people
Jonathan Meyer
Artistic Director
Jonathan Meyer began dancing at Oberlin College and graduated with a BA in dance from UNC Greensboro. He was certified as a Somatic Movement Educator from the School For Body-Mind Centering in 2008. His dancing and choreography reflect his diverse studies in modern and post-modern techniques, gymnastics and capoeira, taiji and aikido, ballet, butoh, and contact improvisation. He has danced with Rick Darnell and The High Risk Group, Pierre-Paul Savoire, Het Volta, Gail Gilbert, Kevin Wynn, and in Chicago with Chicago Dance Crash, The Seldoms, Asimina Chremos, and Julia Rae Antonick, his collaborative partner. He has been a Links Hall LinkUp Artist, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, a Chicago Cultural Center DanceBridge Residency Artist, an Emerging Artist through the Mordine & Company Mentorship Program, and a recipient of two Driehaus Foundation grants. In the spring of 2010 he will be an Artist In Residence at the Ragdale Foundation. Jonathan Meyer?s choreography takes place largely in the intersection between physics and human relationships. With long-standing fascinations with floor work, release work, and partnering techniques, Meyer explores momentum, inertia, and personal interactions to question our notions of meaning and arbitrariness in both the phenomenal world and social spheres. Meyer has served as Artistic Director of Khecari Dance Theatre since founding it in 2002 in Taos, New Mexico. He relocated Khecari to Chicago in 2006.
Julia Rae Antonick
Collaborator
Julia Rae Antonick is an independent dancer, choreographer, videographer and yoga teacher. Her dancing and choreography reflect a digestion of modern/contemporary dance, contact improvisation, ballet, yoga, Klein/Mahler technique and Indonesian dance. Julia graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts with the Dance Department's Award of Excellence and received her BFA in dance from CalArts. She has studied at Jacobs Pillow, Bates Dance Festival, The Joffrey Ballet, DNA (Dance Space), The Kitchen, Earthdance (with Nancy Stark-Smith) and other nooks and crannies. Julia has received choreographic residencies at Links Hall (LinkUp) and the Chicago Cultural Center (DanceBridge) and has received grants from CSDP and CAAP. She has recently been chosen for Shirley Mordine's Emerging Artist Mentoring Program; her work on the company will be performed in May 2009. Julia is currently engaged in a long-term duet collaboration with Jonathan Meyer and is finishing her interminable group project.
www.myspace.com/juliaraeantonick
Suzy Grant
Production Manager
Suzy Grant is a dancer, improviser and most recently, production manager. In 2008, she received her B.A. in dance from Columbia College Chicago. Since that time she has provided production support to Peter Carpenter, Jonathan Meyer and Khecari, and Breakbone DanceCo. Suzy recently began working with the Chicago Moving Company as Special Projects Coordinator. Over the past year Suzy has performed in works by Breakbone DanceCo., Jyl Fehrenkamp, Matthew Hollis, Peter Carpenter, Portable Dance, Szewai Lee and STD. She helped to form the collaborations STD and Portable Dance and also helped to produce Portable Dance’s first concert in April, 2009.
Marc Macaranas
Dancer
Marc Macaranas (Dancer) graduated cum laude from the University of California, Irvine and was a student at The School at Jacob's Pillow. In Chicago, he has performed with Lucky Plush Productions, Mordine & Co. Dance Theater and Luna Negra Dance Theater. In 2008, Macaranas became a founding member of DanceWorks Chicago under the direction of Julie Nakagawa.
Christopher Preissing
Collaborator
Christopher Preissing is a free-lance composer, improvisor, and sound designer working in music and combined media in the Chicago area. He is completing his dissertation from the University of Illinois at Urbana on "Intermedial Relationships Among Component Arts in Combined Art Works" where he studied with Herbert Brün, Salvatore Martirano, and William Brooks. He taught briefly at Indiana University at South Bend, is a former composer-in-residence at Beloit College, Guest Composer at The Latin American Music Center at Indiana University, and was twice Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Yuji Takahashi and John Zorn. Christopher's music has been performed nationally and internationally and he is just back from São Paulo, Brazil, where he presented composed and improvised music with the Chicago-based improvisation ensemble Auris.
