FACULTY/GUEST ARTIST PROGRAM

Greetings from the Chair...

Welcome to this evening’s online presentation of the SRU Faculty and Guest Artist

Dance Concert. This evening’s lineup presents work by eight faculty members

and guest artist, Chitra Subramanian, who completed a residency at SRU in

February 2020. This concert exemplifies the power of the creative process to

reveal who we are and what motivates us. This concert is also a testament to the

power of the arts to unite, confront, and comfort in times of strife and struggle.

Thank you to all the choreographers and performers, especially our SRU dance

majors and minors, who have engaged in new ways to bring you these diverse,

filmic dances.

To our community of learners, families, alumni, educators and artists everywhere,

thank you for coming together with us and celebrating the arts.

Please find us on facebook and instagram, or write us at dance@sru.edu to share

your thoughts and reactions on the concert. We look forward to connecting.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Keller Chairperson, SRU Department of Dance

Income generated from this performance will benefit SRU dance activities,

including our Virtual Guest Artist Series. To donate to the Dance Scholarship Fund,

please visit https://www.srufoundation.org

Slippery Rock University is an accredited member of the National Association of

Schools of Dance.

The SRU Department of Dance is one of the fourteen sister institutions of the

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. It is the only dance department

within PASSHE.

Faculty and Guest Artist Virtual Concert Program 2020

Linked (2020) Choreography and Direction: Chitra Subramanian Music: “Disparate Youth” by Santigold Performance: Reva Adams, Erin Brod, Alyssa Colon, Kathryn Eberhart, Ilisa

Chasser, Anna DeRubeis, Luvenia Kalia, Rachel Male, Erin Moyer, Natalia Siles, Kaylee Smith, Riley Smith

Student Rehearsal Director: Reva Adams First Camera: Jennifer Keller Second Camera: Kari Hoglund Editor: Lauren McBarron Assistant Editor: Kari Hoglund Production Assistant: Morghan Dyer

Roll Up Your Sleeves (2016)

Choreography: Nora Ambrosio Music: “Empty Bird Cage” by Andy Hasenpflug Performance: Emmalee Hallinan

Weeping (2020)

Choreography and Direction: Lindsay Fisher Viatori Performer: Lindsay Fisher Viatori Camera and Edit: Ben Viatori Music: Michael Wall

Trip to Cambodia (2020)

Choreography: Jaya Mani Music: Traditional Classical Music Performance: Deepa Mani, Kavya Suresh, Luvenia Kalia, Ramita Ravi and

Shravani Charyulu If You Were Coming In the Fall (2020)

Music and Performance: Andy Hasenpflug Poetry: “If You Were Coming In The Fall” by Emily Dickinson

If you were coming in the fall,

I'd brush the summer by

With half a smile and half a spurn,

As housewives do a fly.

If I could see you in a year,

I'd wind the months in balls,

And put them each in separate drawers,

Until their time befalls.

If only centuries delayed,

I'd count them on my hand,

Subtracting till my fingers dropped

Into Van Diemen's land.

If certain, when this life was out,

That yours and mine should be,

I'd toss it yonder like a rind,

And taste eternity.

But now, all ignorant of the length

Of time's uncertain wing,

It goads me, like the goblin bee,

That will not state its sting.

Sweet Sense (2020)

Direction and Camera: Jennifer Keller Choreography and Performance: Kari Hoglund Music: Emily Holden Edit: Kari Hoglund

Cha Cha Interlude (2020)

Excerpt from "I Am a Haunted House: Re-animating Joan" Dancer: Jesse Factor Videography and Digital Editing: Scott Andrew Music: Andy Hasenpflug Made with support from the KST Alloy Studios Freshworks Residency Program, Pittsburgh, PA

Golden Bull (2018, excerpt) Choreography: Christy Funsch and Nol Simonse Music: Aaron Gold Performance: Hien Huynh, Rogelio Lopez, Andrew Merrell, Victor Talledos, Erik

