thesis project was “El Butoh en México 2006 – 2009 y dos referentes en América Latina. Una aproximación crítica y est´tica”, funded with a grant from the Secretaria de Educación Pública 2010.

She is working within the performing arts. She has worked in the cultural sector for different projects for the development of marginalized urban and native communities, through festivals, workshops, national and international conference, since 1994. As a Butoh author she has created and performed many pieces in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, México and Perú. Artistic residencies: Mx – Col. 2011 FONCA – MCC Con La Lengua en el Cuerpo . Residencias Artísticas Mx – Col 2007 FONCA, Co-inversiones Espíritus en Tránsito FONCA 2002 – 2003. Some of the festival she has taken part in: Primer Encuentro de Butoh Latinoamericano de Butoh (Ecuador) 2012, Vive Latino 2010, 2011, Encuentro de Culturas Andinas (Colombia) 2011, 2009, Cumbre Tajín 2006, 2009, 20011, IV Encuentro de las Artes Escénicas 2009, Festival Internacional Cervantino 34 with Studio Festi (Italia), México: Puerta de las Américas, 2009, 2006.

Toby Walters

Toby Walters is a senior at Beloit college, where he is currently pursuing a double major in dance and mathematics. He is fascinated by movement, mathematical beauty, and the vast landscape of possibility between the two. Toby began dancing in 2010 and has been choreographing since 2011. His work has been shown around the greater metropolitan area of the small city of Beloit, which sits on the southern border of Wisconsin. His dances strive to cultivate an appreciation for mathematical objects and dispel some of the math-phobia in those who do not yet see math as an art form.

Women Over The Wall

Women Over The Wall, a duet company formed by Analia Alegre-Femenias and Jennifer Kayle, established their working relationship in 2006 and first shared work through national and international projects (Virtualmente Tuy@s 2010, New Territory / Cuerpo de Danza 2013). Alegre-Femenias directs Dance Knots Project, which connects artists from the United States and the Caribbean. Her work has appeared at Judson Church and 100 Grand in NY, New York as well as in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Chicago, IL. Living in Iowa City, IA, Analia’s work spans multiple communities, including University of Iowa, and Nolte Academy where she teaches pre-professional teenagers, children in a performing arts Pre-School, and acting as Board Member for The James Gang, an umbrella organization producing non-profit arts. Jennifer Kayle is Associate Professor of Dance at University of Iowa, a commissioned choreographer, and performance improviser. She is founder of Kayle + Company, and also The Architects, a collaborative improvisational company performing nationally/internationally, and teaching a yearly professional workshop in compositional improvisation (Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation). Independently and with the Architects, professional highlights include 2008 seasons in New York (Joyce Soho) and Chicago (Links Hall), performances in St. Petersburg Russia (’08, ’09) at Dostoevsky Museum Theatre and Body/Word International Festival, with Burton Beerman at Symphony Space (2010), and a co-creation with Charlotte Adams, Virtually Yours / Virtualmente Tuy@s, presented at Highways, Los Angeles, and El Centro Leon in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on the politics of crossing the border. Together, Kayle and Alegre-Femenias practice compositional improvisation as a form of ensemble thinking and as a creative process that supports democratic ideals. Through research in solo and ensemble improvisation, choreography, and creative process, their research seeks to expose the connection between self-awareness and the capacity to engage meaningfully in and with community, building the individual and social musculature required to bridge our artistic and civic lives as awakened choice-makers.

Yasmín Cahuich Balán

Yasmin Cahuich Balán (1989, Campeche, México) holds a BA in Dance at the Universidad de Las Americas, Puebla. (2008-2013). In 2013 for her final thesis project she created a series of workshops targeted to young people to develop a better corporeal awareness. Since then she has been working and researching how to create dance workshops.

Zap McConnell

Zap McConnell is an educator and avid investigator, drawn to collaborative art forms and work that brings awareness and action to bear on sustainable ways to live amongst the world as people create it as we all live within the natural world. She draws, dances, makes dances and spends a lot of time in Mexico.

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