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| Photo Jordan Matter |
Christine Jowers is the founding editor, lead instigator, and a content creator for The Dance Enthusiast www.dance-enthusiast.com- an extension of the non-profit company Moving Arts Projects.The Dance Enthusiast is a web platform (not a blog) devoted to providing access to NYC's compelling dance companies and moving artists - uniting those who create work based on passion with an enthusiastic community that appreciates the arts. The Dance Enthusiast describes not only a website, but also a positive movement in dance communication dedicated to exploring new ways of talking about dance work on the web and off. The site encourages participation and conversation between artists, writers, and the audience.
Prior to devoting her efforts to The Dance Enthusiast, Jowers worked as professional dancer, teacher, and producer from 1985 until January 2011. She has performed works by the early masters of modern dance Isadora Duncan, Doris Humphrey, Eleanor King, Jean Erdman, Anna Sokolow, Paul Sansardo and Murray Louis as well as contemporary choreographers and performance artists such as Larry Keigwin, Charles Moulton, Jerry Pearson, Ann Carlson, Janis Brenner and Margie Gillis (among others). In 1997 she embarked on a solo performance career, creating and producing shows celebrating the voice of women in dance history. Her work has been presented in New York City, the UK, and Caribbean. For her production The Singular Voice of Woman, Judith Mackrell dance critic for the Guardian UK, hailed Jowers as “not only a remarkable performer but an important dance historian…”
Jowers began writing about dance at Sarah Lawrence College, later graduating from Goucher College with honors in Dance History/Criticism and Communications. She has been published by Dance/USA and The Johns Hopkins University's Literary Journal The Hopkins Review. She currently teaches teens about writing and looking at dance through the Arts Connection/High 5 Tickets to the Arts program in New York City.
Originally from the Virgin Islands, where she grew up in a family dedicated to the arts, community and service, Jowers lives in New York City with her husband, two enthusiastic sons, and their cat, Gracie.
Cory Nakasue is an Associate Editor and a Contributing Writer to The Dance Enthusiast as well as a member of the advisory board. She has spent over 10 years dancing professionally in Los Angeles and London, England, and choreographs for film, video, and live arts events and installations. She is the co-artistic director of SPINE, an arts collective based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the director of Body Intelligence, a wellness service that provides mind-body and fitness solutions for groups and individuals. As a part of this service she offers community classes in Pilates, yoga, and dance conditioning in her Brooklyn studio.
As a writer, she has contributed to Buzzine, The Artist's Forum, and The Dance Theater Workshop blog. As an adjudicator and panelist she has worked for Dancenow/NYC, London Arts Board, and London Contemporary Dance Center, and is on the executive committee for Collective for Dance Writing and New Media.
Cory has completed three experimental films, which have been screened at the Videodanza Festival in Buenos Aires, Millennium Film Workshop, NYC, California Museum of Photography, and Northern Exposure Festival, London. She debuted her first collection of photography at 3rd Ward, Brooklyn in 2009. Her work as a director of live performance has been presented at 3LD Art and Technology Center, NYC; Bloomsbury Theatre, London; CounterPULSE, San Francisco; and The Berkshire Fringe Festival, MA. She received her graduate degree in choreography and performance studies from Middlesex University. She is enthusiastic about taking dance into thinkable and speakable places...
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| Brittany Beyer Photo Courtesy of Brittany Beyer |
Brittany Beyer is an Associate Editor and a Contributing Writer to The Dance Enthusiast. She is a dancer, administrator and arts advocate originally from Illinois, having lived here in New York for over a decade. She has received two degrees from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, including a BFA in Dance and MA in Arts Politics, concentrating in not-for-profit management and social entrepreneurship. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Brittany performed many original pieces by fellow alumni, Johannes Wieland and subsequently became a founding member of johannes wieland, performing nationally and internationally with the company until 2006. Along with her work with the Dance Enthusiast, she is currently a dancer with The Equus Projects and director of the arts administrative consulting company, Hypatia Artists Services. When she is not dancing or thinking about dancing, she is spending time with her loving husband and their dog, Sage.
