Roster of EtM Choreographer + Composer Residents

 

2019-20 Choreographer + Composer Residents

 

Choreographer, performer, educator KIMBERLY BARTOSIK creates viscerally provocative, ferociously intimate choreographic projects that are built upon the development of a virtuosic movement language, rigorous conceptual explorations, and the creation of highly theatricalized environments.

SIVAN JACOBOVITZ is a producer/musician living in New York City. As frontman of electronic/post-punk act Glass Gang, Sivan’s work has been featured by The New Yorker, BBC Radio 1, Nowness, Dazed & Confused, i-D, and more.

ALBERTO LOPEZ HERRERA is a Choreographer, Wardrobe Designer & Maker, and Teaching Artist with over 30 years of experience in Mexican folk dance and story-telling. He aims to expand Calpulli Mexican Dance Company’s folk repertoire and develop productions with cross-cultural narratives.

Trombonist/Multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and educator, GEORGE SAENZ is originally from Laredo, Texas on the U.S./Mexican border. He grew up listening to a multitude of different genres of music including the music of his Mexican-American Heritage and Jazz.

JOANNA KOTZE is a Brooklyn-based dancer, choreographer and teacher. She was awarded the 2013 “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and has received support from the Jerome, Mertz Gilmore, and Harkness Foundations, NYFA BUILD, New Music USA, Brooklyn Arts Council, Yellowhouse, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

RYAN SEATON is a Bessie-nominated, New York-based composer and multi-instrumentalist. Seaton has created sound design, horn arrangements, vocal works and electronic compositions for many recording and performing artists including Joanna Kotze, Emel Mathlouthi, Zsuzsa Rozsavolgyi, Lance Gries, Dark Sky, Steven Reker, Beth Gill and Mara Hoffman.

CYRAH WARD was raised in Dayton, Ohio, and began technically training during her sophomore year of high school at the age of 16. Cyrah is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University where she crafted her choreographic research to present black bodies in dance with new perspectives on the importance of their presence in an artistic space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018-19 Choreographer + Composer Residents

 

Janessa Clark (choreographer)

Janessa Clark is a choreographer and performance maker. She holds an MA in Performance Practices and Research from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a BFA in Choreography from Arizona State University.

I-Ling Liu (choreographer) + Shiuan Chang (composer)

I-Ling Liu is a senior member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. She received a BFA from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2005. I-Ling has been creating and displaying her own works as well as collaborating with visual artists, photographers, music composers, dirctors and actors in theater and film.

Shiuan Chang is a Taiwanese composer based in New York. His music has been described as “a tapestry of extraordinary sound and idea; not word or painting or sound landscape, but rather a psychological meditation.” – by Malcolm Peyton, Professor of the New England Conservatory.

Joya Powell (choreographer)

Joya Powell is a choreographer and educator passionate about community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. Hailed by The New York Times as a “radiant performer,” throughout her career she has danced with choreographers such as Katiti King, Neta Pulvermacher, Marcea Daiter and Marsha Parrilla.

Doug Varone  (choreographer) + David Van Tieghem (composer)

Doug Varone is a choreographer and director of contemporary dance for the concert stage, as well as opera, Broadway, regional theater, and film. He is the Artistic Director of Doug Varone and Dancers, which he established in 1986 as an opportunity to explore and process his particular choreographic vision. His company has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for over three decades.

David Van Tieghem has composed dance scores for Twyla Tharp, Doug Varone, Pilobolus, Michael Moschen, Boston Ballet, Elizabeth Streb and Elisa Monte. He has performed his solo percussion-theater work throughout the USA, Europe and Japan, in venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, BAM, the Knitting Factory, The Kitchen, Town Hall, Jacob’s Pillow, the New Music America Festivals, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, and the Venice Biennale.

 

2017-18 Choreographer + Composer Residents

Hadar Ahuvia (choreographer) + Avi Amon (composer)

Hadar Ahuvia is a dancer, choreographer, and educator living in Brooklyn and currently performs with Reggie Wilson/ Fist and Heel Performance Group. Her work has been presented at New York Live Arts, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Dixon Place, and other venues throughout NYC and the northeast United States. She was a 2012  DTW/NYLA Fresh Tracks Artist, a 2015 Movement Research Artist in Residence, a 2016 LABA Fellow at the 14th Street Y, and is the recipient of a 2017 CUNY Dance Initiative residency.

