2018 Dance Forum
Friday, January 12, 2018
9am-12pm
New York Hilton Midtown
1335 Avenue of the Americas | New York, NY
FREE!
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2018 Dance Forum Speakers
Sean Dorsey Dance is currently in the studio making a new work: BOYS IN TROUBLE investigates masculinity and trouble from trans, queer and ‘outsider’ perspectives, and will tour with NDP and NPN support starting in May 2018. Dorsey’s previous work THE MISSING GENERATION is now on a 20-city US tour. THE MISSING GENERATION gives voice to LGBTQ longtime survivors of the early AIDS epidemic. Dorsey created the work after recording 75 hours of oral history interviews with longtime survivors; these voices and remarkable real-life stories are featured in the show’s award-winning soundscore.
Dorsey is also the founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions, the nation’s first non-profit to create, present and tour year-round transgender arts programs. Fresh Meat’s programs include the annual Fresh Meat Festival of transgender and queer performance, Sean Dorsey Dance’s local and touring performances, community residencies and education program, and a NEW program launching in 2018: TRANSform Dance. www.seandorseydance.com
Gibney is the recipient of Dance/USA’s 2017 Ernie Award, presented annually to a single individual whose achievements have significantly empowered artists and supported their creativity. Gibney has been described as “a force in the New York dance world” by The New York Times and a “power broker of contemporary dance” by The New York Observer. Dance Magazine’s July 2017 90th Anniversary Issue named Gibney a “community builder” and one of most influential people in dance today. In 2016, Gibney was named to the Out100 list of influential members of the LGBT community. In April 2008, she was named to the Vanity Fair Hall of Fame for "making art and taking action." She has been honored with the Arts & Artists in Progress Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange, the Northern Ohio Live Arts Award for the Food for Thought program, the Copperfoot Award for Choreography from Wayne State University, the Case Western Reserve University Young Alumni Award, Alpert Award (Finalist), the Our Town Thanks You Arts Award, and by Sanctuary for Families, Safe Horizon, and The Retreat. Gibney has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, Vanity Fair Magazine, Dance Magazine and many other publications. Her work and the organization been widely supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust and many others.
Gibney’s choreographic work is featured in the repertory of the organization’s resident dance ensemble, Gibney Dance Company, now alongside work by leading contemporary colleagues through GRIT (Gibney Repertory Initiative for Tomorrow). Gibney has created over thirty dances for the Company, including fourteen evening length works. Called a “poet of modern dance” by The New York Times, the choreographer’s work uses weight, momentum and intricate partnering to craft abstract narrative infused with interpersonal dynamics. Her work has been featured in recent years by such venues as Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York), Florence Gould Hall (New York), Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), Danspace Project (New York), White Bird (Oregon), the Yale Repertory Theater (Connecticut), John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Wisconsin), DANCECleveland (Ohio), L'Agora de la Danse (Montreal, Canada), and Internationale Tanzmesse (Dusseldorf, Germany). Through recent Global Community Action Residencies, Gibney’s work has traveled to Mimar Sinan (Istanbul, Turkey), Magnet Theater (Cape Town, South Africa), Danscentrum (Stockholm, Sweden), Theater of the Young Spectator (Yerevan, Armenia) and Sevgi Gönül Cultural Center (Istanbul, Turkey). Gibney has collaborated with a broad range of artists, including lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann; composers Kitty Brazelton, Ryan Lott/Son Lux and Andy Russ; musical ensembles ETHEL, Y Music and ACME (American Contemporary Musical Ensemble); set designers Lex Liang and Normal Group for Architecture; costume designers Lex Liang and Naoko Nagata, and visualist Joshue Ott/SuperDraw.
Gibney is a frequent panelist and speaker on topics of dance, entrepreneurship, and arts-community partnerships, and she serves on several cultural boards and advisory groups. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts from Case Western Reserve University where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. At Case Western Reserve University, she studied with Kathryn Karipides, Kelly Holt and David N. Brown, and her early work also was influenced by such artists as Pat Graney, Hanya Holm, Penny Hutchinson, Jocelyn Lorenz, Mark Morris and Bessie Schönberg.
Previously, Marty's choreography has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Stratford Circus in London, Chateau de Cazals in France and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. For over eight years, she worked with a variety of populations as a choreographer and teaching artist with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. She has choreographed and coached movement for theatre including NYC based contemporary performance art company Big Art Group, Washington Shakespeare Company and Imagination Stage in DC and the Paramount in Austin. Marty holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from the University of Texas and an MFA in Choreography from the University of Iowa. Krissie is also a reviewer for the Teaching Artist Journal.
