Saturday November 9th

Show 2 - 8:00 pm  

Meet the Artists

GINA HOCH-STALL, described by Thinkingdance.net as ‘One of [Philadelphia]’s strongest dancers,’ is the Artistic Director of RealLivePeople, a dance company that creates dances based on real-life stories and experiences. Her choreographic projects have been supported by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Samuel S Fels Fund, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts and a residency from White Pines Productions and has been performed across the United States and in Europe. She is currently living in Columbus, Ohio while she wraps up an MFA in dance at The Ohio State University as a Dean's Distinguished Fellow. https://www.ginahochstall.org/

EMILY LIPTOW is a freelance dancer born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Her training began at Cleveland School of Dance under the direction of Gladisa Guadalupe. In addition to classical ballet training, she had a holistic curriculum which included flamenco, ukranian folk dance, music theory, modern, and jazz. Emily received her B.S in Engineering from The Ohio State University in 2015 where she also minored in Dance. At OSU, she found her artistic identity through modern dance, improvisation and composition. In addition to taking many movement courses, she worked under Dr. Harmony Bench on a dance research project studying the travels of influential dancers in the early 19th century. Since graduating college, she continued training and performing. She’s participated in trainings at LINES Ballet in San Francisco and SEABUS in Columbus. In 2016, she performed with Lauren Chertudi and Dancers at the HH11 Festival in Santa Barbara. Locally, she’s worked with Levity Dance, Terre Dance Collective, and Marcia Custer. Most recently, she’s performed new work at Interplay at SPACES art gallery, Bricolage at Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, Ten Tiny Dances in Columbus, the Dance USA National Conference, and DanceWorks at Cleveland Public Theatre. She loves supporting the Cleveland art community and has been involved with Parade the Circle and Pandemonium.

ELU DANCE COMPANY founded in 2012 by Mackenzie Valley and Mikaela Brown, emerged out of their common passion to create, desire to portray the human spirit, and belief that movement creates paths to freedom. For their artistic work, Valley and Brown have twice been awarded the Cleveland Workforce Fellowship through Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) and have been gifted a grant through Neighborhood Connections for their work in the Cleveland community. Their work, created for both the stage and unconventional venues, has been performed throughout the midwest in such spaces as Oberlin College, Cleveland Public Theatre, Fallout Urban Art Center, in alleyways (Ingenuity Festival), public squares, churches, schools and art galleries; and internationally in villages in Thailand & Cambodia, train stations and streets of Romania, Teatro Furio Camillo in Italy, and dusty plots of land under the Malawian sun. While in Italy they were invited to speak on the Vatican radio about dance and social justice. They often collaborate with other artists who deeply enrich their work; set designer Mark Sugiuchi, musician Jeremy Allen, lighting designer Trad Burns, and the artists of Ancient Path, just to name a few. Outside of performance, Elu also offers movement workshops to help people discover their own freedom in expression. They have partnered with organizations such as Grace Ministries Thailand, Cornerstone of Hope, Ancient Path and Rahab Ministries to offer movement as a medium through which to find some healing from grief, trauma, or a life of being held back. http://eludanceco.org

MVMENT Maddison Manolis and Alison Vitale are emerging contemporary dance artists based in Pittsburgh, PA. As Slippery Rock University Alumni, they earned their BFA degrees in Dance with an emphasis in Performance and Choreography in 2018. Both artists have performed in Lindsay Viatori’s “Over Exposed,” concert at the New Hazlett Theater and work by Teena Marie Custer at the August Wilson Center. Manolis and Vitale were casted in a dance film produced by Marta Renzi, “Plant, Plow, Reap,” that has been shown nationally and internationally around the world. As a duet, MVment has performed their own work at Texas Woman’s University, the gala stage at The American College Dance Association, Gibney Dance, Koresh Artist Showcase, DUMBO Dance Festival, Koresh Come Together Festival, Pittsburgh’s NACHMO Dance Festival, SoloDuo Dance Festival, Kun-Yang Lin InHale/ExHale series, and newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival. Furthermore, MVment is currently curating an evening’s-length work and will be the resident choreographers for the FORGE Summer Dance Intensive.

CHLOE NAPOLETANO & HANA NEWFELD Hana Newfeld is a collaborative dance artist living in Columbus, Ohio. She holds a BFA in dance from The Ohio State University and is an active member of SeaBus Dance Company and the Columbus Dance Alliance. Chloe Napoletano is a Columbus, Ohio based dancer, teacher, choreographer, art administrator, and community dance practitioner. Chloe received her BFA in dance from The Ohio State University and is also a dancer with SeaBus. She specializes in teaching older adult populations. Together, Hana & Chloe use a balance of careful tenderness and wrecking carelessness to create work that is sharp in wit, femininity, and humor. Their work speaks to their collaborative relationship as not only choreographers and dancers, but friends. As performers, Hana & Chloe are interested in acknowledging and respecting one another, as well as their audience. They firmly believe that dancers and audience members are all people in space sharing moments together, so being the most honest versions of themselves is important. Their work has been performed at The Wexner Center for the Arts, the OhioDance Festival, and Ten Tiny Dances. Hana & Chloe plan to continue to help dance flourish in their community of Columbus by making meaningful, memorable dance pieces.

