Rujeko Dumbutshena
She is passionate about teaching the rhythmic intricacies embedded in Zimbabwean dance traditions i n a manner that is accessible to people regardlessof their previous dance experience. Students wil have the opportunity to internalize the movements and rhythmsof a dance form that is rarely performed or taught.
Michael Bodel
Michael Bodel is a choreographer, performer and dance writer whose current interests include alphabetically: affordances, Bread and Puppet Theater, dance film, embodied cognition, pageantry, place, religion, Ralph Lemon, scent, semiot- ics, smuggling and speech. Michael developes dance in the frosty hills of Putney Vermont. He is the founder and curator of the briefly dormant FRAMEWORKS dance film series, and his new website on dance ideas and action launches this Summer at www.movemargin.org
Rachel Cohen
Rachel Cohen has been choreographing and performing in NewYork City since 1997, and created Racoco Productions in 2003. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Performance as Communication, a self-designed major; she studied dance and choreography with Claire Mallardi. Ms. Cohen currently studies action theater with Ruth Zaporah and Cassie Terman and ballet with Carolyn Lord; other influential teachers include Mary Anthony and Bertram Ross (modern dance), Heather Cornell (tap), Rafael Bianciotto (mask and clown), Patricia Cross (ballet), and Joanne Conroy and Olga Baigas (jazz). She has performed with Olek, Julie Atlas Muz, SHUA Group, Ariane Anthony + … Continued
Elke Luyten
Elke Luyten, originally from Belgium, lives and works in New York City. In 2010, Luyten re-performed several of Abramović’s pieces at the exhibition “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present” at the MoMA. She is currently performing in Robert Wilson’s “The Life and Death of Marina Abramović”, which has toured internationally since 2011. Luyten’s own work has been presented by the RED- CAT in Los Angeles, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Hooyong Performing Art Centre in South Korea, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill and Dance New Amsterdam in New York. Her most recent collaboration with Kira Alker called … Continued
Kota Yamazaki
Kota Yamazaki was first introduced to butoh in 1977 through the teaching of Akira Kasai and began ballet training under the late Hirofumi Inoue in 1981. He was an artistic director of Tokyo-based rosy co. from 1995 until its close in 2001. Following an invitation in 2001 from Germaine Acogny,Yamazaki created the work FAGAA- LA in collaboration with her Senegal-based company, for which he received a NY Dance and Performance Award (Bessie Award) in 2007 and nominated for Alpert Award. Since 2002,Yamazaki with his NY-based Fluid hug-hug, presents works nationally and inter- nationally and teaches at many universities. In 2013, … Continued
Mina Nishimura
Mina Nishimura, from Tokyo, was introduced to butoh and impro- visational dance through Kota Yamazaki’s teaching.While perform- ing nationally and internationally with many inspirational chore- ographers, her own works have been presented by DTW,The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Movement Research, Roulette among other venues. Nishimura was the danceWeb scholar at Impuls Tanz (Vienna) in 2009, and was a curator for MR Spring Festival 2013. She was on AIR program at Brooklyn Art Exchange in 2010-2011, at Chez Bushwick in 2013 and is a current AIR (2013-2014) at Movement Research. Nishimura has been teaching at Bennington College and Ferris University (Japan).
Sophia Treanor
Sophia Treanor is a Brooklyn based performance artist, actor, dancer, and director. Sophia studied acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and when introduced to movement training was immediately shocked by the enormous expressive potential of the body.This began a more spiritual relationship to dance and music, and led her to study meditation, improvisation, and the Six Viewpoints with Mary Overlie. Sophia has been investigating presence (((now))) with collaborator Sebastiani Romagnolo and musician Adam Gundersheimer for the last two years, and the performance possibilities between poetry and movement with poet Rachel Broderick. Snow flakes, sand dunes, and turbulent vortices … Continued
Jeremy Goren
Jeremy Goren, Stephanie Eiss, Jenna Kirk, and Tommy Schell have been working together since the beginning of 2013.They have performed Wistaria at several locations in New York, in collaboration with a changing cadre of artists
Julia Crockett
Julia Crockett and Colin Self have been creative partners since the summer of 2012.Their work together explores imitation, icons, emotional gesture, and the cultivation of identity (personal, cultural, and gender). Packed with emotional variance, humor, extremity, and pop-culture nods, their collaborations guide both the performers and viewers through diverse, rich, human experiences.
