Sitelines 2010 Artist Bios
LMCC's annual site-specific performance series
Presented in association with the River To River® Festival, and celebrating its 7th season, Sitelines 2010 includes world premiers throughout downtown from six extraordinary performance groups. From emerging choreographers to internationally reknowned companies, Sitelines 2010 will offer audiences great performances and diverse creative experiences throughout Lower Manhattan.
Laura Peterson Choreography
Laura Peterson Choreography is a NYC based dance company that creates highly physical and dynamic pieces with a deep sense of design and detail. Laura draws her inspiration from the visual arts and creates the sets that are installed for each piece. The company dances with rigor and intelligence, creating a complete visual and visceral experience for the audience. She is currently part of the HERE Arts Artist-in-Residence Program (HARP) for the creation and production of the new work Wooden. Her dances have been commissioned and presented throughout NYC. Laura’s choreography has been produced internationally in Argentina, Germany, and throughout the US. Her work has been performed at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Philadelphia’s NEW Festival and Goose Route Dance Festival.
Yoshiko Chuma & the School of Hard Knocks
Yoshiko Chuma has been a firebrand of New York's downtown dance scene since arriving in 1978. She has created more than 65 full-length company works, commissions and site-specific events for venues in 35 countries, constantly challenging the notion of performance for both audience and participant. Her work has been presented in such diverse venues as Joyce Theater, the Eiffel Tower, Newcastle Swing Bridge, City Center, Lincoln Center, the former National Theater of Sarajevo, the perimeter of the Hong Kong harbor, World Financial Center, and an ancient ruin in Macedonia, among many others. She has received fellowships and awards for choreography and career work from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, New York Foundation for Artists, Japan Foundation, Meet the Composer Choreographer/Composer Commission and Philip Morris New Works. Chuma has led workshops and master classes and been commissioned to create new work in East and West Europe, Asia, Russia and the U.S. She received a 1984 BESSIE award for choreography and four more Bessies were awarded to her productions in 1992 and 1998. In 2007 she received a Bessie for Sustained Achievement.
Deganit Shemy and Company
Deganit Shemy’s choreography has been performed throughout Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York, Florida and Singapore since 2002.
Since relocating to New York, Ms. Shemy has been an Artist-in-Residence at Dance New Amsterdam, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Movement Research, Dance Theatre Workshop, Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at FSU in Tallahassee. Her work has been presented at Performance Space 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project and at the inaugural Ringling International Arts Festival in Sarasota, Florida. In April 2008, her piece Iodine won the AWARD show for best choreography.
Phil Soltanoff
Phil Soltanoff is a theatre artist based in New York City. His most recent works include i/o, created in collaboration with sound artist Joe Diebes, and LA Party. i/o fuses sound installation, physical theatre, and opera. It premiered at Theatre Garonne in November 2008. LA Party was created for PRELUDE09 and was featured in UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL 2010. Other original and site-specific creations include to whom it may concern (BITEF-31), Strange Attractors (Mass MoCA), five movements for people and sound, TIME/PIECE, wrench, Experimental Actions *(Mass MoCA), Peter Handke’s *The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other and LEMNATION (Mass MoCA). Since 2002, Mr. Soltanoff has created two works in collaboration with Aurelien Bory and CIE111(Toulouse, France). Their two collaborations, PLAN B and MORE OR LESS, INFINITY have performed around the world including Theatre Garonne (Toulouse), TNT (Toulouse), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Eurokaz Festival (Zagreb), Trafo (Budapest), Vidy Theatre (Lausanne), Centro Belem (Lisbon), Pina Bausch’s NRW International Dance Festival (Dusseldorf), Maison de la Danse (Lyon), Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Patra Vadi (Bangkok), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), BITEF-42 (Belgrade) and the New Victory Theatre (NYC) among others. In addition, Mr. Soltanoff collaborated with Ron Berry and Scott Wilcox to create an installation, The 12nineteen Library for the Austin Museum of Art which received a 2009 Austin Critics Table Award. Mr. Soltanoff was nominated for a Moliere Award in 2007. His work is dedicated in loving memory to his wife, Stephanie Mnookin.
Christopher Williams
Christopher Williams is a dancer, choreographer, and puppeteer. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He has danced for Tere O’Connor Dance, Douglas Dunn & Dancers, Rebecca Lazier’s TERRAIN, Risa Jaroslow & Dancers, John Kelly, Wendy Rogers, Yvonne Meier, Jon Kinzel, and Yoshiko Chuma & the School of Hard Knocks, among others, and has performed for renowned puppetry artists Basil Twist and Dan Hurlin. His own works have been shown in New York City venues such as City Center, Danspace Project, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, P.S. 122, and La Mama, among others, and internationally in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2005 he received a New York Dance & Performance “Bessie” Award for his work Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins, and he has since continued collaborations with singers from the two acclaimed vocal ensembles, The Anonymous 4 and Lionheart. He has been commissioned to make new works by The Dream Music Puppetry Program, Second Avenue Dance Company at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton University, and Island Moving Co., and has held creative residencies at Movement Research, Dance New Amsterdam, Joyce SoHo, Djerassi, The White Oak Plantation, Yaddo, and The Yard. He currently serves on the Artist Advisory Board for the Danspace Project and lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
LoVid
LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus) explores signal and memory through the translation and decay of natural, electrical, and biological systems. The couple began working together in 2001 and has since exhibited and performed their work around the US and abroad. LoVid has performed at venues and events including International Film Festival Rotterdam Holland, MoMA NY, PS1 NY, The Kitchen NY, Roulette NY, Aurora Picture Show TX, NY Underground Film Festival NY, and FACT UK. LoVid's installations and objects have been exhibited in venues such as Urbis UK, The Jewish Museum NY, The Neuberger Museum NY, The New Museum of Contemporary Art NY, and Eyebeam NY. LoVid has been artist in residence at Smack Mellon, Cue Art Foundation, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, iEAR, free103Point9, and Alfred University, and has received grants, fellowships, and awards from NYFA, LMCC, Experimental TV Center, NYSCA, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, turbulence.org, Puffin Foundation, and Greenwall Foundation.
