2016-2017 Guest Artists

Jeanne Bresciani, Ph.D., the main protégée of Maria Theresa Duncan, adopted daughter of Isadora Duncan, serves as Artistic Director for the Isadora Duncan International Institute, Inc. (IDII), founded by Maria-Theresa Duncan, ‘the last dancing Isadorable’ and Kay Bardsley in 1977.  Jeanne is recognized nationally and internationally as a solo performer, choreographer, educator and scholar of unparalleled authority on Isadora Duncan’s life, works and performance repertoire. Her lineage encompasses years of intensive study and performance with Hortense Kooluris and Julia Levien of the Anna and Irma Duncan heritage, as well as childhood dance training and young adulthood internship with Anita Zahn of the Elizabeth Duncan School.

Brendan Duggan, originally from Amherst, New Hampshire, Brendan Duggan studied Dance at Skidmore College and eventually graduated Magna Cum Laude before moving to New York City. Throughout his career, he has had the distinct pleasure of working and performing with Deganit Shemy & Artists, Gallim Dance, Jonathan Royse Windham, Danaka Dance, Loni Landon Dance Projects, Christina Noel Reaves & The Creature, Danielle Russo Performance Project, Emily Terndrup, Third Rail Projects’ The Grand Paradise, and is currently a cast member of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More.  

In 2012, Brendan founded LoudHoundMovement (LHM), a contemporary dance collective based in Brooklyn. Along with his Co-Artistic Director Mallory Rosenthal, LoudHoundMovement utilizes the powers of multimedia driven collaboration to create emotionally resonant contemporary dance experiences.  Reconsidering the conventions of dance performance from the ground up, LHM explores the intersection of dance, technology, visual art, and music.  Since its founding in 2012, LoudHoundMovement has been presented at Gallim Dance Block Party, multiple times at The CURRENT SESSIONS, The Playground After Dark, The Freight Project, The Dance Gallery Festival, FAB! Festival NYC, Gowanus Art + Production (GAP) Open Studios, GAP Presents! at The Green Building and Sky Gallery, Hoover Dam Collective, The Creator's Collective, Inception to Exhibition (ITE), Under Exposed at Dixon Place, Pushing Progress, APAP at the 14th St Y, the Excognito Dance Festival, and Gibney Dance Center. In 2015, during their third year as a choreographic duo, Duggan and Rosenthal were selected as Emerging Choreographers for Springboard Danse Montréal, where they presented past and current work at Place Des Arts and Usine C in Montréal.  In 2016, LHM was awarded an M(Mix) residency at Marymount Manhattan College and commissioned by SALT Contemporary Dance to create a new work.

Ori Flomin's choreography has been presented in New York at Gibney Dance, Dance Theater Workshop, PS 122, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dance Metropolitan at Joe's Pub, and Dace New Amsterdam. Internationally, he has presented works at venues in Austria, Japan, Norway and Israel. His commissioned works have been performed at Purchase Dance Company (2013), The Barnard Project at Dance Theater Workshop (2005 & 2010), The New School (2011), and the Dance School of Norway (2009 & 2011).

In January, 2015, Mr. Flomin premiered a collaborative duet with Swedish Cheorographer Helena Franzen at Dansmuseet, Stockholm. He continued performance throughout Sweden, Germany and New York. He also served as assistant to the Artistic Director of Stephen Petronio Dance Company (and danced for the company from 1991-1999), and continues to set work for them internationally.

Mr. Flomin currently teaches at NYU and is on faculty at Movement Research as well as Gibney Dance Center in NYC. He has been guest faculty at many prestigious universities, including Princeton, The New School, Barnard, and Rutgers; and for many international companies, including ImpulsTanz (Vienna), Sasha Waltz Company (Berlin), DansHallerne (Copenhagen), and London Contemporary School of Dance (London).

In 2014, Mr. Flomin received the Lower Manhattan Culutral Council Grant.

