alumni updates

  • John Hinrichs joined Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Understudy Group in 2007 and will be joining the company in Fall 2009. Go to www.merce.org for a full tour schedule.
  • Krista Nelson (BFA '05) joined Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Repertory Understudy Group in May 2008. She was honored to perform with the company at Wolf Trap and Jacob's Pillow this summer. She also dances for Catherine Tharin. Krista is co-curator and production manager of Fridays at Noon, a free dance series at the 92nd Street Y. She is also a graduate of the Y's Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) program and is currently on the dance faculty.
  • Ilene Fox works with two bilingual classes; the seventh graders (12-13 year s old) I also worked with last year and it is a class that likes to dance.   I also have some classes that we call high school preparation.  They are small classes of students who like to dance, but have little training. The class is designed to help them prepare to audition for performing arts high schools.  I have three 8th graders (13 -14) that I worked with last year, (2 boys, 1 girl) and about 16 seventh graders (8 girls and 8 boys).  I am thinking that either of these groups might be a good choice for this project.  I also have 8th grade girls classes, 8th grade boys classes and 7th grade girls, a sixth grade bilingual class and one special ed class.
  • Gretchen Eisenhour Garnett (BFA '05) is living in San Francisco, dancing and teaching a ton. In the summer of 2008, she formed Gretchen Garnett & Dancers (www.gretchengarnettanddancers.com). The company has performed in San Francisco as part of the The Garage's raw & uncut series, Footloose's Women on the Way Festival, Dance Mission's Harvest Choreographers Festival, The San Francisco International Arts Festival and a two shared evenings of new work. It has also traveled to Marina, CA to participate in the SpectorDance Emerging Choreographers Showcase and to Tempe, Arizona to take part in CONDER/dance's Breaking Ground. This past year she's been dancing with The Pfeifle Dance Project, Aura Fischbeck Dance, peck peck dance ensemble, RAWdance and Janice Garrett and Charles Moultonand alums Ashley Burnett and Andi Clegg in their company Shifting Forces Productions.
  • Kate McIlvain (BFA 07) title will be Company Manager for the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project starting November 2008 (www.jrjp.org).  She'll be handling day to day business, as well as contracting the company and its members for gigs here and abroad, coordinating their travel, and handling public relations.
  • Ellen Deutsch (BFA 08) is in the Alexander Teacher Training course with Joan and Alex Murray. Deutsch is also working on several new Geeksdanz works, and is working with world-renowned storyteller and folk musician Dan Keding on developing a collaboration involving dance and storytelling. Deutsch has also started a contact improvisation duet with Todd Presson, and they are planning on performing in various locations around town. She is stage managing part-time at Krannert and tutoring students in the Champaign-Urbana area in math and english as part of an on-line tutor networking site. Her newest Geeksdanz work will premier sometime at the beginning of 2010. Go to www.geeksdanz.org for more information.
  • Julie Brodie, Linda Graham, Jane Hawley, Suzanne Oliver, Meg Jolley, Elin Lobel, Luc Vanier, and Paige Cunningham attended the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science held in Cleveland along with U of I Professor Rebecca Nettl-Fiol.
  • Darrin Wright (BFA '02) performed with Bill Young & Colleen Thomas December, 2008 in NYC.
  • Kimberly Young (BFA '04) performed her new work Wunderkammer at JoyceSoho February, 2009. For more information go to www.joyce.org. Justin Jacobs (MFA '07) and Caitlin Marz (BFA '06) will be performing.
  • Amber Sloan (BFA '01) performed at the West End Theater in NYC March, 2009.
  • Wen-Yun Melody Liu (MFA '95) is performing and choreography with a local dance group Dance Gallery in Bellingham, WA.
  • Renata Sheppard (MFA '07) and Janet Schmid presented new works-in-progress “Pause. Duh. Do. An Evening of Two (s) and "Craptastic" at the Chicago Cultural Center in April 2009. 
  • Duane Cyrus (MFA '05) received an NEA grant through the American Masterpieces program to set Martha Graham's "Steps in the Street" on the students at UNC - Greensboro where he is on faculty.
  • D onald Stikeleather (MFA '89) finished coursework for his Master of Divinity in May 2008 and is working on his thesis. In the meantime, he is a chaplain resident and Ethics fellow for Clarian Health Partners, a group of hospitals in downtown Indianapolis.
  • Melissa Schleicher Sanchez (BFA '04) is Chicago dancing with Thread Meddle Outfit and Enid Smith Dance. She will begin graduate studies in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling at Columbia College Chicago in the fall of 2009.
  • Lisa Wymore (MFA '98) and Sheldon B. Smith (MFA '91), in collaboration with Lucky Plush Productions, premiered two new works in Chicago in June 2009.
  • Courtney Tilford (BFA '04) will begin teaching in the Junior Division of The Ailey School in Fall 2009. 