SEABUS DANCE COMPANY Through SeaBus, Co-directors Kelly Hurlburt & Josh Hines, navigate and research the collision of form, technique & choreography with improvisation, instincts, and impulse. The collective resides in Columbus, Ohio and works as a core group of movers who share interest in researching, improvising & performing together. SeaBus is fueled by collaboration and its frame constantly fluctuates as opportunities to work and perform with artists arise both near and far. SeaBus' work seeks to expose the beauty in the process, working closely with group tuning, decision making and inviting in artists of other mediums to create new worlds and languages in the space. SeaBus is always teetering on the edge of "what is dance, what is art and what is worthy of being performed." We stand without certainty, saying "yes" to whatever comes next. http://www.seabusdance.com

SARAH HOLMES VILLANUEVA DANCE Sarah Holmes Villanueva has been teaching movement and performing for almost twenty years in NYC, Vermont, Florida, and Cleveland. While being an educator she also choreographs and produces. She has had the opportunity to show her work at The Somatic Center, The Florida Dance Festival, Abrons Arts Center, Dixon Place, Spoke the Hub, The Wild Project, The 92nd Street Y, Dancespace, Merce Cunningham Studios, Gibney Dance, Galapagos Art Space, as well as several other venues. She completed her Masters in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, in 2010. Recently Sarah has performed at Pandemonium at CPT in Emily Jeffries’ choreography. In June, Sarah produced and choreographed The Dream and presented at The Hildebrandt Artist Collective to a full and vibrant house! Sarah is invested in community and finding ways to connect more people through movement and dance. Almost a year ago she founded The Somatic Center, which is a space for dance, movement education, innovation and mindfulness. She strives to explore movement vigorously with choreography and movement, and find the intersection where Art pushes boundaries while maintaining accessibility/connection. http://thesomaticcenter.org

THE MOVEMENT PROJECT was founded in 2009 by Megan Gargano and Rebecca Leuszler with a mission to challenge perspective, evoke social change and bridge communities through the power of movement. In 2013 TMP launched its first full season of performances and has since then produced over 25 evening length concerts, has created over 40 new works, produced 5 original dance films, and has performed at various venues such as Cleveland Public Theatre, The Breen Center, Dumbo Dance Fest in NYC, Baldwin Wallace University, Ohio University, Lakewood Masonic Temple, SPACES, Pilgrim Church, Transformer Station and Arts in August in Tremont. In 2013 and 2016, TMP was awarded The Fedora Award, a grant for individuals and organizations that focus on positively helping communities of Northeast Ohio. And in 2017 TMP was awarded funds by Puffin West Foundation to further support TMP’s annual summer intensive, a 1-week summer intensive focused on providing affordable and accessible dance education to Cleveland’s youth dancers. In 2015, TMP launched the Cleveland Artist Initiative, a program designed to support and fund the creation of new work by Cleveland artists. Over 51% of TMP’s operating budget is dedicated to paying artists and in 2017 TMP collaborated with over 75 page 1 of 17 artists and organizations throughout the year. In 2016, TMP launched Cleveland Dance Fest, an annual dance festival featuring Cleveland choreographers and is hosted each year in Tremont at Pilgrim Church, home of TMP since 2017. TMP Co-artistic director Rebecca Leuszler was awarded the 2016 Creative Workforce Fellowship funded by Community Partnership for Arts & Culture and Cuyahoga Arts & Culture to produce the first festival. In 2019, TMP was award funds by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture to continue growing the festival. Fall of 2017, TMP launched The Movement Project School of Dance for youth ages 2.5-18 years old serving the Tremont community and surrounding Cleveland neighborhoods. Year round, TMP offers year round weekly professional classes, summer intensives, company rehearsals, festivals and performances. www.themovementproject.org

GRACE NICKLOS (choreographer) is a dancer, educator, choreographer, and certified Pilates instructor with her BFA in Dance from Ohio University. Grace began her training as a youth at Royal School of Ballet under the direction of Joanne Hughes Morscher. While studying at Ohio University, she performed in various student, faculty, and guest artist works, as well as showcased her own original work. Currently, she is a company member and the Director of Education and Outreach for The Movement Project in Cleveland Ohio, a dance educator throughout northeast Ohio, and a Pilates teacher at ReFORM Physical Therapy and Pilates. Grace’s passion for arts and her dedication to exploring the body’s movement and connection to its surroundings guides her approach as an artist. Through her work with The Movement Project Grace leads the company’s outreach into schools, community centers, museums, and libraries. She also, leads the company’s school for youth, and through her role as a company member; performs and choreographs for the The Movement Project throughout the year. Her dancing and choreography has been presented at Cleveland Dance Festival, Cleveland Public Theater, The Breen Center, Lakewood Masonic Temple, Transformer Station Museum, SPACES Gallery, Pilgrim Church Theater, Parma Library Auditorium, 78 Street Studios, Cleveland’s Arts in August, Mentor Amphitheater, The Grove, Cuyahoga County Community College, and Going Dutch Festival. Her work in dance education and community outreach has led her to develop unique programs centered on connecting area youth and families to the arts, these programs have included Akron Art Museum’s ArtMoves, The Movement Project’s library movement literacy program SMART Moves, steam based program Science Matters, and Creative Movement year long residencies for local schools. Grace’s most recent choreographic works include Oneness, Flyway, Upstroke, Unacquired Contentment, The Sum, honed, and from a fixed point.