Monica Bill Barnes

Monica Bill Barnes is a New York based choreographer described by Deborah Jowitt of The Village Voice as"one of the wittiest young choreographers around--she can stir your heart as well as make you laugh." Barnes has created eleven evening-length dance works for her own company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company ranging from a two woman vaudevillian traveling side show to an intergenerational dance extravaganza for fifteen performers.
   
Her dances have been produced in over twenty venues in New York City ranging from Joe's Pub (DancemOpolitan Series) to Symphony Space and Danspace Project/St. Mark's Church, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Dancenow/NYC/The Festival and Dancing in the Streets. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally by organizations including Jacob's Pillow, The International Fabbrica for Choreographers (Florence, Italy), The Fourth International Dance and Movement Festival on the Volga (Yaroslav, Russia), Tanz Festival (Karlsruhe, Germany), Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego, CA), DancePlace (Washington, D.C.), The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Yard. She has been the invited Guest Artist at the North Caroline School of The Arts University, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Riverside, Vassar College, James Madison University, Shenandoah University and Dance New Amsterdam's Modern Guest Artist Series (1999 to present). In 2003, Lincoln Center Institute commissioned This ain't no Rodeo! a two-woman show that has since been performed over hundred times through the LCI Repertory Season 2003-2005 and on tour.

Her latest site-specific dance, The Limelight Fountain Tour, is an outrageous dance event where local performers dance in working public fountains. This work was originally commissioned by San Diego Dance Theater's Trolley Dances and has since been performed in New York City's Bowling Green Fountain through the SITELINES festival (July, 2005) and Philadelphia's Love Park through The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (September, 2005). The Limelight Fountain Tour was described as "too much fun to miss" by Jack Anderson of The New York Times. Through various site-specific projects and intergenerational large group works, Barnes has brought over seventy-five people to the stage and continues to create work that reflects everyday life with humor and poignancy.

Barnes holds an MFA from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. She has received support from the Greenwall Foundation, Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation and the Puffin Foundation. Barnes has also received artist residencies at Dancenow/NYC/Silo Project, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, The Yard, Dance New Amsterdam and the Joyce Soho Artist Residency.


Shouze Ma

Shouze Ma was a founding member of the first modern dance company in China, Guangdong Modern Dance Company (GMDC). For ten years since its foundation, he worked as a dancer, resident choreographer and rehearsal director. Internationally recognized for their "dynamic range, balanced between an amazing athletic trust and a contained elegance" by New York Times, GMDC has toured internationally including Joyce Theatre, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and American Dance Festival.

Shouze's choreography is a unique blend of Eastern and Western traditions. His work "Dance with Wind" received recognition for Performing and Choreographic Excellence at ACDFA in 1999. He was the artistic director for the National Summer Dance Workshop held in  China in 2005 and a co-advisor for the 1997 China National Ballet Dance Competition. His choreography and performances received enthusiastic critical praise at numerous international festivals  including the 3rd International Modern Dance Festival, China, the 4th Macau International Arts Festival, India International Dance Festival, Hong Kong International College Dance Festival, Korea  Chang Mu International Dance Festival, 15th Hong Kong Festival of Asian Arts, 10th Singapore International Arts Festival, American Dance Festival, the annual showcase, In the Company of Men held in New York, NY and international ballet and modern dance competitions in Paris and Japan.

Shouze Ma is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. In choreography he was awarded fellowships from Walker Arts Center, Minnesota Dance Alliance, In the Company of Men New York, Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Jerome Foundation. He received a two-year scholarship to attend Laban Center for Movement and Dance in London.

In 1997 he came to the U.S.A. and earned his MFA in choreography with a prestigious fellowship at the University  of Iowa. Throughout his dance career, he has been teaching and performing modern, ballet, Chinese dance, and jazz. He has also taught internationally at different universities and dance companies, including 3rd International Modern Dance Festival, China, Dance Space Center New York, Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing Modern Dance Company, The Central University in Korea, Northeast Formal University China, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, University of Alabama, University  of Minnesota, American College Dance Festival, and American Dance Festival among others.

Shouze Ma is an associate professor in the Department of Dance at Arizona State University and is the founder and director of The Visionary Dance Company.


Wallie Wolfgruber

Born in a Bavarian village near the Alps, she passed her stage exam in dance with distinction at the Vienna State Theater at age fifteen. Having explored the ballet idiom at the Landestheater Salzburg and the National Theater in Munich, she became captivated by modern dance, moved to NYC and became a principal member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1988. Other companies she danced with include the Rod Rogers Dance Company, Keith Young Dance, Donald Byrd/The Group, the Ohad Naharin Dance Company and Sung Soo Ahn. She has performed in Europe, Asia, Central-and South America, Canada and in over 30 states of the US, and started choreographing in 1996. Her choreography has been presented in Germany, Canada, France and in NYC at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, LaMama E.T.C. and with DanceNow and 40up at the Joyce Soho, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, the Duke Theater on 42nd Street and DTW. Her interests include collaborations with composers, film and video artists.  Her video dance “A Hands- On Affair” (created with Alvin Booth) was screened at the Dance on Camera West International Festival in Los Angeles and at the Lincoln Center Dance on Camera Festival. Certified in the Trager Approach/Psychophysical Integration, she holds an MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and has extensive domestic and international teaching experience. Her teaching and directing credits include: Co-founder and director of SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) in Austria, choreographic assistant for Lar Lubovitch and director of the undergraduate dance program and tenured Associate Professor at SUNY Brockport. Recent activities include presenting an evening of works at the University of Rochester and at LaMama E.T.C., performing at DTW in 40up and joining the FSU dance faculty for Spring 07.  Her next engagement is at DTW in May where she will perform the duet ‘A Match Made in Heaven’ created in collaboration with Lawrence Goldhuber.