2018-2019 Guest Artists
Ruth Andrien, Taylor 2 Dance Company Rehearsal director since 2010, danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1974 to1983, originating roles in Esplanade, Runes, Airs, Images and Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal). She has restaged Mr. Taylor’s work for professional companies and universities around the world. Ms. Andrien has been on the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Swarthmore College, Harvard University, MIT, Southern Methodist University, The School at Jacobs Pillow, New York State Summer School of the Arts, The Taylor School and the American Dance Festival, where she directed the Paul Taylor Project for the past three years. She has worked closely with The American Dance Legacy Institute at Brown University, which focuses on preservation and access to American dance heritage. She served as master teacher for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts in Miami and for the U.S. State Department’s cultural exchange program in Tunisia. She was the recipient of Towson University’s Rosenberg Award for Distinguished Artists in 2002 and the Balasaraswati/Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching in 2009 with Carolyn Adams and Sharon Kinney. Ms. Andrien received her MFA in Dance at Hollins University in 2007.
Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie is a New York City-based b-girl, dancer, and choreographer and a 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance. Asherie has received numerous awards to support her work including Dance Magazine's Inaugural Harkness Promise Award, the Jacob's Pillow Fellowship at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU and a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant. Last year she received a National Dance Project award to support the development and touring of her newest work, Odeon. Asherie is a regular guest artist with Dorrance Dance and has worked and collaborated with Doug Elkins, Rennie Harris, Bill Irwin, David Parsons, Gus Solomons Jr., and Buddha Stretch, among others. She earned her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Italian and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she researched the vernacular jazz dance roots of contemporary street and club dances. Asherie is a co-founding member of the all-female house dance collective MAWU and is forever grateful to NYC’s underground dance community for inspiring her to pursue a life as an artist.
R. Colby Damon was born and raised in Richmond,VA and received his early dance training at Richmond Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Virginia School of the Arts. He has danced professionally for Sacramento Ballet, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Northwest Dance Project, and BalletX among others. As a choreographer, he has worked with BalletX, Sacramento Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet II, Nashville Ballet II, Ballet West Academy, Bryn Mawr College, and DeSales University among others, and his work has been performed at festivals in Brazil, Mexico, Bermuda, and New York City. He is currently on faculty at the Rock School for Dance Education, The University of the Arts, and BalletX in addition to working as a freelance choreographer and performer based out of Philadelphia.
Drew Lewis is originally from Chicago, IL, where he grew up training primarily in jazz piano, acting, street dance styles. In May, 2016 he graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA, where he was the Merce Cunningham Endowed Scholar. He has studied dance at myriad institutions internationally, and has performed works by Kyle Abraham, Fernando Melo, and Zoe Scofield among many others. Drew currently lives and works in New York where he dances for Sidra Bell Dance New York and Lydia Shamoun.
Fabio Tavares is a Brazilian dancer and choreographer who's been obsessed with the human body in action for as long as he can remember. At the age of 15, Fabio ran away to join the circus in his native Brazil in what turned out to be the beginning of a lifelong career performing and studying movement. After moving to NYC in 1999, Fabio began studying Klein TechniqueTM, The Alexander Technique, and Zero Balancing, eventually getting certified in all three modalities.
In addition to creating and performing his own original work, Fabio has also danced, performed and collaborated with many incredible worldly renowned artists over the years. Most significantly, he worked with STREB-Extreme Action for 14 years where he served as the Associate Artistic Director for a decade. The demanding, high-impact nature of the STREB choreography led Fabio to an even deeper appreciation of those body-mind systems to keep his spine flexible and his joints healthy. He was also an adjunct professor at PACE University, NYC, 2014-2017 and presently teaches at the Susan Klein School of Movement and Dance in Tribeca, NYC. Fabio maintains a busy practice making art, teaching and healing.
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