Meet the choreographers and artists of CounterPointe9
This March, Norte Maar brings forth CounterPointe9, 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 Actors Fund Arts Center from March 11-13, 2022. Tickets here.
We are pleased to introduce eight exceptional choreographers and their collaborating artists:
Julia K Gleich, MFA, MA is a Brooklyn-based choreographer and teacher who has worked across the US, Europe, Japan, and Hong Kong. She has been making contemporary ballets for over 30 years and currently teaches at Peridance in NYC. Her company, Gleich Dances performed in the UK and US including seasons at The Broadway Theatre, London, NYC’s Joyce SoHo, and Centre for Performance Research with critical notice in The New York Times, Village Voice, The New Criterion, TwoCoatsofPaint.com, dancelog.com, and The Brooklyn Rail. Her conceptual dance films have been exhibited in NYC, and Singapore. Julia is Co-Founder in 2005, with Jason Andrew, of Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts and curates and produces the annual CounterPointe Collaborations program. Julia spent 20 years teaching BA- and MA-level dance in higher education at the University of Utah, Manhattanville College, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK) and London Studio Centre (UK). She led the Design for Dance and Co-Lab projects in collaboration with Central St. Martins College of Art and Design for 13 years. She was the recipient of an Arts Council England Grant in 2013, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Utah 2014, a Choreographer Observership with English National Ballet 2016. Recent company residencies include University of Buffalo Art Galleries, and The Tang Teaching Museum at Saratoga Springs in a collaboration with artists, Nicole Cherubini and Meg Lipke. Her writings about dance and ballet with Molly Faulkner have been published in the Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet, and in an anthology for Intellect Books (Re)Claiming Ballet. Julia's original research on vector movement theories is published in the Dynamic Body in Space.
A painter and arts writer, Sharon Butler is widely known as the founder of Two Coats of Paint, a project which includes an influential art blogazine about painting, an artists residency, online conversations, a small press, and other initiatives. She has received awards and residencies from Creative Capital and the Warhol Foundation, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Connecticut State University, Pollock Krasner Foundation, Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, Pocket Utopia, and Counterproof Press. Her 2016, 2018, 2021 solo painting exhibitions at Theodore Gallery were written about in Hyperallergic, artcritical, The New Criterion, The James Kalm Report, Time Out New York, and New York Magazine. She is affiliated with SEASON Gallery in Seattle and has been included in several art fairs, including NADA New York. Sharon is New-York based, and, thanks to the generosity of the Two Trees Cultural Space Subsidy Program, maintains a studio in Brooklyn, under the Manhattan Bridge. She teaches in the MFA programs at the New York Academy of Art and the University of Connecticut.
Axons Dance Theatre was established in 2019 by artistic director Joan Liu to focus on the creative process and to encourage communication through the art of dance. Liu was trained in multiple genres before performing with Taipei Royal Ballet. She later pursued academics receiving her MS in biology from New York University and MA in dance education through the collaborated program between NYU and American Ballet Theatre. Liu’s choreography, including a full-length ballet, has been showcased in various venues including New York City Center, Dixon Place, Abrons Arts Center, Players Theatre, Wild Project theatre, Arts on Site, Frederick Loewe Theater. Axons Dance Theatre has been invited to perform at International Human Rights Festival, NACHMO, Queens Informal, 7MPR midnight performances with press/reviews featuring Liu and ADT appearing in The Wonderful World of Dance, Broadway World, Dance Enthusiast among others.
Traci Johnson, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Johnson specializes in textile design, installation and sculpture. Johnson has shown at numerous galleries including Art Port Kingston, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Michael David & Co, Museum at FIT and F.I.T. Art & Design Gallery. Johnson is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology majoring in Fine Arts with a minor in Art History. Their concepts are driven by mental health, art and fashion as therapy subcultures. Johnson creates a healing space for themselves and others within their work, essentially a safe space. They are deeply affected by traumas and how the human mind, soul and body can be soothed by a moment. As they discover ways to comfort themself, their art emulates a calm, euphoric space. Johnson also brings themselves into the painting hoping to bring a sense of euphoria and vibration within the colors of their art. They also have a deep emotion towards nature and the world; nature flows organically using every opportunity to grow and branch out into beautiful tendrils across the world. Its mark is known calmly and fluidly which is an adaptation seen in their paintings. Johnson feels grateful to be able to express themselves through this outlet and will continue to display their art for the world to see.
Tiffany Mangulabnan is a New York City-based Filipino dancer, choreographer, and founding co-artistic director of Brooklyn-based contemporary ballet company konverjdans. She began her professional ballet career when she was 15 at the Philippine Ballet Theatre in Manila, Philippines, and later went on to perform as a principal dancer with the company. She moved to New York City in 2012 and has since worked and performed with companies like Gleich Dances, Pigeonwing Dance, Emery LeCrone DANCE, Indelible Dance, Claudia Schreier & Co, Terra Firma Dance, Trainor Dance, BalletNext, and others. Since co-founding konverjdans with Jordan Miller and Amy Saunder in 2016, she has choreographed and collaborated on several works for the stage as well as written, directed and edited her own dance films. Last fall, she was selected as one of four choreographers for Dance Lab New York’s 2021 Female Choreographers of Color in Ballet Lab.
