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Christine Bennett in "Well" – photo by Vital Albuquerque
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dance - choreography
Christine Bennett Christine Bennett, Artistic Director, has a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Smith College and a BFA-with honors- from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Her dance training also includes summer workshops such as the Harvard Summer Dance Program, the Festival de Musique en Lorraine, Jacobs Pillow, and the New Arts Festival. She has taught dance at Smith, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke Colleges; the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School; Boston University; and currently at Roger Williams University. In Chicago, Christine has performed with Urban Dance Urban Music, Kast & Co., and Hedwig Dances. She has also performed throughout the Northeast and Russia with Paula Josa-Jones Performance Works from ‘96-’98. She has received choreographic recognition and funding from the New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council (Artist Grant 2000), Dance Umbrella, the Boston Center for the Arts, Jacob's Pillow, The Dance Center of Columbia College/Chicago, the Lisa Carducci Memorial Scholarship, the University of Illinois, and the Gretchen Moran Fellowship/Smith College. | |
Nicole Dagesse
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Nicole Dagesse
Nicole Dagesse, dancer, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a BFA in dance and BS in Environmental Science. As an undergraduate, Nicole danced in the Five College Dance Department and has performed the works of Fritha Pengelly, Robert Battle, Randy James, Chaos Theory Dance, and Jim Coleman and Therese Freedman, as well as other local choreographers. Nicole has been a dancer with Wire Monkey Dance of Holyoke, Massachusetts since 2004, exploring the vertical dimensions of dance using mobile scaffolding. Since moving to the Boston area, Nicole has begun dancing with the Boston Somatic Dance Company in Allston, Massachusetts. Currently Nicole is working on Moving Earth, an initiative to use dance to promote environmental awareness through educational programs and community based site-specific work. This work has been supported by an Honors Thesis Research Grant, the Dean's Award, and the Silverman Scholarship. | |
Mary McCarthy in "The Net" – photo by Vital Albuquerque
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Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy, dancer, began her formal ballet training at the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Natick. She attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where she received her bachelor's degree in Sociology. While in Western Mass, Mary took dance classes with the Five College Dance Department and collaborated with two MFA candidates on the creation of their theses at Smith College. She has been a member of the Lisa Leizman Dance Company since 1997, performing at such venues as The Northampton Center for the Arts, Hampshire College's Elderhostel, and First Night Northampton. During the summer of 2000 Mary participated in the invigorating Doug Varone and Dancers summer intensive at SUNY-Purchase. Upon returning to Boston Mary joined the Cambridge based Kelley Donovan & Dancers company has performed at such venues as Green Street Studios in Cambridge, Salem State College, The 92nd Street Y in Manhattan and WAX Works in Brooklyn. In addition to the performing element of dance, Mary enjoys the behind the scenes costume design and construction and has presented several workshops on stage make-up design and application. | |
DeAnna Pellecchia in "Well" — photo by Metrowest Daily News Staff, Mike Fisette
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DeAnna Pellecchia Website: http://www.deannapellecchia.com DeAnna Pellecchia, rehearsal director/dancer, has been performing, teaching and touring with BDC since its inception. DeAnna also currently dances with Paula Josa-Jones/ Performance Works, Nicola Hawkins Dance Company and martial artist Leda Elliott. Her training includes extensive studies in modern, jazz, hip-hop, ballet, tap, mime, acting, improvisation, authentic movement, performance art and Tae Kwon Do; also, trapeze, stilt walking, house scaling, horseback riding and rope climbing. DeAnna has had the privilege of educating a great diversity of movers including youth of all ages, severely handicapped individuals, professional dancers and corporate business managers; she has taught dance at Boston Conservatory, Boston Ballet, Roger Williams University, Newport High School, the 2002 TASH Conference, the 2001 VHA Science Complexity Conference, among others and she currently resides on the dance faculty at Boston University. DeAnna graduated from RWU in 1999 receiving a BA in Dance/Performance with a dual minor in Latin and Business Management. She is a practicing personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). | |
