PELE BAUCH is a choreographer and arts manager. She joined The Field staff in 2004 after working in development at the Joyce Theater and Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. All of her choreography has been developed via Fieldwork and subsequently selected for presentation at New York City theaters. Pele recently received a BAX10 Passing It On Award.
MELISSA BORGMANN, cofounder of the Juno Collective with Dudley Voigt, is a writer, teacher, and facilitator who has taught learners of all ages. Her work has taken her around the United States and South Africa. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
JOHN BORSTEL is Humanities Director for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. He has conducted facilitation and training in Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process throughout the U.S. His writing has appeared in Generations, Dialogue in Artistic Practice: Case Studies from Animating Democracy, and Parterre Box, the Queer Opera Zine.
RICK BROSTOFF has been a part of the contact improvisation community in New England for many years and has performed with Helix Rising and Playing Field. A chapbook of his poems inspired by CI and authentic movement, Momentum, is due out in November from La Vita Poetica Press (Atlanta, GA).
NEIGE CHRISTENSON has been an avid Contact Improviser since 1981, when her theater professor, John Hellweg, introduced her to the form. She has a BA in Theater from Smith College, an MA in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University, and is a grateful graduate of the School for The Work of Byron Katie. Now she's an improvisational mother, dancer, performer, teacher, therapist, and inquirer. She lives with her family in Boston, MA.
BARBARA DILLEY danced with Merce Cunningham, studied new thoughts with John Cage, and entered new dimensions with the Grand Union. She continues to investigate bodymind through meditation and improvisation, and teaches at the Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Currently she is working on a project called deSOlAte/deLIGhT to create a culture that makes performance art.
ROBERT ELLIS DUNN (1928-1996), musician and protégé of John Cage, was a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater and mentor and coach of several generations of choreographers, dancers, and teachers. He finished the Laban training at the Dance Notation Bureau in 1972, which informed his subsequent teaching of movement observation, choreography, and improvisation.
CANDACE FECK is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at the Ohio State University, where she teaches courses in dance history, criticism, and theory. A lifelong lover of both dance and writing, Candace is interested in the many ways these two practices intersect.
Since arriving from Bennington College in 1961, MERYL GREEN has been dancing, teaching, and choreographing in the greater New York metropolitan area. She has taught at studios, schools, and community centers, including Marymount School in Manhattan and Greenwich Academy in Connecticut. She is presently artistic director of MAC, a multigenerational dance improvisation group in Greenwich, CT, which has been in existence for twenty years.
STEVE GROSS has been involved with The Field since its inception as a service organization in 1987, often as director, and was dance curator at The Kitchen from 1990 to 1992. He has taught fundraising and arts administration courses at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and The Juilliard School. A choreographer, performance artist, writer, and video maker, Steve is also a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice; he works with artists individually and in groups.
DANIEL LEPKOFF is a dance maker who approaches movement as a finely tuned physical dialogue with the environment. His work explores the form and composition of this interaction. Daniel writes: "In a friendly e-mail exchange, considering our expansive view of movement, I asked Steve Paxton what could possibly be an example of something that is 'not physical.' He e-mailed back: 'writing e-mail.' Reading over my contribution in this CQ, I see I am pushing for a way out of this supposed dilemma. If you would like to join me in 'not being physical,' send your e-mail to: dnlep@earthlink.net."
LIZ LERMAN is a choreographer, performer, speaker, educator, consultant, and Founding Artistic Director of the Maryland-based Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, which just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Her numerous awards include a 2002 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Current Dance Exchange performance projects include Ferocious Beauty: Genome, Small Dances About Big Ideas, and 613 Radical Acts of Prayer.
TERE O'CONNOR has been making dances since 1982. He's created over thirty works for his company, which performs throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, and Canada. O'Connor is a professor in the dance department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches one semester and devotes the rest of his time to research with his company, based in NYC.