  • Denise Posnak (MFA '06) is choreographing/performing in the 6th Annual Modern Dance Festival at the Modern with Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth in summer 2009. 
  • Erin Sansone (BFA '09) will be dancing with Dance COLEctive in Chicago, under the direction of Margi Cole, for the 09/10 season.
  • Alyssa Epstein (BFA '03) is in her 5th season as a Radio City Rockette and started dancing with WALKERDANCE in April 2009. She was invited to perform as a Guest Artist in a benefit for the School at Jacob's Pillow in the summer of 2009.
  • Kuan-Yu Chen (BFA '09) moved to NYC in the summer of 2009. She will be dancing at The Yard (MA) as part of the Bessie Schoenberg Choreogrpher's Residency in September 2009.
  • Nadia Oussenko (MFA '05) was chosen as one of Chicago Dancemakers Forum's 2008 Lab Artists. Her new work On Falling is a dance for film which will premier November 11, 2009 at the Music Box Theater in Chicago.
  • Kathleen Hughes Neal (BA '78) is teaching dance, physical education, and sometimes ACT prep at Evanston Township High School. 
  • Elisabeth Conner (BFA '07) is currently a member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma in New York City, where she is the full-time company manager and performs in Romeo and Juliet.  She is also the assistant director of Rambo Solo. Since performing with the company, she has toured Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland.
  • Heather Klopchin (MFA '98) is an Associate Professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where she teachers ballet and modern technique, dance history, and choreographs for the student dance company. She also dances for ARENA Dances, a Minneapolis based professional modern dance company and for Eclectic Edge Ensemble, a Minneapolis based professional concert jazz dance company.
  • Rachel Thorne Germond (MFA '00) presented an evening of her work in Brooklyn, NY entitled Fours on Tour at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in June 2009. In July 2009 she performed her solo Not About Elvis dance at the Epiphany Dance Experiment in Chicago and will be presenting an evening of her work in Chicago in December 2009. For more information go to www.rtgdance.com. She is also enjoying doing arts integration teaching dance in the public schools through CAPE and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as well as teaching Klein/Mahler technique to adults. 
  • Donald Stikeleather (MFA '89) just finished his hosiptal chaplain residency and is now settling in Indianapolis to write is Divinity master thesis, sing on a CD of Cole Porter tunes, and teach meditation in Colorado in December 2009. 
  • A ngela Fleddermann Miller (MFA '07) had a baby boy in the summer of 2009. She is still teaching all levels of ballet and modern at Millikin University's Department of Theatre and Dance. She will be creating a new work for the Millikin University Dance Ensemble in the fall of 2009.
  • Kim (Larimore) Goldman (BFA '00) is in Chicago dancing with Lucky Plush Productions and is an adjunct faculty member at the Dance Center of Columbia College-Chicago.
  • Dana (Berk) Findley (BFA '96) finished her MFA in Dance from California State University - Long Beach in May 2008 and had a son in July 2008. She continues to work at the Beverly Hills Unified School District as the Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts and dances in the LA based dance company Clairobscur.
  • Kerry Kreiman (MFA '87) continues to serve as Executive/Artistic Director for Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth. She is also co-owner and top mechanic of the Body Garage, a Pilates studio in Fort Worth. She is currently working on a commissioned project for the Dally Museum of Art for the exhibition "All the World's A Stage" in celebration of the opening of the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The CD/FW performing company is entering its 20th performing season this fall and will produce the 7th annual Modern Dance Festival at The Modern at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in the summer of 2010.
  • Mary Linda Graham (MFA '82) is the Professor and Chair of the Hope College Dance Department and the Artistic Director of StrikeTime Dance.
  • Cameron Jarrett (MFA '00) teached modern dance technique and dance composition in the Theatre and Performance Studies Department at the University of Chicago. She is currently rehearsing Anna Sokolow's Session for Six and Charles Weidman's Brahm's Waltzes with Momenta Performing Arts. In Octover 2009 two of Cameron's compositions will be presented as part of Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple Series in Oak Park, IL. 
  • Kathleen Hermesdorf (MFA '91) is currently directing La Alternative (formerly MOTIONLAB) with musician Albert Mathias (www.la-alternativa.us). They create and instigate work of deeply integrated dance, music, and other mediums, collaborate locally, nationally, and internationally with peers in many fields, and other training in the context of ODC School (www.odcschool.org), where they have been on faculty since 1996, and the Alternative Conservatory, an international, modular and mbile training ground for dance and related forms in and on the field. Hermesdorf works in the companies of Bebe Miller and Sara Shelton Mass, and is a guest artist at University of California/Berkeley, University of Colorado/Boulder (with Mathias), Sonoma State University (with Mathias) and Lines Ballet Training Program. 
