Brian Tjon Tjauw Liem (Netherlands)
2011 Guest Mentor, Alumni Dance Omi 2009
studied Cognitive Artificial Intelligence (B.SC.) and Theatre, Film & Television Studies at the University of Utrecht. In his teenage years he was a threefold National Youth Ballroom dancing champion. At the age of 22 he started training ballet and modern dance at Codarts, Rotterdam.
Besides the school repertoire he did two movement research projects with Dylan Newcomb focusing on how subtle energies in the body are mapped to large-scale social developments, two productions with company Vloeistof and was invited in 2008 for a creative residency in Japan for six weeks and toured with the BodySoulXperience Caravan in cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto.
In 2009 he won the audience prize at SzólóDuó Festival in Budapest for his solo That… between myself and me. The same year Brian received his B.A. in Dance, was one of the residents for Dance Omi and became a company member of Retina Dance Company (Belgian/England), performing, teaching and choreographing location projects. In 2010 his duet … in the stillness between two waves of the sea … won the jury award for best duet of SzólóDuó Festival.
Furthermore he pursued his Yogic training in India/Thailand where he completed a 3-month teacher training in Tantric Hatha Yoga after which he traveled back to India to start his teaching experience. Recently he has worked as a freelancer in Amsterdam with Groundbreakers, Gabriella Maiorino & Joaquín Sánchez Guerrero.
Monstah Black (New York)
is a multi-disciplinary recording artist based in New York City. Monstah fuses electro, funk, soul, rock, punk, disco sounds and visual aesthetic with choreography reflecting ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop, martial arts and vogueing. His previous works have reflected personal experiences as a cross dressing male and his ability to empower his gender bending with art. Monstah is currently interested in developing the language, foundation and technique that supports his pathway in developing his multi-dimensional works.
He has toured internationally with The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Maida Withers Dance Construction, Muse Dance Theater, Court Dance Theater. He tours nationally with Nicholas Leichter Dance whom he was commissioned to create adaptations of songs from the film The Wiz. Monstah Black is currently a long-term artist in residence at Dance New Amsterdam where he is collaboratively building an opera entitled Black Moon and teaching postmodern funk. He has been supported by: The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Dance Theater Workshop Studio Residency, DC Commission On The Arts and Humanities, Topaz Art Center, and Thelma Hill Performing Art, The American Music Center. For more info visit www.monstahblack.com
Konstantin Grouss (Russia)
Dancer/ Choreographer/ Curator
ZERO Dance Gallery: www.zerodancegallery.com
International culture project “Art-Residence”: www.art-residence.ru
Graduated from Dance and Art school and the Technical University. Studied at the "Class of expressive dance" by Gennady Abramov, Moscow. Fellow of danceWeb program in dance and choreography, 2004, Vienna. Participant of ICR /International Choreographers in Residence/, American Dance Festival ADF, USA, 2007. Worked with different choreographers and theatre directors: Shusaku Takeuchi /Netherlands/, Yury Urnov, Valery Fokin, Tatyana Grindenko, Kirill Serebryannikov /Russia/, Efva Lilja /Sweden/, Maida Withers /USA/. In 2009 he created International culture project «Art-Residence». As a curator works with cross genre projects in contemporary art, music and dance.
In the current work he is interested in discovering parallels between principles using in architecture, art, music and their development in the movement of a human body. During last years he is studying new technologies to express dance through contemporary media.
Akshi Khandelwal (India)
is a movement artist, currently practicing Butoh in Dharamsala, India. Her previous experience in movement has involved extensive training and performance in Bharatnatyam, and contemporary dance; with modest training in different martial art forms, contemporary techniques, ballet, yoga and pilates. Over the years, she has extended herself widely to explore and experiment different movement arts and works. Incessant curiosity and sheer love for her art, further made her enroll for a year long course in Butoh.
Her interest primarily lies in improvised work with keen focus on presence and sensitivity in the body. Her most recent work in Delhi, a light instillation unfurling movement (done on water) embraced this impulse. Currently, involved in creating improvisational work in her butoh practice; she sometimes extends it to the streets of Dharamsala; doing impromptu-improvised performances as a street artist in collaboration with other artists. She also likes to work with release technique and contact improvisation. Akshi is excited to work with a diversified group and extend herself in every possible way to learn, share and create.
