Artistic Collaborators

Born in Guyana, South America, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Danielle Currica graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Dance and Choreography in 2009. Relocating to Philadelphia as a freelance dance artist, Danielle has worked with Dance Theater X (Charles O. Anderson), idiosynCrazy productions, Dance4Nia Repertory Ensemble (Antoinette Coward-Gilmore), Green Chair Dance Group, and is Sophie Sucre of Philadelphia’s neo-burlesque troupe The Peek-a-Boo Revue.

Christine was born and raised on the same block in the Bronx that “Jenny” came from; which, by the way, isn’t the south, south Bronx, but rather central East. It is there that she was introduced to dance through her cultural roots with salsa dancing at the age of 7. Christine decided to take her dance training a little further and was accepted into Professional Performing Arts School in association with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Along with her formal training at AAADT, Christine continued dancing salsa and was part of top Latin dance companies with whom she had the pleasure of performing both nationally and internationally in over 7 countries. After high school, she went on to receive her BFA in Modern Dance Education from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Christine moved back to the block, pursuing a professional career in dance and is very excited to join the idiosynCrazy productions crew in the City of Brotherly Love.

Gabrielle Revlock is a native Philadelphian and graduate of Vassar College with a BA in Art History. She has received support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (2009), the nEW Festival (2008-2009), the New Edge Mix (2006) and is currently a resident artist in the Susan Hess Choreographer’s Project. Her work has been shown at various venues including the Joyce SoHo (NYC) and the Korzo Theater (The Hague, Netherlands). In 2009 she was chosen to present in The A.W.A.R.D. Show! as part of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. She will be participating again in 2011. This past spring she was resident choreographer at Bryn Mawr College and in 2005 she was selected as Alumnae Choreographer for Vassar College. Gabrielle is the recipient of a 2010 Rocky Award. As a dancer, she has received two professional development awards from Dance Advance, which took her to the Netherlands to collaborate and tour with Isabelle Chaffaud and Jérôme Meyer. She is a company member of Jeanne Ruddy Dance, and has performed the works of Jane Comfort, Suzanna Linke, and Robert Battle. Other Philadelphia artists Gabrielle has had the pleasure of dancing for include Lisa Kraus, Myra Bazell, Leah Stein and Matthew Neenan for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Gabrielle has worked frequently with international artists including UK Choreographer Sean Feldman, Austrian Willi Dorner and Butoh master Katsura Kan from Japan. In addition to performance, Gabrielle’s films have been shown two consecutive years (2007 & 2008) at the dance film festival, Motion Pictures programmed by Philadelphia Dance Projects. As a photographer she has been published in both Smithsonian and Bust Magazine. Additionally, Gabrielle is the creator of Wear Your Wig to Work Day, a holiday occurring annually the last Friday in January.

In highschool, Gregory learned how to build human towers and has been experimenting in movement ever since. After studying sociolinguistics and dance at Swarthmore College, he completed further technical training at the Institute for Dance Art in Linz, Austria, and has since performed with various groups across Europe and the United States. His work is nearly always collaborative and process-driven, with a strong interest in critical aesthetics, and has been developed through residencies around Philadelphia and Central Europe. As a dancer, Gregory enjoys exhilarating movement, excessive intellectual content, and amplified awkwardness. He is a collaborative creator/performer with Green Chair Dance Group, and also works with idiosynCrazy productions, Brian Sanders/JUNK, Gabrielle Revlock, and Workshop for Potential Movement. He has also been involved in numerous political performance projects, including street and protest performance. He has paired for several projects with fellow queer artist An Kaler, and their short films have been presented in queer and dance contexts globally. Gregory is a 2011 Live Arts Brewery Fellow as part of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.