Terry Goetz is the Director of the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington. Terry has been on the faculty of the Creative Dance Center since 2000 and began training intensively with Anne Green Gilbert in 1997. Terry has taught in preschools, elementary classrooms, and studios throughout the Seattle area since retiring from Pacific Northwest Ballet where she danced from 1988-1995. Prior to performing with PNB, she was a member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater from 1986-1988. During her professional career Terry performed works by George Balanchine, Ohad Naharin, Paul Taylor, Jose Limon, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Dendy, Merce Cunningham, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Petipa, and Bournonville, as well as performing in classical full-length works. She began her dance training in the San Fernando Valley, studying everything from tap, ballet, jazz, character dance, tumbling, to baton twirling! After catching the ballet bug she trained with Natalia Clare of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at her studio, Ballet La Jeunesse, in Toluca Lake, CA. As a teen Terry studied at San Francisco Ballet School, the School of American Ballet in NY, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Terry has continued her dance training as an adult by attending numerous Summer Dance Institutes for Teachers with Anne Green Gilbert and through studying with Bill Evans at his Teacher Intensives.

Terry presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally, training dance teachers, educators, and teaching artists in BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education. She has presented at the National Dance Association and National Dance Education Organization conferences. Terry has taught for the International daCi (Dance and the Child) Finnish Chapter, the daCi National Gathering at the University of Washington, the daCi World Congress in Copenhagen, the Kuopio International Dance Festival, the Edmonton and Indiana Orff Schulwerk Associations, the East Asia Regional Council of International Schools Conferences held in Shanghai (2013) and Manila (2016), and at universities in the US and Canada. She worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in WA state as a Dance Specialist developing updated state-wide K-12 Learning Standards for Dance. Terry is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization and served as President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington. In 2015 Terry was honored as Dance Educator of the Year at the Fall DEAW Conference. This annual award is presented to dance educators working in the state of Washington who exemplify excellence in dance education.

Gino Grenek is originally from Rochester, New York. He is a graduate of both Dartmouth College (Engineering Sciences and Studio Art, 1994) and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (M.F.A. in Dance, 1996). As a member of the original Broadway cast, Grenek performed in Matthew Bourne's award winning reinterpretation of Swan Lake (1998-1999). For eight years, he toured with the Stephen Petronio Company across five continents (1999-2007). He has assisted Petronio with the creation of new works for Norrdans (Sweden, 2004), Washington Ballet (United States, 2007), Ballet de Lorraine (France, 2009), and National Dance Company Wales (United Kingdom, 2010 and 2013). In 2007, Grenek was honored with a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for his body of work with Stephen Petronio. In 2009, he returned to the company to perform and act as the Assistant to the Artistic Director through June 2016. Currently, he can be seen in Punchdrunk's Off Broadway production Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel and restages Petronio works around the country.

Susan Kikuchi was a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC) and served as Director of the Graham Ensemble and School, and Artistic Program Manager of MGDC. She has re-staged many Graham works for the MGDC, Jaffrey Ballet, Boston Conservatory, etc. Ms. Kikuchi has worked in productions of The King and I since age seven: Soloist and Assistant Director – Broadway production with Yul Brynner; Choreographer – Broadway Asia tour in China and the Far East; Choreographer – Royal Albert Hall in London starring Daniel Dae Kim; Director – Kansas City’s Starlight Theater starring Lou Diamond Phillips. Broadway credits: The King and I, Pacific Overtures, Flower Drum Song, South Pacific, Jerome Robbins Broadway. BA – University of Rochester. Ms. Kikuchi has served on the faculties of The Ailey School and The Martha Graham School and is Artistic Director of the New Dance Drama Educational Projects Florence, Italy. She has worked with Baayork Lee (A Chorus Line) on Miss Saigon and with National Asian Artists Project’s productions. Susan was nominated for the 2014 Helpmann Award for Choreography and she received the Green Room Award for Choreography with Jerome Robbins for Opera.