Cara Sabin
Dancer
Cara Sabin (Dancer) received a BFA from The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. An athlete all her life, she discovered dance while in her senior year of high school. She is a company member with The Seldoms and has had the opportunity to perform independent works at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Festival and at Solar1's Solar-Powered Dance Festival in New York. Throughout college and after graduation she worked with the Obama for Illinois and Obama for America Campaign Offices. She continues to work with Chicago political organizations and in arts administration in the city.
Joseph St. Charles
Collaborator
Joseph St. Charles is a drummer from Northern Michigan who has performed at bars and churches, basements and attics, dark alleys and art galleries. Oh, and the Cultural Center once....
myspace.com/typewriter1
www.youtube.com/hgwtvideo
Past Collaborators
Iris Bainum-Houle
Iris Bainum-Houle is a costume designer for the screen, the stage, and the everyday. Her work ranges from the historical to the surreal and the mundane to the monstrous. She is from Fairfax, Virginia and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. After completing an internship with celebrated costume designer William Ivey Long in New York Iris returned to Chicago to pursue her career in costume design. In the spring of 2007 Iris designed costumes for Shaw Chicago’s “Ghosts” and toured with the company to Konya, Turkey. Iris has enjoyed evolving and creating with Jonathan Meyer and Khecari over the past three years and is excited to see what further collaborations the future holds. For more information about her work please visit www.siriris.com and www.myspace.com/siriris
Julie E. Ballard
Lighting Designer
Some of her favorite dance designs include 5 Characteristics of Brother (Marquez Dance), Rhapsody (Shapiro & Smith) and Falling on Lobsters in the Dark (Stephanie Carter). She has worked for Hedwig Dance, Mordine & Co., Dance COLEctive, The Seldoms and Same Planet Different World. Ms. Ballard has been a part of numerous festivals as well as American Dance Festival, and has toured nationally and internationally with David Dorfman Dance. Ms. Ballard is full time staff and adjunct faculty at the Dance Center of Columbia College.
Ms. Ballard is no stranger to theatre either, working with Signal Ensemble as an Artistic Associate designing both lights and media. She has also worked with Irish Rep Theatre, Grey Zelda and Whitehorse Theatre Company. Some of her favorite theatre designs include Cabaret (University of Florida), 1776 (Signal Ensemble Theatre) and I Sing (Whitehorse Theatre).
Ms. Ballard earned her MFA from the University of Florida.
Philip Elson
Collaborator
Philip Elson is originally from Fort Worth, TX where he began his dance training at the Bruce Lea Dance Factory. He has recently been brought on for his first project with Khecari. Currently he is in his second season with The Seldoms and is pursuing a BFA from The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. Philip has performed with companies such as Muscle Memory Dance Theatre and Collin County Ballet Theatre. His commercial credits include performing for the Mary Kay Cosmetic International Convention and teaching for New York Los Angeles Dance Conventions and Competitions. Philip has also been seen in regional productions of The King & I, Crazy for You, and The Apple Tree. His own choreography has been seen in Dallas, Houston, New York City, and Chicago. Philip has been fortunate to train and work with Carrie Hanson, Liz Burritt, Leslie Snelson-Figueroa, Jeff Hancock, Paige Cunningham, Nick Pupillo, Skip Costa, Bruce Lea,and John Merrifield.
Michel Rodriguez
Collaborator
Michel Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba and graduated from the National School of Art in 2003. He began as a company member of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba and became a principal dancer in 2006 participating in the International Theater Festival of Havana, Biennale of Venice, Temps D’ Images of Dusseldorf, and Sziget Festival in Budapest, performing in England, Mexico and teaching workshops in Spain. He has work with choreographers Jan Linkens, Kenneth Kvarnstrom, Samir Akika, Cathy Marston, Luca Bruni and Rafael Bonachela. Michel recently moved to Chicago and began dancing with Hedwig Dances and Khecari.