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Faculty
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Jeffery N. Bullock, associate professor and chair of Hollins' dance program, performed with the North Carolina Dance Theater following graduation from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He continued his performing career with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Sharir + Bustamante DanceWorks, touring nationally and internationally. Bullock’s repertoire included soloist and principal roles in an eclectic array of works by George Balanchine, Agnes De Mille, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Daniel Esralow, Nacho Duato, Lucinda Childs, Salvatore Aiello, Yacov Sharir, Glen Tetley and others. He was also a featured performer in the 1986 Paramount Motion Picture The Nutcracker with PNB, and was a featured performer in the 1983 PBS Special Where Dreams Debut: The North Carolina School of the Arts. Bullock’s work "At Midnight" earned him a Dance Magazine’s Best Choreography Nomination at the 1996 American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Jeffery has been a faculty member at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC since 1998, teaching in the ADF Six Week School and Young Dancers School; in ADF/Russia (2000), ADF/Korea (2000 & 2004) and ADF/Mongolia (2004 & 2005). From 2006 - 2010, he served as Director of the ADF Four Week School for Young Dancers. Most recent teaching engagement was at the international 2006 & 2008 Korean Dance Festival, Seoul, Korea. Also, Jeffery serves as a site visit consultant/panel member for Dance Advance of the Pew Charitable Trust located in Philadelphia, PA. He earned his M.F.A. in choreography from the University of Iowa; taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Iowa and joined the Hollins University Dance Department in 2004, becoming chair in fall 2009 and Director of the HU/ADF MFA Program in fall 2010. |
Visiting faculty |
2011-12 |
 Photo by Hope Davis |
Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, HeJin Jang is a multi-city based choreographer, performer, teacher and writer. Her work is in dialogue with radical questions and necessary conflicts on possibilities of omni-presence in her migrating nomadic life. She dances to mirror unnamed images and to re-member what was forgotten/missing/unshared/silenced. Jang has presented her works throughout New York and internationally including the Kitchen, Dixon Place, Movement Research at the Judson, Center for Performance Research, Greenspace, CORD Conference (Roanoke), American Dance Festival (Durham), WUK (Vienna, Austria), University of Bristol (Bristol, UK), Atelierul de Productie (Bucharest, Romania) and Seoul International Choreography Festival (Seoul, Korea) among others. Jang is currently involved in the cross-border dance project "Available” as one of the three choreographers with Cosmin Manolescu (Bucharest, Romania) and Gabriella Maiorino (Amsterdam, Netherlands). Jang was awarded the Movement Research Artist-In-Residency Grant (New York, '10-11), Arts Council Korea Fellowship (Korea, '09-present), NYFA Mentorship for Immigrant Artist (New York, ’10-present) and DanceWeb Fellowship (Vienna, '11). She holds a BS from Seoul National University and an MFA from University of Michigan and Hollins/ADF. In the fall of 2011, Jang will be a visiting assistant professor at Hollins. www.hejinjangdance.com |
 Photo by Steve Clarke |
G. Alex Smith is an independent artist engaged in the research of dance as a choreographer, performer and teacher. In 2006, he founded G. Alex Moves to support his artistic endeavors, and to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary projects in the performing arts. Alex has trained extensively in modern dance and classical ballet, along with other bodywork practices. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the Hollins University/American Dance Festival, a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Performance and Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and also studied within the pre-professional programs at both the Virginia School of the Arts, and BalletMet Columbus. As a choreographer he has presented work at numerous venues including the Cunningham Studio in New York, and the American Dance Festival. Alex has created works with many dancers and groups including his own company G. Alex and the Movement. Since 2010, Alex has been an administrative assistant for the graduate program in dance at Hollins University. In fall 2011 he will be a visiting assistant professor at Hollins. |
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Amanda Miller was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She commenced her professional training at the North Carolina School of the Arts/UNCSA, having received the first Terry Sanford Scholarship. She continued her studies in New York while she danced for the Chicago Lyrical Opera Ballet, the Deutschen Oper Berlin and other independent events. In 1984 William Forsythe invited her to Ballett Frankfurt as a dancer and soon thereafter she became resident choreographer . In 1992 Amanda Miller founded Pretty Ugly Dance Company. An interdisciplinary performing ensemble. From 1997 until 2004 creating a unique collaboration with the civic theatre in Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg) Ballett Freiburg Pretty Ugly was founded. Along side her work with her own company, Amanda Miller created ballets for renowned ensembles and founded in 2000 the improvisational dance group, " Yummydance" in Matsuyama, Japan. Increasingly she has addressed herself to training others in her work method/process and is active world wide as a teacher. In 2004 till 2008, she launched the aid organisation "Art for Tibet", which supported Tibetans in exile in India. In summer of 2009, she returned to her home North Carolina. She has been on the faculty for ADF, artist in residence at Duke, Palucca Hochshule, Germany and taught master classes at UNC. Her most recent work was "Field Days" premiered 2011 with Netherlands Dans Theater. |