Belinda McGuire (Dancer, Director, Choreographer), originally from Toronto, graduated from The Juilliard School (BFA 2006). Through Belinda McGuire Dance Projects, she performs primarily solo work, choreographs and engages in collaboration and production. McGuire was nominated for the 2013 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance (The Heist Project), was recognized by the 2007 Susan Braun Award of The Dance Films Association, and has taken part in choreographic residencies at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts (Nova Scotia, 2014), Éspace Marie Chouinard (Montreal, 2013), The International Choreographic Arts Centre Amsterdam (2010), and the Bessie Schönberg Residency at the Yard (Martha’s Vineyard, 2008). Her choreography has been presented across North America, including the Festival of Dance Annapolis Royal (Nova Scotia, 2015), Juilliard in Aiken Festival (South Carolina, 2015), Dance Ontario Weekend (Toronto, 2014 and 2015), at Festival de la Ciudad Merida (Mexico, 2009), the Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa, 2002), and in New York City on the stages of the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and Alice Tully Hall, and Joyce Soho. She has danced with The José Limón Dance Company, Gallim Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers and The Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre. She teaches and choreographs as a guest artist for The Limón Institute, New York University/Tisch and The Juilliard School, the New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble, for CCDT (Toronto), École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal, New Dialect (Nashville) and for various other schools and universities across North and Central America. As a producer, Belinda launched her one-woman show The Desert Island Project in New York City and Toronto (autumn, 2008) and The Heist Project in NYC (December 2011) and in Toronto (March 2013). Through these solo endeavors, she has commissioned new work from Kate Alton, Andrea Miller, Sylvain Émard, Sharon B. Moore, Idan Sharabi, Zoe Scofield and has collaborated with Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten.

For over 30 years, Stephen Petronio has honed a unique language of movement that speaks to the intuitive and complex possibilities of the body informed by its shifting cultural context. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists in many disciplines over his career and holds the integration of multiple forms as fundamental to his creative drive and vision. He continues to create a haven for dancers with a keen interest in the history of contemporary movement and an appetite for the unknown. Petronio was born in Newark, NJ, and received a B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he began his early training in improvisation and dance technique. He was greatly influenced by working with Steve Paxton and was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Dance Company (1979 to 1986). He has gone on to build a unique career, receiving numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, and most recently a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Petronio has created over 40 works for his company and has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious modern and ballet companies, including William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt (1987), Deutsche Oper Berlin (1992), Lyon Opera Ballet (1994), Maggio Danza Florence (1996), Sydney Dance Company (2003, full evening), Norrdans (2006), the Washington Ballet (2007), The Scottish Ballet (2007), and two works for National Dance Company Wales (2010 and 2013).

His company repertory works have been set on The Scottish Ballet, Norrdans in Sweden, Dance Works Rotterdam, National Dance Company Wales, X Factor Dance Company in Edinburgh, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de Lorraine, and London Contemporary Dance Theater, as well as universities and colleges throughout the U.S. In 2009, Petronio completed an evening-length work for 30 dancers, Tragic/Love, in collaboration with composer Son Lux for Ballet de Lorraine. He completed several additional new works with Son Lux: By Singing Light, for National Dance Company Wales (2010), The Social Band, a commission for OtherShore Dance Company in New York (2011), and numerous unique editions of Like Lazarus Did (2013) for Stephen Petronio Company. Other recent projects include Prometheus Bound (2011), a musical for the American Repertory Theater, in collaboration with director Diane Paulus (Pippin, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), writer and lyricist Steven Sater (Spring Awakening), and composer Serj Tankian (Grammy Award, lead vocalist System of a Down). In 2013, Petronio created a new work, Water Stories for National Dance Company Wales in collaboration with composer Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails) and photographer Matthew Brandt with visual designer Ken Tabachnick.

Petronio, whose training originated with leading figures of the Judson era, performed Man Walking Down the Side of a Building in 2010 for Trisha Brown Company at the Whitney Museum, and he performed his 2012 rendition of Steve Paxton’s Intravenous Lecture (1970) in New York, Portland, and at the TEDMED-2012 conference at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, DC. Petronio received the distinction of being named the first Artist-in-Residence at The Joyce Theater from 2012 to 2014. He has been entangled with visual artist Janine Antoni in a number of discipline-blurring projects, including the video installation Honey Baby (2013), created in collaboration with composer Tom Laurie and filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, and most recently Ally, in collaboration with Anna Halprin and Adrian Heathfield, which premiered at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia from April 22–July 31, 2016. Petronio and Antoni are the 2017 McCormack Artists in Residence at Skidmore college, where their series of installations, Entangle, will be shown from January–July, 2017 at The Tang Museum. Petronio's memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict, is available at Amazon.com

Brian Reeder was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania and began his dance training with Marcia Dale Weary at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. He had the privilege of having a dance career that spanned and consisted mainly of three widely respected dance companies, New York City Ballet (1986-1990), William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt (1990-1993) and American Ballet Theatre (1994-2003). During his time, he danced numerous ballets and featured roles in the works of dance masters of both the past and present.

