Linda Kent
Linda Kent toured internationally as a Principal Dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre from 1968 – 1974 and as Principal Dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1975 – 1989. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School’s Dance Division and has been a faculty member there since 1984. Since 2001 she has been the Director of Dance at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Miss Kent has staged the works of Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey and David Parsons on ballet and modern dance companies around the world including The Joffrey Ballet, Les Grandes Ballet Canadienne, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Arizona, La Scala Opera Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Bat Dor Company, Ballet du Nord, and the Juilliard Dance Ensemble. In adddition to Juilliard, Miss Kent has served on the faculty at the Paul Taylor Dance Company School, the Alvin Ailey School, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Minnesota Dance Theatre, University of Illinois, and the New York State Summer School of the Arts. In 1992, Miss Kent was chosen to be the first modern dance teacher at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. Miss Kent’s television appearances include Ailey’s On Being Black, Memories and Visions and Cosby Salutes Ailey as well as five Paul Taylor Dance Company programs for the PBS series Dance in America.
Miss Kent’s choreography has been presented at City Center Theatre, Saint John the Divine, Castillo Cultural Centre, The Juilliard School, Riverside Church and the Union Theological Seminary where she has been Artist-in-Residence. Miss Kent has been featured recently in the February, 2011 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine, an article “Five Teachers Who Love What They Do” and the August, 2011 issue of Dance Magazine, “Teacher’s Wisdom.”
Ernesta Corvino
Ernesta Corvino studied ballet with Margaret Craske, Antony Tudor, Alfredo Corvino and Andra Corvino. At the age of 14 she joined the Maryland Ballet as soloist then went on to dance with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company. She toured the U.S. with the American Chamber Ballet and went to Asia with the Opera Theatre of New York. She has also performed with Ruby Shang, Bill Badolato, Roberto Cartagena and ethnic dance specialist, Matteo. In 1991 she became a member of the New York Baroque Dance Company appearing in New York City, the Carmel Bach Festival, The Kennedy Center and in Europe. Ms. Corvino has also performed as a baroque soloist with Apollo’s Banquet.
In 1981 she formed her own company, ERNESTA CORVINO’S DANCE CIRCLE COMPANY, which appeared annually at the Riverside Dance Festival in New York City from 1982-87. The company has also performed at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, the Downtown Dance Festival, the Meet-the-Artist Series at Lincoln Center, USDAN Center, Randolph-Macon Womans College, the Nikolais/Louis ChoreoSpace and Marymount Manhattan Theatre.
Ms. Corvino has choreographed over twenty pieces for the company ranging from a Charlie Chaplin two-reeler to a ballet about the Kentucky Derby. Well-known for her wry treatment of popular culture in ballets such as the critically acclaimed Holmes, Sweet Holmes, Ms. Corvino is equally adept at crafting works of pathos and tragedy. Her recently created The Early Morning Hours of the Hard Moon is a tender and heroic treatment of one man’s struggle with AIDS and of Somnus, Jennie Schulman of Backstage wrote, “This is one of the most novel utilizations of the Ravel score ever conceived.”
From 1968 to 1993 she was teacher and co-director of her own school, DANCE CIRCLE in New York City. Her teaching credits also include the Juilliard School, the Inner-City Ensemble, the Governor’s School of New Jersey, Randolph-Macon Womans College, the Tappan Zee Dance Group, SUNY/ Purchase, and Stephens College (all for whom she has choreographed), as well as Sarah Lawrence College, SUNY/Brockport, Long Island University, Hofstra University, the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign, STEPS ON BROADWAY, and Danspace of Oakland, CA. Ms. Corvino frequently teaches, choreographs and performs as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Recently she has appeared at the Kaye Playhouse in New York City and The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in “From The Horse’s Mouth”, a live dance documentary as well as with BALLET MINK COLBERT in the U.S. and Denmark. She currently teaches open classes in New York City, is ballet master for the Jose Limon Dance Company as well as Pina Bausch/Tanz theatre Wuppertal and conducts workshops throughout Europe.