Madge Reyes is an advocate of dance past the stage. The former Ballet Philippines Soloist and Asian Cultural Council Fellow continues to pursue her practice as a performer, often meandering between physical and digital platforms as an independent dancer, filmmaker, producer, and choreographer. Reyes’ commitment to presenting dance using a more practical and progressive medium led her to establish FIFTH WALL FEST, the Philippines’ first international platform for dance on camera. Grounded on collaborative exploration, the festival offers a space for visibility and education, while simultaneously opening the dialogue for movement beyond the screen.
JoVonna Parks is a Philadelphia native where she began her intense formal training in Ballet, Horton and Graham techniques. She attended Ailey/Fordham under the direction of Ana Marie Forsythe and graduated with her BFA in dance in 2012. Upon graduation she was invited to perform with John Mark Owen in John Mark Owen Presents…. In Requiem. She has had the pleasure of working with and performing works by Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Donald McKayle, Hofesh Shector, Robert Battle, Jill Echo and many others. JoVonna has also had the opportunity and pleasure to work with Ty Jones and The Classical Theatre of Harlem in their productions of MacBeth(soldier/ensemble), The Three Musketeers(Kitty/ensemble), Antigone(ensemble) and she served as dance captain production of A Christmas Carol in Harlem. JoVonna performed with Elisa Monte Dance under the direction of both Elisa Monte and Tiffany Rea-Fisher from 2014-2019. Whether performing or creating, she also teaches ballet, modern and contemporary techniques in the greater NYC and New Jersey area. She is currently a freelance dance artist in NYC. JoVonna is a recipient of the NYFA City Corps Grant as well as a recipient of the 2021/2022 UMEZ grant as choreographer/collaborator.
Noel Hennelly was born in Queens, NY, in 1957. She grew up along with a large extended family that included a clockmaker, a magician, a religious fanatic, and a psychologist. After earning her BFA from Pratt Institute, Noel has worked as a typographer, graphic designer, and has pursued interests in science and religion. She earned a Master of Divinity at Yale University, while attending classes in sculpture at the Yale School of Art. Noel’s objects — in wood, metal, fabric and paper—represent votives, elegies, and topical symbols based on natural and manufactured forms with mythic or cultural, references. Most pieces are hand-cut and assembled with attachments and imagery that draw on the crossover between man and nature.
Kathryn Roszak is the founder of Danse Lumière (known as Anima Mundi until 2006), and has since specialized in the creation of her own original productions. Her unique approach brings new audiences to classical art forms by blending and innovating within the disciplines of dance, literature, music, visual art, and theater. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations have included working with Kabuki master Shozo Sato; choreographer Alonzo King; playwright Velina Hasu Houston; musicians Mazatl Galindo of Mexico and Ailu Gaup of Arctic Norway; composer Gordon Getty; and writers Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, and Maxine Hong Kingston. Ms. Roszak was invited to be an Artist in Residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in California where she has also served on the Choreography panel. She produces the annual Women Ballet Choreographers Residency there. Ms. Roszak's work has been presented in the San Francisco Bay Area by the University of San Francisco and by The Asian Art Museum and in New York City by La MaMa ETC, Scandinavia House, and by the 92nd Street Y. Internationally her work has been presented by Copenhagen Festival, Denmark, Les Amis du 7, Dijon, France, and her choreographic work in Norway was supported by the Royal Norwegian Consulate. Ms. Roszak's selected grants and awards include Ann and Gordon Getty, Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, and Laurance S. Rockefeller.
Anna Sidana (she/her) is a visual artist and large-scale oil painter. Her art explores an emotional connection with complex family histories through hazy childhood memories, abstraction, and symbolism, transcending the canvas to convey myriad emotions. Childhood memories led Anna to her subject matter of pomegranates and cotton in her art. Taking a contemporary twist on landscape painting, she blurs the traditional horizon, preferring to keep the viewer in a fluid and lyrical psychological space that is not a specific location or place. Anna has shown her work at the de Young Museum of San Francisco, Marin MOCA, The Diego Rivera Gallery, Times Square, New York, and the London Art Biennale. She is a recipient of two Sheridan Awards. Anna serves on the board of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and ZERO1. Anna holds a bachelor's from the British Computer Society (BCS) and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
Charly Santagado is a dancer, choreographer, writer, and curator dedicated to forging interdisciplinary connections across diverse artistic mediums. Originally from Orlando, Florida, and currently based in the New Jersey / New York area, she graduated with highest honors from Rutgers University in 2017 with a major in philosophy and minors in dance, music, and creative writing. The following summer, she founded a 501-c3 nonprofit contemporary dance company with her sister Eriel called mignolo dance. Charly has danced with VALLETO Dance, ReFrame Dance Theatre, Monteleone Dance Collective, Katelyn Halpern and Dancers, Daniel Rose Projects, and Arts By The People. She also regularly performs in her own work, which has been presented at numerous venues around the tristate area. Her work has been produced by HERE Arts Center, Inclined Dance Project, Jersey City Theater Center, the Metuchen Arts Council, Gardenship Art, and Norte Maar’s CounterPointe. She has won screendance awards at several international film festivals as well as Ramapo College’s Leaning Into The Unknown Competition, Spoke The Hub’s Winter Follies, Palm Springs International Dance Festival’s film competition, and KoDaFe in NYC. In addition to being a dancer and choreographer, Charly is a dance critic and journalist writing for Dance Informa.
