EDUCATION/ TEACHER BIOS

Iréne Hultman

Iréne Hultman was born in Sweden and is based in New York City. From 1983-1988, Hultman was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company where she also worked as Rehearsal Director from 2006-2009. In this role, she installed Trisha Brown's Early Works at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Centre George Pompidou, and Les Toullieries to name a few. She was the Artistic Director of Iréne Hultman Dance from 1988 - 2001. Her company received national and international recognition and premiered work at The Joyce Theater with Black Tie Optional (2001) Nordic Love Act 2 (1998) and Cascade (1996) and at Danspace Project in NYC, Love Betrayal and a Bowling Trophy (2000), Tango-Babe (1995), Red Cap (1992). She choreographed seven opera productions including Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute for Drottningholm's Palace Theater in Stockholm and new operas like Sport och Fritid at The Royal Swedish Opera. Her commissions have included Firebird for Gothenburg Opera Ballet and I find comfort for Pina Bausch Company 2 (FTS). Hultman is the co-founder of Järna-Brooklyn, a Swedish-American cultural entity that encourages artistic experimentation and a founding member of the multi-media collective Fire Work in Stockholm. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography and a Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award and support from The Jerome Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the American Scandinavian Foundation and Meet the Composer. In 2010, she curated Movement within Stream, the first dance event to ever be performed at Storm King Art Center. Ms. Hultman continues to foster her interests in research and collaborations between artistic fields and across continents. She serves on The Bessie Committee and the Danspace Project's Artist Advisory Board.

Stacy Matthew Spence

Stacy Matthew Spence is a choreographer, teacher, and dancer based in New York City. His work, which has been performed on stage as well as in buildings, museums, and galleries, has been presented by Danspace Project, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Edge at the London Contemporary Dance School, the University of New Mexico, and the OtherShore Dance Company in New York. From 1997-2006, he was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, contributing to the creation of Brown's opera L'Orfeo and seven other pieces. He continues to work with the company teaching classes and restaging Brown's choreography. Spence received his MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and was awarded a 2015-16 Workspace Artist in Residence by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Düsseldorf); "Falstaff“ and "Stiffelio“ (National Theater Mannheim) and others. Photo of Another Story as in falling © 1993 Beatriz Schiller

Laurel Jenkins

Laurel Jenkins is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher. As a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 2007­2012, she developed original roles in Brown's final works and she continues to perform and restage pieces for the company. Jenkins has also danced with Sara Rudner, Liz Lerman, and Vicky Shick. Her work has been presented in Los Angeles by REDCAT, Automata, Highways, the Electric Lodge, the Getty Center, the Hammer, and the Fowler Museum, and in New York by Danspace Project, and by Berlin's Performing Presence Improvisation Festival, and Tokyo's Sezane Art Gallery. She has been commissioned to choreograph for LA Contemporary Dance Company, CSULB, and The Wooden Floor. With the support of the Asian Cultural Council, Jenkins traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia this year to work with Chey Chankethya and Amrita Performing Arts. Jenkins recently performed the role of Iseme in Peter Sellars' opera Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. She received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, an MFA from UCLA, and is certified in the Skinner Releasing Technique.

www.laureljenkins.com

Cecily Campbell

Cecily Campbell is from Santa Fe, New Mexico and holds a BFA in dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She was a company member of Shen Wei Dance Arts from 2008 to 2013 and began working with the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 2012.

Elena Demyanenko

Elena Demyanenko is a Russian-born graduate of the Academy of Arts (Moscow). Elena has had the honor of working with Stephen Petronio from 2003-2008, Martha Clarke, Pavel Zustiak, Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Kota Yamasaki and Jimena Paz. In 2007 she was the recipient of EMPAC Dance Movies Commission for her dance film Kino Eye. In 2010, Elena has received Jerome Robbins Fellowship for the creation of her new work. Elena danced in the Company from 2009-2012.

www.elenademyanenko.com

Kathleen Fisher

Kathleen Fisher is a dancer, teacher, improvisor, and bodyworker. She was a member of Trisha Brown Company from 1992 - 2002 and was an original cast member of M.O., Twelve Ton Rose, L'Orfeo, Canto Pianto, Five Part Weather Invention, Rapture to Leon James, and Groove and Countermove. With the Company, she also performed extensive repertory including Brown's solos, Accumulation, and If you couldn't see me. She has taught TBDC master classes and workshops and led lecture-demonstrations for professional and aspiring dancers, children, and educators around the world, including assisting in Set and Reset/Reset at University of Utah and leading Astral Convertible (Re-imagined) at University of Illinois. Her ongoing self-education and performance work includes projects with Bebe Miller Company and Jane Comfort and Company as well as forays into theater and film and the study of somatics and healing arts. She is a Certified Kripalu Bodyworker, Nationally Certified Massage Therapist and practitioner of Craniosacral Therapy. Her teaching is very much influenced by these practices; she uses touch, bodywork, improvisation, and vocabulary based challenges to craft a forum in which dancers experience heightened awareness in action. Currently, she lives in the US and Bimini, Bahamas where she observes and joins the amazing dance of the resident wild spotted dolphins.