Nicholas Villeneuve
Nicholas Villeneuve, a native of Canada was raised in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1997, he relocated from the islands to New York City on scholarship to study at the Alvin Ailey School under the late Denise Jefferson and the tutelage of Benjamin Harkarvy at The Juilliard School. In 2001 he received the title of Dance Captain for Disney’s The Lion King and later joined Ballet Hispanico in 2005. After seven amazing seasons with Ballet Hispanico he has chosen to retire and further pursue his love of education, directing and teaching. Nicholas has choreographed works for The Company Dance Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica, The Juilliard School, New York, Cawthra Park Ensemble in Toronto, Canada and for Perry-Mansfield performing Arts School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where in 2010 he was commissioned an entire evening of his work for the New Works Festival. His collaboration with Ballet Hispanico and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in the Spring of 2011 marked his 16th work of choreography. He has also worked outside of traditional dance companies, choreographing and teaching for theatre and musical theatre, as well as for numerous HIV/AIDS fundraisers in Canada. Nicholas’s choreographic style ranges from the humorous through morbid to whimsically romantic drawing continuously on great athleticism and linear design.His extensive teaching background has taken him across the country and internationally giving master classes in Modern Technique and Contemporary Partnering. He has been on faculty for the last seven years at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School as assistant to the director as well as guest faculty at The Juilliard School. Nicholas is currently the Rehearsal Director for BH2, the second company of Ballet Hispanico. It provides educational and professional opportunities/training for pre-professional dancers ages 18-22 and bridges the gap between the many facets of the institution from school to the professional company.
Tammy Dyke Compton
Tammy Dyke Compton was a student at Perry Mansfield when she was in High School, P-M has a very speacial place in her heart. She was delighted to become a faculty member at Perry Mansfield in 2002 and she has been able to teach again at P-M the last two summers. Tammy began dancing at age 3 at Stagedoor Dance Center in Phoenix Arizona. She has her BFA from the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and Larry Rhodes. She has been teaching dance for eighteen years and choreographing for twelve. Her choreography has been seen at The Clark Studio Theatre in Lincoln Center, The Juilliard Theatre, Ballet Jazz De Montreal, Jazz World Congress, Tokyo Japan, Perry Mansfield Performing Arts Camp, Domain Forget Performing Arts Camp, and many dance schools across the USA and Canada. Tammy has performed principal roles for Twyla Tharp in her Broadway tour of “Movin’ Out” for over three years and toured with “Fame” the musical for two years. She has appeared in industrials, music videos, commercials and benefits. Tammy was proud to perform the choreography of Robert Battle, Aszure Barton and Peter Chu while she was at Juilliard. She has been on faculty for DMA dance convention in Buffalo New York and The Dance Project in Canada. She also has subbed for David Marquez at Broadway Dance Center in NYC and The Alvin Ailey School in NYC. Tammy is attending The Universtiy Of Arizona getting her MFA in Dance she will be graudating in 2013.
Antonio Brown
Antonio Brown is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where he began his dance training at the Cleveland School of the Arts. In 2007, he received his BFA from The Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes. While there, he had the opportunity to perform works by Jose Limon, Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, Eliot Feld, Aszure Barton, Jessica Lang, Susan Marshall, Larry Keigwin, among others. Mr. Brown has also worked with Malcolm Low/Formal Structure, Stephen Pier, Nilas Martins Dance Company and Sidra Bell Dance New York. In 2007 Antonio became a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. In addition to working with BTJ/AZ, Antonio performs with Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Gregory Dolbashian’s “The Dash Ensemble”and has choreographed works for Verb Ballet, August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, and various schools and intensives across the United States. Antonio is so grateful to share his gifts and talents with you and the world.
Bob Marbach
Bob Marbach has been a professional musician for almost 40 years, performing in every setting from the classical concert stage to jazz festivals to broadway shows to the recording studio. He has shared the stage with such artists as Jimmy Witherspoon, Blue Mitchell, Phineas Newborn Jr, Smoky Robinson, The Moody Blues, Freddie Hubbard and many others.
Born in San Diego California, raised in Denver Colorado, he received BA and MA degrees in piano performance from Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the University of Memphis. Bob served on the adjunct faculty at U of Memphis, and Shelby State Community College from 1991 until 1997.
A New Yorker since 1997, Bob has been active as a jazz and R and B pianist/keyboardist in regional clubs and studios, and worked extensively as a ballet and modern dance accompanist; including tenures at The Alvin Ailey School, La Guardia High School, NYU Tisch School, and Dance Theatre of Harlem, and has also taught piano and voice in the NYC public school system.
Jennifer Golonka
Jennifer Golonka is a NYC based dancer, teacher and choreographer who has performed with the Jessica Lang Project, Battleworks Dance Company, Camille A.Brown and Dancers and Darrell Grand Moultrie. Jennifer has also had the pleasure of performing with Denver based Hannah Kahn Dance Company and Third Law Dance/Theatre. She was co-director of Nimbus Dance and the Threshold Project – companies that presented multi-media based, evening length pieces that dealt with current events.
Jennifer’s training has taken her from the School of American Ballet to the Martha Graham School and finally to the Limon Instituted. Her class and choreography are a mixture of the three – stressing change in direction, quick timing and the weight and use of the torso.
In addition to dancing, Jennifer enjoys teaching ballet, modern and Pilates at studios, colleges and as part of many outreach programs throughout the country. This is Jennifer’s tenth summer at Perry-Mansfield.
