Past guest artists

Guest artists

guests

VCU Dance students have the opportunity to study with a guest artist each semester for four to seven weeks.

While in residence with VCU Dance, guest artists have made significant contributions to the development of the Richmond dance community, student performance skills and new dance works. Most guest artists have taught a repertory class in residence, as well as worked intensively with the students on performance elements and in the community performing outreach activities. VCU Dance also is committed to building new audiences while enlightening the current dance audience in the university and Richmond community. Nearly all guest artist repertory results in a public performance.

The mission of the VCU Department of Dance and Choreography presenting program is to support the creation of innovative work, stretch the potential of the art form and develop new audiences for dance while extending ideas about what dance can be. The program is committed to providing VCU and the Richmond community with opportunities to experience a broad range of the diverse aesthetics of contemporary dance while providing insight into its history and development.

NEXUS GUEST ARTISTS 2007-2008

Heidi Weiss (Berlin, Germany): August 23 - October 12, 2007
Heidi Weiss earned her B.F.A. in 1992 from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she was awarded “Outstanding Performer in Modern Dance”. Upon graduation she joined Group Motion Company(Phila.),with whom she performed and choreographed for over three years. Heidi has been a guest dancer with Karen Bamonte Dance Works, Rennie Harris Pure Movement and SCRAP Performance Group, among others. In 1997 Heidi moved to Europe where she studied Butoh dance with Master Masaki Iwana. Settling in Germany, she co-founded “Zen in the Basement” Dance Company with designer Sebastain Gaebel and dancer/choreographer Jennifer Mann. The company has performed at many international festivals including Philly Fringe, Live Arts Festival, Open Basement Festival in Taipei, Taiwan; Potsdam Tanztage in Germany; fest in Sevilla, Spain. Heidi has been a guest teacher for renowned European Companies such as Sasha Waltz and guests, Itzik Galleli and Ishmael Ivo. In 2005 Heidi became Professor for Contemporary Dance at the Palucca Schule Dresden, where she was on staff until summer of 2007. She created two student works which were performed in Japan and at Fontys Dance festival in Tilburg, Holland. Heidi currently resides in Berlin, Germany with her family.

Erika Randall (Boulder, CO): September 24-28, 2007
Erika Randall, an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, received her MFA in Choreography from The Ohio State University in 2003. Randall served as a guest lecturer at OSU before becoming a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana from 2004 to 2007. An internationally active choreographer, teacher and dancer, Erika currently performs with Sara Hook Dances/David Parker and the Bang Group, Anna Sapozhnikov and Teena Custer. Randall has previously worked with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Buglisi/Foreman Dance, and Cava/Parker Dance. In 2004, Erika formed the Columbus Movement Movement (cm2) which was named in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2007.

Tania Isaac (Philadelphia, PA): October 8-13, 2007
Originally from St. Lucia, West Indies, Tania is currently based in Philadelphia, PA. Her work has been presented at venues throughout the U.S., England and the Caribbean and is also a part of Urban Bush Women’s repertory. Her collaborative video work has been screened at the ADF Dancing for the Camera Festival of International Film and Video Dance, at the International Festival of Video Dance, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and at the Prince Theater in Philadelphia. A graduate with honors from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Tania received her MFA from Temple University where she was a Teaching Assistant and University Fellow. Tania is a former Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and a former member of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Urban Bush Women and Li Chiao-Ping Dance. She is a recipient of 2004 Rocky Award for her solo work in Rennie Harris’s “Facing Mekka” and her own production ‘home is where I am.” “standpipe”, her latest work, has been co-commissioned by Painted Bride Art Center and Dance Place in part through the NPN Creation Fund and Community Fund.

Daniel Gwirtzman (New York, NY): January 22-March 7, 2008
Dancer Daniel Gwirtzman’s choreography has been presented in New York since 1995, when he co-founded Artichoke Dance Company. In 1998, he formed the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, which has received strong critical attention consistently since its inception. “A troupe I’d follow anywhere,” The Village Voice has written. His choreography has been performed at venues throughout New York, the country, and abroad. The company has been in residence six times at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard. He has received residencies from the Joyce Theater Foundation in New York, the Raumars Artist-in-Residence Program in Finland, the Sacatar Foundation in Brazil, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in California. He has been an adjunct Associate Professor at Barnard College; a guest faculty member at the North Carolina School of the Arts, The University of the Arts, and The Interlochen Center for the Arts; a guest choreographer at Fordham University/The Ailey School, Princeton University, New York University, Stephens College, SUNY Purchase, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and universities in Brazil and Finland; an adjudicator two times for the American College Dance Festival Association; and a guest teacher at the University of Maine, SUNY Brockport, and the University of North Carolina--Greensboro.

Miguel Gutierrez (New York, NY): January 22-26, 2008
Miguel Gutierrez is a Brooklyn based dance and music artist who makes work about the phenomenon, wonder and banality of existence and the body’s ability to move between the ordinary and the extraordinary. He creates group work in an ongoing collaboration with dancers, visual and music artists as the director of Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, while maintaining a solo performance practice. In the US, his work has been presented at New York’s Dance Theater Workshop and The Kitchen, Houston’s Diverseworks and Burlington’s Flynn Center for Performing Arts. Internationally it has toured to a variety of festivals such as ImPulsTanz in Vienna, Springdance in Utrecht, and London Calling in Bologna. Gutierrez is twice the winner of a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award: in 2002 as a performer with John Jasperse Company and in 2006 as a choreographer for “Retrospective Exhibitionist and Difficult Bodies”. He has performed with various influential contemporary artists, such as John Jasperse, Sarah Michelson, Jennifer Lacey and Deborah Hay. Gutierrez teaches regularly around the world.

Meisha Bosma (Alexandria, VA): February 11-15, 2008
Meisha Bosma is the founder and director of BosmaDance. Originally from Michigan, she has been creating dances in the metropolitan DC area since 1998. Recently named by Dance Magazine as “One of 25 to Watch” for 2007, Meisha has served communities as an educator and dance artist for over eleven years. Her award-winning choreography has been commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Alexandria Performing Arts Association, Virginia Commission for the Arts, Alexandria Commission for the Arts, Arlington Arts Center, CityDance Ensemble, Cross Currents Dance Company and universities throughout the country. Her work has garnered five Metro DC Dance Awards, and in June 2006 Washingtonian Magazine named her “One of DC’s Most Powerful Women” for her artistic contributions to the community. During 2001-03, Meisha toured internationally with Kombina Dance Company based in Jerusalem, Israel.

2006-2007 Guest Artists

2005-2006 Guest Artists

2004-2005 Guest Artists

2003-04 Guest Artists

Virginia Commonwealth University
School of the Arts
Department of Dance and Choreography
dance@vcu.edu
Date Last Modified: 9/6/2008