Originally from Georgia, Jeff trained at the Atlanta Dance Works before attending Point Park University in Pittsburgh for Dance. While at PPU, Jeff performed in numerous shows. In addition, his own choreography, Held to Release, was selected to showcase at the American College Dance Festival. Jeff was a Company Member with Attack Theatre for 5 years, touring nationally and internationally as a dancer, setting works, and designing costumes. As a teacher Jeff has taught classes/workshops at CLO Academy, CAPA High School, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Governor’s School, and Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to setting his own works and collaborations titled Effectuation, Sawdust and Diamonds and Wigfield. His Musical Theater credits include: the national tour of FOSSE!, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (PCLO): Diesel in West Side Story, Dream Curly in Oklahoma!, Carnival Boy in Carousel, also The Who’s Tommy and The Pirates of Penzance. Opera Credits include: Samson & Delilah, Aida, Rigelleto, Faust, The Voluptuous Tango, and the world premiere of Red Dust at the Andy Warhol Museum. Jeff has performed in shows at both Walt Disney World and Busch Gardens. Also as a guest artist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Ion Sound Project, Pillow Project, Knot Dance, Rebecca Davis Dance Co., and idiosynCrazy productions.

Jumatatu Poe hails from California, by way of Philadelphia, PA. He is an alum of Swarthmore College and a graduate of the MFA program at Temple University. His first dance training was in contemporary African dance (the Umfundalai technique) at Swarthmore College. Jumatatu has also trained at Philadanco, in the Jacob’s Pillow and Illadelph Legends Festivals, and in Amsterdam with Anouk van Dijk. Currently, Jumatatu serves on faculty at Swarthmore College and the Univeristy of the Arts. As a performer, Jumatatu has performed for several Philadelphian choreographers, including Charles Anderson, Myra Bazell, Marianela Boan, Tania Isaac, Kun-Yang Lin, Merián Soto, Leah Stein, Keith Thompson, Kate Watson-Wallace, and Kariamu Welsh (as a member of Kariamu & Company: Traditions). In 2008, Jumatatu was a resident choreographer of Susan Hess Modern Dance’s Choreographers’ Project (Philadelphia). His choreography has been featured at Swarthmore College, Temple University, as well as the Philadelphia Live Arts and New Edge Mix festival series. His choreography has also been commissioned by Danse4Nia, Prince Music Theater, and New Jersey Governor’s School. Jumatatu is the artistic director of idiosynCrazy productions.

Jung Woong Kim was born and raised in Ulsan, Korea. he graduated from the Korea National University of the Arts (KNUA) with a major in choreography and performance. His choreographic work has been presented in numerous festivals in Seoul and has been supported by Korea Arts Council. In 2006 he started collaborating with Puerto Rican dancer Marion Ramirez and formed U Turn Dance Company. They make work for site-specific, film and the stage. Presented at The Nation Theater of Korea, Seoul International MarginalTheater Festival, Democracy Park Theater, Miami Contemporary Dance Company, Frying Pan Boat, Ithaca’s Love Shoe festival 2008 and New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix 2009 at Joyce Soho. Since spring 2008, they teach independent contact improvisation workshops. Jung Woong has been a guest improvisation teacher at Gong Guk university department of dance, at KNUA for acting students, Trust Dance Company and Temple University.

Justin Bryant was born in Memphis, TN and was raised in Atlanta, GA, where he began his dance career. In the last five years, he has performed and taught dance nationally and internationally, and has had the opportunity to work with companies such as Eleone Dance Theater, Dancefusion, The Smoke, Lilies, and Jade Arts Initiative, and The American Repertory Ballet Company (NJ). In highschool, he was blessed enough to have the opportunity to work with American Idol Clay Aiken and country artist Wynonna Judd. During his college years, he was selected to perform in the stage play My Brother Marvin directed by Clifton Powell. On a Full Director’s Talent Scholarship, Justin received a BFA in Ballet Performance from The University of the Arts under the direction of Susan Glazer. Currently, he is the Artistic Associate Director of The Smoke, Lilies and Jade Arts Initiative, an Advisory Board Member of The Brothers’ Network and is now a happy member of The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco). It is such a pleasure for him to share the stage with the phenomenal artists of idiosynCrazy productions.

