Artists and Faculty

Click here for a list of Summer Stages Dance Faculty and Artists, 1996-2011 (PDF)

Amy Spencer and Richard Colton Amy Spencer and Richard Colton, founded and direct Summer Stages Dance, a nationally renowned dance workshop and performance series that takes place during July in Concord, Massachusetts. As performers, their professional careers began in New York City in the 1970s.  Spencer and Colton were members of Twyla Tharp Dance and the White Oak Dance Project, under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov. Colton was a member of American Ballet Theatre and Joffrey Ballet, and Spencer was a collaborator/performer with Pilobolus and Martha Clarke. They served as resident choreographers for American Repertory Theater for a decade, and founded and directed SPENCER/COLTON DANCE, a company of dancers and actors they created in 1989. They are three-time recipients of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Artists Grant in Choreography for their choreographic work. Their production, Billy Nijinsky, won Best Production 2002 at the New York International Fringe Festival, and their adaptation of the novel Einstein’s Dreams was awarded the Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Award.

They have taught both nationally and internationally and have been on the faculty of the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard, The Boston Conservatory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They currently co-direct the dance program at Concord Academy where Summer Stages is hosted.

Sean Curran Seán Curran, Artistic Director of Seán Curran Company, began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate and guest faculty member of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette.    [more...]

www.seancurrancompany.com

Lauren Grant Lauren Grant has danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group since 1996. Appearing in over 40 of Mark Morris’ works, she performs leading roles in The Hard Nut and Mozart Dances. Her television appearances with the company include The South Bank Show, Kennedy Center Honors, and Live From Lincoln Center.  She has been featured in Time Out New York, Dance Magazine, the book Meet the Dancers, and is the subject of a photograph by Annie Leibovitz.   Ms. Grant is on faculty at MMDG's school, leads classes for the company, and teaches dance at such universities and schools as the Central School of Ballet in London, England; Dancebase in Edinburgh, Scotland; George Mason University; University of Illinois; University of Michigan; New York University; University of Washington; Florida State University; and Cornish College, among others. After spending her childhood in Highland Park, Illinois, she moved to New York to attend NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in dance.

Jeffrey Kazin Jeffrey Kazin has been dancing with David Parker for over 22 years and almost exclusively for David for the last 19. As a principal dancer with The Bang Group Jeffrey has created many original roles both domestically and internationally and has had the opportunity to teach and set David Parker’s work on students and companies throughout the U.S.  In additional to his dancing roles with TBG, Jeffrey is also a Director, CFO, sometimes Graphic Designer, General Factotum and serves on its Board of Directors. As a guest artist, Kazin can be seen in the coming months as Captain Von Trapp in Doug Elkins’ hip-hop ode to “The Sound of Music,” Fraulein Maria. He is the co-producer, along with David Parker, of a series of choreographic evenings at the West End Theater in NYC.  He is a graduate of Connecticut College and the National Theater Institute and is on the board of directors of the Peculiar Works Project.

 

 

David Leventhal David Leventhal danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) from 1997-2011. He performed principal roles in Morris’ The Hard Nut, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and Romeo and Juliet, on Motifs of Shakespeare, and received a 2010 Bessie (New York Dance and Performance) Award for his work with the company.  He has also danced with Marcus Schulkind, Spencer/Colton and José Mateo's Ballet Theatre.  He is on the faculty of the Mark Morris Dance Center, and has taught technique and repertory classes for students of all ages at schools and universities in the U.S. and abroad, including UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Harvard University, University of Washington, University of Illinois, The Juilliard School, American Dance Festival and the Governor's School for the Arts (Virginia) among others.  David is the program manager and one of the founding teachers of the MMDG/Brooklyn Parkinson Group's Dance for PD® program, which offers dance classes for people with Parkinson's disease in Brooklyn, and in more than 45 cities in the US and abroad.  Raised in Newton, Mass., he attended Brown University where he received a B.A. with honors in English Literature.

David Parker David Parker is, with Jeffrey Kazin, Director of The Bang Group, a choreographic meeting place for artists and audiences who wish to engage in lively dialogue with the show business, classical and contemporary dance traditions which surround us.  Founded in 1995 in New York City, the Bang Group has toured widely throughout the United States and Europe and is known for its comic-subversive neo-vaudevillian version of the Nutcracker entitled Nut/Cracked which has been touring for the last 7 seasons, ShowDown, a choreographic reinvention of Annie Get Your Gun for cabaret stages, and for a series of award-winning dances for himself and Jeffrey Kazin such as the Velcro-clad duet called Slapstuck.  TBG has been company in residence at Summer Stages Dance for the past 10 years and performs most regularly in New York City at Dance Theater Workshop.  David serves on the faculties of The Julliard School, Barnard College and The Alvin Ailey School where he teaches dance composition.

www.thebanggroup.com

Nic Petry Nic Petry holds a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University and received his MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois.  Nic first worked with David Parker and The Bang Group at Summer Stages Dance in Concord in 2002 and joined TBG as a full company member in 2005.  He has since performed in many repertory works as well as developing original roles in Mr. Parker's new dances.  While not performing, Nic owns and operates Dancing Camera, a video production company specializing in dance documentation.