Wagner Lighting design: Harry Rubeck Videotape of performance: Loren Robertson Productions Made with support from Dancers’ Group and Theatre Bay Area’s CA$H, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Shawl Anderson Dance Center’s Residency Program

Nocturnal Landing: A Journey of Memory and Reclamation (2020)

Choreography, Direction, Editing: Ursula Payne Music: Blah, Blah, Blah Courtesy of Free Music Archives First Camera: Ursula Payne Second Camera: Octavia Payne Costume Conception: Ursula Payne Wearable Sail Art Design: Heather Hertel Wearable Sail Art Construction: Ann Groenendaal Digital Media Consultant: Dr. Franklin Charles Filmed at: Caldwell Berry Farm (1918-2020), Huntersville, NC

SILKEN : EDGE (2019)

Choreography and Direction: Lindsay Fisher Viatori Performance: Tiffany Shrom, Lindsay Fisher Viatori Camera and Edit: Ben Viatori Music: The Four Seasons, Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, RV 315 "Summer": III.

Presto by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra & Itzhak Perlman

Pulse (2020)

Choreography, Camera, Edit: Jennifer Keller Music: Emily Holden Performance: Olivia Barner, Sarah Dietsch, Kaitlyn Falce, Lauren McBarron Lighting: Naomi Bates, Autumn Hazelet

Faculty and Guest Artist Biographies

Nora Ambrosio is a full professor and has been at SRU since 1988, where she

teaches dance composition, dance history, creative dance for children, teaching of

dance, senior capstone, and university seminar. She has written Learning about

Dance, 8th edition (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, IA, 2018), which is used in

over 150 dance departments throughout the country and Canada and has sold

over 400,000 copies. A new on-line version has also been published. Kendall/Hunt

Publishers also published The Excellent Instructor and the Teaching of Dance

Technique (3nd edition, 2018). Nora was a seven-year member of the Commission

on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Dance and served a

three-year term as Chairperson of the Commission. She is currently a member of

the NASD Board of Directors, and a presidential appointee to the Commission on

Accreditation. She also serves as an accreditation site visitor for college and

university dance programs across the country. She is on the Nominating

Committee of the National Dance Museum’s C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in

Saratoga Springs, NY, and is the president of the Board of Directors for the Lincoln

Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, PA. She is also on the Editorial

Board for a national journal, Dance Education in Practice, and serves as a Writing

Mentor for journal submissions. She served as the artistic director of SRU Dance

Theatre for nine years and again in 2010-2011, and as the director of the

Kaleidoscope Arts Festival in 2008-2009. Nora was the chairperson of the

Department of Dance from 1998-2011, successfully achieving national

accreditation for the department in 2000, and reaccreditation in 2006 and 2011.

She is a prolific grant writer and has secured over forty grants for the Department

of Dance, the Kaleidoscope Arts Festival and her own artistic endeavors. Nora

worked diligently toward the downtown revitalization of the Village at Slippery

Rock and was instrumental in bringing the arts to the downtown area and

securing grant and private funding for commissioned public art pieces. Nora

choreographs for both student and professional venues, and for many years

created dance/theatre work with her husband, David Skeele, as part of

Ambrosio/Skeele Dance/Theatre. She is currently the Coordinator of University

Seminar at SRU.

Jesse Factor danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Graham II, served

as dance supervisor for the North American company of Cats, and toured in the

European production of Cabaret. Factor’s independent creative work has been

presented in dance, art, and nightlife venues including TQ Live! at the Andy

Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), OUTsider Festival (Austin), Milton Art Bank

(Milton), RADfest (Kalamazoo), St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery (NYC), Fresh Fruit

Festival (NYC), House of Yes, (NYC), Fierce Queer Burlesque (Toronto) and digitally

through Princess Jafar Online and the Queerly Contemporary Virtual Dance

Festival. Awards include the Twin Cities Arts Reader Critics Pick and Staff Pick for

RELIC at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and Outstanding Dance Performance for