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Vladimir Espinosa is a musician, actor, and choreographer born in Havana, Cuba, in 1964. He is currently an instructor of Latin Percussion, Afro-Cuban Dance, and Musician-accompanist in residence at Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia. His specialties include Latin and Afro-Cuban music, contemporary Latin and Afro-Cuban Folkloric Dance, and traditional African Diaspora rhythms. Vladimir graduated from the ENA (School National of Arts, Cuba) in 1985. He also studied with the National Folkloric de Cuba with Regino Jimenes and Pelladito; both having taught at the ENA. After graduating, Vladimir began teaching at the Arts School in Jiguani, Granma, Cuba and at the Casa De Cultural in Havana, Cuba. Vladimir performed, taught, and choreographed for many companies, including: Caribeno (Cuba), Companies National de Danza (Ecuador), Orile (Cuba), and Rojo Oscuro (Ecuador). Vladimir has also performed Afro-Cuban traditional rhythms and dance with Las Manos Del Sol (US) and the Roanoke Ballet Theatre (US). In 1996, Vladimir was the Artistic Director and Choreographer for the election ceremonies for the Queen of Ecuador. From 1996-1999 he toured with Havana Express (Arturo Bassnuevas, Conrado Garcia, Pablo Moya, Chanito, and Michel Ferre) and played in many venues across Washington, Virginia, New York, and Miami. Currently, he is the Musical Director of the traditional Afro-Cuban group Las Manos del Sol and produces workshops in elementary and high schools as well as universities and performs in festivals, theaters, and museums. He also plays with Los Gatos and is currently touring in the US. Vladimir's most recent work includes a musical collaboration with Michel Ferre (pianist from Cuba and ex-member of Havana Express), where he recorded an acoustic Latin Jazz CD. Vladimir has also been a teacher and instructor for the American Dance Festival (Durham, NC) since 2005. |
Guest artists |
2011-12 |
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In his 30th year as a choreographer, Mark Haim has choreographed over 100 dances. Born in New York City, Mark studied as a classical pianist at the Manhattan School of Music before beginning his formal dance studies with an honorary scholarship at The Juilliard School, where he received his BFA. He received his MFA in Dance from the ADF/Hollins University MFA program. He was Artistic Director of Mark Haim & Dancers from 1984-1987, and the Companhia de Danca de Lisboa from 1987-1990. From 2002-2008, he was Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington and most recently was Visiting Associate Professor of Dance at Reed College. Mark has created new works for many dance companies in the US, Europe and Asia, among them the Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet Frankfurt, the Jose Limon Dance Company, the Joffrey II Dancers, the Rotterdamse Dansgroep, the Silesian Dance Theater, the Companhia de Danca de Lisboa, CoDanceCo, the TRANS Dance Co., and Ballet Pacifica. He has restaged his works on companies such as The Joffrey Ballet, the Bat-Dor Dance Company of Israel, Djazzex, and the Juilliard Dance Ensemble. In 2000, he was awarded the Scripps/ADF Humphrey-Weidman-Limon Fellowship for Choreography. His full evening solo project, The Goldberg Variations, has been performed at the American Dance Festival, the Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, The John F. Kennedy Center, On The Boards, and other venues in the U.S, Europe, and Asia- most recently at the 2009 Bumbershoot Festival. |
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John Jasperse graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1985, and then moved to New York City to live and work. In 1989, he established John Jasperse Company. In 1996, Jasperse created Thin Man Dance, Inc., a New York-based not-for-profit organization; this structure supports the work of John Jasperse Company. Hi work has been presented by festivals and presenting organizations throughout the United States, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Japan, and throughout Europe. Over recent years, Jasperse's work has been awarded several prestigious awards both in the United States and abroad, including a New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award in 2001 in recognition of his body of choreographic work, the 1999 Scripps/ADF Primus-Tamaris Fellowship, the Doris Duke Award (1998), the 1997 Mouson Award by Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, Germany; three prizes in the 1996 Rencontres Internationales Chorégraphiques de Bagnolet; and the Choreography Prize at the 3rd Suzanne Dellal International Dance Competition (1996) in Tel Aviv, Israel for Excessories. Jasperse’s is currently developing a new evening length work, Canyon, commissioned as part of the BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival, and is co-commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts. Canyon had its premiere at the Philly Live Arts Festival in September 2011 and will be performed as a part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival in November 2011. Jasperse’s most recent work, Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies was commissioned by the Forsythe Company in co-production with the John Jasperse Company with support from the Joyce Theater’s Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Work. The work had its world premiere at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden, Germany in September 2009; its New York premiere was at the Joyce Theater in June 2010; and toured to MCA Chicago (April 2010), REDCAT/CalArts (April 2010), Walker Art Center (May 2010), the Myrna Loy Center (June 2010), PICA’s TBA Festival (September 2010), and Ringling International Arts Festival (October 2010). |
