Meet the choreographers and artists of CounterPointe12
This March, Norte Maar brings forth CounterPointe12, the longest standing performance production exclusively featuring collaborations between female dance makers and visual artists. The performances will take place at downtown Brooklyn’s Mark O’Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund from March 7-9, 2025. Tickets here.
We are pleased to introduce the seven CounterPointe12 choreographers and their collaborating artists:
Anna Antongiorgi (she/her) is a poet, choreographer, and dancer. She earned her BA in English and Theatre, Dance, and Media at Harvard, followed by an MFA in Poetry at the New School. She has worked as a guest choreographer with the Wellesley College Dancers, the Harvard Ballet Company and NYU’s Ballet Collaborative. Her poetry chapbook refinding the rules of gravity(Finishing Line Press, July 2021), was featured in Dance Magazine and included in Flight Path Dance Project’s curriculum. SUNDAY, her original choreopoem, was selected to be performed in the Emerging Artists Theater’s New Works Series in September 2022. She expanded this work to an evening length show, performed with Spoke the Hub’s 2024 Director’s Choice series. She has danced with VISIONS Contemporary Ballet, Gleich Dances, and the Kennedy Dancers. She lives in Brooklyn, works as a freelance choreographer, and dances with the Brooklyn Ballet.
Cynthia Reynolds is a Kentucky-born, NYC-based artist who uses discarded packaging she collects from the streets of the city to consider the spaces of bodies and architecture. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle (Ceramics), a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute (Ceramics), and a BA from Centre College in Kentucky (English/Studio Art). Recent professional highlights include her first social performance for Art in Odd Places 2024: CARE, participation in the inaugural Zero Art Fair during Upstate Art Weekend 2024, and group exhibitions at Elza Kayal Gallery in Tribeca and MAPSpace with Ice Cream Social in Port Chester. She was a ChaShaMa studio artist during 2021 and 2022. In 2020, she made her curatorial debut at Ejecta Projects in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with “what we create may save us,” the final member exhibition for the Brooklyn-based Wayfarers gallery and studio program, of which she was a member from 2017-2020. Her first New York solo show, “milk teeth,” was presented there in 2018.
A New York native, Ava Desiderio is a choreographer and dancer. They have danced with Alabama Ballet, participating in productions such as Don Quixote, Blue Suede Shoes, and George Balanchine’s Western Symphony; and Eglevsky Ballet, working with choreographers such as Gabrielle Lamb and Maurice Brandon Curry. Now based in New York City, Ava has had choreography shown at Miami City Ballet School, Renversé Ballet, Steps on Broadway, and Columbia University. Ava is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 3. They are currently on faculty at Edgewater Performing Arts. They began studying ballet at age 3, and continued recreationally until age 10 when she started at Petrov Ballet School in Waldwick, NJ. She continued her training with Ballet Academy East under Darla Hoover and Miami City Ballet School under Arantxa Ochoa. Ava’s other training includes San Francisco Ballet, The Royal Ballet School, American Ballet Theatre, New Chamber Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Orsolina28 working with Jacob Jonas The Company. Ava also directs, choreographs and produces dance films, the most recent edition being WHEN WE’RE TOGETHER.
Photo by Amanda Marie Mason
Elisabeth Condon lives and works in New York City. She is the recipient of the Pollock Krasner Foundation and Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grants. Her paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Hudson River Museum, United States Embassy Beijing, Tampa Museum of Art, and Perez Art Museum Miami. Condon's public commissions include MTA Art & Design Percent for Art, Norte Maar Collaboration for the Arts, and Tribeca Film Institute's Storefront Art Recovery Initiative (STAR). Her work was featured with a poem by Ilya Kaminsky in the MTA and Poetry Society's 2024 Poetry in Motion series. Condon’s work is represented by Emerson Dorsch.