As a choreographer, beginning in 2002, he has created or re-staged his ballets on American Ballet Theatre, ABT Studio Company, Washington Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and Ballet Next among others. His work has been produced three times for the Works and Process series at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC and he also has created two full length version of “The Nutcracker” for Ballet Pacifica and the Black Hills Dance Theatre. Brian has been the proud recipient of several grants and fellowships including The New York Choreographic Fellowship, The Jerome Robbins Foundation for New Works and The Boomerang Foundation.

Brian has taught and choreographed at multiple ballet academies, regional dance schools and prestigious universities such as Brown University, Emory University, Barnard College and for The Columbia Ballet Collaborative. He is also on faculty as a teacher and the current resident choreographer for The Manhattan Youth Ballet at MMAC and is Ballet Master for Cedar Lake.

Outside of the ballet world, Brian has had the pleasure of choreographing for the independent film “American Primitive” and the music video “Brit Slap”. He was also the focus of a documentary project by film maker Elliot Caplan called “15 Days Of Dance: The Making of Ghost Light”, which was screened at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in NYC and The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Hana Van Der Kolk is a choreographer, performer, and movement educator focused on combining post­modern dance with conceptual practices. Van Der Kolk’s work deals with the relationship between mind/body, consciousness/thought, and movement/body dichotomies. Her work is known for its site­specific nature and performances range from traditional stages to galleries, outdoors, and public spaces. She is originally from Boston and currently works throughout the US and Europe, most frequently in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Van Der Kolk graduated from Skidmore in 2000, and has since been back as a guest choreographer. Van Der Kolk has collaborated with Machine Project on numerous projects, most frequently a piece called Six Twelve One by One. It is a performance of six soon­to­be first time mothers exploring the pregnant body through various movements and task­like actions. The work took place at The Onion, a womb like building, which has been home to the Sepulveda Universalist Society since 1961. Her choreographic projects combine elements of conceptual practice with post­modern dance and take place in a wide range of sites. She recently completed a year as the Arthur Levitt ’52 Artist­in­ Residence at Williams College where she taught Experimental Choreography and an movement improvisation training called Perceptual Intelligence, and directed a durational performance event for 17 students and 17 local residents, which featured carpentry, sewing, shamanistic healing, music, movement, and much more. Hana has also taught internationally including at the SNDO in Amsterdam and the University of Tallinn, Estonia.

Pavel Zuštiak is a New York City based director, performer, and sound designer, known as the creative spirit behind multidisciplinary productions of Palissimo Company, which he founded and has been leading since 2004. His work, often described as both human and humane, merges the abstract aspects of dance with nonlinear qualities of "theatre of images" and cinematic mise-en-scéne. His approach results in art that is rich in evocative imagery, piercing emotional resonance and non-narrative/non-verbal content, and it strives to provide both creators and spectators with innovative, transformative insight into human condition.

Born in communist Czechoslovakia and introduced at an early age to acting (he was a child star of the popular TV show the Golden Gate), film, music and modern dance, Zuštiak left for Amsterdam shortly after the fall of communism to study at the School for New Dance Development; eventually, he moved to New York City. His instantly recognizable style combines immigrant feeling of otherness and displacement with the very American sense of freedom to explore disparate cultural, artistic and intellectual resources in search of new means of expression. Zuštiak's work has earned him much recognition, including the 2015 Juried Bessie Award for his "poetic layering of movement and visual imagery"; the 2015-17 Princeton Arts Fellowship; the 2013 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President's Award for Excellence in Artistic Practice, the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship and the Princess Grace awards in 2007 & 2010.