Marty has also provided professional development for Austin’s Creative Learning Initiative, Theatre Action Project's Changing Lives Youth Ensemble and Music Together teachers. She has taught nationally for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Jacob's Pillow School & Curriculum in Motion, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, NewVic (London), Adugna Dance Company (Ethiopia), Grinnell College and Towson University. She has provided teacher training in arts integration for Wolf Trap, Towson University, and City Dance Ensemble in DC. Krissie has also danced with children in home health and hospice care, as well as with Studio G in the Pediatric Unit at Georgetown Medical Center.
Prior to her legal career, Ramos, a retired professional ballet dancer, worked as an executive director for multiple non-profit arts organizations and served as a program officer for Women’s Foundation of California. She was director of Dance/NYC from 2006-2010. She has served as a panelist for several organizations including the NEA, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Ramos consults in communications strategy, diversity and equity training as well as leadership with non-profit organizations in addition to her legal practice. She is the proud mother of a professional dancer, and since retiring from her own dance career Ramos has become a competitive Ironman triathlete and marathoner.
As the primary funds developer for CPRD, Robinson worked with community agencies to develop partnerships that helped sustain and grow the organization. He also worked in partnership with the Denver Housing Authority in the acquisition of $20 million grant award from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant supported the redevelopment of a dilapidated housing that formerly surrounded the organization. As a result of his work, CPRD has evolved into a creative arts center and destination for dance in Denver.
Robinson’s dedication to education and the arts led to the creation of the after-school program Aye (Yoruba for “Life”), which he and his wife, Olga Gonzalez, developed to serve high-risk youth in northeast Denver. Through partnerships with the Aurora and Denver Youth Probation Departments, the project served an average of 125 teens per year.
In his consultant role, Robinson has served as a grant reviewer for national foundations that serve arts organizations and children. Robinson is a Leadership Denver graduate and 2015 Livingston Fellow. He serves on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Blacks in Dance, the First Lady of Denver’s Bringing Back the Arts, as well as the Ian James Wallace Foundation, and is an advisory member for the Africana Studies Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community Advisory Panel at Denver Health Medical Center. Robinson earned his B.A. in African Studies from Regis University. Robinson is the son of Tom and Cleo Robinson, and he is married to Olga Gonzalez with three daughters Citlalmina, Ximalma, and Xareni.
An award-winning choreographer, Sheppard creates movement that challenges conventional understandings of disabled and dancing bodies. Engaging with disability arts, culture and history, she has commissioned work attends to the complex intersections of disability, gender, and race. Sheppard is the founder and artistic lead for Kinetic Light, a collaboration with dancer Laurel Lawson, lighting and video artist Michael Maag, and professors Sara Hendren, Yevgeniya Zastavker, and students of Olin College.
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As Founding Artistic Director, Yudin has led the company on national and international tours with support from the NEFA/National Dance Project. She has also directed twelve of Viver Brasil’s world premieres at the Ford Amphitheatre, the Hollywood Bowl and the Music Center in Los Angeles. Most recently, she directed Viver Brasil’s 20th anniversary concert, Agô Ayó Spirits Rising. She also created the artistic vision for Viver Brasil’s performance in the Viva Navidad Street Party at Disney California Adventure Park, currently in its fifth year. Through the company’s signature program, Samba in the Streets, Yudin continues to develop Viver Brasil’s commitment to energize communities with Afro-Brazilian dance and music in a dialogue that exalts black ancestry and modern life, racial equity, and resistance and resilience.
Yudin has lectured, taught, published, and performed Afro-Brazilian dance at colleges, universities, elementary, and secondary schools, academic conferences, and with communities throughout the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Brazil and South Africa. Since 2015 she has taught her signature Afro-Brazilian dance course in the WAC/Dance Department. From 1999-2014, she was an adjunct faculty member at Santa Monica College, and she taught at UCLA from 1994-95. She consulted for the “New World, New Forms” segment of the WNET public television series “Dancing”; and delivered the keynote speech at the University of Cape Town, South Africa's first international dance conference in 1997. She is also the chair of the Los Angeles-Salvador Sister City committee.
In September 2017, the Consulate General of Brazil recognized Yudin for her dedication to the development of a robust Afro-Brazilian cultural presence in Los Angeles and beyond. She is a recipient of a 2012 Cultural Exchange International fellowship from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Sacatar Foundation. In 2009, she also received the prestigious Excellence in Teaching award from the board of directors of Dance Resource Center of Greater L.A./Lester Horton Dance Awards. Yudin is a two-time grantee of the NEFA/National Dance Project (2007, 2009), four time Durfee Foundation grantee, and a recipient of the 2016-17 Dance/USA Engaging Dance Audiences grant. She has also received support from the NEA, the Brazilian Ministry of External Affairs, the California Arts Council, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.
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