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Movers & Shapers: Zvi Gotheiner

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.84 –

Photo: Heidi Gutman


Zvi Gotheiner

 

Release Date: 7.3.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT ZVI

“One does not just watch a dance by Zvi Gotheiner. One enters a world with its own internal logic, a sensual, organic world of movement, language, and images where one is pulled along by currents unseen and inevitable.” (Dance Magazine)

Internationally acclaimed choreographer Zvi Gotheiner is the Artistic Director of ZviDance. Praised for a signature innovative style and fascinating melding of artistic mediums, his work is recognized as radical, contemporary dance theater, ground-breaking, thoughtful yet passionate, with lush movement. Zvi is also a renowned ballet teacher with a devoted following throughout the world, hailed by the New York Timesas The Zen Dance Master of New York.

His work frequently touches upon relevant issues and themes around relationships and community. He has been described “as much sociologist as dance-maker” (Alastair Macaulay,New York Times), His Dabke was recognized by the NY Times as a Top Ten Dance Favorite of 2013.

A prolific choreographer with over 35 works in the last 30 years, Zvi integrates exciting original musical scores, evocative lighting designs, with edgy multi-media and video projections. The ZviDance renowned creative team includes composers Scott Killian and Jukka Rintamak; visual designers Josh Higgason and Herzog Nadler; and lighting designer Mark London. His collaborative approach extends to the dancers and is infused with a deep regard for the individual and their creative, aesthetic role within the ensemble. His company is admired for its elasticity, athleticism and emotional expressivity.

Zvi has created numerous commissioned works for prestigious companies, institutions and universities around the world, including Repertory Dance Theatre Utah, GroundWorks Dance Theatre, Juilliard Dance New Dances, Princeton, NYU, Ohio State University, University of Washington, Bard College, Vassar College.

ZviDance performs frequently at home in New York City at venues such as Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, Dance Now Festival, Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. The company has been featured in festivals such as the American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow. The company tours internationally in Germany, Poland, Russia, Israel, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Japan.

Born in Israel, the musically gifted young Zvi encountered a performance of the Batsheva Dance Company that forever changed his life, inviting him “into a world of fantasy and self-definition”.  As a young dancer/choreographer, he was discovered by the legendary Gertrud Kraus, who took him under her wing. Following a dance scholarship with the America-Israeli Cultural Foundation, he began dancing throughout the world with Batsheva Dance Company, Joyce Trisler, Eliot Feld, among others.

He founded the Tamar Ramle Dance Company, a herald of the Israel dance fringe movement, and later directed the Tamar Jerusalem Dance Company. Increasingly drawn to New York City, he moved in 1988, and in 1989 founded ZviDance.

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Movers & Shapers: Francesca Harper

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.83 –


Francesca Harper

 

Release Date: 6.19.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT FRANCESCA

Francesca Harper (Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Dancer) is an internationally acclaimed, multifaceted artist. After being named Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performing at the White House her senior year of high school, she joined and performed soloist roles with the Dance Theater of Harlem and later as a Principal Dancer in William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt.

Harper has choreographed works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Tanz Graz, Hubbard Street II, Dallas Black Dance Theater, and her own company, the Francesca Harper Project, which was founded in 2005. Harper enjoys her appointment as an adjunct professor at New York University and the Juilliard School, and she is a former associate professor at Barnard College, and teacher/choreographer for the Ailey School, Fordham University’s BFA program, and the Susan Batson Studio.

Harper is the Artistic Director for the Movement Invention Project® and also recently served as the Movement Director for Nick Cave’s The Let Go, an exhibit commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory. Harper was awarded a two-year choreographic fellowship with Urban Bush Women, providing support toward her latest dance-theater work An Unapologetic Body, still currently in development.

Her recent engagements include choreographing a video shoot of  Wendy Whelan and Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s new collaboration via Sozo Artists, Inc., choreography and participation in a Planned Parenthood video campaign, a collaboration with Nona Hendryx, Carrie Mae Weems, and Niegel Smith in Refrigerated Dreams at the Public Theater, Pentacle’s Dance Series at the Rubin Museum, and touring in Bregenz, Austria, for Bregenzer Frühling. She will also present work in WOMEN/CREATE! – A Festival of Dance at New York Live Arts June 11th-16th, 2019.