Avi Amon is a Brooklyn-based composer, pianist, and sound artist. Amon’s work has been developed or presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville (2017 Humana Opera Commission), Spoleto Festival USA, BAM, Lincoln Center, La Mama, and HERE Arts, among others. Residencies and Awards include: Judson Memorial Church, Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Grant, Target Margin Theater, New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, Weston Playhouse. Avi is the resident composer at the 52nd Street Project.

Hilary Brown (choreographer) + Lamy Istrefi Jr. (composer)

Hilary Brown originally from Toronto, Canada, graduated from École de danse contemporaine de Montréal (LADMMI) with a DEC in Danse-interprétation. In 2013 she co-founded the performance collective, Same As Sister (S.A.S.) with Briana Brown-Tipley. Their cross-disciplinary works have been presented at Centre d’Art Marnay Art Centre, Movement Research and Bailout Theater at Judson Memorial Church, CRAWL at 22 Boerum Place, BRIC Arts | Media House, New York Live Arts, Triskelion Arts, Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn Arts Exchange and Chen Dance Center.

Lamy Istrefi Jr. is a New York City based Jazz drummer/percussionist, composer and conductor, originally from the Republic of Kosovo. He is currently a member of Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and composer, Joe Lovano’s Classic Quartet. Istrefi Jr. also collaborates with a diverse and notable group of musicians for his own artistic projects which include the Lamy Istrefi Jr. Trio and Quartet featuring NEA Jazz Master, Dave Liebman, and the Musical Minds Orchestra, a large experimental ensemble that he founded in 2010.

Kensaku Shinohara (choreographer) + Dorian Wallace (composer)

Born in Sapporo, Japan, Kensaku Shinohara discovered dance while studying anthropology at International Christian University in Tokyo in 2004. Since his move to NYC in 2009, his works have been presented at the Queens Museum, St. Mark’s Church, 92nd Street Y, and LaMaMa Experimental Theater and internationally in Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Tainan, and major cities in Japan. Shinohara is a recipient of a 92Y Harkness Dance Center AIR (2017-18), Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant (2016), Japan Foundation New York Grant for Arts & Culture (2016).

Dorian Wallace is a composer, pianist, teacher, and activist. He is cofounder/artistic director of new music collective, Tenth Intervention, and conductor of The Free Sound Ahn-somble. His compositions have been performed at venues such as The Greene Space at WNYC & WQXR, Pompidou Centre, Palais Jacques Coeur, National Sawdust, Universidad de Costa Rica, and GK Arts Center.

Laurel Snyder (choreographer)+ Adam Schatz (composer)

Laurel Snyder is a dance artist, educator and occasional musician based in NYC. Laurel’s choreography has been shared at spaces such as the Tank, Triskelion Arts, Center for Performance Research (CPR), Chez Bushwick, the FRESH Festival (San Francisco, CA), Deltebre Dansa (Spain) and Ponderosa (Germany).

Adam Schatz writes and performs much of his music publicly with his band Landlady, as well as in solo formation as Mrs. Adam Schatz and leading his new improvising and song big band Civil Engineering. He uses keyboards, saxophone, his, and various knobs & pedals as avenues for honest, dynamic and entertaining performance. Through his noise, Adam hopes to help an audience feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

 

2016-17 Choreographer + Composer Residents

 

Ursula Eagly (choreographer) + Cenk Ergün (composer)

Ursula Eagly is a Queens-based artist who has been making dances since 2000. Her work has been presented by The Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dance New Amsterdam, Mount Tremper Arts, Movement Research at the Judson Church, the New Museum for Contemporary Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, P.S. 122 (New York); Labortorio Arte Alameda (Mexico City); Albania Dance Meeting (Durres, Albania); NOT FESTIVAL (Copenhagen); Solo in Azione (Milan); Wherever Whenever (Tokyo); Dramski Theatre and Locomotion Festival (Skopje, Macedonia); and re:PLAY (Imphal, Manipur). Her work has been supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s USArtists International program, New York Live Art’s Suitcase Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Emergency Grant Program, Japan Foundation’s Performing Arts JAPAN Program, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and Queens Council on the Arts. She is a 2015 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2016 Gibney Dance boo-koo Space Grant Recipient.

