DanceUSF Guest Artists
Spring, 2022
Marc Brew
Blink
Acclaimed International disabled choreographer, Artistic Director and dancer, Marc Brew trained as a professional dancer at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and The Australian Ballet School. He has been working in the UK and Internationally for over 20 years as a director, choreographer, dancer, teacher and speaker; with the Australian Ballet Company, State Theatre Ballet Company of South Africa, Infinity Dance Theatre, CandoCo Dance Company and AXIS Dance Company. Marc was Associate Director with Scottish Dance Theatre, Associate Artistic Director with Ballet Cymru in Wales and was Associate Artist in 2015 at Tramway Theatre in Glasgow. Since 2008 Marc has been dedicating time to his own choreography with Marc Brew Company and his recent choreographic commissions include San Francisco Ballet School, Dancing Wheels, Scottish Ballet, Ballet Cymru (Wales), YDance (Scotland), AXIS Dance Company (USA), Candoco Dance Company (UK), Touch Compass (NZ), Amy Seiwert’s Imagery (USA) and Scottish Dance Theatre (Scotland). Marc was presented with a Centenary Medal for Outstanding Contribution as a dancer and choreographer. His work Remember When was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Best Performance (individual) and his recent solo work For Now, I am… was listed in the Guardians Top 10 Dance Shows for 2016.
Wanjiru Kamuyu
Guest Artist in Residence
Wanjiru Kamuyu’s career began with its genesis in New York City. As a performer she has worked with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bill T. Jones, Molissa Fenley, Anita Gonzales, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nathan Trice, Dean Moss, Tania Isaac… and in Europe with choreographers Robyn Orlin, Emmanuel Eggermont, Nathalie Pubellier, Irène Tassembedo, and Stefanie Batten Bland.
Alongside Kamuyu has performed in industrials, television and Broadway musicals, The Lion King (Paris) and FELA ! (UK and Equity European and US tours).
Kamuyu founded dance company, WKcollective based in Paris, France and is associate artist with Theater L’Onde and creative production agency camin aktion (France). Her choreographic projects include tours in the US, Africa and Europe. Commissions include musical À la recherché de Joséphine, director Jérôme Savary (Paris and International tours); Love is in the hair, director Jean François Auguste (France tour); Maître Harold, director Hassan Kassi Kouyate (Paris); US esteemed dance departments (Mills College, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Stephens College; artistic consulting/outside eye for choreographer Bintou Dembele’s ZH; choreographer assistant to Nathan Trice’s Their speech is silver, Their silence is gold; storyteller Nathalie La Boucher’s La Chevauchée du Gange;) and community engagement projects with New WORLD Theater (USA), choreographer Eun-mi Ahn’s project 1:59 (Festival Paris Quartier d’Été), Euroculture and the National Center for Dance project Assemblé (France).
While touring she offers master classes and workshops for dance companies, universities, community and dance centers. Kamuyu also served as Visiting Guest Professor at Mills College (USA) and is currently core faculty for University of South Florida’s Dance in Paris semester and summer programs.
Fall, 2021
Joshua L. Peugh
Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl,
Joshua L. Peugh is the Founder and Artistic Director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance and Co-founder of Fair Assembly. A graduate of Southern Methodist University and an alumnus of Universal Ballet (under the direction of Oleg Vinogradov), he has created work for festivals in Asia, Europe, and North America, winning awards for his choreography in South Korea, Japan, Canada, and the USA. He was the recipient of the Grand Prize at the McCallum Theatre's 18th Annual Choreography Festival and was chosen as one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch." Joshua served as choreographer for legendary soprano Kathleen Battle’s concert Underground Railroad - A Spiritual Journey and was the 2018 recipient of the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence. He has created over 40 new works for BalletX, Ballet Memphis, The Big Muddy Dance Company, BODYTRAFFIC, Bruce Wood Dance Project, Collage Dance Collective, Company E, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Dance Lab NY, DanceWorks Chicago, Eisenhower Dance, Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, MADCO, METdance, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Verb Ballets, and Whim W'Him, among others.
