Uptown / Downtown: 2006
The 2006 session of Uptown / Downtown culminated in two public performances:
September 22, 2006, 7:30PM
Harry de Jur Playhouse, 466 Grand Street
September 23, 2006, 7:30PM
The Gatehouse at Harlem Stage, 138 Convent Avenue
Participating Artist
Leonides D. Arpon
Leonides D. Arpon, a Filipino born in Israel, started his dance training at the Bat-Dor Dance School under the direction of Rosaline Subel Kassel, where he later joined the Bat-Dor Dance Company and worked with choreographers such as Randy Duncan, Luciano Cannito and Igal Perry.He is a recipient of the American Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship from 1995 until 1998 and the Princess Grace Award for 2006.
Upon arriving to New York in 1999 under the mentorship of Fredrick Earl Mosley, he has worked with Homer Avila, Arthur Aviles, Matthew Rushing, Nathan Trice, Johannes Wieland, Kevin Wynn and is currently a member of Armitage Gone! Dance since 2004, under the direction of Karole Armitage. Mr. Arpon’s work has been presented in various venues throughout New York. He has taught workshops in Israel at the Bat-Dor Dance School, Thelma Yalin, Bikorei Etim, the Jerusalem Academy for Dance and Music, Studio B and Kezev Haguf, in Japan at the Tokyo and Osaka Schools of Music and throughout the U.S.
Bernard R. Bennett
Bernard R. Bennett has been a working artist, educator and producer for over 25 years. He has been associated with The Harlem Arts Alliance, The Frank Silveras Writers Workshop, Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center, and various New York City Theater venues. He has trained at (INCA) Institute of New Cinema Artists, The National Black Theater. God Bless Tunde!
Guillermo E. Brown
Guillermo E. Brown is a multidisciplinary performer and producer. A graduate of Wesleyan University (BA) and Bard College (MFA), he was awarded a 2001 Artist-in-Residence and 2003 Van Lier Fellowship from Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center. He has performed or recorded with David S. Ware, William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Marlies Yearby, Rob Reddy, Roy Campbell Quartet, Spring Heel Jack, Anti-Pop Consortium, Anthony Braxton, DJ Spooky, El-P, Carl Hancock Rux, Vernon Reid, DJ Logic, and George Lewis, among others. Brown is the founding music director of Silver-Brown Dance. Brown's own albums include "Soul at the Hands of the Machine," The Beat Kids' "Open Rhythm System," "Black Dreams 1.0," and Handeheld.
His one-man theater piece, "Robeson In Space," premiered at Luna Stage in Montclair, NJ October 2005. He is currently at work on The Beat Kids' new recording "Sound Magazine," a large group performance piece "Postcolonial Bacchanale," and several other projects. December 2006 brings Brown's BAM debut in "Still Life With Commentator" by Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd, directed by Ibrahim Quraishi. He is an Adjunct Professor at NYU's Clive Davis School of Recorded Music and Gallatin School.
Ahda Hann
Ahda Hann’s love for word-art was discovered while reading an Emily Dickinson poem in 7th grade, then soul-pop, and rock lyrics became her poetry of choice. She has received some of her guidance and training from The International Roy Hart Center for Voice in Malerargues, France and in New Orleans, LA with Kathy Randells, Art Spot Productions; Jose Torres Tama, Performance Poet; and Dennis Mangiardi, Jazz Vocalist.
In New Orleans, her work has been presented at the Contemporary Arts Center, ArteFuturo Productions, Open Studio Performance Salon, 1018 Film and the School for Imagination, among others. Ahda was cultivating and had presented MotionPoem in NewOrleans, prior to being displaced due to Hurricane Katrina.
Kanene Holder
Kanene Holder, Howard University alumnus, writer/actress, is most noted for SITCHAASSDOWN, her one-woman theatrical experiment which she calls "Shock and Awe with an Intellectual Aftertaste", due to its amalgamation of farce and socio-political truth at Dixon Place for the NY International Fringe Festival 2005, The Schomburg, The African Burial Ground, Symphony Space and Sept. 22 & 23, 2006 for Uptown/Downtown at the Abrons Art Center and The Gatehouse at Harlem Stage. Active in the community, Kanene is the Outreach Coordinator for the Hip Hop Odyssey Film Festival and currently teaches acting at Harlem Children Zone. She is excited to receive a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to facilitate a monologue lab for middle and high school aged youth.