PATRICIA REEDY is the director of Teaching & Learning at Luna Kids Dance in Berkeley, California. She teaches inquiry-based classes and seminars for teachers, artists, children, and families through the California Institute of Dance Learning. www.lunakidsdance.org
DANA REITZ is a choreographer, dancer, and visual artist who has developed and produced projects since 1973. Her projects include Necessary Weather, with lighting designer Jennifer Tipton and dancer Sara Rudner; Unspoken Territory, a solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov; and her latest work, Sea Walk. Reitz has toured extensively as a performer and teacher worldwide. The recipient of two "Bessie" awards, she is currently on the faculty of Bennington College.
CHRISTINA SVANE has been tracking a flock of migrating questions since she started dancing with Ann Woodhead in San Francisco in the 1960s: "Where does the dancing take us?" "How do we know what we've invoked if we don't tell each other?" While helping create Movement Research, teaching at SNDO in Amsterdam, creating IDEA and the moving-sounding-writing ritual, The Crystal, she keeps asking.
DIANE VIVONA has worked professionally as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and arts administrator in New York, Los Angeles, and London. She is currently studying visual arts and the contemporary art market through the master's program at Christies' Education, London.
LAILYE WEIDMAN is a dance artist, teacher, and writer in Los Angeles, where she collaborates with the traffic, wind, and the moving ground. Currently she is working on her BA in the World Arts and Cultures program at UCLA.
In addition to curating Dance Conversations @ The Flea for the past three seasons, NINA WINTHROP choreographed Violet Fire-an opera by composer Jon Gibson and directed by Terry O'Reilly-which was presented at BAM's Next Wave Festival in October 2006. She formed Nina Winthrop and Dancers in 1991 and has presented her work throughout New York City and Los Angeles. She is on the Board of Directors of New Dance Alliance.
Born in Hiroshima, Japan, YASUKO YOKOSHI arrived in the United States in 1981 with a background in the martial art kendo and classical ballet. Yokoshi's works, which reflect her interests in combining disciplines and mediums, have been presented at festivals and theaters nationally and internationally. Yokoshi has received two New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awards, one for her solo, Shuffle, in 2003, and the other for what we when we in 2006. Yokoshi serves as a curatorial adviser at The Kitchen.
ADDITIONAL ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS:
Kent Alexander, Susan Arnsten-Russell, John Barrett, Rob Bettmann, Nicole Bindler, Sondra Blanchard, Brando Brandes, Diane Butler, Nancy Campbell, Selene Carter, Ubaldo Cella, Nora Chipaumire, Michelle Coe, Jim Coleman, David Corbet, Paula Court, Fred Covarrubias, Barbara Cox, Critical Correspondence, Pen Dale, Ben Dallas, Dance Exchange, D. James Dee, Brittany Pettit Delany, Angela Delichatsios, Gretchen Dunn, Mĺns Erlandson, Anneliese Euler, Beth Fairservis, Molissa Fenley, Arthur Fink, Force Fong, Jordan Fuchs, Maaya Fukumoto, Ilana Gerjuoy, Ray Green, Matt Haber, Rosemary Hannon, Elazar Harel, Sue Huggins, In Dance, Mimi Johnson, Vika Kleiman, Magda Kleparska, Mark Kornblouth, John Kubat, Tina Kukovic, Katja Kulenkampff, Rythea Lee, Jacob Lepkoff, Alejandra Martorell, Mazie Marx, Michael Mazzola, Ryutaro Mishima, Marcin Mroz, Colleen Mylott, Johan Nilsson, Andrea Olsen, Judi Petkau, Mary Ramsay, Chris Randle, Alston, Melinda Ring, Rachel Roberts, Shakti Carolyn Sadeh, Paula Sager, Bala Sarasvati, Sarah Sass, Steven Schreiber, SheShooters, Howard Silver, Urs Stauffer, Pat Stone, Taimi Strehlow, Tim Summers, Hiroko Takahashi, Dudley Voigt, Charlotte von Glasersfeld, Johanna Walker, Jerry Weisberg, Kathy Wildberger, Mark Moti Zemelman
