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VCU Dance Alumni News
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News
We love to hear from our alumni. Please place us on your mailing list and send press releases, postcards or any other updates to us at dance@vcu.edu or VCU Dance, P.O. Box 843007, Richmond VA 23284-3007. We update our Alumni news at the end of each academic semester.
Fall 2006
Richard Move, BFA 1988, founded a new company, MoveOpolis, which performed The Show (“Achilles Heels”) April 27-May 6, 2006 at The Kitchen, a historic and distinctive dance venue in New York as a co-production of MoveOpolisand the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation. The Company, featuring Deborah Harry (Blondie) and former members of the White Oak Project, received a positive review entitled Greek in Jeopardy by Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice, May 2, 2006. This work, which Richard Move created originally for Mikhail Baryshikov's White Oak Project was also presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival during summer, 2006.
Gerri Houlihan, BFA 2006, VCU Dance Spring Semester Guest Artist, and now VCU Dance alumna, was featured in an article in Dance Magazine, May Issue, entitled Gerri Houlihan: From Teacher to Student and Back Again. The article, which quotes VCU Dance Chair Martha Curtis, and faculty members James Frazier and Melanie Richards was written by VCU Dance faculty member Lea Marshall.
Charles Scott, VCU Dance Alumnus, is performing with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Performance Schedule for Spring 2006 included, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, NC; Overture Center, Madison Wisconsin; Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis; Newman Center, Denver CO; McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ. Mr. Scott is also dancing with the Jose Limon Dance Company.
VCU Dance Alumni Matt Rogers and Erin Gerkin are both dancing with New York choreographer, Tere O’Connor. They were featured in O’Connor’s, Baby, which premiered at Dance Theatre Workshop in New York in March, 2006. Rogers’ photograph was featured in on the cover of DTW’s seasonal brochure, and both are featured on the DTW website. Both Gerkin and Roger’s dancing was described as brilliant in a review entitled Don't Ask Why, A master of the non-linear celebrates his company's 20th anniversary by Deborah Jowitt, in the Village Voice, March 28th.
VCU Dance Alumna Molly Poerstel will be dancing with David Dorfman’s Dance Company in November of 2007 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Paule Turner, BFA 1994, received a Pennsylvania Arts Commission grant for $10,000. Turner currently directs his own company Court in Philadelphia while teaching full-time and serving as Director of the Dance Program at Rowen University.
Vladimir Angelov, BFA 1994, independent choreographer, Washington DC, will be the Puppeteer Movement Coach for puppets by Michael Curry for the 2006-2007 Washington National Opera production of Duke Bluebeards Castle by Bela Bartok at the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Timothy Cowart, BFA 1994, was appointed Director of the Dance Program at DeSales University.
Adrienne Clancy, BFA 1991, Artistic Director of Clancyworks Dance Co.; adjunct dance faculty at UMBC, George Washington University and George Mason University.
Alumna Christina Briggs is dancing with the Vagabond Puppet Theater and with Heidi Latski in New York. She is also the co-director of Incidents Physical Theater, New York based dance company. Her choreographic collaboration with Edward Winslow was selected to be performed in VCU Dance: Traffic@St. Marks presented by Danspace Project in New York. In spring of 2006, Ms. Briggs and Mr. Winslow were engaged as guest artists at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Laura Schandelmeier, BFA 1986, choreography was selected though a national adjudication process for the Maryland Dance Showcase at University of Maryland, College Park. Washington DC’s Dance Place also presented Laura Schandelmeier and Stephen Clapp’s The Dragon’s Project: Power Play on May 6 and 7th 2006.
Paisley Clark Stone, BFA 1995 is dancing in Maida Withers Dance and has a teaching position at George Washington University. She was featured in the DC International Improvisation Festival in Boiled Down: performances by some of the most exciting improvisers on the East Coast, curated by Daniel Burkholder. She also appeared as the only woman in Tilt by mostly men, curated by Maida Withers and performed on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
Gin McCallum, BFA 1992, received a Pennsylvania Arts Commission Grant of $5000.
Matthew Rogers, BFA 2002, is performing and touring internationally with the Pearson Widrig Dance Company.
