Collaborators for Spring 2021

 Anthony Denaro, M.F.A, aka YNOT, explores the design, sustainability, history, and community of Hip Hop. Through a futurist lens, YNOT’s work manifests in dance, typography, music, and architecture. He has mainly participated, researched and competed in the dance form of Breaking for over 20 years.

Karlies Kelley Vedula was born and raised in Panama, and is currently living in Milwaukee, WI. She has over 15 years of experience performing, teaching and producing events. She is a second year UWM MFA student and an AOP Fellow and Chancellor’s Award recipient (she also received her BFA in African Diaspora Dance from UWM). Her constant research and passion for dance have molded her into a versatile dancer and choreographer, ranging from Salsa to West African, Brazilian, Caribbean, Modern, and Jazz. She founded Panadanza Dance Company in 2008 as a way to stay connected with her roots, to build a community around music and dance, and to create safe, healing spaces for women and young people. Karlies has traveled and taught across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and is actively involved in the Milwaukee community, engaging youth and adults to move in positive and unifying ways. She believes dance belongs to all, in all spaces, dance is key to living a more colorful and meaningful life. Photo by: Melissa Miller

Tisiphani Mayfield is a seasoned performer, educator, journalist, student, mentor, coach and mother. Ms. Mayfield earned her B.A. in Dance from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.  She enjoys learning from all genres of dance but concentrates her studies in the African Diaspora. Tisiphani is blessed to have been able to perform all over the Continental United States, the Caribbean and China.  Ms. Mayfield has been teaching dance for more than 20 years and choreographing for 10.  Ms. Mayfield has also fused her training into a style affectionately named “Afro-Jazz” and collaborates with the Milwaukee Public School system to share her work throughout the city. Currently Ms. Mayfield is working with TBEY choreographing for their up coming show A Journey Through Dance on August 21st.

BARRY PAUL CLARK (BM 2009, Mannes College of Music – New School University, NYC) – Classically trained bassist, composer, improviser and educator. Section bassist in Festival City Symphony, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Philharmonic and has been a featured artist with Florentine Opera. Private lesson teacher at West End Conservatory, support staff for the Hartford Union High School orchestra, and adjunct faculty at Cardinal Stritch University. Co-curator of the monthly improvised music series Unrehearsed MKE. Member of contemporary music string quartet Tontine Ensemble, improvised song trio Argopelter, Americana inspired outfit Lady Cannon, experimental electronic project adoptahighway and folk rock band Field Report. Composer for “Seeking Century City” (2017 short, directed by Wes Tank & Adam Carr) and “Plucked” (2019 documentary, directed by Joel Van Haren).

Bony Benavides is a native of Bogotá, Colombia, where she studied with Cuban percussionist Fran Calzadilla and notable music educators Gustavo Gonzalez and Jorge Reyes. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Music with a concentration on Percussion Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where she studied with David Bayles. In May 2008, she finished her Master’s Degree in Ethnomusicology at Arizona State University. Her thesis research focused on the popularization of Gaita Music, a musical tradition of Northern Colombia. She currently teaches for Milwaukee Public School as a Percussion Traveling Music Teacher, Concordia University as the Percussion Instructor, and Bembe Drum and Dance as the Percussion Instructor.

 Dan Schuchart is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher. In 2013 he earned his MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside, where he was honored to be a recipient of the 2012-13 Dissertation Year Program Fellowship. Schuchart earned BFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts in both Dance and Painting/Drawing and has since worked professionally in both fields. In addition, he recently completed his Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago. Since 2002, Schuchart has worked with Wild Space Dance Company as a company member, choreographer, and Associate Artistic Director. He has actively pursued creating and producing work in collaboration with Monica Rodero, including several independent dance concerts, and curating interactive multimedia gallery events. Working collaboratively, their choreography has been presented extensively throughout the Midwest as well as in California, NYC, and Seattle. Schuchart is currently a Lecturer at UW-Milwaukee and Artistic Associate at Lawrence University. He has also taught dance and movement studies at Beloit College, UC-Riverside and been a guest teacher at the Milwaukee Ballet, American College Dance Festival and in public school outreach programs. His interests in dance include collaborative creative process, dance-theatre, improvisation, and contact improvisation. Outside of dance, Schuchart has worked as a scenic painter, including the movie Public Enemies, and scenic charge for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Florentine Opera, and Skylight Music Theatre. Photo: Matt Schwenke

Cedric Gardner is a youth arts mentor and choreographer at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. He began dancing at the age of 18 and has achieved many professional milestones in his career as a dancer, choreographer, playwright, and creative director. His goal has always been to serve youth in our community and provide equal opportunity for young dancers of color, who may not have the chance to experience high-quality art instruction. He has performed with Gloria Estefan, Herbie Hancock, Neil Young, NE-YO, Miranda Cosgrove, and Sheila E in his professional dance career. He has also performed on “Macy’s Celebrity Catwalk Challenge,” “The Voice”, “Fresh Beat Band,” and “American Idol Gives Back.” His TV/film appearances include a Wayans Brothers Production, “The Dance Flick,” the featured in the film “Step Up 3D”, Nick Jr TV show “Yo Gabba Gabba,” and “Fresh Beat Band”, FOX “Empire”, Jimm Kimmel, and can be seen in Old Navy’s Onward campaign. In addition to Cedric’s commitment to the Boys and Girls Clubs’ youth, he is also the Milwaukee Bucks youth dance team coach, “The Young Bucks.”