Carlye Eckert
Carlye Eckert is a choreographer and performer based in NewYork and a grad- uate of the Juilliard School (Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, 2009). Ms. Eckert has worked and collaborated with Tino Sehgal, Jonah Bokaer, Jack Ferver, Luke Murphy Dance, Yara Travieso, Lucie Baker, The Equus Projects, Boris Charmatz/ Musee de la Danse and appeared as a guest dance artist with Aszure Barton & Artists and Keigwin+Company. Ms. Eckert is a member of the Brian Brooks Dance Company. In addition to her solo choreographic work, Ms. Eckert has an ongoing collaboration with John Sorensen-Jolink under the moniker, Eckert+So- rensenJolink. She, … Continued
Rebecca Brooks
Rebecca Brooks is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her performance works have been presented in theaters, galleries, art fairs, community centers, living rooms, offices, churches, bars, and parks. Her most recent work, Still Left On This Rock, was presented at Danspace Project in April 2014. She has worked as a performer with Marina Abramović, luciana achugar, Maria Hassabi, Susan Rethorst, robbinschilds, Kathy Westwater, and many others. She works in an advisory role with Heather Kravas and Milka Djordjevich.An AmSAT-certified Alexander Technique teacher, Rebecca is currently on faculty at Balance Arts Center and Movement Research, and she also teaches … Continued
Paul Peers
Paul Peers is part of of a collaborative dance duo with Tina Mitchell
Tina Mitchell
Tina Mitchell is a New York based actor, director, teaching artist and theatre maker. Hailing from Australia,Tina is a graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts and holds a Masters of Arts Practice specializing in Performance.A 2015 resident Fellow at LEIMAY,Tina is co-Artistic Director of Chopt Logic, a company dedicated to producing inter-disciplinary live performances that respond to women’s role in contemporary culture. Her latest project Miss Julia, a bi-lingual adaptation of Strindberg’s classic play, has been performed in the prestigious Iberoamericano Festival de Bogotá and Festivals across Colombia and Spain. Tina works internationally as an actor, director and … Continued
Hee Ran Lee
Hee Ran Lee is a performance artist working as a performer and director. Her recent grants have included the ARKO Young Art Frontier from Arts Council Korea (2013), Semi-finalist prize for emerging artist from The Claire Rosen & Samuel Edes Foundation (2012) and The Anna Louise Raymond Fellowship (2012). Her work has been shown at Culture Station Seoul 284(Korea 2014), Grace Exhibition Space (New York 2013),The Watermill Center (New York 2012), Defibrillator Gallery(Chicago 2012), and Rockbund Art Museum(Shanghai 2011). She holds an MFA specializing in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently is a fellow … Continued
Laura Peterson
Laura Peterson is a NYC based choreographer. She is deeply influenced by visual art and her work explores unfixed relationship we have to the body’s limits and the limitlessness of human imagination. Laura has had choreographic residencies and commissions throughout NewYork and other cities including HERE Arts Center, Queens Museum with Topaz Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and others. Her dances have been presented by The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Out-of-Doors, Lincoln Center Out-of- Doors among many festivals in the US, and in Argentina, Germany and Poland. She is a 2014 recipient of a fellowship from … Continued
Luigi Repetto
Luigi Repetto began his classical ballet training in Milan at the Official Ballet School of La Scala with Isabela Glowacka and Gabriel Popescu. While still studying at the Ballet School, he started to perform as a soloist with the Company of La Scala appearing on the stage together with Rudolf Nure- yev in his choreographies and also performed Maurice Béjart’s ‘Bolero’ with Luciana Savignano. In addition to traditional La Scala repertory, he worked with contemporary choreographers such as Glen Tetley, Roland Petit, Joseph Russil- lo. Simultaneously, he continued to study with renowned teachers such as Erik Bruhn e Azari Plisetski. … Continued
Yael Gaathon
Yael Gaathon is an Israeli – Danish actress and butoh dancer. She completed her acting studies in Israel in ’93, after which she joined the internationally acclaimed Itim Theater Ensemble. During her work with the Ensemble Yael was introduced to butoh and received regular butoh training. In 2002 Yael moved to Denmark, where she established her comapany Blue Cliff and began to choreograph and direct solo and group pieces.Throughout the years she has been giving butoh workshops, as well as training and teaching actors and dancers in film, the state theater schools in Denmark, private theater schools, the Danish Actors … Continued
Polina Klimovitskaya
Polina Klimovitskaya has worked as a director and master teacher across Russia, Europe and the United States and holds an MFA and a Ph.D. from Yale University. She started her work as an actress and director in Moscow in the 1960s, studying acting with disciples of Stanislavsky and Vakhtangov and directing with the last assistant of the great stage-innovator Meyerhold. In the USA she performed at Yale Repertory Theater and in the Academy Award-winning short film Molly’s Pilgrim. Polina has directed at the Kennedy Center, among dozens of other places, and as an artist-in-residence at Mabou Mines, for whom she … Continued
Maximilian Balduzzi
Maximilian Balduzzi is a performer and director born in a small village in the Italian Alps. Maximilian holds a degree in theatre from the University of Bologna. In 2003, he and director Anne Zenour founded the group Teatro della Pioggia in Siena. Maximilian also worked with Stefano Vercelli in Italy and with Mamadou Dioume, an actor with Peter Brook. He studied Balinese dance and song for six months with Guru I Made Bukel and Guru I Nyoman Tchandri in Bali. Maximilian’s unique approach to theatrical training and composition is indebted to his work with these teachers. Maximilian moved to New … Continued
Mario Biagini
Associate Director of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. He is an actor, teacher and director. For more than twenty years he has been a central contributor to practical research in the domain of Art as Vehicle.