Fall 2019
Erik Wagner
Interface
Erik Wagner is a native of Clearwater Beach, and is thrilled to be home, collaborating with the University of South Florida. His history performing with the San Francisco Ballet, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, Ballet X, and the Stadttheater Bern Ballet lay the eclectic foundation upon which his artistic practices in teaching and choreography are built. In June 2019, Dance Teacher Magazine published his views on teaching, and in 2018 Dance Magazine live-streamed his ballet class around the world, via Facebook. He recently assisted staging and choreography for the Fischerspooner concert in San Francisco, where his dances have been featured in the West Wave Dance Festival, Kunst-Stoff Festival, Joe Goode Feedback, The News: Fresh Queer Performance, and the Lines Ballet Training Program where he was a faculty member and choreographer. From 2013-2015, Erik served as a Guest Lecturer of Dance at Stanford University. Other teaching credits include Wayne McGregor Random Dance, Les Ballet Jazz du Montreal, Basel Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and internationally with ProART Festival in Prague, and Physical Day Bern, in Switzerland.
Spring 2019
Claudia Lavista
Prow
Co-director of the renowned company, Delfos Danza Contemporánea, Claudia Lavista has more than 25 years of international dance experience, receiving several national and international awards, including the National Dance Award in 1992, Best Female Dancer at the International Dance Festival of San Luis Potosi in 2005, and Best Female Dancer at the National Dance Award in 1998 and the 2002. In 2001 the specialized critics selected her as “One of the 10Mexican Best Dancers of the XX Century”.The National Endowment for the Arts has also honored her with several fellowships for the Arts. In 2007 she was invited as International Visiting Artist at the 25th Bates Dance Festival, she came back as a Faculty member and choreographer in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015. In 2008, 2011 and 2015 she receive the prestigious National System of Arts Creators, one of the most important recognition for artists in Mexico honored by CONACULTA-FONCA . Her video work “Between water walls” received the “Dona et Cinema International Festival award as Best video-creation 2012” in Valencia-Spain. The video-dance “Blank Mind” co-directed with Omar Carrum was selected in AGITE Y SIRVA Film Festival in 2015.
She has been a featured performer in over 80 works of dance, theater, video and opera, working with an international roster of choreographers and artist and performing in some of the world’s most prestigious theaters. Claudia has created more than 40 choreographic works and has collaborated with composers, theater and opera directors, photographers, video artists, poets and other choreographers for more than two decades. Her work has been praised by critics and presented in America, Latin America, Asia, Middle East and Europe. In 2011 she received a Mellon Residential Fellowship for Arts Practice and Scholarship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. As a teacher she has conducted workshops master classes in numerous cities throughout Mexico and abroad. In 2014 the Smith College and the Boston Conservatory invited her as guess teacher and choreographer.
Delfos Danza Contemporánea is Mexico’s premiere contemporary dance company and ranks among the best companies in Latin America both artistically and as leaders in the field. Based in Mazatlán, Mexico, Delfos inspires audiences, students, and communities with outstanding performances and in-depth residencies. Through physical grace, athleticism, and vibrancy, their performances evoke emotion and introspection. Celebrating 25 years, Delfos Danza Contemporánea tours throughout the world, creating enduring relationships wherever they go, seeking opportunities for collaboration and exchange and passionately committed to dance education.