Patrick Reinholz, cello (BM 2010, University of Wisconsin – Madison) Patrick is a versatile cellist collaborating frequently with other musicians, artists, dancers, and even spoken word artists. He frequently performs a variety of music including classical, new music, jazz, and rock. Improvisation also plays a very large role in Patrick’s music. Notable collaborations include working with famed New York dancer Sally Gross on a minimalist dance film, contributed original music to choreography by Li Chiao-Ping, and performing frequently with the electroacoustic ensemble The Weather Duo. He has premiered chamber music by composers Steven Lewis and Filippo Santoro. Patrick has also played a very active role in the formation and performances of the new music ensemble Downbeat Means Attack and the Jazz/Avant Garde group Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps.

Joelle Worm is a Milwaukee based dancer/dance-educator. She holds a BFA in dance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College-City University of New York. Her professional affiliations include Danceworks/The Danceworks Performance Company (Milwaukee), Your Mother Dances (Milwaukee), De Facto Dance (New York), The Field (Milwaukee & New York), The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and University School of Milwaukee. Her philosophy on dance/the arts is that they provide a lens for a deepened understanding of the human condition/experience.

Mair Culbreth creates, researches, and teaches at the intersection of Dance and Cultural Studies, where corporeality is a lens for investigating gender, race, class, and sexuality. Engaging a social kinesthetic framework, she investigates the geopolitics of movement, phenomenology, and embodiment.  She performed professionally in San Francisco with Kathleen Hermesdorf, Company Mecanique, Lizz Roman, Sean Dorsey, and Project Bandaloop; she received the Bay Area Izzie Award for Performance. As a movement researcher, she considers the body as a site of marginalization attending to how movement enacts agency and challenges social norms. Her doctoral research analyzed politics, pedagogies, protest, and performance practices of the San Francisco Bay Area; she considered queer methodologies, aesthetics, and movement practices to articulate the impact of dance-makers/researchers on embodied identity. As a dance-maker/scholar/educator, Mair integrates her written research with her creative practice and is particularly interested in cultivating ethical, critical pedagogies of dance.

Wisconsin native Paul Westfahl is an active performer and teacher in the Milwaukee area. He earned his BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2012 with an emphasis in Percussion Performance, Composition and Jazz Studies. Paul regularly performs with the Racine Symphony Orchestra, the Concord Chamber Orchestra, The Eastside Jazz Orchestra, and local gypsy jazz group, Swing Chevron. As an educator, Paul has been teaching drum set and percussion privatelysince 2007 and is currently an instructor at Brass Bell Music Store. In addition to working with students and large ensembles, Westfahl leads and composes for several of his own projects and is also involved as a sideman and co-conspirator/composer with many ‘new music’ ensembles and collectives in the Milwaukee area including Present Music’s: Compose Milwaukee, the UnrehearsedMKE series and the SeedSounds series. Westfahl keeps active within many facets of instrumental performance and composition and continues to stretch his interests and compositions to further benefit new and improvised music.”

Maria Gillespie is a choreographer, performer, dance, and somatic educator. She is a CLMA Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst and directs Parts of the Whole, a movement-based education program that cultivates creativity and healing with incarcerated and system impacted youth. She creates interdisciplinary collaborations and improvised performance with MG/The Collaboratory and Hyperlocal MKE. She founded and directed LA-based Oni Dance (2003-2015) and was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. She was awarded four Lester Horton awards for her performance and choreography which “ricochet between vulnerability and strength with razor-sharp shifts in intensity and intent” (LA Times). She has performed and taught nationally and internationally in Mexico City, Tokyo, Beijing, and Guangzhou. Gillespie is Associate Professor of Dance In 2019, she was a UWM Research Mentor of the year nominee for her ongoing commitment to undergraduate research and received the 2019 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. http://www.partsofthewhole.org (Photo by Denise Leitner)

David Collins is a performer and composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music; wielding various electronics and a saxophone to examine the duality of structure and improvisation.  He has studied at The College of Santa Fe, The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and UW-Milwaukee, where he completed a B.F.A. in Music Composition and Technology.  Along with over 10 years of experience as a private music instructor, David has been collaborating with Milwaukee artists, dancers and musicians for 20 years.

