Coins for Contact: Mission Improvable
(un)doing Balance
Dance, art, auction, food. A benefit concert for Mission Improvable on December 10th in Buffalo, NY!
photo courtesy of Jim Bush/dancers: Nancy Hughes, Scott Slocum, Cynthia Cadwell Pegado & Phil Wackerfuss
(un)doing BALANCE
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Ticket purchase will support dance in Buffalo through scholarships and low cost
participation fees to the annual Mission Improvable Series.
participation fees to the annual Mission Improvable Series.
(un)doing Balance is featuring local WNY Choreographers and performers.
Choreographers
A native of Buffalo, New York, Naila Ansari Woods is a Cum Laude graduate of Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts program. She is an original and former principal dancer for the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble. Which was named “Top 25 Dance Companies to Watch” in Dance Magazine for the 2012-2013 season. Naila also danced for the legendary Lula Washington Dance Theatre out of Los Angeles, CA.
As teaching and traveling have been big aspects of her career, her experiences have included teaching classical dance to underprivileged children on the Island of Turks and Caicos. Traveling to Montreal, Quebec where she took part in the prestigious summer project Springboard Danse with the honor of performing a new work by Louise Bedard. The privilege to perform works by world renowned artists like Robert Battle, Sidra Bell, Camille Brown, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Kyle Abraham, Christopher Huggins, Francesca Harper, Ann Reinking, David Parsons, Jason McDole, and Kiesha Lalama.
Naila has appeared as a lead dancer in the movie “Sorority Row.” She has worked Off-Broadway with acclaimed dancer, choreographer to the stars, and Hollywood actor Darrin Henson in “Dreams Do Travel.” She also has a number of credits working with industrials and acting projects. Naila currently is a dance Professor at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York, where she resides with her Husband and son.
As teaching and traveling have been big aspects of her career, her experiences have included teaching classical dance to underprivileged children on the Island of Turks and Caicos. Traveling to Montreal, Quebec where she took part in the prestigious summer project Springboard Danse with the honor of performing a new work by Louise Bedard. The privilege to perform works by world renowned artists like Robert Battle, Sidra Bell, Camille Brown, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Kyle Abraham, Christopher Huggins, Francesca Harper, Ann Reinking, David Parsons, Jason McDole, and Kiesha Lalama.
Naila has appeared as a lead dancer in the movie “Sorority Row.” She has worked Off-Broadway with acclaimed dancer, choreographer to the stars, and Hollywood actor Darrin Henson in “Dreams Do Travel.” She also has a number of credits working with industrials and acting projects. Naila currently is a dance Professor at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York, where she resides with her Husband and son.
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rk-co dance now inhabits Buffalo, New York. Under the artistic direction of Rachel Keane, this company hopes to present dance in a way that creates new connections between mediums and confronts the
relationship of the audience and performer. Hailing from a small Midwest town, and traveling to Western New York, Keane often draws inspiration from working with dancers and collaborators remotely. Via technology as well as catering to the specific skill set of collaborators, Keane hopes to experiment with performers and audiences to question how dance is made as well as what defines a staged performance. Work from rk-co dance has been featured in Buffalo, New York site specifically at Silo City as well as theatrically as part of the Dance Days of Buffalo Contemporary Choreographers Showcase. |
photo by Scott Shaw
Heather Roffe, Dance and Dancers collaborate through movement to reveal and dramatize the power of human gesture and of the body’s inherent ability to convey universal themes of love, loss, compassion, and fear. In her choreography, Roffe explores the human experience, relationships – to each other, our world, technology, and divisive memes – like classism, racism, gender, solidarity vs. isolationism, etc.). Roffe’s choreography has been described as: “entertaining...but with a cutting edge...a sharp one,” (Carlsen, City Newspaper, 2012) “Her choreography is fascinating to behold, shifting from style to style. The movements are sometimes so different that it seems impossible that they spring from the same mind.” (Rezsnyak, City Newspaper, 2014)
Vivek Patel has been doing contact improv for 10 years. Contact has become a central part of his life. It deeply affects all aspects of his being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
As martial artist who has been practicing for over 30 years, he usually integrates some martial arts principles into his classes. The overlap between the two arts is astonishingly useful. His dancing has made him a better martial artist, while the martial arts has made him a better dancer.