Fall 2018
Ulysses Dove (Alfred Dove, setting work)
Vespers
Ulysses Dove was acclaimed as a “choreographer with a bold new voice,” New York Times, 1986. A native of Columbia, South Carolina: Ulysses began studying dance at Boggs Academy in Georgia and after receiving his B.A. in dance from Bennington College, he moved to New York City where he performed in Anna Sokolow classic Rooms. He also danced with the companies of Mary Anthony and Merce Cunningham. In 1973 he joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Shortly after which he rose to the rank of principal dancer, acclaimed for his commanding presence, bright clarity of movement, and truthful dramatic intensity. In 1979 Ulysses made his professional choreographic debut with the piece I See The Moon…. and The Moon Sees Me. Ulysses turned to choreography at Mr. Ailey's urging, and created the 1980 solo Inside for Judith Jamison. From 1980 to 1983, Dove was the assistant director of the Groupe de Recherche Choregraphique de l’Opéra de Paris. As a freelance choreographer after leaving the Paris, Ulysses Dove has created over 26 works for ballet and modern dance companies. While a freelance choreographer, Ulysses works can be seen in the repertories of several major dance companies throughout the world such as: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dutch National Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Basel Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Ballet West, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the London Festival Ballet and several others.
Ulysses Dove has been the proud recipient of two choreographic grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Bessie award, and a 1995 prime time Emmy Award for best choreography for the “Dance in America” special Two by Dove. Ulysses Dove made his final transition on June 11, 1996; in 2006 his brother Alfred Dove became the Administrator of his balletic estate.
Spring 2018
Xiao Xiangrong
Threads of Time
Professor Xiao Xiangrong is the Chairman of the Dance Department of Beijing Normal University and the Vice Dean of the Art and Communication School. He was the Chief Creator and Choreographer of the 29th Olympic games and the 29th Paralympic Games opening and closing ceremonies. His work A Hymn of the Long River won the golden prize of Wen Hua Award and his Never Apart won the golden prize of CCTV Dance Competition.
Fall 2017
Robert Moses
CAMPS
Founded in 1995, San Francisco based Robert Moses' Kin is considered by many to be one of the most prolific and exciting new contemporary dance companies to emerge nationally in the past decade. The company's mission is to produce work which speaks to what is specific and unique in human nature. Robert Moses' Kin uses movement as the medium through which race, class, culture and gender are used to voice the existence of our greater potential and unfulfilled possibilities.
Robert Moses' diverse eleven-member company is known for its eclectic movement vocabulary, demanding choreography, ferocious dancing, and provocative themes. Moses' focus on the expressiveness of the human body and his desire to speak with the voices of his African American heritage have produced works with regional, national and international recognition. In 2015 he created a work on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
An ambitious and diverse company, Robert Moses' Kin has received tremendous national media coverage in such publications as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Dance Magazine, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, The Village Voice, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, as well as on radio, television and the Internet.
Spring 2017
Kara Davis
On Tuesday afternoon…
Kara Davis danced for BalletMet, Atlanta Ballet, Ohio Ballet and Ballet Jörgen before moving to San Francisco in 1998. She is a founding member of KUNST-STOFF and Janice Garrett & Dancers. She has performed with the San Francisco Opera, as well as works by Alex Ketley/The Foundry, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Pearl Ubungen Dancers & Musicians, Amy Raymond, Val Caniparoli (ACT), Robert Moses, and Kathleen Hermesdorf. She has received numerous Isadora Duncan nominations for her ensemble work and choreography. She co-founded project agora with Bliss Kohlmyer Dowman in 2006; their duet work has been shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2016), and Bates Dance Festival (2015). Ms. Davis' own work has been shown at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Kennedy Center (ACDF Nationals), Z Space, ODC Theater, Dance Mission, Headlands Center for The Arts, SF MOMA, Arizona State University, and the Cowell Theater. In 2009 Ms. Davis was an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and was mentored by choreographer Alex Ketley in Margaret Jenkins' CHIME residency. She has received commissions from sjDANCEco, Scottsdale Community College, and San Jose State University. She has been a faculty member at Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Pre-Professional & BFA programs since 2005, where she choreographed over 20 works. She received her MFA in dance from Hollins University in 2013 and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Mills College.