  • Amber Sloan (BFA '01) has been dancing with David Parker & The Bang Group since 2002 and continues to choreograph a new work every year. She shared a show with Alan Good in March 2009 at the West End Theater and received a Brooklyn Arts Exchange space grant in the summer 2009. She is teaching dance composition for the certificate program at the Ailey School in the fall of 2009 and is on the board of Omi International Dance Collective.
  • James Hansen (MFA '00) received tenure at SUNY Brockport where he serves as Undergraduate Program Director. He's received several commissions from universities to create dances including Ohio University, University of Washinton at Seattle, Case Western, and SUNY Geneseo. He's presented his work at festival including Jaco'b PIllow Inside/Out, Toronto Fringe, American Dance Guild, and International Dance Festival in NYC.
  • Lisa D. Simons (BA '83) is the dance teacher at James Madison Academic Campus - a Milwaukee innercity school. She choreographed "Oliver!" for Imagination Theatre of Germantown (WI) during the summer of 2009. She has three sons: Benjamin (25) who is editor of the Yale Law Journal; Daniel (20) is a sophomore at the University of Iowa; and Mark (17) is a junior at Nicolet High School (WI).
  • Jane Hawley (MFA '95) is an Associate Professor of Dance at Luther College Theatre/Dance Department where she continues to develop and implement the Movement Fundamentals curriculum. She was interviewd by Nancy Wozny for the Dance Magazine Lifetime Learners Teacher Training Supplement, "Radically Somatic" in May 2009. She will be on sabbatical in the Spring 2010 where she will be presenting solo work in collaboration in Douglas Dunn and will be a guest artist in residence with Legitimate Bodies Dance Company of Ireland. Currently, she is writing a chapter entitled, "Movement Fundamentals: Liberating Technique for the Dance Artist" for the book The Just Detectable Differance: Perspectives in Somatic Eduation in Dance for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Glenna Batson. 
  • Mariam Thiam Hill-Amarah (BFA '04) will be completing her Masters in Not For Profit Management from Spertus College in the Spring od 2010. She is currently the Eduation and Outreach Coordinator for Luna Negra Dance Theater.
  • Diana Eddleman Lenzi (BA '72) is currently teaching dance at Eastern Illinois University in the Kinesiology and Sports Studies Department through the College of Education and Professional Studies.
  • Elizabeth Johnson (MFA '03) is a Senior Lecturer in the Dance Department of the Peck School of the Arts in the University of Wisonsin-Milwaukee. She teaches dance majors ballet technique, modern technique, applied anatomy, Laban Movement Analysis, composition, improvisation, and also advises students. She also teaches in the low residency MFA Program (LMA and ballet technique) during the summer months. In Spring 2009 she choreographed "Hair" for the UWM Mainstage Musical. In the summer of 2009 she taught modern and compoistion for the Milwaukee Ballet summer intensive and the August 'maintenance' ballet technique class for Milwaukee Ballet Company, trainees, and students.
    In addition, she is the Artistic Director of a small contemporary repertory company Your Mother Dances, which has been producing shows in Milwaukee since 2006. She presents her work as well as other national choreographers. The company frequently presents work by Sara Hook, David Parker and Molly Rabinowitz. In December 2008, the company performed David Parker's "Nut/Cracked" along with his company the Bang Group. For more information go to www.yourmotherdances.com.
  • Judy Fuhrer (BFA '81) is a yoga instructor teaching children through adults. She is a certified NY Hatha Yoga  and Karma Kids Yoga instructor.
  • Ana Mendez (BFA '03) is a dancer for the Miami Contemporary Dance Company, Ife-Ile Dance Company, and for several independent choreographers in sothern Florida. She is a member of Psychic Youth, Inc., choreographing dances and performance art. In 2010, Mendez will be presenting a self-produced premiere of a new work in collaboration with designer Stephanie Acosta of the Anatomy Collective. She is the newest addition to Circ X cabaret shows.
  • Robin Levine (BFA '99) is still performing New York and is currently in the Broadway production of Mamma Mia!
  • Lisa Wymore (MFA '98) is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Director of the Dance Program with the Department of Theater, dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. She is also the mother of a wonderful two year old boy, a certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, and the Co-Artistic Director of Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts (SWDA).
    SWDA is embarking on a new interactive dance project beginning fall 2009 which will culminate in a formal performance at ODC Theater, San Francisco in winter 2011. For more information go to www.smithwymore.org.
  • Courtney Tilford (BFA '04) is living in NYC and dancing in as many projects as possible in both concert dance and musical theatre. She is also teaching at the Ailey School in Manhattan. 
  • Sheldon Smith (MFA '91) is Co-Artistic Director of Smith/Wymore Disappearing Arts, Lecturer/Guest Artist at Mills College and the father of a two year old named Will.
