Renay Aumiller (2008: Expansion) grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and primarily studied dance at the Cary Ballet Conservatory and Enloe Magnet High School. From there, she went on to study at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she received her Bachelors degree in dance in 2004. Upon graduation, Aumiller continued to choreograph and perform in numerous venues across the state of North Carolina including seven self-produced events from 2004-2006. During this time, she also taught ballet and modern dance classes at Ninth Street Dance in Durham, NC. She has performed in works by Gerri Houlihan, Tere O’Connor, Erika Randall, BJ Sullivan, Christian Von Howard, Renee Wadleigh, Ming Lung Yang and many others. Aumiller is currently in her second years as an MFA candidate in dance and a teaching assistant at the Unversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2007, she was the recipient of the Vannie L. Sheirey Memorial Dance Scholarship for Outstanding Performance.
^ TOPTheresa Bautista (2006-2008: An Evening of Dance, GSA 2006, In Motion, Impressions, GSA 2007, Returns, Expansion and v6.0) trained in Southern Indiana and Louisville, gaining experience both in dance and musical theatre. While earning her B.S. in Biology from Indiana University, she continued her dance studies in a program headed by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride. Theresa is a freelance dancer, choreographer and teacher in the Louisville, KY area and has danced with the Kentucky Youth Dance Ensemble, Anna Sapozhnikov’s MOYAMO DANCE, Gordon Dance Projects, and Rachel James for Cincinnati’s Choreographers Without Companies 2007 series. She was a company soloist for six years with Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company, and is a current member of jan street dance theatre. She has recently created new works for The University of Louisvile Dance Theatre, The Center for Women and Families, Empujon and the Bluegrass Youth Ballet. In 2006, Theresa created and continues to produce MOVING COLLECTIVE, a venue to promote the works of independent choreographers and bring greater awareness of contemporary dance to the Louisville region. Theresa presented her work, Moment Pushed, Moment Left at the 2005 SERBA Dance Festival and has been featured in Today’s Woman, the Louisville Eccentric Observer, and Velocity Weekly magazines.
^ TOPTamara Begley(2006-2008: An Evening of Dance, In Motion, Impressions, GSA 2007, Returns, Expansion and v6.0) earned a BFA in Choreography and Performance from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and is a 2001 graduate of the Youth Performing Arts School. Tamara co-produces MOVING COLLECTIVE, a venue to promote the works of independent choreographers and bring greater awareness of contemporary dance to the Louisville Region. Tamara has performed with John Gamble Dance Theatre in North Carolina, Amir Kolben and Jessica Marchant in Washington, D.C., and Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company in Louisville, and is currently a member of Beth Rodriguez Dance Projects and Christephor Gilbert’s jan street dance theatre. Tamara was awarded an internship in Washington, D.C. at Dance Place, one of the nation’s most prolific presenters of dance. She also teaches modern dance at the Louisville Ballet School, Studio SILK at the Clifton Center, and Allegro Dance Theatre in Radcliff. Tamara is the Office Manager at the Sacred Heart School for the Arts.
^ TOPdanah bella (2008: Expansion and v6.0) received her MFA in Performance from Ohio State University and her BA in Dance from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2004 she founded d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks, the only professional contemporary company based in Southwest Virginia, with long time collaborator Salvador Barajas. Her work has been presentd in festivals throughout the country including the Dumbo Dance Festival in New York and the United States of Asian American Festival in San Francisco, as well as in Mexico. Her teaching credits include the Bates Dance Festival, the American College Dance Festival and Pro DAnza Italia/USA; she is currently on faculty at Radford University.