Kristel Baldoz started dancing at the age of six in Delano, California, studying ballet and jazz under her mother’s persistence. Kristel grew to love movement and decided she wanted to be a dancer. She received her B.A. in Dance, Theater, and Performance Studies from the UC Berkeley. However, curious to explore other fields, Kristel decided to take some time off from dance. She traveled, found herself unexpectedly settled in Philadelphia, and worked for a nonprofit, advocating for urban youth and education. She thanks idiosynCrazy productions for this great opportunity and is excited to be moving again!

Since 2005 Lindsay has been actively participating both as a Dancer and Photographer within Philadelphia’s Arts community. She is currently participating with Scrap Performance Group, Group Motion Dance Company, Wally Cardona, idiosynCrazy productions and Olive Prince Dance. Additional credits include having worked with Ring Dance Theatre, Tania Issac Dance, Merge Dance, choreographers Silvana Cardell, Jodi Obeid, and Shannon Murphy. She was a founding member of danahbelladanceworks, a Dance Theatre Company based in Virginia. Lindsay’s Choreography has been presented at the Cultural Education Center, Angler Movement Arts Lure Performance Series and Nicole Bindler’s Studio Series. Samples of her Photographic work are displayed at www.lbrowningphotography.weebly.com.

A big sister and the oldest of two, Maya was born in Los Angeles, California, to Sheree Brown Johnson and Douglass Johnson. Practically singing and dancing out of the womb, Maya started taking dance classes at the age of 3 at Universal Dance Designs, owned by Paul and Arlene Kennedy. Thus, her obsession with performing began. As a child she took her love for performance to the screen, making an appearance as Janet Jackson on the TV movie series The Jackson American Dream. While training with La Verne Reed and Eartha Robinson, she went on to appear in several commercials, films, stage plays including Debbie Allen’s The Legend (the Mark Taper performance), the 67th Academy Awards, Fudge, The Sinbad Show, On Our Own, as well as several other productions. Growing older, she focused more on classical training to pursue a career in concert dance, training with Karen McDonald, Ka Ron Brown-Lehman, as well as several other master teachers. She spent her middle and high school summers in New York at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and in San Francisco at Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet School. Graduating from LA County HS of the Arts, Maya moved away from the warm city of Angeles to the city of brotherly love, receiving her B.F.A. in Dance performance with an emphasis in choreography. At U of A she studied and worked with Curt Haworth, Kim Bears, Milton Meyers, Ronen Koresh, Zane Booker, and many others. As a professional dancer, she’s proudly performed nationally and internationally with Curt Haworth, Smoke, Lilies, and Jade Arts Initiative (Zane Booker), Dancefusion (Gwendolyn Bye), and Philadelphia Civic Ballet. She’s choreographed for the 2009 Philly Fringe and for S.L.J.

Returning to her roots, Maya has been blessed to write and work on her first album as a solo artist as well performing her own works. Maya is elated to have the opportunity to work with Nathan Trice and Rituals family as well as Jumatatu and the entire idiosynCrazy productions family.

Michele Tantoco received her BA in Biology in 2001 from Bryn Mawr College, and has been dancing and teaching in the Philadelphia area ever since.

 

In 2002 she became a member of the Leah Stein Dance Company. In October 2010, Michele was one of seven Philadelphia dancers asked to participate in a partial reconstruction of Lucinda Childs’ work Interior Drama under the direction of Lucinda Childs and Ty Boomershine. She is also a regular performer and collaborator with idiosynCrazy Productions and Jumatatu Poe, with whom she performed at the 2010 Norristown Dance Festival (Flight Attendants) Michele was chosen to participate alongside two other Philadelphia dancers in the Red Thread project, an inter-generational dance work origianally created by three former Trisha Brown Company members Lisa Kraus, Eva Karczag and Vicky Shick (March 2010). In December 2009, she performed in Moving Parts/Meg Foley’s work cookie as a part of the Movement Research at Judson Church program in NYC. In the Spring of 2009, she collaborated and performed in the touring production of White Box Theatre’s Sea of Birds.