Janice Lancaster Larsen (Virginia)
makes immersive performance environments. Her projects are a nexus for collaboration, research, and the generation of work that expands how and where dance is shared. She has received commissions through the 2007 Bessie Schönberg Choreographic Residency on the Yard (Chilmark, MA), the Hubbard Street 2 Dance Company (Chicago, IL), the Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center (Asheville, NC), and many through co-founding VIA Dance Collaborative (New York, NY). Recent collaborations include performing inside a floating geodesic dome, inside the bowl of a skate park, and for twenty-four hours blindfolded. She is honored to join Omi’s International Dance Collective and looks forward to exchanging insights on how we each come to words, space, and time. She received a MFA in Dance on fellowship from Hollins University/American Dance Festival (2010) and holds a BFA in Dance from the University of NC School of the Arts (2001). www.janicelancaster.com
(Jo) Sau Yin Leung (Hong Kong)
is a multi-discipline artist from Hong Kong. She received her Diploma in Design (Visual Communication) from Lee Wai Lee Technical Institute in 1996 as well as BFA (Hons) in Dance from The Hong Kong Academy For Performing Arts in 2004. As Leung began her creative career in Hong Kong as a graphic designer, costume designer, videographer, dance teacher, performer and choreographer, she also co-founded Off The Ground, a collaborative dance company in 2008. She was awarded the scholarship from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund to support her completion of MFA in Dance at Hollins University/ADF (2008-2010). Leung’s choreography has been presented internationally at different venues in Hong Kong, WUK in Vienna, CCN-Ballet de Lorraine in France, Dumbo Arts Festival and the American Dance Festival. Jo considers her creative work as a practice of communication between herself (singular) and the world (multiple).
Sojung Park (Korea)
encountered modern dance one year after she started to study ballet at age 12 and learned both modern and ballet evenly for 6 years. She was awarded a BA and MA degrees in modern dance and a PHD in performing arts in Korea.
At the age of 17, Park Sojung joined in An Aesoon Dance Company as a chief dancer. She also appeared on international stages including World Dance Alliance Europe Festival Global Dance in Dusseldorf, Germany, Singapore Arts Festival, The Cervantino Art Festival in Mexico, Dance Collection in Yokohama, Japan, Arts Summit Indonesia 2007, 2009 Center Stage Korea in Brazil, etc. She completed Perry Dance School, Dance Space, Alvin Ailey School, Broadway Dance Center, Jose Limon Institute, Movement Research, Martha Graham School and Manchester Dance Festival in America from 1994 to 1995, took training a course of Peter Goss, Center du Marie Dance School in Paris of France in 1992, 1994 and 1998 and won the prizes of the best dancer in 1994 France Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine Saint-Denis, dancer of this year in 2003 the First P.A.F and the 11th dancing artist/dancing actress in 2004.
Her works include Making block, Nomosandalo, Tension for 5 minutes, Progression, Away have set gradually her area as a dancer. Now, based on her experiences that she have worked with dancer, An Aesoon, she is seeking new paradigm of An Aesoon dance company as not only a dancer but also as artistic director of the dance company.
Nicolas Poggi (Argentina)
was trained in the workshop of contemporary dance at the Teatro San Martin of Buenos Aires. For several years now, he has been interested in improvisation and investigation, working with choreographer Luis Garay addressing various investigation processes. As a performer he danced with various choreographers from Argentina and was part of the Catalan company Danse Transit. He has participated in national and international festivals as a dancer and teacher.
In recent years, he has participated in the creation of dance works with a more dramatic line. "Transformer" was the beginning of their investigation. Two years ago, working with a team creation, he obtained the grant Prodanza for "Un poyo rojo", with which they were selected by the Ibero-American alternative theater circuit 2010 tour.
He is currently researching various artistic fields. He teaches and research training.
Laureline Richard (France)
is a contemporary dancer. Graduated from SEAD, Austria. Founded the collective Rosaval Gaspard Projects based in Costa Rica, together with Milena Rodriguez and Felipe Salazar. In France worked on a solo with the company Ex Nihilo and danced for Kübilai Khan Investigations/ Frank Micheletti. Participated in 2010 to the « 50 Days of Flying Low and Passing Through » in Costa Rica, from David Zambrano. Still performing with 50Collective, which got founded after it. Currently dancing for OsmosisCie/ Ali Salmi: performing solo repertory and creating a new piece about present warriors with the photo-reporter Patrick Chauvel. Ex-dancer of Wim Vandekeybus, Ali Salmi's signature condenses my interests for physical engagement and outdoor proposals. Starting as well my own project, supported by artistic centers RAMDAM and Monthelon, meant to be both a long exploration process of dance practice, sharpening and enriching it, and the making of a dance piece in a nomadic hotel room scenography.
Dana Salisbury (Massachusetts)
born in San Francisco, CA, lives in Massachusetts and New York City. Her investigations span dance, video, language, site-specific performance/installation and visual art. Her company, Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums, based in New York City, creates “Unseen Dances,” dances for blindfolded audiences. Dancers reveal themselves and the space through sound, scent, touch, temperature, and air currents. The audience is placed within the action and periodically moved, causing shifts in their relationship to the environment, the performers, and one another. Based on non-visual perception, this work is also the first dance form fully accessible to the visually impaired. www.danasalisbury.com. Running parallel to this work is her Dark Dining Projects. Offering sensory feasts served to blindfolded guests, these participatory performances take place in restaurants and a wide variety of cultural settings. www.darkdiningprojects.com. An improviser, her work is experientially derived and concerned with the full range of sensory experience, space and human interaction.
PAST RESIDENTS AND MENTORS