Collaborators for Fall 2019/Spring 2020

Alfonso Cervera is a dance maker, teacher, and performer currently based in Wisconsin, Whitewater. He incorporates his Mexican- American experience, family lineage, and folklórico somatics as a methodology and practice of identity. Cervera is interested in cultivating sensations in the body by working with concepts of exhaustion, negotiation, labor, and forms of sociality.

He has held positions as Assistant Professor at Riverside City College and Mt. San Jacinto College in CA where he was also commissioned at various colleges to create work on students​. He now teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater as an Inclusive Excellence Fellow where he will share his research and implement forms of diversity within the community and university. Cervera also teaches master classes and workshops in improvisation, ballet folklorico, contact improvisation, and in contemporary dance techniques.

His works and collaborations have been presented at the FLACC Festival, REDCAT, Pieter Performance Space, Highways Performance Space, Bushwick Studios, and Lux Boreal’s 4×4 in Tijuana Mexico to name a few. Cervera has had the pleasure of working with Wendy Rogers, taisha paggett, Meg Wolfe, Julie Freeman, Sofia Carreras, Joel Smith, Crystal Sepúlveda, and with his collective Primera Generación Dance Collective (Rosa Rodriguez Frazier, Patricia Huerta, and Irvin Manuel Gonzalez).

DEVIN DROBKA is a drummer, improviser, composer, and educator based in Milwaukee, WI.  Devin graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and has spent time living and performing in New York City.  Devin has been active in the improvised music community having started Unrehearsed MKE, Formations Series, as well as bringing in national touring acts to venues across the city.  Devin can be heard with Lesser Lakes Trio, Argopelter, Field Report, Caley Conway, Bell Dance Songs, Tony Barba Quartet, and many more.  For more information please visit www.devindrobka.com

ANDY MILLER, is a percussionist, dance musician, composer and sound designer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Currently the Music Director in the Dance Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he teaches courses in music, sound design, and digital media in addition to creative work as a dance musician. His collaborations as a composer-performer and sound designer with contemporary choreographers include Maria, by Angelica Angulo (New York City: Gibney Dance Center and Movement Research at the Judson Church), A dance for my daughter by Daniel Burkholder (Milwaukee: Winterdances 2018), Piece.piece by Johanna Meyer (Illinois: Krannert Center) and Fracture, by Angie Pittman, Angelica Angulo, Rhea Speights, and Johanna Meyer (Bucaramanga, Colombia: IX Festival Santander en Escena). Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Andy holds degrees in percussion performance from Wright State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University. He previously taught percussion at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music (Fall 2017), Indiana University (Associate Instructor 2014-2017), and Olivet Nazarene University (2012 – 2017). His research on Afro-Colombian traditional music and pedagogy has been funded through a Fulbright Grant (2011-2012) and the Graduate Presser Award (2014).

Rick Ollman is a familiar presence in both Milwaukee’s poetry and improvised music scenes. A multi-instrumentalist, he appears monthly with Seed Sounds, and often with Unrehearsed MKE and the Formations Series, switching between clarinet, flute, cornet, guitar, and percussion. He also hosts the weekly Free Improvisation Workshop, open to anyone willing to dive into unconventional musical waters.

AMANDA LAABS is a mover, an artist, and an art-maker. Born in Fredonia, Wisconsin she started her dance training at a local dance studio, Lake Shore Dance. She graduated from Ozaukee High School and Lake Shore Dance in 2015. She is currently a fourth-year undergrad at UW-Milwaukee pursuing a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography and a minor in Somatics. As she specializes in modern, contemporary, and improvisation, she has also trained in Ballet, Pointe, and Jazz. At UWM she has performed works by faculty Simone Ferro, Maria Gillespie, Dani Kuepper, Mair Culbreth, and guest artists, Esther Baker-Tarpaga and Holly Johnston (Ledges and Bones). Most recently she has performed with WildSpace Dance Company and Hyperlocal MKE. Laabs has also recently premiered two choreographic works, “Ascension After the Fourth” at UWM as her senior project, and “the beginning of the end” at Danceworks DanceLab: Get It Out There. Laabs has received a research fellowship at UWM under mentorship of professor, Maria Gillespie.