Spring 2016
Robert Moses
Cause Redux | Speaking Ill of the Dead (Spring 2015) | Lucifer's Prance (Spring 2014)
Founded in 1995, San Francisco-based Robert Moses' Kin is considered by many to be
one of the most prolific and exciting new contemporary dance companies to emerge nationally
in the past decade. The company's mission is to produce work which speaks to what
is specific and unique in human nature. Robert Moses' Kin uses movement as the medium
through which race, class, culture and gender are used to voice the existence of our
greater potential and unfulfilled possibilities.
An ambitious and diverse company, Robert Moses' Kin has received tremendous national
media coverage in such publications as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Dance
Magazine, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, The
Village Voice, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, as well as on radio, television and
the internet. Bliss Kohlmyer (USF Dance faculty member and former Robert Moses' Kin
company member) restaged Moses' hyper-physical tour-de-force Lucifer's Prance, which
the San Francisco Examiner called "a truly devilish, almost ritualistic whirlwind."
Spring 2015
Alonzo King
Koto Excerpts
Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer who is altering the way we look
at ballet. King calls his works ‘thought structures’ created by the manipulation of
energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions
of everything that exists.
King has works in the repertories of the Swedish Royal Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet,
Ballet Bejart, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Hong Kong
Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Renowned for
his skill as a teacher, King has been guest ballet master for dance companies around
the globe. In 2012 King was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Corps de
Ballet International Teacher Conference.
King is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the 2008 Jacob's Pillow
Creativity Award, in recognition of his contribution to "moving ballet in a very 21st-century
direction”, and the 2006 US Artists Award. In October 2012 the San Francisco Museum
& Historical Society named Alonzo King a "San Francisco Treasure" in recognition of
the significant contributions he has made to the historic fabric of San Francisco
over the last 30 years.
Fall 2015
Susan Douglas Roberts
feasting uncertainty/rios invisibles
Susan Douglas Roberts is the artistic director of wild goose chase dance. Her work
has been presented across the United States and in Mexico, Central and South America,
Taiwan, Japan, and Europe—most recently, at the Centre National de la Danse Contemporainein
Angers (France).
As a dance-maker, she is curious about the details that bridge choreographed and
lived experience, and frame the choices that performing artists make on stage. Dance
writers have called her work “elegant,” “mysterious,” and “witty and winsome.” Honors
include Fulbright Specialist Awards to Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan)
and Centro de Danza e Investigación del Movimiento at the Universidad Rafael Landívar
(Guatemala). In 2014, she served as an adjudicator for the Northwest Conference of
ACDA.
Susan is on faculty in the School for Classical & Contemporary Dance at Texas Christian
University (Fort Worth, Texas) where she teaches technique, composition, teaching
methods, and Pilates.
Spring 2014
Ohad Naharin
The “Echad Mi Yodea” section of Ohad Naharin’s work Minus 16
Hailed as one of the world’s preeminent contemporary choreographers, Ohad Naharin (artistic director of the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company) has captivated audiences with his extraordinarily physical movement vocabulary. Naharin is also the originator of Gaga, an innovative movement language that has enriched his movement invention, revolutionized the company’s training, and emerged as a growing force in the larger field of movement practices for both dancers and non-dancers. The rousing "Echad Mi Yodea" section from Naharin's signature dance, Minus 16 was restaged by former Batsheva Company member and Holloway Guest Artist, Yaniv Abraham, who also introduced the Gaga technique to USF dancers during his residency.
Fall 2014
Maurice Causey
Turbulentus
Maurice Causey is an American-born artist based in Europe. His training includes School
of the American Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre School, and the Joffery Ballet
School in New York City.
Maurice Causey has been Ballet Master for both the Royal Swedish Ballet (2002-2003)
and The Netherlands Dance Theatre 1 (2004-2010). He has choreographed original works
for numerous companies including The Netherlands Dance Theatre 1, Northwestern Dance
Project, Hubbard Street 2, and Milwaukee Ballet. Maurice also stages ballets by William
Forsythe and gives workshops in Forsythe's Improvisational Technologies around the
world and is currently a patron for the Austinmer Dance Theater in Australia directed
by Michelle Forte.
