Podcast

Multi-disciplinary artist gwen charles creates site-specific, collaborative live performances and choreographed actions for and with the camera using handcrafted wearable props & sculptures. Performances and interventions are created for non-proscenium formats, inspired by the trivial moments of daily life & everyday objects.

Born in NYC, artist gwen charles completed her MFA with Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany & NYC. Her undergraduate studies were fulfilled at Parsons School of Design & The New School for Public Engagement. Her video works have been viewed in international venues and video festivals in the USA, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia. She has participated in artist residencies in Mexico, India, Slovenia & in the United States. Collaboration is an integral part of her studio & curatorial practice. Her studio is based in Montclair, NJ.

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Sarah Weber Gallo is a dancer, dance maker, and educator residing in Hoboken, NJ, where she is Dance Director for Mile Square Theatre.  She is a senior member with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, where she has been featured in the works of Doug Varone, Mark Dendy, Sean Curran, Benjamin Millepied, Julie Taymor, Graciella Daniele, Andre Serban, Robert Lepage, and Mary Zimmerman, among others.  At Mile Square Theatre, Sarah is resident choreographer, as well as director of the small-but-growing MST Dance Academy and coordinator of after school enrichment dance classes in Hoboken public schools.  Her recent evening-length dance The Magic Hour was lauded as “Stunning” and “Better than Charlie Brown” (by Dance Enthusiast and seven-year-old Jake), respectively.  Her choreography has been presented at Mile Square Theatre, Roulette Intermedium, The Ohio Theatre, Center for Performance Research, Greenspace, La Mama, Indy Convergence, and Art House Productions.  Sarah was the recipient of the 2015 New Work Award at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and her collaborative dance Pigeon Congress represented UWM at the 2014 American College Dance Festival.  She holds an M.F.A. in Dance from UWM and a B.A. in Psychology from Goucher College.  Her daughter, Olivia, is eight-years-old, entering third grade, and just learned how to ride a bike.  Parenthood informs Sarah’s art making; and her current project, Fun Head, is an exploration into the subjective nature of fun and its intersection with youth. The work celebrates effort, excess, risk, messiness, and the courtship dances of birds.

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Diane Jacobowitz (BFA, Ohio State University; MFA, Connecticut College) has a distinguished career in performing, choreography and arts administration. She has taught dance to youth and adults of all ages and backgrounds for 26 years at numerous institutions. She has directed and taught at several programs including the Dance Department at Westchester Music and Arts Camp and Hunter College Dance Department. She was instrumental in establishing the Dance Major at Long Island University, where she was a professor for 9 years teaching ballet, modern, choreography, aerobics and speech. She taught and directed the middle school dance program and afterschool dance elective at the Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope for 6 years. Diane choreographed and directed her own company, the Diane Jacobowitz Dance Theater for 15 years, during which time, the company toured, performed and engaged in residencies throughout the Northeast. Her company, DJDT performed at BAM in 1992. Diane has also performed with several prominent choreographers including Kenneth King, Marta Renzi, Grethe Holby, Kathy Duncan and Annabelle Gamson. She founded Dancewave in 1995 with the mission of  bringing dance to a broad spectrum of the city youth population, particularly to those talented dancers who lacked the means to afford pre-professional training. Her main focus has been working with young people as artists in the making and connecting them early to the rigor of high level performance and exposure to world renowned dance artists. As Executive/Artistic Director of Dancewave for the past 20 years, she has developed innovative programming to capture the talents and imagination of young dancers. Some of the programs she has developed, in addition to the Dancewave Company model, include Dancing Through College and Beyond, the Dance Career Symposium and the Kids Cafe Festival. Under her leadership, Dancewave currently reaches over 3,000 young people citywide through programs both at the Dancewave School and in partnership with over ten New York City public schools. She is currently leading the campaign for Dancewave’s capital project – the opening/launch of a brand new dance center in downtown Brooklyn in 2017.

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Co-organizer of AUNTS since 2009, Laurie Berg makes work in a variety of forms including dance and performance, collage and jewelry. In addition to her choreographic work, she engages with the dance community as a producer, curator and event organizer. She recently co-curated the Movement Research Spring Festival 2017, is the 2016 recipient of “The Tommy” Award and a 2016-17 LMCC Workspace Artist-In-Residence.

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Ariel Rivka Dance (ARD) is a critically acclaimed all-female contemporary dance company led by a married choreographer/composer team, Ariel Grossman (Artistic Director/Choreographer) and David Homan (Executive Director/Composer). Based in New York/New Jersey, ARD is committed to creating work with new music that explores emotionally driven movement with underlying currents of technique and structure. Collaboration and accessibility are the heart of ARD. It produces shows that incorporate various styles of dance and music, exposing our audiences to quality artistry in an inviting way.In 2016 Ariel was named one of Jersey (New) Moves Emerging Choreographers and was invited back to the 2017 festival as a standout past grant recipient. The company recently toured to Houston, TX, for Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre and to the Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Baltimore, MD, and is looking forward to an upcoming choreographic & performance residency in Vero Beach, FL. ARD has also been presented at NJPAC, Rutgers University, the Gershman Y (Philadelphia, PA), Saratoga Dance Museum, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Dixon Place, White Wave’s Wave Rising Series and Inaugural Solo/Duo Festival, and REVERBDance. Past performances include collaborations with RIOULT Dance NY, Heidi Latsky, Elisa King, Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch, Paul Dennis and Sean Curran. ARD has also held choreographic residencies at LaGuardia Performing Arts High School (NY) and Moving Youth Ballet Company (NJ) and was the recipient of a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant and a Nathan Cummings Foundation grant.

With a Masters in Early Childhood Education, Grossman has a passion for introducing dance to young learners offering family, community, and early childhood programming. Ariel Rivka Dance’s most recent family program is the touring work, “The Book of Esther: The Journey of Queen Vashti and Queen Esther,” which explores Ariel’s Jewish roots through a feminist lens. Traveling to Philadelphia, Ocean County, NJ, and various locations in New York City, “The Book of Esther” has provoked riveting conversations about artistic interpretation, biblical text, and the art of collaboration with adults and children alike.