Barbara Weissberger’s improvisational photographs, textile works, and soft sculptures are concerned with bodies, perception, and sensation. Her recent shaped photo-quilts collage together image fragments from what we call daily life and from the realm of the imaginal. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been awarded numerous national and international residencies including MacDowell, Yaddo, Ucross, Camargo, Bogliasco, VCCA, and the Drawing Center’s Open Sessions. Her work has been exhibited at such venues as The Silver Eye Center for Photography, PS1/MoMA, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, The Drawing Center, The Mattress Factory, ADA Gallery, and The Missoula Art Museum. She was born in New Jersey and has lived in San Francisco and New York. She currently lives in Pittsburgh where she teaches at the University of Pittsburgh.
Sarah Yasmine Marazzi-Sassoon is a 21-year-old American, Italian choreographer and a Senior at Barnard College of Columbia University where she is pursuing a self-designed major that combines Dance, Evolutionary Biology, and Literature. She was raised in Paris, France where she trained in ballet at the Académie Américaine de Danse de Paris from 2005-2015. She then moved to San Francisco where she trained at the San Francisco Academy of Ballet until 2018. Her work has been staged across the U.S., including at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre in New York City, and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. During the pandemic she has worked on creating two dance films. The first, commissioned by the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, was created entirely remotely and the second, featuring two LINES trainees, was rehearsed and filmed adhering to social distancing guidelines. In her work she wishes to explore the intimacy that having only a couple dancers on stage can create in juxtaposition with a larger group, and toys with how moments of tenderness can be shattered or interrupted. She finds that music, the choice of music, and musicality are extremely important and often dictate the creative process.
Sophia Chizuco is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. She was born in Japan. She earned her B.A. in Art and Education from Tokyo Gakugei University. In 2000, she moved to New York to study abstract paintings at the Art Students League of New York and earned a certificate in painting. In 2019, she has been selected for a leader for “Hospital-Based Community Murals Project“ at NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine program. Also she has been selected for projectart, art and social practice, artists in residence in Cypress Hills library and SU-CASA program, artist-in-residence in Young Israel Senior Center. Since 2013, Chizuco has been a part of the Immigrant Artist Program, acting as a mentor at the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has been organized and curated shows for Immigrant artists. Also She held origami workshops at Museum of Jewish Heritage and National Yiddish Theatre. She is the recipient of both the grand prize from ArtNetwork and a merit scholarship from the Art Students League of New York. Her works were exhibited nationally and internationally at the Chelsea Museum (New York), Art Monaco (Monaco), the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Japan), and Makati Shangri-La Hotel (Philippines).
@sophiachizuco
XAOC Contemporary Ballet is a New York City-based neoclassical ballet company founded by choreographer Eryn Renee Young in 2010. The name XAOC (pronounced zay-ock) is derived from the Greek ‘χαος,’ which means ‘chaos’ and implies explosive creation. It is meant to portray the spirit of the company as they move ballet into the future, while maintaining strong ties to classical form. XAOC operates under the belief that there is room for ballet to evolve into the 21st century, led by women with a vision of inclusivity, generosity, inventiveness, spirit, humanity, and love. Eryn Renee Young is founding artistic director and resident choreographer of XAOC Contemporary Ballet, an inaugural choreographic fellow of the Jacob’s Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship, a 2018 resident choreographer of the UNCSA Choreographic Institute, and a 2017 resident artist of Dance at Socrates in Queens, NY. Her choreography, which has been described as “dynamic... pulsing... [with] a fine sense of exploring space and a knack for visual polyphony,” has been showcased and commissioned across the NYC metro area. She has been commissioned by Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Eryc Taylor Dance, and eight times by Norte Maar for their CounterPointe series celebrating women making work on pointe in collaboration with female visual artists.
Elizabeth Riley’s art addresses questions concerning the complex and changing world we inhabit and our “mixed reality,” living between physical and digital/virtual contexts. The works produced take the form of two and three dimensional wall works, installations, and tabletop cityscapes, made from video, video stills, and diverse materials. A long time New Yorker, she graduated from Barnard College and received an MFA from Hunter College. In April, 2021, Elizabeth Riley’s wall work was featured in a 2-person show at Spantzo, Gallery, 138 Eldridge St. In the summer, 2021, the artist completed a proposal, as a finalist, for a Percent for Art sponsored site-specific art commission for a public school in NYC. She was a resident at the Millay Colony, November, 2020, and has participated in 14 artist residencies, in the US and aboard. “Ribbons Become Space,” a solo show of her work, featuring an installation including six live video elements, was presented at SL Gallery, in Manhattan, 2019. In 2018 her video, “The Life of a City,” was screened as part of the BRIC Garage Door Video Series, at BRIC Arts-Media House in Brooklyn.
