 |
|
|
|
2021 Choreographers and Dancers |
 Sean
Aaron Carmon is a dancer and choreographer, originally from
Beaumont, TX. He has performed professionally as a soloist with the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and on Broadway in the 2010
Tony-award winning revival La Cage aux Folles and also in The Phantom of
the Opera. His choreography has been performed all across the country
and internationally and have been lauded as "everything and then
some..." and "powerful" and "seriously flawless" by major national print
and online publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek,
DanceSpirit and Dance Magazine . He was awarded The Joffrey Ballet's
2017 Winning Works choreographic award and the Dance Gallery Festival
NYC’s “Audience Choice Award.” His choreography has been presented at
the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA and he has created multiple
original works for the University of Richmond’s Department of Theatre
and Dance. In addition, he has created several works on the AAADT for
multiple Ailey Dancers’ Resource Fund benefit performances. He teaches
master classes and choreographs for studios, dance conventions, high
schools, colleges and universities across America and internationally. |
 Mari
Meade is NYC-based choreographer and educator born in
California and raised outside New Orleans. In 2009, she received the
Kenan Fellowship at Lincoln Center Education, and launched her
contemporary dance company, Mari Meade Dance Collective/MMDC. Meade was
awarded the New York Choreographic Institute, UNC School of the Arts
Choreographic Institute, Doug Varone’s Devices, and was an Artist in
Residence at Chez Bushwick, Triskelion Arts, CUNY Dance Initiative
(CDI), and Lake Studios Berlin (Germany). Her work “immigration
stories”, was supported by Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant and
CDI’s residency at John Jay College. She has shown work nationally and
internationally including the Clark Theatre at Lincoln Center,
Danspace/St. Mark’s Church, Judson Memorial Church, Battery Dance
Festival, McCallum Theatre’s Choreography Festival, ChopShop: Bodies of
Work, Baltimore Dance Invitational, Katlehong Arts Center (South
Africa); and Lake Studios Berlin (Germany). She is a board member of The
Kenan Institute for the Arts, the Associate Director of UNC School of
the Arts Choreographic Institute, and a founder of La Belle et Les Arts,
a creative residency in Dordogne, France. She has spoken at Women in
Dance leadership conference, Dance/NYC’s Symposium, and was a mentor for
Ann and Weston Hick's Choreography Fellows Program at Jacob’s Pillow.
She is a teaching artist for New York City Ballet. BFA UNC School of the
Arts. |
 Katarzyna
Skarpetowska is a native of Warsaw, Poland. She is an alumna of
NYC High School of Performing Arts and received a BFA from The Juilliard
School in 1999 under Artistic Director Benjamin Harkarvy. Kate was a
member of Parsons Dance from 1999 until 2006 where she performed lead
roles in the company’s repertory, including the iconic Caught. From 2007
until 2014, she danced for the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company performing at
many reputable venues such as New York’s City Center and Joyce Theater,
Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Her Broadway
credits include Metro (Minskoff Theatre, 1992). For her choreographic
achievements, Kate was named Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2016 and
was nominated for a NY Dance and Performance Award, The Bessie, in 2017.
She has been commissioned by Richmond Ballet, BalletX, Parsons Dance,
Buglisi Dance Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater II, Bruce Wood
Dance, and The Juilliard School, among others. In 2018, Kate choreographed
an Opera Theatre of Saint Louis production of Orfeo and Eurydice, in
collaboration with director Ron Daniels and maestro Pierre Vallet. She
resides in New York City. |
 Eva
Stone (Seattle) is a choreographer, teaching artist, and
founder/producer/curator of CHOP SHOP: Bodies of Work, an annual
contemporary dance festival held in Bellevue, WA. She received a BFA in
Performance & Choreography from Arizona State University, and later
earned an MA in Choreography & Choreological Studies from Trinity Laban
in the UK. Ms. Stone is also the Artistic Director of The Stone Dance
Collective which she originated in London, England. She’s created
commissioned work for Spectrum Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest
Ballet/Seattle Art Museum’s Sculptured Dance, Seattle International
Dance Festival, Seattle Dance Project, and for regional ballet companies
throughout the US. Her work has been presented in New York, Los Angeles,
London, Geneva, Montreal, and St. Petersburg. In September 2018 she
launched a nationally recognized choreography program “New Voices:
Choreography and Process for Young Women in Dance” at Pacific Northwest
Ballet School. Most recently, Ms. Stone was commissioned to create a
main stage work for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2019/20 season which
received high critical acclaim and local and national attention. This
summer her work will be presented at the prestigious Sun Valley Dance
Festival where she will also be a part of the teaching faculty. |
| Lighting Designer | ||
Monique L’Heureux is an award winning lighting designer who has been
working in the field of dance for over two decades. This year, she is celebrating her
fifteenth collaboration with artistic director, Molly Lynch.Past designs include: Ma Cong’s French Twist for Smuin Ballet; Molly Lynch’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Anjani Ambegaokar’s Made in Mumbaii at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center; The Motion Picture and Television Fund event featuring Chita Rivera, Dick van Dyke, Shirley MacLaine, Hugh Jackman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Hudson, and others; Charles Moulton’s Ball Passing piece in Fall for Dance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center; Robert Sund’s Alice in Wonderland; the National and Pacific Festivals of Regional Dance America; the summer season at the Hollywood Bowl; and associate design work on the Universal Studios’ Magical Starlight Parade in Osaka, Japan. She attended Pepperdine University and received her MFA from the University of California, Irvine, after which she apprenticed at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Mark Taper Forum. She has taught for the dance departments at Loyola Marymount University and Moorpark College and the theatre department at El Camino College.She is the recipient of four Lester Horton Dance Awards. She is an accomplished artist and photographer whose work has been shown in galleries including the Long Beach Public Library’s Art on Display, the Carl Broderick Gallery, VIVA Gallery, Long Beach Arts Center, City of Brea Gallery, and The Stage Gallery, as well as a permanent installation in the Glendale Adventist Medical Center. She is a member of United Scenic Artists. www.artanddesigns.net |
||
| 2021 NCI Dancers | ||
|
Women: Maggie Carey – Smuin Ballet Ava Chatterson – Sacramento Ballet Julia Feldman – Sacramento Ballet Cassidy Isaacson – Smuin Ballet Michele Katcher – Sacramento Ballet Lauren Pschirrer – Smuin Ballet Isabella Velasquez – Sacramento Ballet Brennan Wall – Smuin Ballet Men: |
 2021 NCI dancers |
|
|
All photos by Robert Salas and David Friedman |
|
|