 

Current collaborations and upcoming projects in January 2011 include: new work with Sarah Yassky to be presented at Judson Church, a new work with Brian Sanders/JUNK, and the premiere of Jumatatu Poe’s FLATLAND 2010. Michele also teaches dance, yoga, and pilates-based classes in the Philadelphia area.

Shannon Murphy loves to move, in fact there is nothing else she’d rather be doing at any given moment. That is why she started dancing in Ohio, and why she continues to explore, redefine and create dances today. Currently, Shannon resides in Philly where she is constantly challenged and inspired by the artists around her. She has been a part of Anonymous Bodies/Kate Watson-Wallace, Dance Theater X, idiosynCrazy productions, Kosoko Performance Group, Nichole Canuso Dance CO. SCRAP Performance Group, XCDC, and worked with choreographers Robert Battle, Wally Cardona, Rennie Harris, Jenifer Morley, and Kathryn TeBordo. Shannon continues on her journey to experience as much movement as possible. Her passion for dance along with the commitment to evolve dance education brought her to the Franklin Method. A graduate of the level two teacher certification, Shannon uses the Franklin Method in her pedagogy, her choreography and teaches workshops, weekly classes, and private sessions in Philadelphia to both professionals and dancers in training. Developing her own kinetic vocabulary, her choreographic work displays physical exertion, emotional intrigue, and a curiosity of functionality both physically and metaphorically. She has a BA from Point Park University, and has studied at Studio Harmonique, Paris France, with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and at MELT/Movement Research. Last season, she proudly became the Director of Creative Development for idiosynCrazy productions, where she can fuse her passion of performance, choreography and movement theory.

Shavon Norris is an artist, educator and performer. Originally from New York City, she received a BA in Biology from Manhattanville College, and a Master of Fine Arts in dance from Temple University. As a dance maker, Shavon’ s work has been presented at Manhattanville College, The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Temple University, The National Constitutional Center, Art’ s Sanctuary, Chester Eastside Ministries, the Community Education Center, and at Joyce Soho. As a performer she has worked with Nia Love, Max Luna, Treva Offut, Gabri Crista, Silvana Cardell, Marianela Boan, Kemal Nance, Meghan Durham, Manfred Fischbeck, Leah Stein, Merian Soto, Makoto Hirano and Jumatatu Poe. As an educator, Shavon teaches school age children to college students, locally and nationally. Shavon’ s artistic and educational philosophies are rooted in the desire to give herself, students, performers and audiences opportunities to deepen the understanding of self and the collective.

I first started dancing as a form of mockery, a way of expression that for me tapped into an ease of articulation that was particularly useful for a first grader. As I grew older and became more self conscious, dance became something that I stayed away from, an alienating, reoccurring theme that would stay with me through most of high school. With school dances proving to be the quickest pathways to social acceptance, I struggled to find inclusion, due in part to the fact that I was never the type of person who would do anything without first knowing if I was good at it. However, I always marveled at the seemingly innate way that my peers could seamlessly slip on this curvaceous, sensually thick movement, and it would be that fascination that would eventually guide me into dance as a field of study. Studying the way that people move, as well as why and how, has since become a passion of mine. Formally, I have received the majority of my training from The Dance Institute of Washington and The University of the Arts, as well as attending Paul Taylor summer intensives. Professionally, I have had the tremendous pleasure of working with choreographers Jumatatu Poe, Silvana Cardell, Brian Sanders, Curt Haworth, Ishmael Houston Jones, Michael Biello and Zachary Svoboda.