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Ishmael Houston-Jones' improvised dance and language work has been performed in NYC, across the US, in Europe, Australia and Latin America. He has taught many movement, improvisation and writing workshops, notably at the EDDC (The Netherlands), American Dance Festival, Seattle Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation (SFADI) and at the San Francisco Festival of Improvisation. More info at http://ishmaelhj.com. |
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Maurya Kerr was a principal dancer with Alonzo King LINES Ballet from 1994-2006, dancing previously for Pacific Northwest Ballet and Fort Worth Ballet. She is currently a freelance artist, and has been a principal guest artist with several projects, including Joanna Haigood's Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Alex Ketley's The Foundry. She is a senior faculty member for the LINES Ballet Training Program and Summer Program, on faculty with the LINES/Dominican BFA program, teaching ballet, choreographing, and setting King’s works. She also teaches workshops nationally, as a visiting guest artist at Hollins University, and as part of the LINES Ballet Discovery Project, an outreach program that uses movement to foster diversity and inclusion within dance education. In 2010 Maurya founded tinypistol, a San Francisco based dance company. She is a winner of the 2011 Hubbard Street National Choreographic Competition, and will be creating a work on HS2 in early 2012. |
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Nicholas Leichter has taught throughout the United States and at festivals in Africa, Asia, Canada, and Eastern and Western Europe, and he has been on faculty at Tisch School of the Arts, Bates Dance Festival and the American Dance Festival in Durham, New York, Russia, Korea, and Shanghai. Leichter has created over 25 works for his own company, including Carmina Burana and Rite of Spring commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Sweetwash with Eisa Davis for The Duncan Theatre at Palm Beach Community College and Killa, A Space Funk Invasion and The WHIZ with Monstah Black. Recent commissions include Connecticut College, Wayne State University, The Barnard Project, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and je danse donc je suis in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Leichter has been artist-in-residence and guest artist at many institutions including CSU Summer Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, Hollins University, George Washington University, University of Houston, Muhlenberg College, Goucher College and Idaho State University. Leichter received the 2006 Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University. In 2008, he received a Choreographer Fellowship from NYFA and a National Performance Network/Network of Cultural Centers of Color Artist-of-Color Residency Award at Sacramento State. He received the 2009 Copperfoot Award for Choreography from Wayne State University. Founded in 1996, New York City-based Nicholas Leichter Dance has performed in over 50 cities in 17 states and 12 countries. |
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Originally from Zurich, Switzerland, Yvonne Meier has lived and worked in New York City since 1979, where she became a member of the original group around Performance Space 122, regularly collaborating with Ishmael Houston-Jones, Jennifer Monson and many others in the US and Europe. Her work, spanning anywhere from big spectacles to quiet solos, has been supported by three Fellowships in Choreography from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Inter Arts, Franklin Furnace and Pro Helvetia. The American Masters program of the NEA has supported the upcoming recreation of her performance-instillation work, The Shining. She has received "Bessie" Awards for her works The Shining (1993) and Stolen (2009). 2010 Yvonne Meier was garnered a "American Masterpiece Award" from the NEA. She has twice been supported through the Movement Research Artist-in-Residence program. Meier has been teaching Releasing Technique and Authentic Movement nationally and internationally for the last 30 years. After a life-long commitment to improvisation she has developed her own improvisation technique known as Scores. Meier also teaches children's dance classes in NY Public Schools through Movement Research's Dance Makers program. |
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Sara Procopio is a Brooklyn based dance artist, teacher and arts administrator. She is a founding and current member of Shen Wei Dance Arts, as well as the company's Artistic Associate. Sara began her dance training at the Center of Ballet & Dance Arts in Syracuse, NY, and studied extensively at the American Dance Festival, and at Hollins University where she earned both her undergraduate and master's degrees. Since 2001 she has performed with Shen Wei Dance Arts at renowned festivals and venues around the world. Sara teaches classes and workshops regularly throughout the U.S. and abroad as an independent teaching artist, as well as for Shen Wei Dance Arts. Recent U.S. teaching engagements include Dance New Amsterdam, Marymount Manhattan College, The University of the Arts, P.S. 5, Park Avenue Armory, American Dance festival, Peridance Capezio Center, and in Italy at the Paolo Grassi School of Milan. |