  • Melissa Scleicher Sanchez (BFA '04) is currently a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago working towards her MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling. She is also a member of the Evanston-based modern dance company enidsmithdance and Chicago-based Thread Meddle Outfit. 
  • Mindy Upin (BFA '05) is living in New York City and working as a freelance dancer. She has been a member of the Steps on Broadway Repertory Ensemble for two seasons and will continue on as their Rehearsal Director in the upcoming year. With the Ensemble she has performed the works of Sean Curran, Nathan Trice, Warren Adams, Karen Gayle, Louis Falco, Angelin Preljocaj, Monica Bill Barnes, Max Stone, Jason Winters, Yesid Lopez, Wes Veldnik, and Michael Garber. Mindy recently became a member of DeMa Dance Company, as well as, continues to work with Caitlin Tranor and Trainor Dance. Mindy has also had the honor of being selected for The Yard, perform in NYC's River-to-River Festival, and many theatrical extras including music videos, cabarets, musicals, and dance/art installations. Mindy was featured in Dance Magazine's October 2009 E-Newsletter.
  • Ashley Burnett (BFA '02)is currently located in San Francisco, CA where she has been dancing for companies such as Janice Garrett and Dancers, Hope Mohr Dance and David Dorfman of NYC, an will be working with Axis Dance Company, Christine Call, and Leigh Riley in fall 2009. She also co-direts her performance company Shifting Forces Production and is planning to produce her 3rd show in the Spring 2010. Ashley also has her own practice as a massage therapist based out of The Pad Studios in San Francisco. 
  • Margaret Chuang (BFA '02) is working as a physical therapist specializing in women's health and orthopedic rehabilitation. She recently performed with Shifting Forces Productions with other alums Muffie Connelly, Andi Clegg, and Ashley Burnett.
  • Alitra Cartman (BFA '08) will be performing with Hedwig Dances in October 2009 as part of The Other Dance Festival in Chicago.
  • Janet Charleston (MFA '07) taught in Santiago Chile on a Fulbright Award in 2007. Currently, she is living in NYC teaching at the Cunningham Studio and at other venues. She continues to perform with various choreographers as a freelance artist. She also teaches movement and yoga to seniors and is interested in working with children.
  • Luis Martinez (MA '81 and BFA '79) is teaching Modern, Jazz, Improv/Comp, Dance in World Cultures, Latin/Jazz, and Latin/Ballroom at Kean University in New Jersey. He directs and choreographs for the Kean Dance Theatre and is completing a proposal for a Dance Minor. He is developing community outreach/partnership programs with non-for-profit arts organizations and the the Union Count Academy of Performing Arts High School. 
  • Monte Black (MFA '91) is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Northern Colorado. 
  • Steve May (MFA '08) created The Dance Team, an organization that produces, supports, and educates movement-based artists in Chicago with an emphasis on DIY tactics and a lot of fun. They produced a number of living-room performances in the summer and fall of 2008 and performed at The Tank in NYC in the spring of 2009. Additionally, he co-organized Outer Space, a new workspace for movement artists in Chicago. He has collaborated on projects and performed with Tess Dworman, Live Animals, Jennifer Monson, Thread Meddle Outift, RTG Dance, Marissa Perel, and Kirstie Simson. He is currently working on a new work with Rebecca O'Connell to be premiered in late fall of 2009, as well as a solo project to be performed in "Dirt", a show at Links Hall curated by Deke Weaver.
  • Laura Dixon (BFA '99) is celebrating 7 years as owner of Harmony Body Mind Fitness, Inc, a Pilates and Gyrotonic studio in Lincoln Park, Chicago. She is a certified Stott Pilates, Gyrotonic, and Gyrokinesis Instructor.
  • Linda Juarez Padilla (BA '78) has owned "Linda's Dance Studio" in Chicago for the past 15 years.
  • Indi Dieckgrafe (MFA '85) is a Professor of Dance at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN and the Director of the Program in Dance within the Department of Communication Studies, Dance and Theatre.
  • Michelle Boule (BFA '99) is in NYC and currently working with Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People, Deborah Hay (William Forsythe commission 'if i sing to you'), and Neal Beasley. Past projects include working with John Jasperse, Donna Uchizono, Christine Elmo, Beth Gill, Judith Sanchez-Ruiz, Doug Varone (Metropolitan Opera, Opera Colorado), and Gabriel Masson. She is on the Artist Advisory Council and teaching faculty for Movement Reserach in NY. Rrecent teaching experiences include: University of Calgary (Calgary, Canada); Series 8:08 (Toronto, Canada); T:BA Festival (Portland, Oregon); Chunky Move, Victoria College for the Arts, and Dancehouse (Melbourne, Australia), and ADF NY Intensive (NYC, NY). In Spring 2010 she will be in residence at Hollins University. She has shown work in NY at Danspace Project and P.S. 122.