Olsi Gjeci

Olsi Gjeci was born in Vlore, Albania. He began his professional career as a folk dancer with the ensemble "Laberia" and The State Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances. In 2006, he moved to NYC. Studied dance and philosophy at Hunter College. Olsi also dances baroque and balinese among other styles. He joined Trisha Brown Dance Company in December 2013. He is also dances with Vicky Shick and is a member of NY Baroque Dance Company, BEMF Dance Ensemble, and BALAM Dance Theatre. Olsi is artistic director of Sublime Dance Company.

Lance Gries

Lance Gries danced with Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1985-1992, during which time he was awarded a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award and a Princess Grace Fellowship. Gries was an original cast member of Lateral Pass, Newark, Carmen, Foray Forêt, Astral Convertible and Astral Converted. He has taught numerous TBDC master classes and workshops and has led TBDC restaging projects for many European dance companies and institutions, including Lyon Opera Ballet, London Contemporary Dance, Frankfurt Conservatory, CDC in Paris, Toulouse, and Angers. Gries was a founding faculty member at PARTS, a school for contemporary dance in Brussels, Belgium where he has been a visiting professor for over twelve years. His own work has been presented in New York, Europe, South America and Australia.

Dai Jian

Dai Jian is an artist from China with roots in contemporary dance, classical dance, and Martial Arts. He has created improvisations, performance installations, and visual art. Dai Jian began creating his own work alongside a professional dance performance career since he was 18 years old. In 1998, he was awarded at the National Dance Competition in China, and in 2000 he won the New Stars in Performing Arts from Guangzhou City (choreography & dancing) with his first solo creation. In 2004, he graduated from Madam Yang MeiQi program at BeiJing Dance Academy, and joined New York-based Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2005, and was Shen Wei’s assistant for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He joined the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 2008. In 2012 he was invited to choreograph the compulsory piece for male solo for the Boston International Ballet Competition, and choreographed for Guang Dong Modern Dance Company. He also has collaborated with filmmaker Katrina McPherson, and significantly with Kirstie Simson and Michael Schumaker, visual artist Kimberly Mayhorn, Mimi Gerrard (video), Yin Mei, Hou Ying, Guang Dong modern dance company and Jin Xing Dance Theater.

Eva Karczag

Eva Karczag has practiced, taught, and advocated explorative methods of dance making since the early 1970s. She danced with Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1979-85, creating original roles in Opal Loop, Son of Gone Fishin' and Set and Reset. She has performed her own work in diverse locations, most recently in durational performance/installations with visual artist Chris Crickmay and composer Sylvia Hallett at the Laban Institute, London, and during the Summer Dancing Festival, Coventry, England; with Malgven Gerbes (Tanzfabrik, Berlin); and with Gaby Agis (Winlab, London). Her performance work and her teaching are informed by dance improvisation and mindful body practices including the Alexander Technique (certified teacher) and Ideokinesis. She has an MFA degree (Dance Research Fellow) from Bennington College and has taught dance at major colleges and studios throughout the US, Australia, and Europe, including a sustained period of teaching on the faculty of the European Dance Development Center, (EDDC) Arnhem, The Netherlands (1990-2002). Together with Vicky Shick, she has reset Set and Reset/Reset at the Budapest Contemporary Dance School, the Modern Dance Department of the Amsterdam Theater School, and at Princeton.