Francesca Harper is committed to works rooted in artistic expression, empowerment, and social awareness. She is grateful for the daily opportunity to do what she loves and is passionate about inspiring others to live their dreams.

 

MORE ON FRANCESCA:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thefrancescaharperproject

Instagram: @thefrancescaharperproject

Twitter: @fhproject

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Donald McKayle

Denise Jefferson

The Ailey School

Pearl Lang

Alvin Ailey

Dance Theatre of Harlem

George Balanchine

Merrill Ashley 

Frankfurt Ballet

William Forsythe

“Slingerland” by Forsythe

Nora Kimball 

Helen Pickett

Nederlands Dans Theater

Gorecki “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”

Susan Batson

Colin Conner

“Unapologetic Body”

Forsythe Technologies

Claudia Rankine “Citizen: An American Lyric”

Urban Bush Women Choreographic Fellowship

“Negroland” by Margo Jefferson

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Movers & Shapers: Jacqulyn Buglisi

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.82 –

Frida
Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi
Dancer: Jacqulyn Buglisi
Photo: Jack Mitchell ©

 


Jacqulyn Buglisi

 

Release Date: 6.5.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT JACQULYN

In her four decade long career, Buglisi has made an indelible impact on the field of dance.  Renowned forhighly visual, imagistic dances that use literature, history and heroic archetypes as a primary source, Buglisi’s ballets are sweeping, passionate and always rooted in a strong physical technique.   She is a prolific choreographer creating more than 100 ballets for Buglisi Dance Theatre and commissioned worldwide including Suspended Women on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre;  Butterflies and Demonsin partnership with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women; Ninfee for the Richmond Ballet; The Four Elements for the Flamenco Festival presented in Madrid, Sadler’s Wells, London and New York’s City Center; Prague International Festival, Ananda Shankar Performing Arts Company, India; the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble, China; the Martha Graham Dance Company, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Joyce Trisler Danscompany, Teatro Danza Contemporanea di Roma for which she was a co-founder in 1969; American Repertory Ballet; Ailey II;  and Ice Theatre of New York. Currently, she is creating a new dance for the UCSB Dance Company and the Marymount Manhattan College Dance Company. Buglisi’s ballet Threshold had its Italian premiere in Milan with Carla Fracci’s Italian Ballet Company at the Teatro Nuovo and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Opera House.  In 2001, she created Requiem to the soaring music of Gabriel Fauré,a transcendent experience and amplification of the human spirit. Anna Kisselgoff raves in The New York Times of the ballet’s powerful images, stunning…extravagant and beautiful.Breaking new ground, Buglisi collaborated with Venezuela’s leading environmental artist Jacobo Borges to create her trilogy Blue Cathedral, Rain, and Sand.  She has collaborated with composers Paola Prestini, Libby Larsen, Tan Dun, Glen Velez, Jennifer Higdon, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), Daniel Brewbaker, Reza Vali;Andy Teirstein; cellist, Maya Beiser; Flamenco Guitarist, Gerardo Nunez, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Syracuse University Symphony Orchestra and Singers; lighting designers Clifton Taylor and Jack Mehler; mannequin maker Ralph Pucci; and Italian artist Rossella Vasta on the Table of Silence Project 9/11,a site-specific performance ritual for peace performed at Lincoln Center by 180 dancers, six musicians and chorus of nine, and seen via live stream across the U.S. in all 50 states and worldwide in 129 countries.  For uniting the dance community through the Table of Silence Project, Buglisi was named a “New Yorker for Dance” by Dance/NYC and received Proclamations from NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.  The Dance Notation Bureau is creating a Labanotation score of the Table of Silence Project.

