Friday, August 19

9-10           REGISTRATION
10-12         “Seriously Awkward” Contact Improvisation Rebecca Bryant (GH)
12-2           lunch + artist mingle WMS
2-4            Dance in the Classroom  Paul Benney (CE) / No-Fuss Ballet Pamela Vail (GH) / Seeing Dance Like a Photographer  Arthur Fink (T)
4-6            Initiation and Follow-Through Katherine Kiefer Stark (GH)
6-7            dinner at WMS
7:30          Performance in Theater
9:30          Artist/Audience Linger + Mingle at Cold Mountain Cafe (DT)

Saturday, August 20

8-9            breakfast at WMS
9-11           Mindful Moving Kitty Clark (GH)  / The Solo Self Amy Barr (T)
11-2           lunch+ mingle+ visit to Farmer’s Market (DT) | Bethlehem Walking Tour Selene Colburn, Paul Benney (DT)
2-4            Open Source Forms  Amanda Hamp (GH) / Kid’s Class! Leap, Tumble, and Roll Paul Benney(CE)
4-6            Latin-Modern Fusion Analia Alegre-Femenias (GH)
6-7            dinner at WMS
7:30          Performance in Theater
9:30          Artist/Audience Linger + Mingle at Terra (DT)

Sunday, August 21

8:30-10    brunch at WMS
10-12        Embodied Democracy Katherine Ferrier (GH)
12             closing ritual and final linger+mingle (TBA)

Locations of Cultivate Events
GH          Great Hall at WMS
T             White Mountain School Black Box Theater
CE           Creative Edge Dance Studio
DT           Downtown Bethlehem

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Artists 2011

Analia Alegre-Femenias (Iowa/ Puerto Rico)
Analía Alegre-Femenías is a dancer, choreographer and improvisational artist. She obtained her BFA from New World School of the Arts and her MFA from the University of Iowa. In 2006 she obtained her certification in Pilates from Core Dynamics. Ms. Alegre-Femenías has performed works by Robert Battle, Bill Young, David Dorfman, and Jennifer Kayle. Between 2008-2011 she has performed or showed work at Joyce Soho, Judson Church and 100 Grand in New York City. In 2010 she performed in Virtually Yours that toured in the Dominican Republic, Iowa and Los Angeles. Currently she directs Dance Knots Project, which connect and brings artists from the United States to the Caribbean.

Katherine Keifer Stark (Philadelphia, PA)
Katherine Kiefer Stark is the artistic director of The Naked Stark, a contemporary dance company.  Committed to the philosophy that works of art can stimulate social change, Katherine is interested in creating work that investigates and deconstructs social norms as well as work that explores the relationship of US citizens with the political process.  Katherine received her MFA in Choreography from UNCG and her BA from Connecticut College.  Katherine has presented her own work in Connecticut, Philadelphia, New York, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Delaware.  Recently, she showed work at the Goose Route Dance Festival, the Fringe Wilmington Festival, and Last Mondays performance series.  Currently, Katherine is living in Philadelphia, PA and getting ready for the Philly Fringe Festival in September.

Selene Colburn (Burlington, VT)

Selene Colburn is an Assistant Library Professor at the University of Vermont, where she serves as Dance Liaison and Assistant. to the Dean of Libraries for External Relations.  Her teaching focuses on the intersection of research and performance.  At WGBH Educational Foundation, she was Project Archivist for the New Television Workshop Collection, which includes over twenty-five years of seminal works of video art and dance.  Her performance works have appeared at venues such as the International Festival of Art and Ideas, the Bay Area Dance Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, and the Scope Art Fair.

Paul Benney (Brooklyn, NY) 

Paul Benney lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y.  He studied Theater Arts and Dance 

at U.C. Santa Cruz and co-directed OnSite Dance Company in San Francisco with Jessica Lutes for twelve years before moving to New York in 2002.  He was a Movement Research Artist in Resident in 2003, and he continues his performance related work with TRYST, a collaborative arts group based in New York.  His varied performance experience includes stints with the underground Rock pioneers The Residents, Joe Goode Performance Group, and David Neumann’s Advanced Beginners Group, among others.  He teaches kids how to throw and catch and kick and run at St.Ann’s School in Brooklyn.

Pamela Vail (Lancaster, PA)
Pamela Vail is a performer, choreographer, improviser, and teacher.  She is a founding member of critically acclaimed New York City-based Yanira Castro | a canary torsi, and is a co-founding member of the Architects, a performance improvisation ensemble.  Vail also works with independent choreographers including Terry Creach, Heidi Henderson, Tori Lawrence and Peter Schmitz.  She teaches master classes and performs her own choreography nationally and internationally, and is currently Assistant Professor of Dance at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.  Vail holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. in dance from Smith College.