He is one of the regular teachers at the Toronto Sunday Jam. Even though he teaches on a fairly regular basis, he considers himself a full-time student of contact. He is always a beginner looking to learn, grow and expand his knowledge and ability.
TANYA WILLIAMS is a context artist with a passion for dancing with complex systems… in community, on the land, and in the body. She has been facilitating contact improvisation for 17 years, along with physical theatre, improvised performance, and authentic movement. She studied Alexander Technique movement education and Structural Integration bodywork for many years and enjoys developing new ways to draw on all these forms to enrich the practice of contact improvisation. Recently, she has been developing the integration of the Pathway work of Laurel Mellin, integrating contact improvisation & authentic movement into an embodied self-facilitated practice for consciously changing neurological pathways. She has been working with the MT Space (Multi-cultural Theatre Space) for over 10 years, and currently gets totally inspired facilitating devised physical theatre with youth. She founded the Ontario Regional Contact Jam, Friends of the Floor Dance-Theatre and The Living Room Context 24/7 learning community exploring what it means to embody a systems understanding and an experience of flow in everyday life.
Tanya is IN LOVE with contact improvisation as both her personal trainer & spiritual teacher, inviting her to find delight in her learning edges and generate full-body co-intelligence with others to create the future we want as it emerges
As martial artist who has been practicing for over 30 years, he usually integrates some martial arts principles into his classes. The overlap between the two arts is astonishingly useful. His dancing has made him a better martial artist, while the martial arts has made him a better dancer.
He is one of the regular teachers at the Toronto Sunday Jam. Even though he teaches on a fairly regular basis, he considers himself a full-time student of contact. He is always a beginner looking to learn, grow and expand his knowledge and ability.
TANYA WILLIAMS is a context artist with a passion for dancing with complex systems… in community, on the land, and in the body. She has been facilitating contact improvisation for 17 years, along with physical theatre, improvised performance, and authentic movement. She studied Alexander Technique movement education and Structural Integration bodywork for many years and enjoys developing new ways to draw on all these forms to enrich the practice of contact improvisation. Recently, she has been developing the integration of the Pathway work of Laurel Mellin, integrating contact improvisation & authentic movement into an embodied self-facilitated practice for consciously changing neurological pathways. She has been working with the MT Space (Multi-cultural Theatre Space) for over 10 years, and currently gets totally inspired facilitating devised physical theatre with youth. She founded the Ontario Regional Contact Jam, Friends of the Floor Dance-Theatre and The Living Room Context 24/7 learning community exploring what it means to embody a systems understanding and an experience of flow in everyday life.
Tanya is IN LOVE with contact improvisation as both her personal trainer & spiritual teacher, inviting her to find delight in her learning edges and generate full-body co-intelligence with others to create the future we want as it emerges
Miguel Anaya
Elyssa Bourke graduated from Hofstra University with a BA in dance in 2001. After graduation, Bourke became a scholarship student at the Merce Cunningham studio. While living in New York, Bourke danced with Anita Cheng, Jeffery Bauer and Tysan Dance. Bourke moved back to Buffalo in 2005 to study Chiropractic Practice at D’Youville College and currently works as a chiropractor while also teaching yoga at East Meets West Yoga and Healing Waters. Bourke has worked with Buffalo Contemporary Dance, Nimbus Dance and was a founding participant in The Habit Dance Project. She has been happily working with Anne Burnidge since 2011.
Host of the Dance Party
Hayley Ellen Day Photography
Stacy ‘Resolve’ VanBlarcom is a dancer, teacher, and public relations professional. She has danced for more than 20 years, with training in B-boying (break dancing), house, locking, hip hop, contemporary, ballet, jazz, modern, and tap. Stacy loves teaching and performing as a member of Differential Flava Crew and teacher at Verve Dance Studio. Some of her most memorable dance experiences include her first battle, winning Battle @ Buffalo, dancing onstage with Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, and teaching young women through Urban Arts Toronto. Stacy aims to be a positive example for women interested in dance, and her foremost goal is to create a program that will provide Buffalo youth with the resources and guidance to pursue their passions.
co-sponsors:
Pick of the Crop Dance
Buffalo CI Community
BCIJPG
Pick of the Crop Dance
Buffalo CI Community
BCIJPG
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