| Artist Christopher Roman started his formal dance training at the age of 14 in Wilmington, DE and moved to Cleveland at the age of 16 to study with Nicole Sowinska, Daniel Job, and William Griffith at the School of Cleveland Ballet joining the company there as an apprentice, under the directorship of Dennis Nahat, the following year. He moved to New York soon after to continue his studies on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet at Juilliard, official school of the New York City Ballet, as well as open himself up to the dance world of New York City. For the past 12 years he has been a principal dancer with The Forsythe Company in Germany formerly known as the Frankfurt Ballet under the direction of William Forsythe. He has been a full company member as a soloist and principal with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, The Miami City Ballet with Edward Vilella, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, the Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia and was a guest artist with Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York City and Sasha Waltz and Guests in Berlin. Christopher has co-directed his own company with former Wooster Group video designer Philip Bußmann called 2+ and has choreographed pieces for The Russian Ballet Theatre, The Pennsylvania Ballet, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Festival de Danse in Cannes, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, Kuenstlerhaus Mousonturm, Cadance Festival Holland, Skulpturenpark in Graz and others. As a freelancer and guest artist, he has performed in many galas and installations worldwide, most notably You made me a monster, a performance installation in collaboration with William Forsythe which premiered at the Venice Bienale in 2005 and won the 2007 Bessie Award for Best Installation and New Media for it's New York premiere at the Baryshnikov Center and was performed at every major dance festival worldwide. He has worked as a teacher and ballet master for the works and improvisational technologies of William Forsythe with such companies and institutions as the Lyon Opera Ballet, Staatsballett München, The Finnish National Ballet, La Scala Opera Ballet, Universal Ballet, Seoul, Boston Ballet, D.A.N.C.E. in Brussels, guest teacher for NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the dance department at Ohio State University for the groundbreaking "Synchronous Objects" project and was featured in the film on which it is based, One Flat Thing, reproduced. He is an alum of the Atlantic Acting School in New York City and was recently awarded The Faust Theater Prize, Germany's highest theater honor, as best performer in William Forsythe's 'I don't believe in outer space'. He is currently the choreographic assistant to William Forsythe for his new work being produced by Sadler’s Wells for Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche. |
Artists/companies in residence
Since 1993 Hollins has hosted more than 100 dance professionals as artists-in-residence. These talented artists perform on campus, conduct master classes, and create new works for and with students.
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Shen Wei, described by the Village Voice as "Michaelangelo's David as a sultry rock star," brings his imagined world to life through choreographing, performing, painting, and writing. From the age of nine, he trained as a performer for the Chinese opera. He was trained in modern dance at the Guangdong Dance Academy. He was awarded first prize for both choregography and performance at the inaugural National Modern Dance Competition in China. In 1997, as guest artist at Hollins, he did his world premiere of "Small Room" to a standing-room-only audience on campus. |
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Lisa Race's work has been featured at many venues in New York City and beyond. She has taught at festivals around the world and has served in numerous university teaching positions and choreographic residencies. She was a member of David Dorfman Dance from 1989 to 2000 and was honored in 1995 with a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award. She received an M.F.A. from Hollins University/ADF in 2007. She is on the faculty at Connecticut College and is also an ADF faculty member. |
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Jennifer Nugent is co-artistic director, along with Paul Matteson, of Nugent+Matteson Dance in New York City. She danced with David Dorfman Dance from 1998 to 2007, received a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award, and has danced with and for Shen Wei, Lisa Race, Nina Winthrope, Yin Mei, Daniel Lepkoff, and most recently with Martha Clarke. She has also danced with Houlihan and Dancers and Mary Street Dance Theatre and has taught and performed her own work at universities and venues throughout the United States and in Korea, Russia, and Vietnam. She is on the ADF faculty. |
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Miguel Gutierrez is a dance and music artist whose work has been presented in venues such as Dance Theater Workshop, Diverseworks (Houston), Walker Art Center, ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Springdance (Utrecht), and Kampnagel (Hamburg). He has received support from the Lambent Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, and Rockefeller MAP Fund. He has had residencies at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Lexington Center for the Arts, and Hollins University and was twice a recipient of a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award, in 2006 for choreography and in 2002 for dancing with the John Jasperse Company (1997-2001). He has performed with Alain Buffard, Deborah Hay, Sarah Michelson, Jennifer Lacey, Juliette Mapp, Ann Liv Young, and Joe Goode Performance Group. He is on the ADF faculty. His Web site is www.miguelgutierrez.org. Photo by Noah Hilsendrad. |