During her 30 year association with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Buglisi was a Principal Dancer for 12 years, performing the classic roles and those created for her by Miss Graham. She danced in Ms. Graham’s honor on the nationally televised CBS Presentation of the Kennedy Center Honors and the PBS film An Evening of Dance and Conversation with Martha Graham. Buglisi’s duet Sospiriwas performed by the Martha Graham Company at New York City Center (1989).  Coached by Jane Sherman, she performed Ruth St. Denis’ solos internationally including Lyon Biennale De La Danse and on film in Trailblazers of American Modern Dance, andThe Spirit of Denishawn.

A master teacher committed to arts-in-education, she received commissions from UC, Santa Barbara, the University of Richmond, CSU/Long Beach, George Mason University, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Interlochen Arts Academy, the State Ballet College of Oslo, Ailey/Fordham University B.F.A. Program, Oklahoma Arts Institute, the Juilliard School’s Emerging Modern Masters Series, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Boston Conservatory of Music, Randolph-Macon College and the National Dance Institute, among others. In 1970, she founded the first school of contemporary dance for the community of Spoleto, Italy and was the Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.She has taught for the Dance Aspen Festival from 1990-95,the Julio Bocca Center in Argentina, the 97-98 Victoria College Melbourne, and the Chautauqua Institution and Festival. She is Chairperson of the Graham-based Modern Department at The Ailey School for 25 years, served on the faculty of The Juilliard School 91 -05, The Martha Graham School since 1977 and guest teaches at the famed Performing Arts High School (alumna), Steps on Broadway, and Peridance Capezio Center. She was named Honorary Chair for the Marymount Manhattan College ‘05 Gala and served as panelist for the Heinz Awards and the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. She served as a Grand Marshal of the 2013 Parade in NYC.

Buglisi’s repertoire is archived in the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  Awards and honors include: 2016 Fini Italian International Lifetime Achievement Award, Kaatsbaan International Playing Field Award, American Dance Guild Award for Artistic Excellence, Fiorello LaGuardia Award for Excellence, The Gertrude Shurr Award for Dance, Altria Group’s 2007 Women Choreographer Initiative Award, National Endowment for the Artsfellowships, commissioning grants from the Harkness Foundation for Dance and The O’Donnell-Green Music & Dance Foundation, and challenge grants from the Arnhold Foundation, among others.   Ms. Buglisi served for three terms on Dance/USA’s Board of Trustees as Chair, Artistic Directors Council (2010-2013).

 

MORE ON JACQULYN:

BUGLISI DANCE

INSTAGRAM: @buglisidance

Women/Create! A Festival of Dance

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Jan Veen

Mary Wigman

High School of Performing Arts 

Martha Graham

Pearl Lang

“Hard to be a Jew”

Christine Dakin

Joyce Trisler 

Jacob’s Pillow

NEA Dance

Donlin Foreman

Primitive Mysteries

Fonteyn and Nureyev and Martha Graham

Gertrude Bell

“Go to the Limits of Your Longing” Rilke

“Threshold” by Buglisi

“Moss” works by Buglisi

9/11 Table of Silence Project

Gabriel Fauré “Requiem”

Rossella Vasta

Lincoln Center

“The House of Belonging” David Whyte

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Movers & Shapers: Eva Dean

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.81 –

 


Eva Dean

 

Release Date: 3.20.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT EVA DEAN

Artistic Director and Choreographer Eva Dean founded Eva Dean Dance (EDD) in 1985. Dean is known for her inventive use of props, incorporating site-specific architectural elements, experiential lighting and ambient sound scores. Dean works collaboratively with guest artists such as musicians, puppet masters, lighting, set and costume designers to create a visually rich body of work. Dean’s teaching and residency credits are extensive both locally and internationally; most recently at Danscentrum Syd and Dansstationen (Malmö, Sweden), and at her Company’s home studio, Union Street Dance in Brooklyn. Dean has set EDD repertoire on college and conservatory students, created new dances for Brooklyn public school students and taught master choreography workshops as a guest artist at many institutions including: The Museum of Modern Art, Hampshire College and Bennington College among others. Dean is a graduate of Hampshire College and carries on its tradition of artistic experimentation. Dean founded Union Street Dance in 2000, which offers subsidized dance rehearsal space to over 100 dance artists annually.  

