|
Home |
|
About Us |
|
Photo Gallery |
|
Continental Drift |
|
Proximity Of Clouds |
|
Bird Feet/Windy Day |
|
Company Biographies |
|
Upcoming Performances |
|
Workshops |
|
Contact Us |
|
Support |
|
fearless action, physical indulgence, and elegant design |
|
Chris Ferris & Dancers |
|
Company Biographies |
|
photo: Matthew Murphy |
|
Chris Ferris, choreographer/dancer |
|
Chris Ferris is the artistic director of Chris Ferris & Dancers. Her work is based on an exploration of movement from a sculptural, dynamic and emotional point of view. Its focus is to bring you design in space and time with a human element. Our recent collaboration with Loren Dempster, Circuitous Body was performed at Roulette, Bklyn NY 4/12 and Green Space LIC, NY 11/12 partially funded by a Mertz Gilmore Foundation Late-Stage Stipend. Chris Ferris & Dancers’ 2011 concert, Continental Drift, was presented at CPR – Center for Performance Research on Nov. 4 & 5. Proximity Of Clouds (2010 full evening work), premiered at Joyce SoHo NYC; incorporating sculptures that hang, swing, slash, glow, and illuminate creating ethereal forms, a forest of moving architecture, and corporeal presences. Ferris' dances have been shown in New York at 3 season concerts at the Cunningham Studio Theater. Her work has also been presented at WestFest, Green Space Blooms, Amalgamate Artist Series, Performance Mix, Solar Powered Dance Festival, Dance Conversations at the Flea, WAXworks, SWEAT Modern Dance Series, Wave of Humanity at DNA, d.u.m.b.o. Dance Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, University Settlement, the 92nd Street Y, and a variety of other venues. Chris was the curator of the SWEAT Modern Dance Series and SWEAT Outdoors from 2000 to 2007. In 2005 Chris Ferris & Dancers was awarded a Meet The Composer Grant for composer Loren Dempster. In April 2003 Chris performed, taught, and set a dance on students at Eastern New Mexico University. She has participated in residencies partially funded by Arts Midwest at Danceworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has taught dance at the Putney School in Vermont and at various studios in New York and Milwaukee. Chris has a BFA in dance/art from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She currently is a massage therapist and teaches Pilates. |
|
photo: Steven Schreiber |
|
Choreographer: Chris Ferris Dancers: Katie Aggen, Erin Delucia Benson, Melissa Brading, Grace DiLorenzo, Dana Doggett, Haley Hauglum, Kristen Mangione, Alexandra Rose, Hannah Seidel, and Chris Ferris Composers: Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, Andrew Drury, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Jeff Kerestes, and Jake Sanders Artist: Warren Kloner Costume Designers: Patti Gilstrap and Lilian Chow |
|
Erin DeLucia-Benson, dancer |
|
Melissa Brading, dancer |
|
Grace DiLorenzo, dancer |
|
Erin DeLucia-Benson is originally from Farmington, NY where she studied dance at the Cobblestone Arts, Botsford School of dance, Dancer’s Alley, and with Garth Fagan Dance. She earned a BA in Dance from Point Park College in 2002, and went on to study abroad in Paris France with Wells College. Erin has been Dancing with Chris Ferris and Dancers since 2004, and with Tina Croll since 2007. She has also done work with Michael Mao Dance, Emily Faulkner, and Jenny Rocha Dance Theater. Erin is a certified Pilates instructor, a certified Holistic Health Coach, and a member of the AADP. She recently opened BEnD Pilates and Holistic Health where she practices Holistic Health and private and group Pilates Instruction. Erin is a mother of two to Grant and Ruby, and she is happy to be performing again. |
|
Melissa Brading is originally from Topeka, KS. She holds a bachelor's in dance education from the University of Central Oklahoma. Melissa served as a company member of Ad Deum Dance Company of Houston, TX and currently resides in Queens. She has worked with choreographers such as Hope Boykin, Crystal Davis, and Amanda Selwyn in New York. She has also danced with Nejla Yatkin, including the Berlin Wall Project. This is Melissa's second season with Chris Ferris and Dancers. |
|
photo: Bill Hebert |
|
Grace DiLorenzo is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Boston Conservatory. She has worked with many companies while in New York including Human Kinetics Movement Art, Labor Force Dances, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, Erin DeLucia Benson, and Jahna Bobolia. While not dancing she is an avid knitter and teaches knitting and yarn dyeing at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. This is her 4th year working with Chris Ferris & Dancers. |