Marthagany at the Fresh Fruit Festival-NYC. Jesse received the Kelly Strayhorn

Alloy Studios Freshworks (PA) residency grant for a collaborative work with

multimedia artist Scott Andrew. As a regisseur for Martha Graham Resources,

Jesse’s reconstructions of archival Graham work include Helios from Acts of Light,

Serenata Morisca, and Celebration, which was performed by SRU dance students

at the Joyce Theater (NYC) and the Jacob’s Pillow (MA) Inside/Out performance

series with support from an SRU Faculty Student Research grant. Jesse holds a

BFA in Drama with honors from Tisch/NYU and an MFA in Dance from the

University of Iowa, receiving the Iowa Arts Fellowship and an Obermann Graduate

Institute Fellowship. www.jessefactor.com

Christy Funsch formed Funsch Dance in 2002 and has since been presented in

Amsterdam, Chicago, London, Nebraska, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Toronto,

Virginia, and throughout California. She has newly relocated to New York; while in

San Francisco, Christy self-produced thirteen full-length evenings of new work.

Christy continues to enjoy rich collaborative partnerships with Nol Simonse, Julie

Mayo, and Peiling Kao. She has also worked with Susan Rethorst, Stephen Pelton,

Katie Faulkner, Sue Roginski and many others. Christy holds an MFA in Performance

and Choreography from Arizona State University where she studied with Daniel

Nagrin. She also holds a Movement Analysis Certification through New York's Laban

Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies. She has taught at colleges and studios

around the world, including at ImPulsTANZ, Amsterdam’s New Dance Studios, UC

Berkeley, City College San Francisco, Hamilton College (NY), James Madison

University (VA), the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and Virginia Commonwealth

University. She has been awarded choreographic residencies at CounterPULSE,

Djerassi, Shawl Anderson, the U Cross Foundation, Yaddo. In 2013, Christy was a

participating member of ODC Theater’s Sandbox Series and also a mentee in CHIME

Across Borders, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company’s cross-national CHIME

(Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange) program with mentor Tere O’Connor. In

2014, she was presented in Yerba Buena’s Bay Area Now Series and named one of

Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.” In 2015, she became the first woman to be

granted permission to learn and perform Daniel Nagrin’s iconic solo from 1965,

Path. She regularly hosts Wrecking sessions, based on Susan Rethorst's model for

re-imagining dance, and she teaches her 100 Days Score worldwide. She was a

Fulbright Scholar, teaching and choreographing, in Lisbon Portugal in 2019. Visit

www.funschdance.org.

Andy Hasenpflug has been accompanying and composing music for dance since

1989. He has played and/or composed for artists such as Bill T. Jones, Joe Goode,

members of the Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, and Bebe Miller Dance

Companies, Doug Varone, Katsura Kan, Rosie Herrera, Helen Simoneau, White Fox

Butoh, LabCo, Dance Alloy, the Seldoms, and Zephyr Dance. Recently he has been

performing internationally with Butoh artists, contemporary dance companies,

experimental music ensembles, and rock bands. His experience and expertise in

dance music and multi-instrumentalism have made him a popular guest lecturer

at institutions like Texas Women's University, Muncie State University, The

University of North Texas, Henan Normal University (Xinxiang, China), The

University of Idaho, and The International Guild of Musicians in Dance

Conference. Here at Slippery Rock University Andy accompanies dance, teaches

the Music for Dance course, and composes music for the Dance Department and

guest artists. In the summers he is the Music Director for the American Dance

Festival. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The State University of New

York at Purchase and a Master of Music Degree from The University of Cincinnati.

More at: https://soundcloud.com/andy-hasenpflug and

https://andyhasenpflug.com .

Emily Holden (composer, Sweet Sense, Pulse) is a New York-based music maker.

Augmenting her classical violin background with electronic production and

recording techniques, Emily creates music for theatre, film and dance, as well as

her experimental pop project Soft Talon.