Eva Dean Dance is an award winning, neo-contemporary company based in Brooklyn and established in 1985. Known for their rich visuals and genre-defying theatricality, EDD has been featured on both the local and international stage. Notable New York City credits include The New Victory Theatre (Victory Dance 2018), The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, The Brooklyn Museum and The Children’s Museum of Manhattan among many others. Also known for site-specific immersive dance, EDD has staged numerous public productions in Prospect Park (Brooklyn, NY) and other locations including a turn of the 20th century barn in Sheffield, MA. International performances include the Grahamstown Fringe Festival, Dubai United Arab Emirates, Fringe Festival Prague, Recklinghausen Fringe and Amsterdam Fringe where it received “Best of Fringe New York.”

 

MORE ON EVA:

EVA DANCE DANCE WEBSITE 

INSTAGRAM: @evadeandance

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Hampshire College – Dance

Contact Improvisation

Nancy Stark Smith

Daniel Lepkoff

Lisa Nelson

Steve Paxton

Five Colleges Dance Department

Susan Rethorst

Paula Kellinger

Judson Dance Theater

Deborary Jowitt

Elizabeth Zimmer

Yoshiko Chuma

Caroline Partamian

Danspace Project

Jack Anderson

Dan Froot

Union Street Dance

NYSCA

Fringe NYC

Bounce work

Spoke the Hub

Simone Forti

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

CUNY Dance Initiative

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Elevate: The Experience (Master Classes) – Pittsburgh

By Events

Friday-Saturday, May 3-4, Master Classes (all ages)

Elevate: A Triple Bill of Female Choreographers
Fearless. Femme. The Future.
with Bryce Dance Company / The Moving Architects / Shana Simmons Dance

Performances: Saturday, May 4, 2019 / 3pm & 8pm

Master Classes, $15 each:
May 3: 6-7.15pm, Shana Simmons/Shana Simmons Dance
May 3: 7.30-9.45pm, Erin Carlisle Norton/The Moving Architects
May 4: 12.30pm-1:45pm, Heather Bryce, Bryce Dance Co

Classes and Performance held:
Point Park University
George Rowland White Performance Center
313 Boulevard of the Allies
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Buy Master Classes: HERE!

Buy Master Classes and Show Combo: HERE!

Movers & Shapers: Oxana Chi

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.80 –


Oxana Chi

 

Release Date: 3.6.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT OXANA CHI

 

Oxana Chi is a choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, curator, author.

She founded the company Oxana Chi & Ensemble Xinren in Berlin, Germany in 1991 and moved to New York City in 2015. In 2018, she was listed in the Dance Enthusiast’s 2018 “A to Z” of People Who Power the Dance World.” She is featured in several publications and films, and is the main protagonist of the movie Dancing Through Gardens.

Oxana Chi created 19 dance productions, including 2 commissioned works for Humboldt-University. All creations are accompanied by music composed – and often performed live – by outstanding contemporary musicians specially for the dance. Drawing inspiration from her travels to and study in 40+ countries in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas, she developed her own performing language, Chi Fusion style.

The company received funding from public and private sponsors such as the European Union Social-Cultural Program, French Ministry for Youth, Sports and Societal Cohesion, Die Linke German Parliament Cultural Funding, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Heinrich-Boell-Foundation, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah and Fimor. Oxana Chi performed at theaters, universities, and festivals all across Germany, as well as in the USA, Canada, Finland, Turkey, Australia, Canada, India, France, Austria, Taiwan, England, Indonesia, Ghana, Martinique, Singapore and Austria.

Oxana Chi is accompanied in this podcast by her main collaborator Dr. Layla Zami, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Performance + Performance Studies MFA Program at Pratt Institute and interdisciplinary artist (music, poetry, theater, film). Chi and Zami held residencies at the Abrons Arts Center (AIRspace Grant for Performing Artists 2017-2018), Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and Maison Rouge : Maison des Arts (Martinique) among others.