Cenk Ergün is a composer and improviser based in New York. His music has been performed by artists such as So Percussion, JACK Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, Wet Ink, and Yarn/Wire. As an improviser, he performs electronics in groups with Alvin Curran, Jason Treuting, and Grey McMurray. Venues that have featured Ergün’s music include New York’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, 92Y, Le Poisson Rouge, The Roulette, The Stone; Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Zurich’s Tonhalle, and Istanbul’s Babylon. Some events Ergün has participated in are the NY Phil Biennial, Lincoln Center Festival, Gaudeamus Music Week, MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, WNYC’s New Sounds Live, Peak Performances at Montclair University, Stanford Lively Arts, and San Electronic Music Festival. His first solo composition record, Nana, was released in 2014 on Carrier Records. Other releases include The Art Of The Fluke with Alvin Curran and So Percussion’s Cage 100 Bootleg Series.

Daria Faïn (choreographer) + Darius Jones (composer)

Originally from France, Daria Faïn has lived in Brooklyn since 1996.  For three decades, she has been deeply influenced by Asian philosophy of the body, ancient Greek theater and the studying of architecture. Faïn has conduct extensive research in sensory perception and human behaviors leading her to work with physically and mentally impaired people in collaboration with professionals. With architect-poet Robert Kocik they co-founded the Prosodic Body in 2006, a research field that explores language as a vibratory medium that interrelates art, health, and social change. In 2008, they co-founded The Commons Choir, a performance group with a variable cast of roughly 30 performers. In New York, her work at been presented at BRIC Arts Media House, Gibney Dance, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project among other venues.

Darius Jones is a critically acclaimed alto saxophonist and composer. In the last decade he has amazed and inspired musicians and audiences from widely divergent backgrounds with his meticulously honed musical gifts. Jones has collaborated with Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host, Oliver Lake Big Band, Eric Revis Quartet, Nasheet Waits Quartet, Trevor Dunn’s Proof Readers, Matthew Shipp, Branford Marsalis, Jason Moran, and many more. He was nominated in 2013 for Alto Saxophonist of the Year, and for Up & Coming Artist of the Year two years in a row for the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. Jones was one of Jazz Times‘ Debut Artists of the Year for 2009 and his 2012 release, Book of Mæ’bul (Another Kind of Sunrise), was listed among NPR’s Best Top 10 Jazz Albums of that year. Jones made his compositional debut at Carnegie Hall with The Oversoul Manual in October of 2014.

Emily Schoen (choreographer)

Emily Schoen is a Wisconsin-born, New York City-based dancer and choreographer. As a choreographer, she has received the Gibney Dance boo-koo grant for emerging artists in NYC, an emerging artist residency award in Tannersville, NY through the Catskill Mountain Foundation, and was recently nominated for a Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship by METdance in Houston. She has choreographed for Santa Barbara Dance Theater, Long Island Dance Projects, Mid-Pacific Institute in Hawaii, Skidmore University, the Hartt School in Connecticut, and Marymount Manhattan through (M)mix. Her company, Schoen Movement Company, is a three-time invitee to Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Festival. Emily conceived and created Schoen Movement Company’s dance film series: Ten Tiny Dances, viewable online. As a dancer, Emily has worked with Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, the Metropolitan Opera in works by Doug Varone and Mark Morris, and is a current member of Keigwin + Company. Dance Magazine chose Emily as one of their “Top 25 to Watch” in 2011.

Christopher Williams(choreographer) + Gregory Spears (composer)

Christopher Williams, dubbed “one of the most exciting choreographic voices out there” (The New York Times), is a “Bessie” award-winning choreographer, dancer, and puppeteer devoted to crafting and performing choreographic works in New York City and abroad since 1999. His works have been presented internationally in France, England, Italy, Holland, Colombia, and Russia as well as in many NYC venues including Lincoln Center, City Center, Danspace Project, and Dance Theater Workshop. His most recent commissioners include Interlochen Center for the Arts, Danspace Project, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Perm Opera & Ballet Theater, Teatro Real, English National Opera, and the Harkness Dance Center at the 92nd Street Y. He holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, and has since performed for Tere O’Connor Dance, Douglas Dunn & Dancers, Rebecca Lazier, Yoshiko Chuma & the School of Hard Knocks, John Kelly, Basil Twist, and Dan Hurlin, among others.