Christopher Compton
Christopher began his dance training at the age of 18 at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia under the tutelage of Andrew Pap. After earning his BFA in Ballet, Chris moved on to train with Marcia Dale Weary, Darla Hoover and Alan Hineline at the famed Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. While at CPYB, Chris was offered contracts with various ballet companies across the U.S. with companies such as Colorado Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Nashville Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre and others, but chose to pass on those opportunities to dance for Twyla Tharp. Chris began working in the 1st National Tour of Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel’s Tony-Award Winning “Movin’ Out.” In 2007, after “Movin’ Out” had ended it’s run, Chris began working on the North American Premier of “Dirty Dancing” in Toronto. Chris was honored to perform the role made famous by the late Patrick Swayze until the show’s close in April of 2009.
Janet Taisey Craft
Janet is founder and artistic director of The Ipswich Moving Company. Her choreography has been presented in the US, the Netherlands, the former Soviet Union, and twice at the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. In 1990, Janet was a guest artist with The Independent Company of Alla Sigalova and presented a full evening concert of her work at the Hermitage Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Her choreography has been recognized by the Massachusetts Artist Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council as a grant recipient numerous times and a fellowship finalist.
Janet was Professor and Head of Dance at Emerson College for twenty-four years. She directed dance concerts and co-directed and choreographed original dance theatre works for Emerson Stage. Janet created her first aerial dance in 1986 for the Montserrat Gallery. Over the past twenty-five years, Janet has evolved a unique form of aerial dance using tied climbing rope and fabric slings. Her aerial dances have been presented throughout New England and at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh. Her aerial dance, “Snake in the Grass” was selected for the First International Aerial Dance Festival in 1992. Craft’s “Free Fall” was presented in the Spotlight on Dance Series at the Boston Center for the Arts in 2003.
Over the last nine years, Janet has created full evening aerial/modern dance works inspired by surrealism, Celtic folklore, the poetry of Sylvia Plath, and winter solstice. She has been on the faculty of Perry Mansfield for four years.
Adam Barruch (Guest Artist)
Adam Barruch began his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television–working with prominent figures such as Tony Bennett, Jerry Herman and Susan Stroman. He later received dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. After three years, he graduated early and was accepted into the dance department at The Juilliard School.
As a dancer he has performed the works of Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Susan Marshall, Jose Limon, Daniele Dèsnoyers and Sylvain Émard. As a choreographer, Adam’s work has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop, City Center, NYU/ Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, The Juilliard School, Joe’s Pub, Cunningham Studio, Ailey-Citigroup Theater, SUNY Purchase, New York University, Cedar Lake Theater and Theatre Usine C in Montreal. In March 2009, he self-produced a full evening of original dance/theater works at The Baryshnikov Arts Center, with his company Adam Barruch Dance.Adam was selected as an Emerging Collaborator for Springboard Danse in Montreal in 2009, as well as a Movement and Dance Artist-in-Residence at the Stella Adler Acting Studio, where he collaborated with solo-performance artist Lauren Marie Albert. Adam has created new works for the dance programs at Princeton University, the Ailey/Fordham University and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts MFA program. Adam created a solo work on modern dance icon Margie Gillis–which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in 2011. This past summer Adam Barruch Dance performed on the Inside/Out stage at Jacob’s Pillow, and at the Harris Theater during the Chicago Dancing Festival. Adam Barruch was selected as a participant in the 2011 Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab made possible by generous support from the Ford Foundation.This coming summer, Adam will be at Bates Dance Festival creating new work as part of their Emerging Choreographer’s Residency.
Adam is a guest choreographer for the Pre-Professional Intensive program and the Young Artist Intensive program.
Richard Bennett
Whether exuberant and percussive or lyrical and transcendent, RICHARD BENNETT is a virtuoso at the piano. Bringing an array of world music and jazz influences to his music, he blends together a sound that is all his own. In New York his bands have performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Guggenheim Museum, BAMcafe, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Central Park Summerstage. Internationally, he has toured over twenty countries as member of various jazz and blues ensembles. His compositions have been used forcefully for modern dance, most notably “Fragments” for the Ailey II Dance Company and “Slope of Enlightenment” for Elisa Monte as well as compositions at Perry Mansfield for works by Janet Taisey Craft and Thang Dao. His album “Raga and Blues” was released by “Mystica Music” in India in 2011. The follow-up c.d. “Rhapsody in Yaman” featuring Paula Jeanine on percussion was released in February 2012.