|
Dana Doggett, dancer |
|
Dana Doggett graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in Art History and Dance, where Toni Smith and Deborah Hay inspired her to perform. Since moving to New York City, she has become a massage therapist and danced throughout the New York area. She has performed with Susan Hefner, Murray Spaulding Movement Arts, Pi Dance Theater, and Tina Croll and Company. Dana first danced with Chris in 2001, and has enjoyed many dance opportunities with her in the time since. Dana would love to thank her family, girlies, and fiancé for their support and love. |
|
Haley Hauglum, originally from Dallas, Texas, received her BFA in Dance from California Institute of the Arts in 2003. During her time out west, Haley had the privilege of working with many noted choreographers. Since moving to New York she has had the pleasure of dancing with Terry Beeman, Jessica Gaynor Dance, Ellen Stokes Shadle/Danceworks, and is happy to be currently be performing with Chris Ferris & Dancers. Haley is a full-time Certifying Instructor-Trainer for Pilates Academy International and CARDIOLATES® at Pilates on Fifth here in New York City, as well as being trained on CoreAlign & Redcord Active. |
|
Haley Hauglum, dancer |
|
Kristen Mangione’s love of movement and self-expression has created a life-long involvement with dance. Her training included the High School Performing Arts Program in Dance, Somerset, NJ, NJ Governor’s School of the Arts, and the Center Dance Collective. She received a BA in Dance from Smith College and a Degree in Dance Studies from the Laban Centre, London. Since coming to New York, she has danced with Bill T. Jones, Nancy Zendora, and Chris Ferris. Her own choreography has been presented throughout New York, Chicago, and London. She has worked in arts administration and production for American Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Currently she practices and teaches the healing art Ohashiatsu®. She leads workshops that combine the Five Element theories of Eastern philosophy with dance. |
|
Kristen Mangione, dancer |
|
Andrew Drury, composer/musician |
|
Andrew Drury is a drummer/composer active in jazz, experimental music, free improvisation, music for dance, and other genres and media. Originally from Seattle, Drury studied with Ed Blackwell at Wesleyan University. He can be heard on nearly 30 CDs including his own My Fingers Will Be Your Tears (Cadence 2009) featuring Briggan Krauss and Myra Melford as well as his solo CD Renditions (Creative Sources, 2007). He leads a horn and drums quartet with Peter Evans, Krauss, and Chris Speed and plays in Jason Kao Hwang’s EDGE and Spontaneous River groups, Steve Swell’s Trio, TOTEM>, and collaborates with adventurous musicians from around the world. Drury has led approximately 1,000 junk percussion workshops in schools, prisons, homeless shelters, remote villages in Nicaragua and Guatemala, museums, and several Indian reservations. Please visit www.andrewdrury.com for more info or see www.myspace.com/andrewdrury |
|
Jeff Kerestes, composer/musician |
|
Jeff Kerestes holds a Music Performance Degree from Arizona State University and Two Awards for Musicianship from Berkeley College of Music in Boston, MA. He began working as a composer in 2000, writing a series of works for the Arizona State University Jazz Department. Since then, his compositions have been featured in various settings and performed throughout the country. Jeff also works as a performer in many different musical styles and settings and is a multi instrumentalist specializing in the acoustic and electric bass. Jeff has performed and/or composed with the Grammy nominated band The Jimmies, Atlanta based artist Ricardo Sanchez, MTV featured artist Alex Nackman, and the Brooklyn based group Apollo Run. Jeff has always been interested in composing music for Dance, and is very excited for the opportunity to write and work with Chris Ferris, one of his favorite choreographers. Jeff currently lives in Brooklyn, NY with his fiancé and Chris Ferris dancer, Dana Doggett. www.jkbass.net |
|
Warren Kloner, artist |
|