Gregory Spears writes music for modern and period instruments that blends aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music.  His work has been called “astonishingly beautiful” (The New York Times), “coolly entrancing” (The New Yorker), and “some of the most beautifully unsettling music to appear in recent memory.” (The Boston Globe) In recent seasons he has been commissioned by The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seraphic Fire, Concert Artists Guild/BMI, Christopher Williams Dances, and the JACK Quartet among others. Spears’ first opera, Paul’s Case, recently described as a “masterpiece” and a “gem” (New York Observer) with “ravishing music” (The New York Times), was developed by American Opera Projects premiered by Urban Arias, restaged at the Prototype Festival in New York, and presented in a new production by Pittsburgh Opera. New Amsterdam Records released his early music-inspired chamber Requiem to critical acclaim in 2011.

2015-16 Choreographer + Composer Residents
SATOSHI HAGA (choreographer) & JEN SHYU (composer)

SATOSHI HAGA grew up in rural Japan where he never thought he would become interested in dance. As a dancer, his works have been presented by venues including Dia, Joyce SoHo, P.S. 122, Movement Research, 92nd Street Y’s Harkness Dance Center, Japan Society in New York, Jacob’s Pillow, and The Yard (Choreographer-in-Residency). Since 2010, Satoshi has been collaborating with Rie Fukuzawa as binbinFactory. Their first work “THREAD” won second place at “THE A.W.A.R.D. Show!” presented by Joyce Theater Foundation. They have also been the recipients of Swing Space Residency from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Resident Artists at Union Street Dance, Eva Dean Dance with Mertz Gilmore Creative Grant, Silo Residency at Kirkland Farm, and FABnyc with The Standard High Line Hotel. In 2013, Satoshi was invited by E-Moves 14 to be a part of Harlem Stage’s 30th Anniversary.

JEN SHYU is an experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and producer and was the recipient of the 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award. Having sung with Steve Coleman and in Anthony Braxton’s operas, she has produced six albums, becoming the first female artist and vocalist as bandleader on Pi Recordings (Synastry, 2015, with co-leader Mark Dresser). A Stanford University graduate known for researching traditional music in Taiwan, Korea, East Timor, etc., Shyu studied Javanese Sindhenan and dance for two years on a Fulbright in Indonesia, culminating in a solo opera, Solo Rites: Seven Breaths, directed by filmmaker Garin Nugroho, which premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn. She has presented her music at Carnegie Hall (2016), Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bimhuis, Salihara Theater, National Theater of Korea, etc. Shyu is currently touring her latest album, Sounds and Cries of the World (Pi 2015) with her band Jade Tongue as well as with Solo Rites: Seven Breaths.

JENNIFER JANCUSKA (choreographer) & ADAM GWON (composer)

JENNIFER JANCUSKA is a choreographer whose work in musical theater has been seen in collaboration with The Public Theater, City Center, Skirball Center, Dallas Theater Center, The Royal George, Flat Rock Playhouse, New London Barn Playhouse, Trinity Rep, Merrimack Theatre and Madison Square Garden, among others. She has developed new musical theater works with Kait Kerrigan, Brian Lowdermilk, Matte O’Brien, Matt Vinson, Drew Gasparini, Andy Blankenbuehler, Daniel Aukin, Frank Wildhorn, and Jack Murphy. Jennifer has been a master teacher and guest lecturer at NYU, Syracuse University, PACE, University of the Arts, College of Charleston, and Shanghai Theater Academy. She is the founder and creative director of BC Beat, a bi-annual choreography showcase featuring new work by theatrical artists with its 10th installment in November 2015. She is also the co-founder of Broadway Connection, an international arts education organization heading into its 8th year. Jennifer is a graduate of Cornell University.

ADAM GWON is a composer and lyricist whose musicals Ordinary Days, Cloudlands, and The Boy Detective Fails have been produced at Roundabout Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Signature Theatre, and in over 100 productions around the world, including in London’s West End. His songs have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and more, by such luminaries as Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, and Brian d’Arcy James. Adam’s honors include the Kleban Award; the Ebb Award; the Rodgers, Loewe, and Weston Playhouse New Musical Awards (all for the upcoming String); Second Stage Theatre’s Donna Perret Rosen Award; the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award; and the MAC John Wallowitch Award. Recordings include Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records), Audra McDonald’s Go Back Home (Nonesuch), and Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Project. Adam has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the Dramatists Guild, and holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