Jen Kosky
Jen Kosky/Dance Projects is a contemporary dance company founded and directed by Jen Kosky. Jen Kosky is a Brooklyn-based contemporary dance artist. Her work is largely inspired by the energetics of nature, urbanity and the body and is often portrayed with a fiery feminine point of view. Her movement style draws from release technique, improvisation and African dance forms. Jen has had the pleasure of dancing for numerous talented choreographers including Ellis Wood, Martha Williams, Dorian Nuskind-Oder, Jody Oberfelder, Stephanie Sleeper and Shalewa Mackall. Jen’s choreography has been presented at various venues including ABC NoRio, the Hatch, the Chelsea Art … Continued
Denisa Musilova
Denisa Musilova (born: Czech Republic), is dancer and certified as: Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis teacher. Currently dancer in Deganit Shemy company and Garnica LEIMAY.
Liz McAuliffe
Liz McAuliffe began her relationship with CAVE in June when she performed with LEIMAY in Uncovering at the LAB gallery. She is grateful to be able to participate in the Butoh-Kan this fall, and honored to have performed with Yukio Waguri. The Sunday morning Piercing Butoh class with Ximena has been a wonderful experience, she has never laughed so hard as in the past two months. Thank you to Ximena, Irena, Theresa, and Hiram.
Georgia b. Smith
Georgia b. Smith is an interdisciplinary artist who primarily creates sculptural and dance/performance art work. Georgia b. was a member of the LEIMAY ensemble as they premiered “Borders” at BAM Fisher in 2016. She has a MFA from the University of Michigan where she launched her series Plastic Abodes and Cavernous Bodies. Georgia b. was the artistic director of NOT for reTALE which showed work at CAVE. Georgia’s work in NOT for reTALE exemplifies how her work incorporates sculpture as an extension of the bodies on stage.
Drew Sensue-Weinstein
Drew is a multidisciplinary theatre and sound artist, serving as one of three composers for A MEAL. His work often involves the integration of electroacoustic sound with music and live performance to create a heightened sensory experience for audiences. Drew co-created and directed SYNTHESIS, performed as part of LEIMAY’S SOAK 2017; he also produced LEIMAY’s FRANTIC BEAUTY (BAM) and KALAVINKA, LEIMAY’s gala event honoring Meredith Monk. As a designer and composer, Drew’s work has been experienced in New York at HERE, The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, and Abrons Arts Center and in DC at Anacostia Arts Center (DC), … Continued
Irena Romendik
Was born in USSR. She studied Social Realism Painting in Kiev, Ukraine, obtained a BFA in Computer Graphics and Interactive Multimedia at Pratt and a Master of Interactive Telecommunications – NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, ITP. Irena has worked as artist in a diverse array of fields, starting from Archaeology, Theater, Children’s books illustrations, Animation, Video, Interactive Multimedia, Game Design, and Creative Code. She has co-designed and fabricated costumes for LEIMAY’s projects for the past nine years and performed in several LEIMAY projects. She has been a LEIMAY Fellow with her own work as a visual artist collaborating with … Continued
Ximena Garnica
Ximena Garnica (Officer/Founder/Artistic Director), director and curator of the New York Butoh Festival and Artist in Residence at the CAVE gallery. “Once it touches, it enters. As it travels within it stirs my guts. It breaks off skin, and I soon find myself in pieces scattered in the void. With pieces still cracking, I now celebrate”. Ximena Garnica Gomez, born in Bogota, Colombia, is an actress, dancer and emerging theater director. She is Associate Director of CAVE Co-Director of CAVE ensemble and Artistic Director of LEIMAY Productions. She has trained with several butoh masters including Ko Murobushi, Yukio Waguri, Akira … Continued
Jose Rivera Jr.
José Rivera, Jr. (President) is a Puerto Rican – American multimedia performing artist, direc- tor & choreographer based in Brooklyn, NY, merging techniques in performance, fashion, technology, visual art, and theater techniques. NYC: OF CAKE & VANITY (NYU,The PIT), Mad Forest (Radu), ACTING: the first 6 Lessons (Creature Cho- rus), Spring Awakening (Dr.VonBrausepulver), the displacement Project & Qual- ia-Gardens (LEIMAY), Emily Dickinson OUTERSPACE! (Bushwick Starr). Choreo & Direction: Bohemian Lights (LiveSource/HERE), Miami is Sinking (Dixon Place), In the Heights, Passing Strange,The Girl Who Was Plugged In, Songs for a New World. José works admin at CAVE home of LEIMAY. BFA, … Continued
Raul Zbengheci
Raul Zbengheci (he/him) is a Romanian-American cultural organizer, producer, and administrator. If contemporary art and culture functions today as an archipelago composed of small islands, Raul situates himself in the waters between the islands, following the currents and floating softly between different mediums, technologies, and influences. He specializes in producing and commissioning ambitious large scale art projects while also using his skills as a producer to support community groups fighting for social justice. Prior to joining NEW INC, Raul worked with the Whitney Museum of American Art, PERFORMA, Times Square Arts, PROTOTYPE Festival, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and more. He … Continued