With a passion for the intersection between performing arts, knowledge and civic education, Oxana Chi and Layla Zami curated events for Dixon Place, CUNY, Technical University Berlin, and are Co-Curators of Dance at the International Human Rights Art Festival. Oxana Chi was honored as an Ambassador of Peace for her art at DOSHIMA 2016 in Jakarta.

 

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Waldorf Education

Bothmer Gymnastics

Robert Solomon, Jazz Dance Theatre, Düsseldorf

Alwin Nikolais & Murray Louis, Choreographer and Teacher in New York

Abrons Art Center / Henry Street Settlement

Tanzhaus Düsseldorf (Dance House Dusseldorf)

Folkwang University of the Arts

Pina Bausch

Kathakali

Ivonne Vendrig, Ballet

Rudolf Nureyev

Ricki von Falken, Cunningham Technique

Academy of Arts / Akademie der Künste, Berlin

The Living Theatre New York / Judith Malina

Galerie, Factory and Art Salon „ Boudoir“ in Berlin / Directors: Lena Braun, Suse EichingerAnthony Huberman, Curator

Merce Cunningham, Modern Dance, New York

Elena Kunikova, Ballet, Steps on Broadway, New York

Solo International Performing Arts Festival

Werkstatt der Kulturen Theatre Berlin

Dancing Through Gardens

Humboldt University / Transdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies

Movement Research at the Judson Church series

Reverend Micah Bucey

Pratt Institute Brooklyn

International Human Rights Art Festival

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Movers & Shapers: Michele Wiles

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.79 –


Michele Wiles

 

Release Date: 2.20.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT MICHELE WILES

 

Michele Wiles founded BalletNext in 2011 with the vision to pair classically trained dancers and live musicians in a collaborative setting that encourages risk taking and a focus on process.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, at age 10 she moved to Washington D.C. to train at the Kirov Academy on full scholarship. She was a Gold Medal winner at the 18th International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria a Bronze Medal winner in Nagoya, Japan and a finalist at the Paris International Dance Competition. She was a Princess Grace Foundation – U.S.A. Dance Fellowship recipient for 1999–2000 and won the Erik Bruhn Prize in 2002.

She joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in 1997 and joined American Ballet Theatre in 1998.  She was promoted to soloist in 2000 and to principal in 2005. In 2011, she left that position to start BalletNext.

In addition to leading BalletNext as artistic director and dancer, Michele is choreographing. Ushuaia to music by Heinrich Biber, which premiered at New York Live Arts in February 2015 marked her formal choreographic debut.

 

MORE ON MICHELE:

Website: BalletNext.com

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

The Nutcracker with Gelsey Kirkland

Darcey Bussell

The Royal Ballet

Kirov Academy of Ballet

Vaganova Method

Star Search

ABT

David Hallberg

David Howard

“I was a Dancer”

Charles Askegard

Mauro Bigonzetti

Complexions 

School of Dance, University of Utah

New Victory Theater

Flex Dance

The Shed

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Movers & Shapers: Dunya Dianne McPherson

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:

PODCAST No.78 –


Dunya Dianne McPherson

 

Release Date: 2.6.19

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT DUNYA DIANNE MCPHERSON

Dunya Dianne McPherson is a dancer, choreographer, author, and Shattari Sufi Master Teacher. As Founder and Principal Teacher of Dancemeditation™ she specializes in techniques that open the wonderment of deep, subtle, peaceful self-perception.

She holds a BFA in dance from the Juilliard School, MA in Writing from Lesley University, was an Artist Scholar at Columbia University, and trained extensively in yoga with Shri Dharma Mittra. Significant study with Master Dance Teachers whose work has influenced hers includes: Elena Lentini, Anahid Sofian, Janet Panetta and Alfredo Corvino. After 1001 days training in Sufism with Sufi Master Adnan Sarhan, Dunya received teaching permission. Her new memoirSkin of GlassFinding Spirit in the Flesh, chronicles her journey of dance & mysticsim.