Mary Pat Kane
Mary Pat Kane is a freelance writer, photographer and performer. Her shows ebb and flow between laughter and tears. Her humor comes with a message — how can we get this life to work better?
Kane has performed one-person shows in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and at the Painted Bride Art Center. In New York, her work has been featured at HERE, the Cornelia Street Café, the Telephone Bar and Spoke the Hub. Her essays and articles have been published in The Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Brooklyn Daily Herald.
She recently tried comedy on Pier 63 where a Cruise Boat arrived in the middle of her act.
Kane cherishes humans and their foibles. Recently, after rigorously preparing for a mini-vacation, she hoisted her bag above the train seat, sat down and sighed with relief — that’s when the air conditioner started leaking on her head.
Cherylyn Lavagnino
Choreographer Cherylyn Lavagnino has been presented in New York City by Colloquium Contemporary Dance Exchange, Dance Theater Workshop, The Field, Dancenow/NYC, Gotham Arts Exchange, Alliance Stage, Danspace Project, Symphony Space, Joyce SoHo, and various other venues. Venues that have produced her work include Jacob's Pillow, The Joyce and The Yard.
Her merits as a performer include work with the San Diego Ballet, Arizona Ballet Theatre, New Jersey Ballet, and Ballet Teatro del Espacio in Mexico City. Lavagnino toured nationally as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet performing at New York’s City Center and BAM. Lavagnino has performed a range of classical repertoire and contemporary work by choreographers including Balanchine, John Butler, Jose Lémon, Hans Van Manen, and Tere O’Connor, the diversity of these experiences informing the dialogue between classical and contemporary in her work with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. www.cherylynlavagnino-dance.com
Noemi Segarra
Noemi Segarra has been a member and significant collaborator with Merian Soto and Pepatian since 1995. In 2004, Noemi Segarra was awarded a Future Faculty Fellowship from Temple University to pursue an M.F.A. in dance choreography. Segarra is interested in form as long as it enables expansive or altered states of consciousness to be mediated in performance. Her medium is the body.
Yolanda Shoshana
Yolanda Shoshana (Shoshi) is a performance artist, writer, producer and abstract painter who uses the arts to explore cultural, social, and political issues. Shoshi has written and performed the solo shows, “The J Flow”, which combines original/traditional poetry and storytelling and “Triple Minority”, about her life and times as a black Jewess.
She is the founder and creative director for Pixie Pop, a production company that creates an intersection between the arts/media and civic dialogue. Pixie Pop’s main mission is to produce arts, media, and events that focus on global issues of the human condition. The two current projects for Pixie Pop are producing and staging “Yentl‘s Revenge” a one-woman show about Jewish feminists who are reclaiming Judaism in their own terms and a new talk show. Shoshi has served on the boards of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Step Up New York, and The UJA Federation. You can catch Shoshi bi-weekly on Mondays on Channel 56 in Manhattan on her talk show “Schmoozin’ with Shoshi”.
Jill Melanie Wirth
Jill Melanie Wirth is an actress, singer, and writer of one-person-one-acts. Her works include: LONG TERM CARE, LIFE SUPPORT, ROBESON AT PEEKSKILL, THIS IS FOR YOU DAISY ELLINGTON, THE FANNY KEMBLE STORY, STOP SPINNING!, STOP RUSHING!, LITTLE WHITE LIES, and INDIAN LOVE CALL. Her one-person-one-act "dramedies" have been commissioned for Off-Broadway, Marjorie Eliot's Parlor Entertainment, and André De Shields' Black History Month productions. Jill has performed at Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Carnegie Hall, BAM, Vineyard Theatre, York Theatre, La Mama E.T.C., and on the London stage in Andrew Vachss' BORN BAD. Jill Melanie Wirth is proud to serve on the Advisory Board of PROTECT, the National Association to Protect Children.