Photo by Jeremy Kyle
Magali Johnston-Viens is part French and part Canadian but grew up mostly between Paris and Washington, DC. They trained at the Kirov Academy of Washington DC from 2011 until graduation in 2016; in that time, they also studied at the American Academy of Dance of Paris. Magali has danced professionally since 2019, when they joined Ballet Palm Beach. They then went on to join Minnesota Ballet, where they began choreographing. Magali was a creator at Point Park University’s Choreographic Collective in 2022, and is a 2023 Arrowhead Regional Arts Council Individual Artist Project Grantee. Magali is now a freelance dancer and choreographer in NYC and has worked with Dances Patrelle, Sekou Walton Dance, Sarah Yasmine Marazzi-Sassoon, and Neglia Ballet. Magali’s choreographic works have been presented at Arts On Site with 7MPR’s Pride performance, Spring for Spring organized by Rogue Wave, Emergence Dance Festival NYC, and as part of HOT Dance Festival 2024 at Dixon Place.
Photo by Sherry Lin
Florencia Escudero was born in Singapore in 1987 and grew up in Mendoza, Argentina. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Escudero received an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale University School of Art in 2012 and a BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 2010. Her works have been exhibited at Kristen Lorello, Instituto Cervantes, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Mrs. Gallery and Rachel Uffner Gallery among other venues. She was a 2016 year-long Artist in Residence at the Loisaida Center, New York, NY, and has also completed residencies at Collarworks, Troy, NY, Art Farm, Marquette, NE, and Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA. Works by Escudero have been discussed in Editorial Magazine, Aether Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, The American Reader, Cultured Magazine and the Brooklyn Rail. She is an editor and founder of Precog Magazine.
Julia K. Gleich has been making dances for over 30 years, investigating relationships between the traditional and contemporary with a focus on collaboration. In 2004 she co-founded Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts with Jason Andrew as a vehicle to create and present collaborations in dance and visual arts. After 15 years of teaching at dance conservatoires in London (Trinity Laban and London Studio Centre) she gave up institutional academia, returning to NYC to independent creation. Gleich Dances was produced at the JoyceSoHo for 2 seasons, has been in residence at the University of Buffalo and at The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore and enjoyed artists retreats at Kaatbsaan. Gleich teaches at Peridance Center in NYC and is known for supporting new ideas in ballet. Book chapters about canon and the margins of ballet with collaborator Molly Faulkner, are published in (re:) claiming ballet and The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet. In addition to her creative and scholarly work in dance, Gleich is a partner in Artist Estate Studio managing artist studios and estates, stewarding legacies and promoting artists.
Born in 1970 in Boston, Nicole Cherubini received a BFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1993 and an MFA in Visual Arts from New York University in 1998. Through her practice, Cherubini explores her relationship to motherhood and female identity—seeking to place gender into the greater conversation. Informed by an anthropological perspective, she includes a plethora of historical references in her work ranging from the cultural role of adorned Hittite pots in ancient Anatolia to her extensive research of utopian communities like the Shakers. By integrating unexpected elements such as platforms, frames, wood armatures, paint, aluminum, flora and found objects such as a five-gallon bucket or saran wrap, Cherubini proposes a distinct new relationship between materials, history and purpose for the viewer. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at institutions including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, PA; the Jersey City Museum in Jersey City, NJ; the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, NY; the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, FL; and the Santa Monica Museum of Art in Los Angeles, CA. Her works have been acquired for the permanent collections of institutions, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Cranbrook Art Museum, MI; MIT List Visual Arts Center, MA; the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA; Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; and the Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL.
Born and raised in California, Deborah Lohse is a physical comedian, performer and choreographer living and working in New York City. Her work has been presented in theaters, public spaces and festivals including DANCE NOW Joe’s Pub, American Dance Festival, Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, United Solo Theater Festival, La Mama Moves, Winter Garden at Brookfield Place and The Stonewall Inn. She has received commissions from Women In Motion, Mantra Percussion, SUNY Purchase, DANCE NOW and Island Moving Company as well as artist residencies from The Yard, Marble House Project, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Acadia Summer Arts Program and SILO. As a performer, Lohse has worked with theater directors Michael Preston, Barbara Karger and Anne Kauffman, visual artists Suzanne Bocanegra and Paulina Olowska and choreographers Monica Bill Barnes, Cori Olinghouse, Doug Elkins, Katy Pyle/Ballez, and Lohse’s collaborative dance comedy crew LMnO3 (Lohse, Marquis and Oakley). She currently performs with Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Parallel Exit, David Parker/The Bang Group and as her alter ego indefatigable cabaret persona TruDee.