Dunya’s extensive teaching credits include:
Department Chair
: Victorian College of the Arts, Australia * Faculty: Kripalu Center * Master Classes & Residencies: Princeton University, Swarthmore College, Amherst College, Oberlin College, Mt. Holyoke College, University of TexasNew York University, Hunter College , Barnard College, Montclair State College, Mark Morris Dance Center, New York Open Center * Shattari Sufi Master: Mystic Festival in Netherlands, and SAT Conferences in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, France  * Director & Spiritual Guide: Dervish Society of Americ

Dunya’s teachers include:

Juillard School:
Modern Dance: Hanya Holm, Helen McGeehee, Ethel Winter, Daniel Lewis, Libby Nye, Jennifer Scanlon. Kazuko Hirabayshi
Ballet: Alfredo Corvina, Hector Zaraspe, Genia Melikova
Later, in Middle Eastern dance:
Anahid Sofian, Elena Lentini

A National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellow, her choreographic commissions include Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Dance Uptown, High School of Performing Arts, Barnard College, Victorian College of the Arts, Santa Fe Performing Arts. She is the recipient of Massachusettes Arts Council grants, CETA Artists Grant, Texas Arts Council grants.

She has performed widely as both concert dancer and as a Middle Eastern dancer. Her whirling veil dance is featured in the film Dances of Ecstasy. She directed the film/dance work, Shafi, for NOLA’s 2007 Dramarama Festival.

Dunya and her Dancemeditation work are widely referenced and profiled in books and journalism including: Your Body Mandala, Mary Bond 2018; Bellydance Soul, Alia Thabit, 2018; Reckoning with Spirit in the Paradigm of Performance, Donnalee Dox, PhD, 2017; Conscious Dancer Magazine, Dancer Magazine, Contact Quarterly Magazine, Attitude Magazine, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Austin American Statesman, Austin Chronicle, Innerchange Magazine, Spirit of Change Magazine, NYSpirit Magazine, XS Magazine Miami, Cape Cod Times, Whole Life Times LA, Body & Soul, and many others.

 

Press Quotes

“…a modern day Isadora Duncan…approached Ruth St. Denis as she slithered through an impudently sensuous belly dance…a vibrant performer…an unusual and talented choreographer.”
Jennifer Dunning, New York Times

“She knows how to put movement together…ingenious…adds up to good dancing and an original statement.”
New York Times

“…killer creative choreographer…the best belly dancer in the world…
Carman Moore, Village Voice

“I liked Dunya Dianne McPherson’s ‘Clan’ a lot. It was jaunty and it was breezy, but in very solid, unpretentious ways. Tidily structured but not tight-lipped.”
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

“Her pure, solid dancing has never seemed so welcome to me…I think I held my breath in delight through the entire dance…The works soundly structured, with all the details meticulously etched, revealed the full extent of McPherson’s talent.”
Dance Magazine

“…elegant, confident, sensual…”
Kerri Hikida, Whole Life Times, LA

“…she evoked something essentially female, essentially powerful…”
Elizabeth Zimmer, Dance Magazine

“She has the lithe and leggy body of a ballerina and the articulate arm and leg movement of a butoh performer.”
Marene Gustin, Austin-American Statesman

“I see Dunya’s dances floating like feather down to the center of her big, elaborately patterned carpet…They merge with her body, she processes them, and they dance themselves right back out…Dunya’s [performance] is a very clean space on a psychic/spiritual level, a natural resting spot for dances.”
Stephanie Beauchamp, Austin Chronicle

Choreographic Vitae

AWARDS
• National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship (1995)
• Massachusetts Arts Council/LCC Grant (2000)
• City of Austin Grant (1996, 1997) under Texas Arts Council
• Cultural Council Foundation’s CETA Artist’s Project (1978-79)