Jennifer Keller Chairperson and Professor, teaches all levels of modern technique,

improvisation, dance technology, and contemporary partnering. Her creative

research explores the interactive possibilities between the projected image and

dancers on stage, as well as the temporal and spatial possibilities of dancers on

film. Keller has received awards from the Pittsburgh Foundation and Pittsburgh

Magazine, as well as the SRU President’s Award for Advisement, the SRU

President’s Award for Creative Achievement and the Zuzak Teaching

Artist/Scholar Award. From 1988-1996, Keller worked with choreographer and

mentor Mark Taylor, dancing in his companies in New York City and Pittsburgh

where she had the opportunity to work with commissioned choreographers

Elizabeth Streb, Eiko and Koma, Doug Elkins, Ann Carlson, and Myriam Hervé-Gil.

From 1992-1998, she studied and performed with postmodern innovator Nina

Martin and the improvisational collective Locktime Performance. From 2008-

2015, she performed with the dance theater company TanzTheater André

Koslowski, based in State College, PA. For 12 years, Jennifer directed Rock Dance

Company, dedicated to children’s performances and other civic events in the

Slippery Rock and surrounding area. Her dance films have screened in festivals in

Brazil, Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, as well as across

the US. She previously served for nine years as the Assistant to the Dean for the

College of Liberal Arts and for one year as the Interim Dean of the college.

Jaya Mani's dance training began with a private tutor when she was eight years

old. At thirteen years of age, she had her first formal performance, known as

Arangetram. She then attended the Kuchipudi Arts Academy in Madas, India, and

she also trained in the Bharatha Natyam style. She then opened a school where

she trained students in Bharatha Natyam. After moving to the United States, she

began to teach Bharatha Natyam in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, and has been

conducting classes in Bharata Natyam for more than 40 years at the S.V. Temple

in Pittsburgh. More than 120 students have graduated from her dance program.

Jaya has performed in a number of stage presentations, mostly solos, as well as

with professional dance groups throughout India and in many countries around

the world, including the US, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri

Lanka, Kenya, Brazil and Fiji. In connection with her professional stage shows, she

has choreographed a number of individual items and dance dramas. With her

husband, Dr. S.B. Mani, she has given lecture/demonstrations in many

professional organizations, schools, universities and non-profit organizations in

the US. In recognition of her contribution to teaching and spreading the rich

cultural heritage of India through dance, in 1994 she was given the title, Pride of

India by Mayor Murphy of Pittsburgh, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh India

Forum. In 2010, she also received an award from the Community Foundation of

Westmoreland County and the Srinivasa Prasad International Foundation for

Performing Arts, presented in recognition of her commitment and service in

promoting the South Asian Performing Arts among North American Youth. In

2019, Jaya Mani was honored by the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival for her

continuous service in promoting Bharatha Natyam and was given the title “Nritya

Sevamani”. In 2020 Jaya Mani was honored by the Kingdom of Cambodia for her

participation, along with her students, in the Global Natya Festival. Jaya, along

with Prof. Nola Nolen Holland and Prof. S.B. Mani, has been instrumental in

creating the Dance in India Program for the Department of Dance.

Ursula Payne is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she received her

MFA in Dance with specializations in Performance and Direction from

Labanotation Score. Payne received advanced training and earned certification as

a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement

Studies in New York. Ms. Payne formed Mills and Payne dance company with

Tiffany Mills and performed in various dance festivals and professional venues in

New York City, Toronto-ON, Memphis-TN, Dallas-TX, and Eugene-OR. In addition

to her work with Mills and Payne Dance (1995-2000), Payne performed as a

dancer with Diane McIntyre in the film The Beloved and in McIntyre's evening

length work Love Poems to God which premièred at BAM. Payne was also the

featured soloist in Eva Gholson's For the Love of One. Since 2000 Payne has

functioned as an independent artist receiving four Pennsylvania Council for the

Arts choreographic fellowships and numerous commissions from universities and

professional dance companies.Payne's other credits include staging from

labanotation score Robert Battle's Primate at the American Dance Festival in

2012, Anna Sokolow's Scenes From The Music of Charles Ives at Slippery Rock

University in 2004, and Donald McKayle's Rainbow Round My Shoulder at The

Ohio State University in 1995. Ms. Payne served as the chairperson of dance at

Slippery Rock University from 2011-2020 and as the Director of the Frederick

Douglass Institute from 2016-2020. Other positions held include Co-Director of

the Young Dancers School, Director of the Dance Professionals Workshop,

Repertory and technique faculty at the American Dance Festival hosted by Duke

University. In addition to breaking numerous athletic records and being the PA AA