Katherine Ferrier (Littleton, NH)
Katherine Ferrier is an independent dance artist/educator, poet, visual artist and curator who has been improvising and making dances since the late 80s.  A co-founder of The Architects, an improvisational quartet with a collaborative performance history spanning nearly 20 years, she is also the founder and Artistic Director of Immediate Theatre, an ensemble of movers, musicians, video and visual artists, lighting and set designers, collaborating together to create spontaneous dance theater works.  Her various forms of creative research continue to inform and provoke each other, becoming quantum partners in a life-long practice of paying attention. She teaches and performs regularly throughout the US and abroad. Her writing has been published in Contact Quarterly and Kinebago and occasional observations on teaching, dance-making and collaboration show up on http://www.reportsfromthefield.wordpress.com.

Vicki Brown (Tucson, AZ)
Vicki Brown is a violinist, recording artist, performer and composer of multiple genres, among which she has carved a favorite niche of compositional improvisation.  She picked up the violin as a child and along the way, earned a B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Arizona in 2003.  In 2004, she began playing with other musicians in Tucson which eventually extended to working with other artists in the US and Europe.  She was a Guest Artist in Mexico City for the 2006 Interdependence Forum, has been a member of MoSa (Movement Salon) since 2005.  Vicki has released two critically-acclaimed albums.  She currently resides in Tucson, AZ.

Amy Barr (Iowa City, IA)
Amy Lynne Barr is a moving artist and recent graduate of the University of Iowa Dance Department’s MFA program in Choreography.  She has taught and performed in NYC, Indiana, Chicago, Tucson, Pennsylvania, and the Dominican Republic.  She has worked with artists Martha Clarke, Jennifer Kayle, Charlotte Adams, Thom Lewis and more.  Her current projects involve making solos, and the Public Space 1 Works in Progress project in Iowa City, IA that is a collaboration/call to all local artists to work together to form a running spectacle throughout the month of October.  She currently lives in Iowa City, Iowa debating her next move; maybe to Bethlehem, NH.

Kathy Couch (Northampton, MA)
Kathy Couch is a freelance lighting designer and installation/visual artist based in Northampton, MA. She has designed for over 350 performances nationally and internationally.  Kathy was recently awarded a 2009 Bessie Award as part of the collaborative team that created Yanira Castro + Co.’s Dark Horse/Black Forest. Kathy has continuing collaborations with Yanira Castro, Wendy Woodson, KinoDance, Candice Salyers, The Architects and Haiku Analog.  She is president of The Northampton Community Arts Trust working to sustain and expand art spaces in Northampton, MA.  Kathy is the resident Lighting Designer at Amherst College and recently received her MFA in Visual Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Rebecca Bryant (West Lafayette, IN)
Known for work that is “politically charged, yet humorously staged”, Rebecca Bryant creates performances that combine set and improvised movement with sound, text, video and objects.  She is a member of the Lower Left Performance Collective (dance/theater) and co-founder of the Past Modern Performance Duo (dance/percussion).  She has worked with choreographers Nina Martin, Victoria Marks, Shelley Senter, Wally Cardona, Kim Epifano, and Lionel Popkin, and has performed across the US and in Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Romania, Norway, and Sweden.  She has recently completed residencies at Djerassi (California), Marfa Live Arts (Texas), and Guapamacátaro (Mexico).  Bryant currently teaches contemporary dance techniques and improvisation at Purdue University.

Don Nichols (West Lafayette, IN)
Don Nichols is a percussionist, composer and improviser dedicated to innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration. He works in a variety of musical settings including contemporary Western music, jazz, chamber ensembles, improvisation, electro-acoustic and world music.  Dr. Nichols has performed and worked with a variety of artists including Max Roach, Roger Reynolds, Steven Schick, Evelyn Glennie, Evan Parker, Daniel Barenboim, John Luther Adams, Anders Åstrand, and the ensemble Redfish Bluefish. Having been awarded the first percussion Fulbright grant to Sweden in 2000, Dr. Nichols has since performed and taught in Romania, Argentina, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Australia, the UK, France and Germany.

Olase Freeman (Providence, RI)
Olase Freeman is a dancer/choreographer/scholar, who will be the 2011-2012
Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.  A partial list of the companies he has worked with include Jane Comfort & Co., Creach/Dance, Marlies Yearby’s Movin’ Spirits Theater, Headlong Dance Theater, and Leah Stein Dance Company. Heavily influenced by his late-friends and mentors, Cynthia Novack and Richard Bull, he continues their spirit of investigation and commitment, employing spirals, rhythm and breath.  Olase currently lives in Providence, RI with his collaborator and wife, Kathryn McNamara and their son, Kayin Effie. Their joint-company, BaldSoul is a holding space for their individual and shared ideas about choreography and embodiment.

Kathryn McNamara (Providence, RI)
Katie McNamara, a native Rhode Islander, got her BA in Dance and Anthropology from Connecticut College. Following she resided in Philadelphia where she danced with Group Motion, Scrap Performance Group, and Leah Stein Dance Company. There she also co-founded the Bald Mermaids, named “best new modern dance company” by Philadelphia’s City Paper. She has shown work in Philadelphia, Providence, New York City, as well as abroad in Germany and Poland. She has had an eleven year career as a Pilates teacher and presently teaches in Rhode Island. Katie has held choreographic residencies at Rhode Island College, Providence College, Salve Regina University and Roger Williams University. She is currently teaching dance at Roger Williams University. Along with her husband, Olase Freeman, she co-directs their company, Bald Soul and co-parents their lovely boy, Kayin.