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visual arts Michael Dowling, visual artist, aims to create transporting environments, which often focus on a single element such as water, fire, earth, or air. In all his work Michael seeks to develop sustainable public art projects that respond to a specific community's needs as well as inviting its active participation. For the past nine years, he has presented his successful interactive installation, Medicine Wheel at the Boston Center for the Arts. With this installation he aims to raise public awareness of the AIDS pandemic through the participation of community members in the wheel's construction and in a 24-hour vigil held on International World AIDS Day. Recently, Michael was invited to be an artist in residence in collaboration with Laura Baring Baring-Gould with the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Boston National Historical Park. Pieter Smit, visual artist, is a freelance set designer working from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Between 1986 and 1991, Peter worked in the Boston Area with DanceCollective and Dawn Kramer on works such as Foreing Fling (1986), One False Move (1988), and After Ever (1991). The net was created for After Ever, which was originally commissioned by Dance Umbrella for the Cyclorama. Pieter's large-scale interactive sets function as an equal partner to the choreography. He has also worked with Theatre S., TheatreWorks, Gloucester Stage Company, the Boston Opera, The American Repertory Theatre and others. Currently designing for opera, dance, musical and theatre productions in Amsterdam and abroad, Pieter has worked with Luna's Fridge Opera, the TheatreCompagnie, Growing Up in Public, Blok and Steel choreographers, and Carina Molier Multimedia productions. In 1996 he received the Best New Talent in Scenography prize from the Arts Council of the City of Amsterdam. Pieter also teaches and lectures at various art and drama schools throughout the country. Grayson Hugh, composer, is also a singer/songwriter and recording artist of Rock, Blues, Soul, and Classical training. His two CD's have been internationally acclaimed. "Blind to Reason," (RCA Records 1989) yielded two gold records in the US and Australia with singles "Talk it Over;" "Bring it all Back;" and "How 'Bout Us," a duet with Betty Wright; ranking high on the Rock and Soul charts. Billboard voted his second CD, "Road to Freedom," one of the top 10 releases of 1992. In addition to touring both in the US and abroad, his songs have been featured in films such as, "True Love," "Fried Green Tomatoes," and Ridley Scott's "Thelma & Louise." His classical training has led him to collaborate with many modern dance choreographers such as Viola Farber, Bill T. Jones, The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Gus Solomons, JR., Laura Glenn/Works, and Prometheus Dance. In October of 1999, Christine Bennett commissioned him to compose, perform, and record the score for Bennett Dance Company's "Inner House." Grayson is currently on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music. board Kevin Richard, Treasurer, is the VP of Strategic Alliances for MedPanel, Inc. Prior to MedPanel, Kevin held strategic alliance management positions with software companies such as Vignette Corporation, Oberon Software, and Recital Software. He has also written business-plans for small high-tech companies as an independent consultant. From 1987 to 1995 Kevin was General Manager for Kennedy Studios, an art publishing and retail business with over 60 galleries throughout the East Coast and Caribbean. He has a BS in International Business and Economics from S.U.N.Y. College at Brockport, where he was also a national champion in wrestling. He earned an MBA from Sawyer School of Management, Suffolk University, 1991. Since 1993 Kevin has been a volunteer teacher of entrepreneurship to Boston-area high schools through Jr. Achievement. He is an occasional set-designer for Bennett Dance Company and has auditioned several times but has yet to be invited to perform. Despite this, he and Christine Bennett have been happily married since 1998. Philippe Taieb has been a board member since October 2005. He started his association with BDC as an advisor to Christine and the company. He helped to lay out the 5-year vision and put together the action plan to achieve it. He presumes that his interest in dance began as a five-year old attending his sister's ballet classes… Since then, his passion for dance has only grown and he has been fortunate enough to see dozens of companies perform in the US and in Europe. Philippe's background is in management. He has been working in the nonprofit sector in this country since 1999 after spending over 10 years in the corporate world, holding various management jobs in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. His other volunteer activities have included mentoring a City Year team in Boston, working for Doctors of the World in France and in Mali (West Africa) as a full-time employee in 1987-88, and leading a team of volunteers in the neurosurgery department of France's largest children's hospital in the early 90's. Philippe earned an MS in Management from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris and an MBA from Harvard Business School. |
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