Donna Mejia
As We Began Walking East
Work commissioned by Art2Action Inc., and presented in partnership with the USF School of Theatre & Dance, as part of
the “THIS Bridge: Arab, Middle Eastern & Muslim Artists” series.
As a transnational fusion dance artist, Donna Mejia's distinctive aesthetic dialogs
the secular dances of North Africa and the Arab World with American Hip Hop dance
and sub-genres of electronic dance. In October 2011 she was selected by the Fulbright
Association to present the 2011 Selma Jeanne Cohen Endowed Lecture for International
Scholarship in Dance. Donna has been guest artist-in-residence at fifteen colleges,
and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Smith College on full fellowship.
She joined the University of Colorado at Boulder’s dance department in 2012 as the
first Assistant Professor of transnational fusion dance globally.
“THIS Bridge: Arab, Middle Eastern & Muslim Artists” series is made possible in part
by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters; Building Bridges: Campus
Community Engagement Grants Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
and Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.
Spring 2013
Rosie Herrera
Pity Party
Easily one of contemporary dance’s hottest young choreographers working today, Rosie Herrera's performances at NYC's Joyce Theater wowed audiences with her quirky and unexpected blend of modern dance and theatrical antics. She staged excerpts from her celebrated work, Pity Party, at USF which featured over 150 balloons on stage.
Fall 2011
Jennifer Archibald
Reflex | From Within (Fall 2007)
Jennifer Archibald is the founder and artistic director of the Arch Dance Company. She is riding the wave of a new generation of choreographers bridging the gap between hip-hop and concert dance. She has quickly made a name for herself as one of her generations’ most interesting choreographic voices, having presented her work throughout the United States, Canada, Russia and Europe. She is also one of the most in-demand teachers of hip-hop and contemporary jazz working today, including a major new commission from Ailey II. Jennifer is a long-time guest of the USF Dance program, and her two original works, From Within and Reflex, marked big, creative departure points for this talented choreographer.
Spring 2011
Doug Varone
Le Sacre du printemps
Since its founding in 1986, Doug Varone and Dancers has commanded attention for its expansive vision, versatility, and technical prowess. On the concert stage, in opera, theater and on the screen, Varone's kinetically thrilling dances make essential connections and mine the complexity of the human spirit. Members of Doug Varone and Dancers were guest artists in residence in March of 2011, setting the brilliantly compelling piece Le Sacre du printemps on USF's student dancers. DanceUSF also produced an evening with Doug Varone and Dancers featuring Doug's 2011 masterwork, Chapters from a Broken Novel.
Spring 2010
Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company
Serenade/The Proposition
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is an American dance company based out of Harlem in New York City. Founded in 1983 by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, the company made its debut performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The company has since drawn international acclaim, performing in more than 200 cities in 30 countries. Set on DanceUSF students, Serenade/The Proposition, directed by acclaimed director and choreographer Bill T. Jones, marked the first time that this work had been reconstructed for a university program. Featuring video projections, an original score blending classical and folk music, and a diverse cast of actors and dancers, Serenade/The Proposition is a tour de force that refracts and reflects on the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
Spring 2007
Trisha Brown
Set and Reset/Reset
Trisha Brown Dance Company {TBDC) has presented the work of its legendary artistic director for over 40 years. Founded in 1970 when Trisha Brown branched out from the experimental Judson Dance Theater to work with her own group of dancers, TBDC offered its first performances at alternative sites in Manhattan’s SoHo. Today, the company is regularly seen in the landmark opera houses of New York, Paris, London, and many other theaters around the world. In the spring of 2007, USF Dance was host to guest artists from TBDC who restaged Brown's signature masterpiece, Set and Reset, on the USF dance majors. USF also hosted an evening of the Trisha Brown Dance Co. in concert on campus.