ANNIE PETERSON is a movement artist, collaborator, and activist who creates movement-based projects. AP grew up dancing and writing, and at an early age discovered the importance of resilient art-making as a vehicle to provoke conversation and stimulate change. Her desire to create, perform, and serve the art community lead her to Milwaukee, where she is currently pursuing a BFA in the Peck School of the Arts, double majoring in Contemporary Dance Performance & Choreography and Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies (concentration in Public Relations and focus on nonprofit work) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. AP has performed and shared both her solo and collaborative projects throughout Milwaukee and in the Young Choreographer’s/New Works Showcase at Bates Dance Festival. She has performed in the works of many UW-Milwaukee faculty members, guest choreographers, and Milwaukee-based artists, including Maria Gillespie, Dawn Springer, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Joelle Worm, Simone Ferro, Dani Kuepper, Zachary Byron Schorsch, and Maggie Seer. She has also performed with Wild Space Dance Company and is a collaborating artist with Hyperlocal MKE. During her time at UWM, AP has received three Undergraduate Research Fellowships to conduct both somatic and movement research under the mentorships of Daniel Burkholder (2018) and Maria Gillespie (2018-19).

KATELYN ALTMANN is a movement artist, collaborator and improviser currently working and residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She began her early movement studies in Stevens Point, Wisconsin under the direction of Pamula Luedtke, Marlene Turbin-Weldon, and Michael Estanish. She acknowledges her lineage as the vehicle for her inherent connection to her artistry, collaborative approach and somatic influences within her processes. She is completing her last semester pursuing her BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance + Choreography, within the Peck School of the Arts and has performed with Wild Space Dance Company, as well as with the collaborative music + movement improvisational ensemble, Hyperlocal MKE.  Katelyn has also presented her choreographic works throughout Milwaukee, at the Seattle Festival for Dance Improvisation [SFDI], as well as having her work be selected to represent the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the American College Dance Association [ACDA]. Katelyn has worked closely with various International artists, Milwaukee-based artists, and guest artists, including, Ishmael Huston-Jones, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Maria Gillespie, Daniel Burkholder, Esmé Boyce, Simone Ferro, Kym McDaniel, Maggie Seer and Holly Johnston [Ledges and Bones]. Collaboration with these artists and community members is key within her creative explorations. This is Katelyn’s third semester as an Undergraduate Research Fellow at UW – Milwaukee, immersed in movement research under the mentorship of faculty member, Maria Gillespie.

Maggie Seer received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in December 2016. She currently performs with Wild Space Dance Company under the direction of Deb Loewen. She has performed with the Gina Laurenzi Dance Project, and recently created a work with Kayla Flentje for Danceworks’ DanceLAB Series, Get It Out There. She was a student undergraduate research fellow for Mapping the Migration of Gesture; mentored by Maria Gillespie, of which Maggie was a SURF grant recipient and received an Outstanding Research Award for the project. She has performed works by Molly Shanahan (Mad Shak, Chicago), Sarah Weber Gallo (NYC), Jennifer Sydor (NYC), Rachel Rugh (Mountain Empire Performance Collective), and Dani Kuepper.

Collaborators for Fall 2017

Jay Mollerskov is a guitarist and composer based in the Milwaukee area. In 2006 he completed his MM in Instrumental Performance on guitar at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee where he studied with Curt Hanrahan, Don Linke, and Dr. Christopher Burns. He also holds a degree in music composition from UW-Milwaukee studying composition and improvisation with Yehuda Yannay, Jon Welstead, Steve Nelson-Raney, John Downey, and Gregoria Karides-Suchy. Jay has performed with numerous creative spirits, including Melvin Rhyne, Ernie Watts, Devin Drobka’s Bell Dance Songs, Trench, and Hal Rammel. In 2014 Jay founded the Formations Series for New and Improvised Music at Woodland Pattern Book Center. The Formations series is an outlet for Milwaukee based musicians and other creators to present their developing work in an attentive, gallery performance setting. Mollerskov has recently performed on other series including Unrehearsed MKE and Seed Sounds as well. He has recorded with Devin Drobka’s Bell Dance Songs, the Curt Hanrahan Quartet/Quintet, Trench, and others. As an active composer, Jay has written pieces for numerous Milwaukee musicians/groups including the Tontine Ensemble, as well as performers throughout the US and Europe.

Zach Schorsch (BFA Dance UWM ’16) is appearing for the first time with Hyperlocal MKE. He has previously danced in the works of Maria Gillespie, Dani Kuepper, Deb Loewen, Joelle Worm, Posy Knight, and performed Trisha Brown’s seminal work, Set and Reset/Reset at UWM. Zach’s choreography has been presented in Cooperative Performance Milwaukee’s One Act Festival and Danceworks DanceLAB’s GET IT OUT THERE showcases. Zach continues collaborating with local artists at venues including After Gallery and Danceworks.

Wisconsin native Paul Westfahl is an active performer and teacher in the Milwaukee area. He earned his BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2012 with an emphasis in Percussion Performance, Composition and Jazz Studies. Paul regularly performs with the Racine Symphony Orchestra, the Concord Chamber Orchestra, The Eastside Jazz Orchestra, and local gypsy jazz group, Swing Chevron. As an educator, Paul has been teaching drum set and percussion privatelysince 2007 and is currently an instructor at Brass Bell Music Store. In addition to working with students and large ensembles, Westfahl leads and composes for several of his own projects and is also involved as a sideman and co-conspirator/composer with many ‘new music’ ensembles and collectives in the Milwaukee area including Present Music’s: Compose Milwaukee, the UnrehearsedMKE series and the SeedSounds series. Westfahl keeps active within many facets of instrumental performance and composition and continues to stretch his interests and compositions to further benefit new and improvised music.”