^ TOPKimberly Nygren Cox(2007-2008: Impression, Returns, and Expansion) had a professional dancing career of 14 years. She has performed with the Milwaukee Ballet, Cincinnati Opera Ballet, American Jewish Ballet, Art! Art! Barking Dog, and the Louisville Ballet Company. During her career she has had guest artist appearances in Michigan, Texas, Florida, and Cuba. She retired in 2003 from the Louisville Ballet where she was a soloist. She taught ballet regularly for the Louisville Ballet School, and Allegro Ballet Theater, and has been at guest instructor at several other schools of dance. Kim has been choreographing for many years and has had her works performed at various events such as Louisville Ballet’s annual showcase, Radio Disney, and a World Aids Day memorial. Kim is certified in Pilates through the PhysicalMind Institute and the Pilates Method Alliance. She now teaches group mat classes and private lessons on the Pilates apparatus. She has also done some stage managing for both the Louisville Ballet Company and Moving Collective.
^ TOPChristine De Lazzero (2006: In Motion) received her B.F.A. in Dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 1985. After graduation, she remained in NYC, performing in small modern dance companies and collaborating in choreographic showcases until 1993. She moved to Kentuckiana in 1997. Christine began dancing and performing again in 2004-2005 with Anna Sapozhnikov, and has continued to perform in 2006-2007 with Moving Collective in works by Theresa Bautista, Tamara Begley, and Denise Gordon, as well as present her own piece of choreography, “Voice Coil”. She is delighted to be involved in this fourth concert.
^ TOPChristina DiGiovanni (2007: Impressions, GSA 2007) holds a BFA in Dance from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. While attending school, Christina danced with the second company of the Dayton Ballet. She has danced and taught for Chicago Dance Medium. Christina danced for and helped to manage Afterimages Dance Company in Louisville, Kentucky. She was Artistic Director for PNEUMA, a comprehensive after school arts program for inner city youth in Louisville. She is a founding member of Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company. Christina currently teaches for the Budig Academy of the Cincinnati Ballet and is the Chair of the dance faculty for the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts.
^ TOPYeen Foong (2006-2007: An Evening of Dance, GSA 2006, In Motion, GSA 2007) has had the chance to experiment with different types of dance in the past including ballet, modern, tap, ballroom and some traditional Malay movements. While she was in Beloit College getting her B.A. in Art History, she actively performed and choreographed in Chelonia, which is the annual modern dance performance at Beloit. Ever since moving to Louisville, Yeen has performed with Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company and now this would be her fourth performance with Moving Collective.
^ TOPMari-Elise Gates (2008: Expansion and v6.0) graduated from University of Maryland in 2007 with a double degree in Dance and English and an Honors citation. While at Maryland, Mari-Elise had the opportunity to work with Brian Brooks, Alexander Gish, Sara Pearson, Patrik Widrik, Amy Marshall Dance Company and Nejla Yatkin and also performed on the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center. Mari-Elise taught tap classes and dance history courses at Maryland, and she had choreography presented in Maryland Dance Ensemble concerts and New Dances concerts. She currently attends the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.
^ TOPDiane Germaine (2008: Expansion) Choreographer/Writer, graduated New York’s Performing Arts High School and became Principal Soloist of the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company, NYC. She received critical acclaim for roles in Fatal Birds, Metallics, The Path, Shadows, and as poetess Anne Sexton in A Consort for Dancers (“a superstar modern dancer…boneless as a shadow and in control of every kinetic nuance,” New York Times). Ms. Germaine has been on faculty at NYC’s Performing Arts High School, at Modern Dance Artists the former home of the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company, and at the school of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, NYC. She’s been a Master Instructor/Guest Choreographer at Universities all over the USA as well as for First Chamber Dance Company in Port Townsend, Seattle and Walla Walla, abroad for Bat-Dor, Batsheva, The Kibbutz Dance Company, Norsk Opera Ballet in Oslo, and London Contemporary Dance Theatre at The Place. She acknowledges the following individuals/studios contributing to her training: Contemporary: Bertram Ross/Mary Hinkson/Ethel