Warren Kloner, is a painter and sculptor who has lived in New York for many years. He holds a BFA in sculpture from S.U.N.Y. at Purchase and a Masters Degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute. Over the years he has shown his work in many group shows in such galleries as Jack Tilton and Paula Cooper, as well as having several solo shows at The Gallery Of Graphic Arts. His current work can be seen at WarrenKloner.com. He is also a founding partner of “6 Foot 3 Design” whose furniture designs can be seen at 6FT3.com. Kloner has recently played slide guitar for improvisational dances by Ferris. He is pleased and honored to be working with Chris Ferris as a visual artist. |
|
Patti Gilstrap, costume designer |
|
Patti Gilstrap holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. In 1996 and 1997 she attended the American Dance Festival on scholarship as the costume assistant. In 1997-1998 she toured as the Wardrobe Supervisor for the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble. She has designed costumes for many choreographers including: Sharon Kinney, Judith Steele, Incidents Physical Theater, Heather Harrington, Allen Danialson, Heidi Latsky, Teresa Wimmer, Ali Kenner, Pat Cremins, Sue Bernhard, K.J. Holme, Hudson Vagabond Puppets, Jen Chin, Spela Sterle, Mariana Marquez, Dana Doggett, Chris Ferris, and Emily Bunning. Her designs can also be seen in Brooklyn at her clothing boutique, “Flirt” or let her teach you how to sew at her new teaching space and home store, "Home Ec." You can check it all out at www.flirt-brooklyn.com. |
|
photo: Caro |
|
Katie Aggen, dancer |
|
Katie Aggen attended the University of California, Santa Cruz where she received her BA in Community Studies with College Honors and Phi Beta Kappa. She studied jazz, tap, ballet and hip hop before she came to modern dance. Katie danced in Los Angeles with Carol Solomon Dance Company, and San Francisco with Company Chaddick, Strong Current, EmSpace, Dance Elixir, Printz Dance Project and Dance Continuum SF. In New York, she has had the pleasure of dancing for Darcy Naganuma, Dixon Mena, Randy James, Sheri Celentano and Isabel Gotzkowsky. In 2006, Katie performed Eye Candy with Maria Colaco Dance at the NYC Fringe Festival. Recently, she appeared as a guest artist for Shen Wei Dance Arts, and toured to Amsterdam and France with Jana Hicks and Marijke Eliasberg's The Next Stage Project. Currently, Katie dances with TNSP, VaBang, KDNY, the BARKIN/SELISSEN Project and IG&F. Katie began working with Chris in 2006, and after a two year hiatus, is pleased to be joining her again. |
|
Danish saxophonist/composer Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen (1980), based out of New York, has been an active performer in the improvised and experimental scene around the world for the past 9 years. She's lived in Berlin, Amsterdam and Copenhagen and is best known for her work as a solo performer and performing with her 'Spaced Out Ensembles,’ featuring her own idiosyncratic and sensitive compositions arranged for winds, brass and hyperactive rhythm section, her duo project with bassist and husband Tom Blancarte and her other monstrous freak of a duo collaboration between her and Italian drummer Luca Marini called Herbert Eckardt. She currently resides with her husband American bassist and composer Tom Blancarte in Astoria and performs solo saxophone as well collaborating with musicians with such artists as Kevin Shea, Dan Peck, Nate Wooley, Brandon Seabrook, Dan Blake, Sam Oats, John Bernard Wagner, Bruce Eisenbell, Tim Dahl, Weasel Walter, Ricardo Gallo and Carol Liebowitz. www.louisejensen.com |
|
Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, composer/musician |
|
photo: Alex Rojas |
|
Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, uses a combination of cello, electronics, improvisation, notated scores, and extended techniques to create and perform music. An active chamber musician and improviser, he might be found in the next while performing music for Trio Tritticali, and the Dan Joseph Ensemble among many others. His compositions for music and movement have been presented at The Stone, Roulette, Issue Project Room, North River Music, Weseleyn College, and at Chez Bushwick, a 2007 Bessie Award winning performance arts space in Brooklyn of which he was a founding member. For over 12 years he had many performances with Merce Cunningham mainly playing the music for Interscape and Biped. Dempster has also toured with the choreographer Jeremy Wade, performing Glory, utilizing a live musical score co-composed/performed with Michael Mihalchick. Ever interested in the relationships between movement, space, and sound, he may be found creating or performing music for many choreographers and collaborators this season, including Harrison Atelier, Chris Ferris, Jonah Bokaer, Project Limb, and Margaret Paek. For more information: www.lorendempster.com |