Nick Zoulek is a modern artist of “pure mindfulness and talent” (PopMatters), with an impassioned eye toward the unification of contemporary art and sound. His focus on collaboration, improvisation, and commissioning new works has led to a diverse portfolio of distinctive performances and artistic ventures.  As a multimedia artist, Nick’s films have garnered numerous awards in experimental media, and have been screened at festivals around the world, most notably in England, Serbia, Africa, and around the USA. Nick’s music can be heard on Rushing Past Willow (INNOVA Records), which fuses all of facets of his work through self-composed pieces for alto, tenor, and bass saxophone. Nick maintains an active profile as a pedagogue and researcher, and has lectured as a guest and artist-in-residency at universities and conferences across the United States and France. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Contemporary Music Performance at Bowling Green State University. Nick holds a Master of Music Performance from BGSU, a Certificat des Études Musicales (artist diploma) from the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régionale de Boulogne-Billancourt, and a Bachelor of Music Performance with Magna Cum Laude honors from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. For more information, please visit www.nickzoulek.com

Collaborators for Hyperlocal #11 – g e n e r a t i o n

Sunday October 23rd,  6-7:30pm
UWM, INOVA – now known as Kenilworth Square East Gallery
* Co-Sponsored by UWM’s Department of Dance

Collaborators for Hyperlocal #10 – f r i n g e

Sunday 8/28 6:30pm

Milwaukee Fringe Festival

Performers: Margaret Paek, Dan Schuchart, Dani Kuepper, Maria Gillespie, Timothy Russell, and others  TBA

Margaret Paek, a collaborative dance artist, is inspired by connection and integration and sees dance as a life practice. She is a Lower Left member (www.lowerleft.org), performer, creator, educator, and community builder deeply influenced by her relationships with contact improvisation, Ensemble Thinking, Alexander Technique, Barbara Dilley, Nina Martin, Shelley Senter, Dahlia Nayar, Loren Dempster, and their daughter. Margaret has enjoyed dancing with projectLIMB, Deborah Hay, Keith Hennessy, uncucumbered, and BodyCartography Project. Her cooperative and individual work has been presented in Mexico, Europe, and across the United States at venues including Dancespace at St. Mark’s Church, Judson Memorial Church, and the Whitney Museum Biennial 2012 in NYC. In 2015, Nayar, Paek, and Dempster’s collaborative trio was awarded a National Dance Project Touring Award. Margaret has taught at Movement Research, Marymount Manhattan and Manhattanville Colleges in NYC, Kontakt Budapest in Hungary, Tanzfabrik, and the International CI Festival Freiburg in Germany. Last year, she joined the faculty at Lawrence University, moving from New York to Appleton, and she is loving Wisconsin. She received her BA in Psychology from UC San Diego and her MFA in Dance from Hollins University/American Dance Festival. (www.margaretpaek.com)

Dani Kuepper: photo by Danceworks

Dani Kuepper received both her BFA and MFA from UW-Milwaukee, where she has been a faculty member of the UWM dance department since 1999. She is the Artistic Director of Danceworks Performance Company(DPC), the resident contemporary dance company of Danceworks Inc. She joined DPC in 1998 and has since choreographed more than 30 dances for the company, as well as several evening length works. As an undergraduate at UWM, Dani performed the solo, Mrs. Schultz, at the national American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. Dani has choreographed extensively in the Milwaukee community and as the Artistic Director of DPC, has enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with Milwaukee Opera Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, Florentine Opera Company, Present Music, First Stage Children’s Theater, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Dani was honored in 2009 as a “Forty Under 40” recipient by the Business Journal of Milwaukee and also received the UWM Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award for non-tenure track in instructors in 2010.

Collaborators for Hyperlocal #9 – FLUX

Joelle Worm, Jay Mollerkov, Allen Russell, Dan Schuchart, Andrea Burkholder, Daniel Burkholder, Maria Gillespie, Tim Russell

Dan Schuchart is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher. In 2013 he earned his MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside, where he was honored to be a recipient of the 2012-13 Dissertation Year Program Fellowship. Schuchart earned BFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts in both Dance and Painting/Drawing and has since worked professionally in both fields. In addition, he recently completed his Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago. Since 2002, Schuchart has worked with Wild Space Dance Company as a company member, choreographer, and Associate Artistic Director. He has actively pursued creating and producing work in collaboration with Monica Rodero, including several independent dance concerts, and curating interactive multimedia gallery events. Working collaboratively, their choreography has been presented extensively throughout the Midwest as well as in California, NYC, and Seattle. Schuchart is currently a Lecturer at UW-Milwaukee and Artistic Associate at Lawrence University. He has also taught dance and movement studies at Beloit College, UC-Riverside and been a guest teacher at the Milwaukee Ballet, American College Dance Festival and in public school outreach programs. His interests in dance include collaborative creative process, dance-theatre, improvisation, and contact improvisation. Outside of dance, Schuchart has worked as a scenic painter, including the movie Public Enemies, and scenic charge for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Florentine Opera, and Skylight Music Theatre.