Winter from the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Paul Sanasardo/Donya Feuer of Modern Dance Artists, Inc., and Norman Walker; Classical: Edward Caton at Joffrey’s American Dance Centre, Maggie Black, and Robin Howard. In NYC, as Artistic Director of Diane Germaine & Dancers, NYC she choreographed 25 works receiving grants from the NEA and CAPS for (signature work) Playground (“…a violent sensual work….It hurls itself through the space rushing towards the final denouement with a disconcerting fury," Soho News), and for RadiOhio, Hotel Nicaragua, Archipel, and The Ocean Floor and Those Who Live There. In Cincinnati, commissioned works for Contemporary Dance Theater Company included Lorcantos, I've Got a Crush on You, and Controlling the Population. With the advent of Choreographers Without Companies concerts, Ms. Germaine created Such a Landscape in 2000 which was invited to Ohio Dance Festival’s Showcase where it received high praise from the Columbus Dispatch (“…compelling … (Taki Pejzaz) was the most powerful of the evening." Ms. Germaine was awarded a 2001 OAC Choreography Fellowship and a ‘02-‘03 grant from the City of Cincinnati for the full-evening spoken-word and movement play, Didi, a Life, premiered in April 2002. She received grants from the City of Cincinnati and OAC for a full-evening retrospective in December, 2003 which included the premiere of Fallout, a revision of Playground, and a revival of Such a Landscape. Recent works include: the poignant solo Rain (2002), Dust (2002) an intense and devastating work created in response to 9/11, the sensual, tuxedoed, and on its head Nighthawks (2003), Fallout (2004), the lovely, hopeful So Little Time (2004), the sexy, intriguing, haunting Fated Tango (2005), and the beautiful, cerebral and quirky Monologue and Little Deaths (2007). Ms. Germaine is planning a full-evening production in 2009 of the tango/not a tango triptych: Nighthawks, Fated Tango and the new Bailongo (working title). She is also the initiating choreographer to launch Cincinnati Choreographers Collective in April 2008 – the area’s collective of professional choreographers (and dancers). In June 2008 she will be contributing her sultry Fated Tango with a stellar cast to CDT’s 35th Anniversary Choreographer’s Festival at Jarson-Kaplan Theater. In addition to choreography Ms. Germaine is also a writer. She was on scholarship at Women Writing for (a) Change 2002-2004, has read her work on WVXU radio, at Walnut St. YWCA’s Wise Woman and Generations series, Woodstock Jewish Congregation, and the Woodstock Poetry Society’s Open Mic Monday Night series. Her poem My One Girl appeared in the October 2007 issue of Hudson Valley’s Chronogram Magazine. Ms. Germaine is currently compiling the poetry for her first chapbook and completing her play entitled Not Yet, a funny, poignant two-character work on ageing. Ms. Germaine’s biography has been in Who’s Who in Entertainment since 1982.
^ TOPChristephor Gilbert (2007-2008: Returns and v6.0) is thrilled to be working with Moving Collective once again! Christephor is the artistic director of jan street dance theatre, a contemporary dance ensemble that utilizes movement, gesture and text to convey emotional narratives in a non-linear format. Christephor was a soloist with Hawaii Ballet Theatre from 1994-1996, was company member and guest choreographer with Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company from 1997-1999, and performed as a dance theatre soloist from 1995-present. As a solo performer, Christephor’s seminal work, Silk Girl in Blue Desert (ed) has been performed in Honolulu, San Francisco, and Louisville. Most recently he served as assistant choreographer for the Broadway at Iroquois production of Cats. Christephor is a modern instructor with studio SILK and a ballet instructor with Ellen’s School of Dance and when not dancing, teaching or choreographing he serves as the Wardrobe Manager for Stage One and Broadway at Iroquois, where he is also a costume designer.
^ TOPDenise Gordon (2006-2008: An Evening of Dance, GSA 2006, In Motion, Returns, Expansion) received a B.A. in theatre arts and a minor in dance and went on to pursue a dance career with Afterimages Dance Company in Louisville, KY. She resided as a principal dancer with that company for six years, performing over 80 repertory works and teaching throughout the regional area. For the next four years, Denise partnered in the management of Afterimages, choreographing, teaching and performing. The next phase of her career led her to dance as a principal with Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company in 1995. Denise began her own company called Gordon Dance Projects in 2004, and in 2006, became a co-producer of Moving Collective with Theresa Bautista and Tamara Begley.