John Alix, BFA 2004, performed with the Bolshoi Ballet at the Met this past summer, premiering "The Pharoah's Daughter" in the United States. He is currently dancing and touring nationally with Nai Ni Chen dance company, a dance group that fuses modern dance with martial arts and other elements of Asian Culture. He was recently cast in a dancing role in Music High by Touchstone Pictures.
Alumnus Ray Schwartz received his MFA in Dance from the University of Texas at Austin in May of 2006. For 2006-2007 he has been appointed Assistant Professor of Dance at The Universidad De Las Americas-Puebla, Cholula/Puebla, Mexico. During summer, 2006 he taught at the Zen Monkey Project Summer 2006 Intensive Training: "Poetics of Space, Language of the Body" in Charlottesville, Virginia; presented of Somatics and Contemporary Body Practices at ADF/Hollins University M.F.A. in Dance; and taught at the Seattle Festival Of Alternative Dance and Improvisation in Seattle Washington. Ray is a Certified Practitioner of Body-Mind Centering, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Teacher, Dancer, Teacher, Choreographer, and arts activist.
Ashley Suttlar, BFA 2000, has a full-time dance faculty position at Morehead State University in Morehead Kentucky.
Samantha Speis, BFA 2005 is dancing with Gesel Mason in Washington DC. Her choreography was selected to be presented in VCU Dance: Trafffic@St. Marks showcase presented by Danspace Project in New York City.
Patti Gilstrap, BFA 1997, who dances with the Vagabond Puppet Theatre in New York performed in VCUDance: Traffic@St. Mark’s, presented by Danspace Project in May, 2006. She owns two clothing shops in Brooklyn called Flirt---Big Flirt and Little Flirt--- for which she designs and makes the clothes. Flirt was just voted best shop in Brooklyn by Time Out Magazine.
Renee Robinson- Buzby, BFA 2000 is currently a member of the Jeanne Ruddy Dance Company in Philadelphia, PA.
Alumna Starr Foster’s choreography Snake in the Grass, was selected for the GALA concert of the National High School Dance Festival in Miami Florida, March 2006. Over the past year, she received commissions from the Richmond Ballet, Appomattox Governor’s School, and the University of Richmond. Her company performed in numerous venues locally and was selected for the Goose Roote Dance Festival in Shepardstown, West Virginia and Yes, Virginia Dance in Richmond.
Rob Petres, BFA 1992, created and premiered a new dance work titled Moment of Flight for Ground Zero Dance Company, supported in part by a 2004 Fellowship in Choreography from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Julinda Lewis of The Richmond Times-Dispatch called it "awe-inspiring." During the summers of 2004-2005 Rob served as Technical Coordinator for the Live Arts Technical Team at the American High School Theater Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. He is currently working in conjunction with Dogtown Dance Theatre, LLC on the creation of a dance performance/rehearsal/educational space in an old gymnasium building in Manchester.
Blake Pearson, BFA 2001, is working with JoAnna Mendl Shaw’s company Dancing with Horses. Dancing with Horses is performing at the 2006 Bates Dance Festival and Heifetz International Music Institute Institute.
Jeffrey N. Gunshol, BFA 199, is teaching Modern technique at East Carolina University School of Theater and Dance.
Amy Lubell, BFA 2002, is dancing with Jane Franklin Dance, a northern Virginia based company that makes dance accessible to a wide range of audiences.
Alumnus Cara Clark, BFA 2005, has been hired as the full-time Support Services Coordinator with the Carolina Ballet in Raleigh. She performed at the Bickett Gallery in Raleigh and presented her choreography at the Wellness Partners Studio in Durham.
Hannah (Seith) Kerr BFA 1999, Dance Director Sandy Spring Friends School-Brookeville MD. She is dancing with Gesel Mason in Washington DC.
Sarah Ackley, BFA 2004, is performing with the Dance Collective Boston.
Jill Causa, BFA 1999, is a Teaching Artist for the New York City Ballet.
Kathryn Contessa, BFA 2003, Director of a Studio Programs at the Dance Gallery Studio, the only non-profit dance center in Ann Arbor, Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI
Stephanie Dollings, BFA 2001, Assist. Dir –Athletic development – Rutgers Univ. Plainsboro, NJ
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Date Last Modified: 11/23/2009