Jay Mollerskov is a guitarist and composer based in the Milwaukee area. In 2006 he completed his MM in Instrumental Performance on guitar at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee where he studied with Curt Hanrahan, Don Linke, and Dr. Christopher Burns. He also holds a degree in music composition from UW-Milwaukee studying composition and improvisation with Yehuda Yannay, Jon Welstead, Steve Nelson-Raney, John Downey, and Gregoria Karides-Suchy. Jay has performed with numerous creative spirits, including Melvin Rhyne, Ernie Watts, Devin Drobka’s Bell Dance Songs, Trench, and Hal Rammel. In 2014 Jay founded the Formations Series for New and Improvised Music at Woodland Pattern Book Center. The Formations series is an outlet for Milwaukee based musicians and other creators to present their developing work in an attentive, gallery performance setting. Mollerskov has recently performed on other series including Unrehearsed MKE and Seed Sounds as well. He has recorded with Devin Drobka’s Bell Dance Songs, the Curt Hanrahan Quartet/Quintet, Trench, and others. As an active composer, Jay has written pieces for numerous Milwaukee musicians/groups including the Tontine Ensemble, as well as performers throughout the US and Europe.

Joelle Worm is a Milwaukee based dancer/dance-educator. She holds a BFA in dance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College-City University of New York. Her professional affiliations include Danceworks/The Danceworks Performance Company (Milwaukee), Your Mother Dances (Milwaukee), De Facto Dance (New York), The Field (Milwaukee & New York), The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and University School of Milwaukee. Her philosophy on dance/the arts is that they provide a lens for a deepened understanding of the human condition/experience.

Allen Russell is a composer and violinist based in Milwaukee WI. His work has been described as ‘cinematic’ and tends to mix a range of genres within single works. Allen has had works performed by Milwaukee’s Tontine Ensemble, and has written and performed for Timothy Westbrook and Milwaukee Danceworks.

Daniel Burkholder is the Director of The PlayGround, a dance performance group, and Co-Director of Improv Arts, inc. He has served as a curator for the DC International Improvisation Festival and on the Steering Committee for the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival. His work has been seen at numerous venues nationally including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (WDC), 92nd Street Y (NYC), Tribeca Performing Arts Center (NYC), Dance Place (WDC), along with numerous indoor and outdoor spaces. Daniel’s work has been commissioned by James Madison University, CrossCurrents Dance Company, Dance Place, Joy of Motion Dance Centers, and Choreographers Collaboration Project. He has been awarded the Local Dance Commissioning Project by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Daniel received the Metro DC Dance Award for “Outstanding Performance by a Group”, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in Solo Dance Performance and Choreography, and his work has been selected for numerous showcases. He has taught at the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival, University of Maryland College Park, American University, George Washington University, James Madison University, Dance Place, CityDance Center at Strathmore, and as guest teacher for Cirque du Soleil. Daniel has performed with Scott Wells & Dancers, Jess Curtis & Stephanie Maher, Beth Davis in Good Company, and improvisationaly with Nancy Stark Smith, Katie Duck, Sharon Mansur, among others. Daniel has degrees from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (M.F.A.), American University (M.A.), Sarah Lawrence College (B.A.) and is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.

-The Core Ensemble of Collaborators-

Joelle Worm, Allen Russel, Maria Gillespie, Tim Russel, Pat Reinholz, Gina Laurenzi, David Collins

Joelle Worm is a Milwaukee based dancer/dance-educator. She holds a BFA in dance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College-City University of New York. Her professional affiliations include Danceworks/The Danceworks Performance Company (Milwaukee), Your Mother Dances (Milwaukee), De Facto Dance (New York), The Field (Milwaukee & New York), The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and University School of Milwaukee. Her philosophy on dance/the arts is that they provide a lens for a deepened understanding of the human condition/experience.