State Triple Jump Champion in 1987, Payne was inducted into the Lawrence

County Hall of Fame in 2010 for her athletic achievements in Basketball and Track

and Field.

Chitra Subramanian, is a dance artist based in Washington, DC and focused on

bringing together her foundation in Indian Classical dance with her love for Hip

Hop dance and culture. A Pittsburgh native, and originally from South India,

Chitra has trained, taught, and performed for over 12 years in the cities she has

resided in, including DC, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. She danced with the award-

winning Culture Shock DC Dance Troupe, and has served on faculty at City Dance

Center, Sitar Arts Center, The Movement Factory and has shared/taught at

various community-based, studio, and University spaces. Chitra's dance

foundation began with her training in Bharathanatyam, an Indian Classical Dance

form, and studied this art under thenationally and internationally renowned

Pittsburgh-based teacher, Jaya Mani. At 16 years old, Chitra achieved the

distinction of the “Arangetram,” the formal stage completion of training. Chitra

fell in love with Hip Hop culture and all of its art forms and especially urban dance

styles while attending events at the Shadow Lounge, a local performance and

dance venue in East Liberty, Pittsburgh. Her passion deepened after moving to

Washington, DC, where she began training in street dance styles at DC Dance

Collective, and finding a community hub through a legendary, weekly dance night

called “Reunion Thursdays” at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room. While dancing with

Culture Shock DC Dance Troupe, Chitra was introduced to the foundations of

various urban dance styles including breakin’, house dance, whacking, and more.

She continues to train and participate in the culture as much as possible and

deeply believes in the power of Hip Hop to transform, unleash, and highlight

unrecognized and untapped talent and potential. While teaching youth at

CityDance Conservatory, Chitra began exploring both of her greatest dance

inspirations: Indian Dance & Hip Hop. Chitra's style explores how the basic

foundations of Indian dance infuses new possibility, awareness, and energy into

urban dance forms. She loves that Hip Hop dance allows her to bring her dance

identity and foundation into the movement. Chitra’s goal is to elevate Indian

dance fusion styles by being intentional, authentic, and deeply respectful of these

dance foundations that have inspired her. Her classes typically focus on

fundamentals in Indian classical movements, exercises in grooves, footwork, and

individual freestyle concepts, and demonstration through choreography. In 2018,

Chitra founded TRIBE (now chitra.MOVES), a group of diverse, female artists from

different cities, coming together to share and perform the fusion of Hip Hop and

Indian dance styles. Most recently, TRIBE competed in the second season of

DanceUSADance, a global dance competition and platform, and advanced to the

finals in New Jersey and New York City and aired on India's ZeeTV network. Chitra

has also performed with the DC-based Hip Hop collective, Project Charma, at

Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, and recently participated as a guest

performer and teacher at pearlPresents Dance Festival in Pittsburgh. This year,

Chitra secured a residency to develop and perform her new work, “TEMPLE,”

through NextLOOK, in partnership with University of Maryland's Clarice Smith for

the Performing Arts and Joe's Movement Emporium for their 2019-2020 season.