ORIGINAL WORKS  (edited list)
• “Shafi”, collaborative film ‘wallpaper’ for dervish whirling; Drama-Rama, New Orleans, LA funded by NEA, LA State Arts Council, City of New Orleans (2007)
• Works funded by NEA, Texas State Arts Council & City of Austin Arts Council: “Turkish Songs” (1995-98); Palimpsest (1997); “Intimate/ Dances from Inside a Marriage” (1997); “Engaged: Dances Between Friends” (1998)
• Works Commissioned by Lincoln Center Outdoors:  “Secret/Bangalore” (1996)
• Works commissioned by Montclair State College, NJ: “The Visitation” (1986), “Rosedust and Wind” (1984),  “Her Heart Riding an Ocean Wave” (1983), “Divorce” (1981)
• Work commissioned by High School of Performing Arts, NYC: “The Journey of Jamila and the Seer” (1985)
• Work presented by Barnard Dance Ensemble: “Nocturne” (1985); “Nocturne with a Fan” (1985); “Danse Orientale” (1985); “Winter’s End” (1985) Premiered on Dance Uptown; “Remembrance” (1984); “Mideastern Descent” (1984); “Phantom” (1983) – solo works to the music of David Feinberg.  “Phantom”, “Remembrance” and “Mideastern Descent”
• Works commissioned by Grand Valley State Colleges, MI: Rapid Valley Dance” (1982), “Cross America” (1982).
• Works presented by Dianne McPherson & Dancers: “Sanctus, Benedictus” (1985, premiered on Dance Uptown, NYC); “Journal: August, September, October, November” (1981); “I was troubled with no correspondence” (1981); “Leaf” (1979); “Drift and Pierce” (1979, premiered on Dance Uptown); “Clan” (1979, presented on Dance Uptown); “Haunt” (1978, premiered on Dance Uptown. presented at Dance Theatre Workshop’s Choreographer’s Showcase); “The Vagabond” (1977); “Twone Verse” (1976, premiered on Dance Uptown. restaged for Dance Gallery, Northampton, MA); “Street Scene” (1975, restaged for Rondo Dance Theatre); “Sea Songs” (1975, premiered by the Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre restaged for the Juilliard Dance Ensemble Workshop, and for the Barnard Dance Ensemble)
• Works commissioned by the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia: “Flotsam” (1980), “Blues” (1980), “Summer House” (1980)
• Works commissioned by the Barnard Dance Ensemble and premiered on Dance Uptown: “Night Sail” (1980), “Miniatures” (1979)
• Work commissioned by Rondo Dance Theatre, presented by Barnard Dance Ensemble:  “Bach Suite #1 for Solo Viola” (1978)
• Work commissioned by Colgate University, NY: “Reticences” (1978)

PROFESSIONAL CHOREOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE
• Renaissance Institute of Colgate University, Hamilton, NY (1978) – Choreographer for “La Pelligrina”, a 15th century celebration of the Medici wedding.
• Oberlin Music Theatre, Oberlin, Ohio (1973-74) – Choreographer for “Four Saints in Three Acts” and “The Gondaliers”
• Equity Library Theatre, New York, NY (1972) – Choreographic staging for Equity showcase production of “Oedipus at Colonus”
• College Light Opera Company, Cape Cod, MA (1971) – Resident Choreographer:  “The Merry Widow”, “Guys and Dolls”, “Finian’s Rainbow”, “Carousel”, “Babes in Arms”, “The Pajama Game”, “Can- Can”, “Desert Song”, “Weiner Blutt”, “The Pirates of Penzance”, “Iolanthe” and “HMS Pinafore”

COMPANY DIRECTION
• Dunyati Alembic, NY, NY (2004-2013) Director/Principal Choreographer
• Dianne McPherson & Dancers, NY, NY (1978-82) Director/Principal Choreographer
• Workwith Dancers Company, NY, NY (1975-78)  Co-founder /Co-director

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Laban

Kurt Yooss

North Carolina School of the Arts

Bennington College Dance

“With My Red Fires” by Doris Humphrey

The Julliard School

Jose Limon

Kazuko Hirabayshi

Anna Sokolow

Hannah Kahn

Victorian College of the Arts

Montclair State University – Dance

Kazuo Ohno

Adnan Sarhan

Sufism

Leslie University – Writing

“This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland” by Gretel Ehrlich

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.