Maria Gillespie is a choreographer, performer, dance educator, and the artistic director of Oni Dance. She received an MFA in choreography from UCLA and a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase. Gillespie founded Oni Dance in 2005 and was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. Residing in Los Angeles from 1996-2012, Gillespie’s choreography was been presented by numerous institutions including The Ford Amphitheatre, The Getty Museum, the Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater (REDCAT), The A.W.A.R.D Show!, UCLA, CalArts, The Fowler Museum, Highways Performance Space, The Electric Lodge, as well as at Joyce SoHo and CounterPULSE. She has performed with Victoria Marks, Helios Dance Theater, Simone Forti, David Rousseve, and Joe Goode. Her choreographic commissions include The Getty Center, Scripps College, Pomona College, Cal State Long Beach, and Santa Monica College. Gillespie is a four time Lester Horton Award winner (2002-2005) and the honored recipient of grants from The Durfee Foundation, The Irvine Foundation, and UWM Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies. She has taught at numerous universities and is developing work in Beijing and Guangdong, China and in Mexico City. Gillespie moved to Milwaukee in 2012 and is Assistant Professor at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts. She is a 2014/15 Global Studies Fellow for UWM Center for International Education. www.onidance.org.   

Maria Gillespie (photo – Denise Leitner)

Gina Laurenzi was previously trained as a Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago scholarship student, under Elements Contemporary Ballet’s Artistic Director Michael Gosney, and having performed with Giordano II and Inaside Chicago Dance. She is happy to have found a place in an inspiring family of artists right here in Milwaukee. Founder of Laurenzi Dance, Gina serves as the Artistic Director for her youth performing dance company, Project Innovate, and works to create themed concerts for her team of young artists and their community while balancing an active performing and teaching career. Ms. Laurenzi graduated with a BFA in Choreography and Performance from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, is in her second season with Danceworks Performance Company and enjoys diving into collaborations with fellow Milwaukee artists.

Tim Russell was raised in a house filled with the sounds of piano and guitar, his parents both being recreational musicians. From that nurturing experience, it seems only fitting that he was drawn to music as a way of interacting with the world. Tim began his professional career as a musician at fifteen, playing drums in rock bands around the Chicago suburbs. His passion for music and percussion deepened as he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he eventually graduated with a BM in percussion performance. An astute recommendation immersed Tim in the world of Contemporary Movement via accompanying classes and composing music at the University of Wisconsin Dance Program, an environment that encouraged his experimental and collaborative spirit. While in Madison, he maintained a active performing schedule, managed a private teaching studio and composed music for choreographers. Tim’s work with choreographers such as Jin Wen Yu, Li Chiao Ping, Kate Corby, Cycropia Aerial Dance, Luc Vanier and Kun Yang Lin has brought his music all across the country from the Fab! festival in New York City to CounterPULSE! in San Francisco. He currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he continues to expand his artistic family.

Allen Russell is a composer and violinist based in Milwaukee WI. His work has been described as ‘cinematic’ and tends to mix a range of genres within single works. Allen has had works performed by Milwaukee’s Tontine Ensemble, and has written and performed for Timothy Westbrook and Milwaukee Danceworks.

Previous Collaborators

 

Dan Schuchart is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher. In 2013 he earned his MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside, where he was honored to be a recipient of the 2012-13 Dissertation Year Program Fellowship. Schuchart earned BFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts in both Dance and Painting/Drawing and has since worked professionally in both fields. In addition, he recently completed his Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago. Since 2002, Schuchart has worked with Wild Space Dance Company as a company member, choreographer, and Associate Artistic Director. He has actively pursued creating and producing work in collaboration with Monica Rodero, including several independent dance concerts, and curating interactive multimedia gallery events. Working collaboratively, their choreography has been presented extensively throughout the Midwest as well as in California, NYC, and Seattle. Schuchart is currently a Lecturer at UW-Milwaukee and Artistic Associate at Lawrence University. He has also taught dance and movement studies at Beloit College, UC-Riverside and been a guest teacher at the Milwaukee Ballet, American College Dance Festival and in public school outreach programs. His interests in dance include collaborative creative process, dance-theatre, improvisation, and contact improvisation. Outside of dance, Schuchart has worked as a scenic painter, including the movie Public Enemies, and scenic charge for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Florentine Opera, and Skylight Music Theatre.

Rhea Speights is a multi- and interdisciplinary artist. Her creative work cross-pollinates the experimental with the traditional and is rooted to her experiences in dance and cinema. She has presented her choreography in the United States for the past ten years and, recently, in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Her work has been supported by the Puffin Foundation, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and the National Society of Arts and Letters. Speights earned her MFA in Dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was awarded the Wanda M Nettl prize for exceptional choreography and the Vannie Sheiry award for outstanding performance. Speights has designed a course titled Experimental Frames, which she teaches as an ongoing part of her research in the application of cinematic theory to choreographic methods. She is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

Rhea Speights

“Wisconsin native Paul Westfahl is an active performer and teacher in the Milwaukee area. He earned his BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2012 with an emphasis in Percussion Performance, Composition and Jazz Studies. Paul regularly performs with the Racine Symphony Orchestra, the Concord Chamber Orchestra, The Eastside Jazz Orchestra, and local gypsy jazz group, Swing Chevron. As an educator, Paul has been teaching drum set and percussion privatelysince 2007 and is currently an instructor at Brass Bell Music Store. In addition to working with students and large ensembles, Westfahl leads and composes for several of his own projects and is also involved as a sideman and co-conspirator/composer with many ‘new music’ ensembles and collectives in the Milwaukee area including Present Music’s: Compose Milwaukee, the UnrehearsedMKE series and the SeedSounds series. Westfahl keeps active within many facets of instrumental performance and composition and continues to stretch his interests and compositions to further benefit new and improvised music.”