 

 

Keith Sabado Keith Sabado was a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group from 1984 to 1994. He received a 1988 Bessie award for his work with the company. In 1994 he was invited to join Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (1994-97, 2001), performing major roles in works of Morris, Merce Cunningham, Hanya Holm and many emerging choreographers, as well as assuming the role of rehearsal director. And in 2000 he was invited to dance with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company for its 25th anniversary year. He has taught master classes and workshops around the world and teaches regularly at festivals in Japan and the United States. In addition to teaching open professional classes in New York City, he is on the guest faculty of Sarah Lawrence College and New York University.

Amber Sloan Amber Sloan has been a member of The Bang Group since 2002, creating both original roles and performing repertory. She has also danced with Keely Garfield, Chris Elam / Misnomer Dance Theater and Sara Hook Dances. Sloan’s choreography has been presented in numerous venues including Dance Theater Workshop (Family Matters), Danspace Project (Food for Thought), the West End Theater, Dancemopolitan at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, the Dancenow Festival, Brooklyn Arts Exchange and others.  She has received space grants from DTW, Mulberry Street Theater, The Field’s Artward Bound, and most recently from BAX.  Sloan serves on the board of Dance Omi, an international dance residency program and is the co-director of Move for Breast Cancer Awareness. She teaches yoga at New York University and several private gyms throughout NYC.

Risa Steinberg Risa Steinberg, presently the Associate Director of Dance at The Juilliard School, has been an active member of the dance community for over thirty years. Hailed as “one of our great modern dancers”, she is known internationally as a solo artist, master teacher, rehearsal coach, and director of the works of José Limón. She has both performed and taught extensively much of the world. Ms. Steinberg was a soloist with the José Limón Dance Company, Bill Cratty Dance Theater, Annabelle Gamson, Anna Sokolow’s Player’s Project, Colin Connor, and American Repertory Dance Company of Los Angeles. As a solo artist, she has performed works of many choreographers including Wally Cardona, Sean Curran, and Ann Carlson. She has also taught actors at the National Theater Institute, a part of the Eugene O’Neil Theater Center.

 

Dan WagonerDan Wagoner is a renowned American modern dance choreographer. He danced with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Paul Taylor, and for 25 years directed his own New York-based company, Dan Wagoner & Dancers. He choreographed more than 55 dances for his company, which performed throughout the U.S., Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia as well as presenting annual seasons in New York. He has taught at Harvard Summer Dance and Bates Summer Dance programs, and at numerous universities and festivals in the U.S. and abroad.  This year celebrates Wagoner’s eighth year at Summer Stages Dance.  Most recently, he traveled to Juangzhou, China to choreograph for the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. Wagoner was a Distinguished Guest Artist at Connecticut College and is currently on the faculty of Florida State University.

Teri WekslerTeri Weksler is a graduate of the Juilliard School, and danced in the companies of 5 by 2, Hannah Kahn, Daniel Lewis, and Jim Self, in repertory including works by renowned choreographers Anna Sokolow, Paul Taylor, Doris Humphrey, Jose Limon, and Pilobolus. She received a New York Dance and Performance Award or "Bessie" for "…a career of virtuosic dancing…." in 1984. She has appeared with the Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Dallas Civic Opera, and was Prima Ballerina with the Rome Opera Ballet in a Phillip Glass-Robert Wilson production, "the civil wars." Ms. Weksler was a founding and prominent member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, touring and teaching all over the world from 1980-1990, and then as guest performer with the company in later years in the Jacob’s Pillow and Edinborough Festivals.    [more...]

 

Andre E. Woods Andrea E. Woods, Artistic Director of SOULOWORKS/Andrea E. Woods & Dancers is a  dancer/teacher/choreographer/video artist/percussionist and a native of Philadelphia, where she began her dance training with Jean Williams at Germantown Dance Theater.  She graduated magna cum laude from Adelphi University and has since danced with Clive Thompson, Leni Wylliams and Saeko Icinohe.  Andrea is a former dancer and rehearsal director of Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Co. (1989-1995).  She is on the faculty of the Duke University Dance Program teaching modern dance and dance for the camera. Andrea is an American Antiquarian Society Fellow and her artistic work and research have taken her to, The Cannes International Danse Festival, Taiwan, Russia, Senegal, Morocco, Korea, Puerto Rico, Poland, Singapore, Belize, the Yucatan, Cuba and throughout the US.  She has done collaborative works with musicians:  Randy Weston, David Pleasant, Tiyé Giraud, Madeleine Yayodele Nelson and Philip Hamilton and spoken word artist, hattie gossett.    [more...]

www.souloworks.com
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