Sara Smith (Amherst, MA)
Sara Smith is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer and archivist living in Massachusetts. She is primarily interested in dance as embodied research and in live performance as a great way to present lots of research all at once. Her performance works, installations and sound designs have been seen and heard at venues throughout the Northeast. She has an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College where she worked with Sara Rudner and has collaborated on multiple projects over many years with Karinne Keithley. Sara is also the editor of KINEBAGO, a forum for writing about New England dance and movement-based performance. http://www.sarasmithprojects.com

Sarah Baumert (Boston, MA)
Sarah Baumert is a dance artist, costume designer, and choreographer living in Somerville, Massachusetts. Her current work includes projects in collaboration with New England based artists Sara Smith, Meg Rotzel, and in Nell Breyer’s A Dance for Sol Lewitt’s “Bars of Color within Squares”. She has worked under Xavier LeRoy, performing his work floor pieces at MIT and untitled at HAU2 in Berlin this winter. She has also been seen in the works of New York based choreographers Tere O’Conner, Trisha Brown, Sean Feldman, and Jeanine Durning among others. Sarah received a BFA in dance from the University of Minnesota, studied release technique at the London Contemporary Dance School, and is a 2011 grant recipient from the Somerville Arts Council.

Kitty Clark (West Virginia)
Kitty Clark is a dancer and yoga instructor based in Shepherdstown, WV.  She founded and for 10 years directed the Goose Route Dance Festival, essentially an experiment in non-urban dance making and presenting. For more than 15 years, Kitty has spearheaded projects making contemporary dance accessible to a broader audience; in 2006, she received the WV Governor’s “Arts Innovator” Award in recognition of her efforts.  Her choreography includes proscenium-style dances, site-specific works, and multi-disciplinary collaborations that often include improvisation. She has taught people of all ages in various settings and holds an MFA from Smith College.

Amanda Hamp (Decorah, IA)
Amanda Hamp is an assistant professor of dance at Luther College in Decorah, IA, and is a certified teacher of Open Source Forms, a physical practice that gently cultivates awareness of our selves, enhancing technical skill and deepening one’s personal or creative process. She teaches, dances, choreographs and writes. The development of the solos she’s performing at Cultivate are part of a larger project, Loss, the Great Escape and Other Memories, which has been supported by two H. George and Jutta F. Anderson Awards from Luther College. Her degrees are from Luther College (B.A), the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance (Professional Diploma in Dance Studies), and the University of Iowa (M.F.A).

Tori Lawrence (Philadelphia, PA)
Tori Lawrence, originally from Atlanta, is the choreographer for the Philadelphia-based Lawrence-Herchenroether Dance Company.  She is artist-in-residence at Mascher-Space Cooperative and Girard College, where she creates site-specific dance installations and dance on film. She recently graduated from Franklin & Marshall College, where she double majored in dance and public health. She was a Hackman scholar, received the College’s Choreography Achievement Award, and graduated with honors for her thesis, Memory, Perception, and Architecture in Relation to Choreography.  Her works have been shown at the Philly Fringe, American College Dance Festival, F&M College, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Tucson, and throughout the Pennsylvania area.

Emily Anderson (North Conway, NH)
Emily Anderson recently received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bennington College where she worked closely with Dana Reitz, Susan Sgorbatti, Terry Creach, and Joseph Poulson. Her senior work in dance was a site-specific, highly structured improvisation which integrated ideas of audience perspective and the imitation of human gesture and position. She has spent the summer continuing to look at these ideas through the observation of pedestrian movements, gestures, and expressions in the village of North Conway, New Hampshire, along with the greater Mt. Washington Valley. She continues to investigate the line between imitation and embodiment and the work she shares this evening is a report of her study.

Arthur Fink (Portland, ME)
Arthur Fink has been photographer in residence at the Bates Dance Festival for the seven years, and has also photographed at such events as Dance Omi, and the Bearnstow Conference on the Nikolais Aesthetic.  He writes:  “I document the work and energy that goes into dance — not just the final performance. Being in the studio as dances are created, or even as dancers prepare themselves, feels like being in a delivery room as children are being born. Amidst pain or anguish, tempered with rhythm and support, and bolstered with faith, new life emerges. It’s physical, sometimes sensual, often spiritual. Too often this process is ignored, as image makers look only at the final result — the dance.”

Artists 2010

Emily Anderson, photo by Ainsley Kaufhold

Vicki Brown

Emily Beattie, photo by Jeff Lieberman

Sally Bomer

Katherine Ferrier, photo by K. Krjijinowsky

Lisa Gonzales

Suzy Grant, photo by Ryan Bourque

Eric Gunther, photo by Jeff Lieberman

Jessica Howard, photo by Will Wrobel

Tiffany Rhynard, photo by Alan Kimara Dixon

Pamela Vail, photo by Ben Carlson