|
Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, composer/musician |
|
Jake Sanders, composer/musician |
|
WhaleHawk is the sound collage art of SkinnyTallz AKA Jake Sanders. A lifetime student of music, Mr. Sanders has worked on over 25 studio albums as a session musician, producer, arranger, and composer. He's played all over the world from Puerto Rico to the Bronx. He has shared the stage and collaborated with Moby, Anthony Hamilton, Ron Miles, The Slip, Al Street, Eric Kalb(Charlie Hunter), Jon Faddis, and J.Most. He's provided remixes for such artists as Paul Simon, OK GO, Raheem DeVaughn, De La Soul, Pharell, The Roots, Erykah Badu and more. Mr. Sanders has also worked in film and television and has composed original soundtracks for several movies, one of which (Back Door Channels) made its World Premiere at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in October 2010. As the Creative Director for CueBro Audio Productions, he has widened the scope for his label with groundbreaking artistic and commercial projects involving a diverse cast of collaborators. In addition to being dashingly handsome he is an enthusiast for all things contradictory. The name WhaleHawk demonstrates this enthusiasm along with a style of music which can be all of the genres at once while not being one of them twice." |
|
Lilian Chow stays busy raising her almost 4 year old daughter and renovating an abandoned Harlem brownstone. Previously a fashion designer and dancer, Lilian designed for sportswear companies and created dance costumes under the label Lan Studio in Los Angeles. She has performed with choreographers such as Winifred Harris and Paula Present, and taught Pilates in her own studio and at physical therapy clinics. Lilian enjoys the opportunity to design for Chris Ferris, who allows her a wide berth to express her creativity. You can contact Lilian at daostudio@hotmail.com for more information. |
|
Lilian Chow, costume designer |
|
Alexandra Rose began her formal dance training at the Denver School of the Arts. After studying dance and graduating with honors from Marymount Manhattan College, Mrs. Rose taught and choreographed for the Performing Arts Center of Connecticut. As a former member of KDNY under the direction of Kathleen Dyer, Alexandra has performed at various venues in New York, Connecticut, Portland, Washington DC, as well as The Fringe Festival in Scotland. Other professional work includes that with Sue Bernhard, Jordana Che Tobak and Tina Croll’s From the Horse’s Mouth. Mrs. Rose is an exercise specialist currently serving the New York community, while undertaking a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology from Columbia University. Aside from presenting her own choreography in the New York area, Alexandra is currently performing with Sethminer Dances and AGise and Dancers. Alexandra is thrilled at the opportunity of working with the exuberant Chris Ferris & Dancers. |
|
Alexandra Rose, dancer |
|
Hannah Seidel, dancer |
|
Hannah Seidel studied dance at Interlochen Arts Academy, New York University, and Pomona College, from which she received her BA. She has danced for such wonderful artists as Erica Essner, Akiko Furukawa, James Hansen, Kellie Lynch and Tara Burns, Mariah Maloney, Née Danse, From the Horse's Mouth, and Gibney Dance, where she also lead workshops helping domestic violence survivors find relaxation and joy in movement creation. Teaching credits include NYU's Tisch; Interlochen; the College at Brockport, SUNY, where she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and completed her MFA; and Pilates certification. Hannah has served as content advisor for the book Dance: A Practical Guide to Pursuing the Art, and presented research at the National Dance Education Organization conference. Her choreography has been shown around the country, and has most recently been commissioned for performances with live music by Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Robert Patterson. She is thrilled to have been working with Chris since 2005. |
|
photo: Steven Schreiber |