^ TOPEmily Gorman (2008: v6.0) a Louisville native, has just returned from five years in San Francisco where she earned her MFA in Performance and Choreography from Mills College in Oakland, CA. While at Mills she had the opportunity to perform in works by Sonya Delwaide, Molissa Fenly, Margaret Jenkins, Mary Carbonara, and Mark Morris. Following graduation, Emily danced with local dance companies Push Up Something Hidden, Double Vision, and COUNTERPOINTe. Working with both children and adults, she has taught creative movement, ballet, modern, tap and jazz for over ten years in both Kentucky and California. Emily received her training from Mills College, Murray State University, Ursuline School for the Performing Arts, The Louisville Ballet, where she was a member of the Civic Company and The Youth Peforming Arts School.
^ TOPDavid Ingram (2007: GSA 2007) began his training in his hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee and continued his studies at Butler University in Indiana with Mark Cholewa, receiving his B.F.A. in Dance Performance in 2004. David has also studied under Karen Gibbons Brown, Larry Attaway and Yamamoto Twunetomo. With the Louisville Ballet, David has been featured in Ben Steveson’s Four Last Songs, Adam Hougland’s Made to be Broken, and Robert North’s Troy Game. His choreography has been performed at The Yard and the Fort Wayne Ballet and most recently at 1c Museum Hotel under his own company, EMpujon. David is currently dancing with North Carolina Dance Theatre in Charlotte, North Carolina.
^ TOPRachel James (2007: GSA 2007) has been dancing at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater her entire life. She has worked with many Cincinnati choreographers including Jeri Gatch, Tricia Gelmini, Diane Germaine, Judith Mikita, Susan Moser, Linda Reiff, Fanchon Shur and Cheryl Wallace. In November 2006 she worked with New York’s H.T. Chen and Dancers for their Cincinnati performance of Shift. She also choreographs and performs her own work. Rachel teaches modern dance at CDT and Rhythm and Motion Dance Workout classes at Cincinnati Ballet. She holds an M.A. from Gallaudet University in Interpretation and is a nationally certified sign language interpreter.
^ TOPAlan Lommasson (2006-2007: An Evening of Dance, GSA 2006, In Motion, Impressions, GSA 2007, Returns) has been teaching, choreographing, and performing since 1980 and was one of the founding directors of Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company. The recipient of numerous choreographic awards and commissions, including the 1997 Al Smith Fellowship in Choreography from the Kentucky Arts Council, his work has been presented in fifteen states nationwide. He holds a B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Illinois and an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan, as well as certification as a movement analyst from the Laban/Bartinieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City. He has served on the faculties of Colorado College, Wayne State University, the University of Michigan and Interlochen’s National Music Camp.
^ TOPAmber Marquez (2006: An Evening of Dance) started dancing at the age of seven and has danced with several studios and dance ensembles in the Louisville area including the University of Louisville Dance Academy, Anna Sapozhnikov’s Moyamo Dance Company, the Youth Performing Arts School and the Louisville Ballet. She hopes to pursue a dance career in both performance and choreography. She would like to thank all of the instructors she has worked with and everyone in her life that supports her dancing.
^ TOPTheresa Mudd (2008: v6.0) is an outstanding dance educator, performer and choreographer. A “hoofer and singer” since the age of three, she has never stopped dancing. A Louisville native, she was accepted into the Louisville Civic Ballet at the age of 12, performing a wide variety of classical and contemporary roles. At age 18, she won the state title and represented Kentucky in the National Society of Arts and Letters Ballet Competition in her first choreographic effort. Theresa holds a BA in Dance and Drama from Bard College and an MA in Exercise Science and Sport Science from the University of Arizona. She has trained, performed, choreographed and taught extensively for professional companies, universities and schools around the country including Arizona Dance Theatre and Louisville’s former flamenco dance company, Ballet Español. Theresa chairs the Dance Department at the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville, Kentucky since 1988.