Lindsay Fisher Viatori spent the bulk of her career in New York City dancing with

Helen Simoneau Danse (rehearsal director), Nathan Trice/RITUALS, Carolyn

Dorfman Dance Company, Collective Body/ Dance Lab, Ellen Cornfield, Daniel

Charon, Camille A. Brown, Ayo Jackson, Steve Rooks, Sidra Bell and VIA Dance

Collaborative (founding member). She has also had the pleasure of performing

works by Twyla Tharp, Jiri Kylian, Ton Simons, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Tatiana

Baganova, Simoné Ferro and Miguel Gutierrez among others. She has performed

in Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera’s West Side Story and North Shore Music Theater’s

Victor/Victoria. Film credits include Lead Arabian in Robert Lindgren’s The

Nutcracker (PBS/UNC-TV), feature film Across the Universe (directed by Julie

Taymore and choreography by Daniel Ezralow), music video Pieces of You by The

Hot Seconds, dance film SILKEN : EDGE, and she is currently collaborating with

director Cara Hagen on an upcoming dance film titled Color Theory. Her

choreography has been presented at the Ailey Citigroup Theater (nyc), St. Mark's

Church (nyc) and University Settlement (nyc) as well as commissioned for SUNY

Fredonia, VIA Dance Collaborative, Point Park University, and Slippery Rock

University. She received her BFA from the University of North Carolina School of

the Arts in 2002 where she was the recipient of the prestigious Sarah Graham

Kenan Endowed Fellowship of Excellence. She also received her MFA in

Choreography from the University of Iowa in 2014 as a Graduate Teaching

Assistant and as the first recipient of the Strategic Initiative Fellowship recognizing

excellence in her field. She was awarded a Community Supported Artist Grant

through the New Hazlett Theater (Pittsburgh, PA) and presented an evening of

her work titled OverExposed in April 2017. For this performance, she was also

recognized as an “Outstanding Performance” in the Pittsburgh City Paper. In

2017, she began performing for The Blanket (a Pittsburgh based dance company)

where she performed the iconic works of Lucinda Childs and was featured in

Dance Magazine Online. Additional performances with The Blanket include the

works of Christopher Williams and Beth Gill. Currently, she is co-authoring

research on ethical jazz dance pedagogy with collaborator Jeremy Blair. She is also

the co-founder and director of the FORGE Summer Dance Intensive, hosted at

Slippery Rock University. She is an assistant professor of dance at Slippery Rock

University teaching all levels of Ballet, Modern, and Jazz Techniques, as well as,

Composition, Repertory and Lecture Courses.

Production Crew

Production Coordinator ................................................................ Jesse Factor

SRU Smith Student Center Director ......................................... Deborah Schell

Assistant Production Managers ............................. Andres Ortiz, Ilisa Chasser

Video Editing .................................. Lauren McBarron, Ashlin Broody-Walega

Program Editors ................................................. Riley Smith, Kathryn Eberhart

CORE Student Representatives .............................. Paige Bucha, Grace Larson

Smith Center Information Desk Staff Poster Design ................ Megan Cassioli

.......................................................................... SRU Office of Public Relations

Photo ............................................................................... Ben Viatori, @v.foto

Publicity .................... Kaylee Smith, Victoria Stachelrodt, Auriana Carrington,

.......................................................... Elena Turner, Halle Angelo, Kali Booker,

.......................................................... Rachel Male, Grace Larson, Ilisa Chasser

Poster Crew ............................... Kali Booker, Anna DeRubeis, Morghan Dyer,

.................................................... Kathryn Eberhart, Isabel Farr, Faythe Lewis,

........................................... Olivia Shirley, Bethany Stravato, Kelvin Rodriguez

Department of Dance Faculty and Staff

Jennifer Keller, Chairperson

Nora Ambrosio

Jesse Factor

Christy Funsch

Andy Hasenpflug, Musician

Jaya Mani

Ursula Payne

Melanie Martin, Secretary

Melissa Teodoro

Lindsay Viatori

Prof. Emeriti: Nola Nolen, Lucy Isacco Sack, Thom Cobb (in memoriam)

Upcoming Events

Please join us for SRU Dance Theatre’s upcoming virtual concerts

“Fresh Moves” Student Concert

Thursday, November 12, 2020, 7:30pm EST

“Emerging Choreographers” Student Concert

Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 7:30pm EST

Tickets: https://sru.universitytickets.com