Lisa Kraus

Lisa Kraus studied at the Graham and Cunningham Schools and with James Waring before attending Bennington College where Judith Dunn and Steve Paxton were her teachers. She created a role in Trisha Brown's Duetude (1976) in Boston, then danced with the Company from 1977-1982. Lisa originated roles in Glacial Decoy, Opal Loop, and Son of Gone Fishin' as well as appearing in the television and film projects Making Dances and Beyond the Mainstream. In 2003, she was Rehearsal Director for the Paris Opera Ballet's production of Glacial Decoy, first teaching the work and then returning to coach in 2004. In 2012 she co-taught Line Up for performances in the Venice Biennale. Her own work has been presented in the US, Europe and Australia and awarded Choreographer's Fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Independence Foundation. She was on the faculty of the European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands for a decade and has also served as adjunct faculty member at Swarthmore College, Temple University, and New York University, as well as guest teaching at numerous schools and arts centers inter/nationally. Lisa has written extensively on dance for publications including the Philadelphia Inquirer and Dance Magazine, and co-founded thINKingDANCE, an online dance journal. Her most recent production - Red Thread - was a collaboration with former TBDC colleagues Eva Karczag and Vicky Shick.

Carolyn Lucas

Carolyn Lucas (Associate Artistic Director) attended North Carolina School of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase before joining Trisha Brown Dance Company in 1984. Lucas originated roles in some of Brown’s most acclaimed works including Lateral Pass (1983), Carmen (1986), Newark (Niweweorce) (1987), Astral Convertible (1989), Foray Forêt (1990) and Astral Converted (1991). Lucas’ dancing has been described in the New York Times as “affecting in her softly penetrating attack” and “especially luminous.” In 1993, Brown appointed Lucas as her Choreographic Assistant, a position Lucas held for twenty years before being named Associate Artistic Director in 2013. As Choreographic Assistant, Lucas played an integral role in Brown’s creation process in dance and opera, working closely alongside Brown for pieces including If you couldn’t see me (1994), its revision to the duet You can see us (1995) with Bill T. Jones and later Mikhail Baryshnikov, Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1998), and its revival in 2002, El Trilogy (2000), Luci Mie Traditrici (2001), It’s a Draw (2002), Winterreise (2002) with Simon Keenlyside, PRESENT TENSE (2003), O Zlozony/O Composite (2004) with etoiles from the Paris Opera Ballet, Da Gelo a Gelo (2006) with Salvatore Sciarrino and La Monnaie, Rameau’s Pygmalion (2010) with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Festival d’Aix, Holland Festival and Athens Festival, and Brown’s final work for the Company, I’m going to toss my arms- if you catch them they’re yours (2011) which premiered at Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris. In addition to assisting with new choreography, directing Company rehearsals and restaging existing choreography on the current dancers, Lucas has led projects for companies and institutions around the world, including The New School in NYC, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels and Paris Opera Ballet. She was one of the first instructors Brown sent to P.A.R.T.S. to construct a Set and Reset/Reset, whose collaborative, interdisciplinary learning process is now a cornerstone of the Company’s education program. Lucas is currently sharing her firsthand knowledge of three decades of dancing, teaching and documenting Brown's work for the Trisha Brown Archive. She studies Tai Chi with Maggie Newman and Alexander Technique with June Ekman.

Diane Madden

Diane Madden (Associate Artistic Director) attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts before joining the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 1980. Since then, Madden has danced, directed, taught, studied and reconstructed Brown’s work for nearly 35 years. A much lauded performer, Madden has been described in the New York Times as “one of those dancers who can make magic out of almost any task.” She has originated roles in works including Son of Gone Fishin’ (1981), Brown’s masterwork Set and Reset (1983), for which she was recently honored, along with the full original cast, by Movement Research in 2012, Lateral Pass (1985), Carmen (1986), Newark (Niweweorce) (1987), Astral Convertible (1989) for which she was awarded a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, Foray Forêt (1990), Astral Converted (1991), the “running solo” in For M.G.: The Movie (1991), Another Story as in falling (1993), Yet Another Story as in falling (1994), M.O. (1995) set to Bach’s Musical Offering, Twelve Ton Rose (1996), Accumulation with Talking Plus Repertory (1997), Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1998) and the Interlude solos Rage and Ladder in El Trilogy (2000). Madden has served as Brown’s personal assistant and was the rehearsal director from 1984-2000. She continued to teach and direct special projects for the Company before serving again as Rehearsal Director from 2010 until 2013, when she was named Associate Artistic Director. Through the talents of dancers both within the company and from internationally known schools and companies, Madden enjoys keeping Brown’s rich range of choreography alive on stages and alternative sites worldwide. Madden has developed an approach to teaching that weaves anatomically grounded technique with improvisation, composition and performance skills. In addition to her own performance work in collaborative improvisational forms, she is greatly influenced by her study and practice of Aikido with Fuminori Onuma. Madden is honored to be the recipient of two Princess Grace Awards, the first in 1986 and the second for sustained achievement in 1994.