^ TOPBeth Rodriguez (2007-2008: Impressions, Returns and v6.0) began her dance training at the University of Louisville Dance Academy. She later went on to receive her bachelors in dance under scholarship from Ball State University and her masters in education from New York University. Beth worked in NYC for nearly a decade with various noted and emerging artists, including Jana Hicks, Katiti King, Sarah Skaggs, and Courtney Drasner. Her choreography has been shown in NYC at Williamsburg Arts Nexus, BRIC, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, chashama, Dixon Place, and Merce Cunningham Studio. This work has been supported in part by The Field, DanceNYC, NYU, and Dixon Place. She now continues her work in Louisville and southern Indiana, collaborating with local artists and producing work through Beth Rodriguez Dance Projects. She is an arts educator currently working with the Children’s Center for Dance Education in Evansville, IN.
^ TOPAshley Suttlar (2006-2007: In Motion and Impressions) has a B.F.A. in dance performance and choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.F.A. in Dance from Temple University. She was a member of Paule Turner’s c o u r t from 2001 to 2003 and Charles O. Anderson’s Dance Theatre X in 2005. She has also performed with Tania Isaac Dance Projects, Darla Stanley, Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre, and Kariamu Welsh. Ashley’s choreography has been called “a force to behold” by the Philadelphia Inquirer and “provocative and fascinating” by the Cincinnati Citybeat Magazine. Her work has been presented at the 2002 – 2004 Philadelphia Fringe Festivals, Dance House 2003, 3rd annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, 2006 Moving Collective performance, Painted Bride’s Divine Women, Divine Works Series, American College Dance Festival in 2000 and 2004, Black College Dancing Exchange, International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, and various universities, to list a few. Currently, Ashley is Assistant Professor of Dance at Morehead State University where she is implementing a dance curriculum and is Director of the MSU Dance Ensemble. Recently, she was selected for the Kentucky Arts Council’s 2006-2007 Performing Arts Directory. She continues to work as an independent artist.
^ TOPStephanie Blackmon Woodbeck (2008: Expansion and v6.0) began her dance training in Kitty Hawk, NC and graduated Magna Cum Laude from UNCG. She has had the privilege of performing for artists such as b.j. Sullivan, Alice Lee Holland, Laura Arrington, Net Pulvermacher, and Jahna Bobilia Dancers. She was a member of the John Gamble Dance Theatre from 2001-2005. Her solo work, “Suffocation (of/by) the Last Generation”, was included in North Carolina’s “Best of Dance: 2004” alongside choreographers such as Shen Wei, John Jasperse, and Willam Forsythe.
Labor Force Dances was founded in October 2006 by Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck and Kathleen Kelley after years of dancing and creating alongside each other. The company strives to view dance from a feministic approach at all times and to push the boundaries of physicality in all extremes. Stephanie and Kathleen both received their BFA’s in Performance and Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The choreography of Labor Force Dances has most recently been produced in New York City as “Labor Force Dances – The Inaugural Season,” the Minnesota Dance Festival, and in the Spring 2008 season of Moving Collective in Louisville, KY.
^ TOPJessica Underwood (2006-2007: An Evening of Dance, Impressions, and Returns) currently works as Grants Associate for The Center for Women and Families, having previously completed her M.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Louisville. She has studied with The University of Louisville Dance Theater, Mercyhurst College and the Youth Performing Arts School. Jessica has performed and choreographed with Moving Collective since 2006. She continues to teach creative movement and choreograph for the U of L Dance Theater. Most recently, Jessica combined her passion for feminism and dance by coordinating Movement to Empower, an evening of dance to raise awareness and end violence against women and girls in Kentucky. Jessica successfully brought together dancers, choreographers and local community partners for this concert benefiting The Center for Women and Families. Additionally, in her free time, Jessica loves to cook and bake and take walks with Erika and Shooter!
^ TOP