“Pianist Richard Bennett has found a way to have instantly catchy tunes- riffs and ostinatos really- transcend jazz expectations while still focusing on improvisation.” – Village Voice
“Richard Bennett, who is one of the most versatile and innovative pianists… his improvisations, are also exquisite and deep.” – Music Mania
“Master Pianist” – Times of India
Paula JeaninE Bennett
Singer, percussionist and lyricist Paula Jeanine Bennett is an artist with a deep and soulful commitment to the creative path. She is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Alvin Ailey School and is a visiting lecturer at the Whistling Woods International School of Media Arts in Mumbai, India.
In 2009, Paula Jeanine was honored for her contribution to the field of dance by the University of Oklahoma. She is musical director for Table of Silence which performed in Italy as part of Pope Benedict’s Assisi III Summit for Peace and at Lincoln Center on 9/11/11. She is a frequent artistic collaborator with Anna Deavere Smith. As a lyricist, Paula Jeanine is inspired by her performing tours of Egypt, Morocco and South Asia as well as her love of visual art and architecture. She currently leads a musical project called Melody Sky with guitarist and composer Lee Boice. Paula Jeanine is a Billboard award-winning songwriter.”
Thang Dao
Thang Dao (Choreographer) was born in Danang, Vietnam. He currently resides in New York City as a choreographer. He received his formal dance education from the Juilliard School and Boston Conservatory. Following, Dao danced professionally with the Stephen Petronio Company from 2001-2006, the Metropolitan Opera, and Lisa Reinhardt.
As a choreographer, he has worked with Ballet Austin, Ballet X, and Ailey II. In 2006, his ballet Stepping Ground, choreographed on Ballet Austin for the 1st Biannual New American Talent/Dance received the Audience Choice Award all four nights.
In addition, his works have toured nationally to Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, California, North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois and DC. Internationally his ballets have been presented in England, Taiwan, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria. Dao was the recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Award for choreography in 2008 and a Special Project grant in 2009 for his ballet Quiet Imprint.
Ariel Freedman (Guest Artist)
Ariel Freedman began dancing and choreographing at the age of three in
her living room. She earned her BFA at The Juilliard School, where she
was a recipient of the Martha Hill Prize. After graduating, she
performed with AszURe & Artists, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen
Dance, and David Parker and the The Bang Group. She danced with the
Batsheva Ensemble for two seasons and with the Batsheva Dance Company
for three. She teaches Gaga, the technique of Batsheva choreographer
Ohad Naharin, and performs with Kidd Pivot, Motley Dance and Keigwin +
Company.
Ariel is a guest artist for the Pre-Professional Intensive program.
Elena Tishina
Elena Tishina is originally from Kiev, Ukraine. She started to play piano at the age of 6. After 7 years of music school and 4 years of music college, she graduated from the Institute of Culture with a Master’s Degree in Conducting. Mrs. Tishina taught piano and performed as a conductor of a children’s choir for 16 years of her career in Kiev. In 1992 Elena Tishina immigrated to the United States, and has worked as an accompanist for ballet classes at Steps, SAB, ABT, Ballet Tech, Perry Dance, DTH, the Julliard School and Barnard College. Elena Tishina has been working at The Alvin Ailey School since 1995.
Jenny Carlson
Jenny trained at the Imperial Academy of Dance in Connecticut and continued her studies at Emerson, College receiving a BFA in Dance. Jenny is a member of Flipside Dance Theatre, Ipswich Moving Company, Fresh Squeezed Dance, and Fallen Flight Project. These companies have taken her from California to Europe to perform. Jenny has been flying through the air for 10 years on rope, fabric, and steel frames performing and choreographing Aerial pieces with Ipswich Moving Company. She has been seen performing at The International Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Boston Center for the Arts, The Dance Complex MA, Green Street Studio’s MA, and The Oakland Performing Arts Center CA. Jenny is the director of Ipswich Moving Company School of Dance and assistant director of the Company. Jenny has been described by The Boston Globe as “a beautifully lyrical and articulate dancer, who moves with a lush fluidity.”
Meghan Grupposo
Meghan Grupposo received her BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. Her concert work includes the works of Jose Limon, Lila York, Mauricio Wainrott, Pat Catterson and two original works by Adam Hougland. For film, she was a part of The de Mille Project, under the direction of Gemze de Lappe, and Sophie Maslow’s ballet, “The Village I Knew” for the American Dance Legacy Institute. Meghan has choreographed and performed for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Meet The Music!” concerts series for kids. Miss Grupposo has been on faculty with The Miami Conservatory of Ballet in Miami, FL. She is a Senior Teaching Artist with American Ballroom Theater’s “Dancing Classrooms,” a Teaching Artist with Dance Theatre of Harlem’s “Dancing Through Barriers” and is ballet faculty at Dance New Amsterdam in NYC. This is her fifth summer at Perry-Mansfield.