EUN SUNG LEE (choreographer) & KENTO IWASAKI (composer)

EUN SUNG LEE is a New York-based seasoned professional dancer, choreographer, and artistic director. Trained in ballet, modern, and Korean traditional dance, Ms. Lee’s unique fusion of styles in her figurative dance expressions allows her to replicate tangible emotions, as on display in her choreography. Ms. Lee brings her experience as the artistic director and choreographer to Noree’s 2nd Annual Performing Arts Festival, ‘Ga-Mu’ (2015). Ms. Lee has appeared in the Field Artist Residency (2013), The 7th Annual Green Space Blooms Festival (2013), Dixon Place (2014), Metropolitan Auditorium of Metropolitan Museum of Arts (2012), and the Open Stage by the Korean Cultural Service NY (2012-2013). Ms. Lee’s movement was featured in an internally screened film, Arirang Blues, the Dance for Camera directed by the filmmaker and visual artist Pyeunghun Baik, and the film has appeared in theatres, festival, and galleries such as the Dance Conversation 2011 (The Flea Theater), KAFFNY2011 (Chelsea Cinema), SMYBIOSIS 2012(Gallery Space Womb), Festival of International Video Art 2013 (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Santa Fe Museum (2014). Ms. Lee attended the Doctoral Program in Performing Arts at Ochanomizu National Women’s University in Tokyo, Japan, where she also received her Master of Dance. She is a Certified Movement Analyst through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies in NYC. Eun Sung Lee is also a dedicated educator, having taught in Korea, Japan, and New York. She is currently involved in a Korean dance and body movements education program for senior citizens in Queens, and will develop a senior citizens’ dance initiative later this year. Ms. Lee has worked as a dancer and choreographer of NARU KCP ARTS since 2009. Ms. Lee is currently the artistic director and choreographer for the Noree Performing Arts in New York City.

KENTO IWASAKI is a composer and koto performer. Commissioned for his intercultural voice and theatric sensibilities, he creates with theater and music new mythologies that act as a bridge to the lexicon of traditional arts. He studied koto with Satomi Fukami as part of an expenses-paid program by Columbia University and continues his koto studies with Yoko Reikano Kimura. Kento has received training in opera composition from Libby Larsen, John Corigliano and William Bolcom as part of the John Duffy Composers Institute. He also received training in the art of collaboration at the Nautilus Music-Theater New Dramatists Composer Librettist Studio, a two-week intensive, culminating in five music-theater scenes with resident playwrights. Kento received his B.A. in Music Composition at Temple University and his M.M. in Classical Composition at Manhattan School of Music. Previous composition teachers include Mark Jurcisin, Matthew Greenbaum and Richard Danielpour. Kento is currently developing portable operas that utilize traditional Asian instruments.

PAM TANOWITZ (choreographer) & DAN SIEGLER (composer) 

PAM TANOWITZ has been making dances since 1992. She founded Pam Tanowitz Dance in 2000, and has received commissions and residencies at The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, The Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process program and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Most recently the company performed at The Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival and the Chicago Dancing Festival. Tanowitz received a 2009 Bessie Award for the dance, Be in the Gray With Me, at Dance Theater Workshop. She was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 and a 2013-2014 Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She has set work on The Juilliard School, New York Theater Ballet and Saint Louis Ballet. Additional awards include two Joyce Theater Residency Grants, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, New York Foundation for the Arts BUILD Grant and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Tanowitz holds a BFA in Dance from the Ohio State University and an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was mentored by former Merce Cunningham principal dancer Viola Farber-Slayton.

DAN SIEGLER is a composer and producer from NYC. His work combines electronic and orchestral elements, incorporating references to jazz, blues and folk, using found percussion, early analog synthesizers and glitch sound material. His collaborations with Pam Tanowitz include 2013’s The Spectators at New York Live Arts, with music described as “a kind of roaming fanfare, setting a ceremonial, regal atmosphere…frequently haunting.” by The New Yorker and the score for Be in the Gray With Me, at Dance Theater Workshop for which he received a Bessie Award. Siegler is the owner/operator of Saturnfoot Studios and has produced sessions there for HBO’s Bored to Death, Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and David LaChapelle/John Byrne’s Transcending Form. Siegler received a 2014 composer’s residency at Wildacres and was the BMI winner of the Abe Olman Scholarship given to emerging artists by the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.