Amanda Schoofs creates visceral works that emphasize timbre, presence, and ritual while exposing the raw, brilliant, and intimate qualities of the human spirit. Trained in contemporary composition and theory, her creative practice extends from the experimental tradition and exists in the space between diverse artistic practices. At the nexus of composition, improvisation, painting, drawing, printmaking, poetry, installation art, and authentic movement, Amanda creates provocative works that are uniquely interdisciplinary. A 2015 MATA Festival composer (The Kitchen, NYC), her works have been commissioned and presented throughout the United States, Germany, Australia, and Canada. Amanda is on the composition faculty at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, where she directs Contemporary Music Ensemble and teaches composition, theory, and experimental improvisation. She curates the series Sensoria: Experiments in Time-Based Media and Performance for INOVA – Institute of Visual Arts. She teaches composition with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, in collaboration with Present Music. Amanda holds a MA in Music Composition from Mills College. An invested academic, she was a 2014 Transdisciplinary Challenge Fellow at Center for 21st Century Studies. In both 2014 and 2015 she was a guest artist with Kulturamt BodenseeKreis’ (Germany) and Salem Art Works’ (New York) International Artist Residency, Salem2Salem.

Devin Settle is a Milwaukee-based dancer/choreographer and recent graduate of UW-Milwaukee, receiving her BA in Dance through Peck School of the Arts in May of 2015.  She has danced for many choreographers including Luc Vanier, Christina Briggs-Winslow, Katie Sopoci, Maria Gillespie, and visiting guest artist Stephan Koplowitz. While in school, Devin danced for Wild Space Dance Company as an intern in the production “All About Life”.  In 2014 she traveled to China with Oni Dance to participate in the Beijing International Dance Festival. Since graduation, Devin has been choreographing her own works for concerts such as Art to Art as well as dancing for Gina Laurenzi Dance Project and Catey Ott Dance Collective. Devin’s most recent accomplishments include co-facilitating alongside Joelle Worm for The Field Milwaukee and landing a dance writing internship for Shepherd Express.

Devin Settle – Photo: Alexandra Tereshchenko

Steve Schlei teaches music theory and composition at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the Peck School of the Arts. He has recently performed with music groups Console Lazers of Konigsberg Orchestra, MiLO, TORCH, and Seed Sounds, as well as in Amanda Schoofs’ Intimate Addictions. Recent collaborations with dance include two performances at Danceworks choreographed by Laura Murphy and a week-long residency with Mauriah Kraker through the Sensoria series at INOVA. Research interests include improvisation, electronic music, computer instruments, alternate tuning systems and temperaments, just intonation, ancient Greek tuning systems and mathematics, Pythagoreanism, Plato, and Neopythagoreanism.

Josh Robinson holds a bachelors degree in Classical Piano Performance and Jazz Studies from University of Wisconsin Parkside. Currently residing in Milwaukee, Josh is employed by the Milwaukee Ballet as an accompanist. In addition to the ballet, Josh accompanies students at UW – Parkside as well as annually accompanying high school students for Solo Ensemble. He is also the Keyboardist for Lord of Life Lutheran Church, playing hymns and liturgy for the church services. In addition to playing the church services Josh plays for many of the weddings and funerals hosted by the church. Josh also plays with many jazz groups in Milwaukee and the surrounding communities. At these gigs you can hear music ranging from original compositions to jazz standards. No matter what music Josh is playing, he brings an extremely high level of musicality and professionalism.

Mauriah Donegan Kraker is back in the Midwest after some years wandering New York and Asia. Her movement history includes: representing the United States in international competition as captain of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Group Team, receiving her BFA from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, making silly shadows for renowned dance company PILOBOLUS in New York and Europe, working with Assembly Dance Theatre in Taiwan, ONI Dance in Milwaukee, creating site-specific projects on printing presses in Germany, in rivers in the Midwest, under bridges in Taiwan, and in Bangkok’s zombie buildings. Her work has been presented at WTF Gallery in Bangkok, Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, 92nd Street Y, as well as throughout Milwaukee. She currently creates with Wild Space Dance Company.

Return To Our Blog Page