Micki Watanabe Spiller is a reader, paper purist, and a lover of books. She creates works using them as source material and her studio practice can be evenly divided into reading, writing, and making. Though her background is in sculpture, she also combines performative aspects creating moments where storytelling can take place. Her work has been shown in exhibitions both national and international, as well as participated in residency programs such as Saltonstall, World Views in the WTC, and Smack Mellon. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner and Printed Matter grants among others. When not teaching at Parsons School for Design and Pratt Institute, or making things in her LIC studio, she can be found on long bike rides around the city.
Photo by Jaqlin Medlock
Juliette Rafael is a dancer and choreographer born in Kansas City, MO, and now based in New York City. She has been deeply immersed in ballet from a young age, honing her craft at the Kansas City Ballet Daytime Program and further developing her skills with the Sacramento Ballet Second Company. Juliette moved to New York City in 2021, where she earned a BFA summa cum laude in Dance (Ballet/Choreography) from Marymount Manhattan College. Awarded the honorable mention for the ballet key award, Juliette was among the highest achievers in her class. She was selected twice to present and choreograph original pieces for the "Dancers at Work" student choreography showcase, showcased work at "Works in Progress," and presented original work at the student-run dance on film showcase "screenPLAY." Since graduating, Juliette has had the privilege of presenting her work in the Dance Bloc Festival at Dixon Place, Pangea: Unearthed at Ballet Arts, and the film festival Oddfest at the Tank Theater in New York City. Juliette is passionate about continuing ballet's legacy in our contemporary world. By telling modern stories and fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment, she seeks to create a space where this art form can evolve and thrive.
https://julietterafael.wixsite.com/juliette-rafael---da
@juliette.rafael
Christina Massey is an award winning artist known for her use of repurposed materials, particularly that of aluminum cans in creating her colorful botanical abstractions. Her practice spans sculpture to painting and installation, centering on issues that concern the environment and consumer waste. In recent years, Massey was awarded a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, a solo exhibition during the SPRINGBREAK Art Show in NYC, a studio residency with Art Cake in Brooklyn, NY and a solo installation at the Gallery for ARTFul Medicine at the Montefiore Einstein in the Bronx, NY. In 2022, she was awarded her second Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant, a residency on Governors Island, and a solo exhibition at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. Earlier awards include an FST StudioProject Fund Grant 2019, SIP Fellowship at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop 2017, and a Puffin Foundation Grant 2017 and Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat in 2016. Massey’s work is in the collections of the Janet Turner Museum, Art Bank Collection in DC, Bank of America Collection in Miami, UBS and multiple private collections. Massey studied painting and theater set design at California State University Chico. She is also an independent curator focusing on promoting contemporary female identifying artists.
Margaret Wiss (she/her) holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Columbia University, Master of Fine Arts in Dance with a concentration in choreography from NYU Tisch School for the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Kinesiology from Mount Holyoke College. Her choreographic and screendance work has been presented across the United States and she has been commissioned by PDX Contemporary Ballet, North Atlantic Dance Theatre, The Harvard Ballet Company, and the Five College Dance Department. She has taught for Mount Holyoke College and Tisch School for the Arts Dance Department Future Dance Makers and Dancers Program. Wiss has performed professionally in Boston and has worked with Pilobolus Dance Theater, Sidra Bell, Jennifer Hart, and Kinsun Chan. She values the vitality of collaboration and is currently researching and writing a book on the subject.
Amy Talluto is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in Upstate NY. She was born in New Orleans, LA and earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2018 she was awarded a NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship in Painting and was an Artforum Critics Pick for her solo exhibition at Black & White Gallery (Brooklyn). She has recently shown her work at Auxier Kline Gallery, Jeff Bailey Gallery, The Berkshire Botanical Garden, the Samuel Dorsky Museum, Geoffrey Young Gallery, The Albany Airport and Wave Hill Gardens. She is a 2024 MacDowell Fellow and has also been an artist in residence at the Saltonstall Foundation (NY), Ucross Foundation (WY), Provincetown Dune Shacks & the Byrdcliffe Colony (NY). She is the host and producer of the Pep Talks for Artists Podcast.