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Photo Briana Blasko
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Briana Blasko, Contributing Photographer to The Dance Enthusiast, was born in San Francisco, and moved to New York City in 1995. She received a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1999 while simultaneously working at the Annie Leibovitz Studio. Her work has frequently been published in the New York Times and other publications including, Dance Magazine, NPR, Time Out New York, Washington Times, The Village Voice, Miami Herald, India Perspectives, At A Glance and Ballet Magazine. Her work has been exhibited at Skirball Center for the Arts, Dance New Amsterdam, Artist’s Space, Pelham Arts Center, and Donna Karan’s Urban Zen. Briana has worked extensively in India documenting the arts and crafts of Indian textiles and dance. In 2006, she contributed to Sharmila Desai’s book, “Sristi”, published by Trolley Books and in 2008, she worked on the collaborative book “Cotton” with the Upasana Design Studio, published by the Bestseller Foundation. Currently, Briana is working with the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai, India on an exhibition about “Fabrics of Krishna." Briana has been working with The Dance Enthusiast since the site began and with Christine originated The Day In the Life of Dance Series on the site. Visit Briana Blasko.com.
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| Photo Courtesy of Trina Mannino |
Trina Mannino, Contributing Writer to The Dance Enthusiast, studied dance at the University of Michigan under Amy Chavasse, Bill DeYoung, Jessica Fogel, Judy Rice, Peter Sparling, and Robin Wilson. During her time at U of M, she had the pleasure of dancing in a number of works by her peers and faculty, but her favorite U of M experience involved befriending a weeping willow tree and creating a dance in honor of it. She has performed with Anabella Lenzu’s Dance/Drama, Chris Masters, and Laura Peterson Choreography, in addition to presenting her own work in Brooklyn, Detroit and Santa Barbara. Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Hour Detroit Magazine, and The Dance Jot. Trina still manages to return to Michigan a few times a year to enthusiastically frolic in the gorgeous state lakes and sand dunes.
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| "Mind's I" Photo Nannette Bertschy |
Ann Moradian, Contributing Writer to The Dance Enthusiast, is a movement artist who began her career dancing for a number of small companies, including Anna Sokolow's Players' Project and the Manuel Alum Dance Company in NYC. She founded Perspectives In Motion in NYC in 1988, choreographing and directing until 2002. The company continues today as a ground for explorations in education, collaboration and exchange among the arts, while remaining strongly committed to and immersed in the realm of the movement arts. Ann has worked on film and video projects as a performer, choreographer and cameraperson, has taught throughout her career, and has written on dance since 2001 when she was asked to present a paper on Abstraction for the Natya Kala conference on choreography in Chennai. She holds a BA from Gallatin at New York University with a specialization in Art in Society. Ann moved to Paris in 2002 after living in India for 6 years. She practices the martial arts, yoga and dance, teaches, writes and continues to create collaborative experimental video and multi-disciplinary performance works. (http://annmoradian-perspectives.blogspot.com)
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Photo Courtesy of Raja Kelly
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Raja Kelly, Contributing Writer to The Dance Enthusiast, is a 2009 DancerWEB Scholar, performer and image-maker. Currently, Kelly lives between NY, NY and Seattle, WA as a company member with David Dorfman Dance, zoe | juniper (SEA), RaceDance, Christopher Williams Dance, Kelly is a co-producer of a summer dance series in Bushwick, Brooklyn: RoofTop Dance and is company manager for Race Dance and zoe | juniper. Kelly creates performance art with thefeath3rtheory and holds a BA with Magna Cum Laude Honors in Dance and English from Connecticut College.
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| Photo by Suby Raman |
Tara Sheena, Contributing Writer to The Dance Enthusiast, is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan in April 2011 with a BFA in Dance and BA in English. During her time in NYC, she has performed with ChavasseDance&Performance;, Amiti Perry + Company, Anne Goldberg/Synthesis Aesthetics, and Spark(edIt) Arts, as well as showcased her own work at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and AUNTS. Tara is also a contributing writer to Dance Informa, Art Observed, and works with Critical Correspondence at Movement Research.
