The JCE JAZZ DANCE PROJECT
OCTOBER 2019
DATE
LOCATION
Salvatore Capezio Theatre at Peridance
126 E. 13th Street
New York, New York 10003
www.peridance.com
“FRENCH TRiO” choreographed by Jeff Davis. Photo: Jan La Salle
Artistic Director
Merete Muenter
Merete Muenter is a choreographer and director, as well as the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Jazz Choreography Enterprises. Choreography: Off-Broadway –FIDDLER ON THE ROOF – IN YIDDISH (Assistant Choreographer – Director, Joel Grey), AMERIKE THE GOLDEN LAND (The National Yiddish Theater - Folksbiene), THE GOLDEN BRIDE (Chita Rivera Award Nomination / The National Yiddish Theater - Folksbiene), SOUTH PACIFIC and MAN OF LA MANCHA (Plaza Theatricals), THE KING OF SECOND AVENUE (New Repertory Theater). Director / Choreographer: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF – IN YIDDISH – (Associate Director, Off-Broadway / New World Stages – Director, Joel Grey), THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, (American Theater Group), CHICAGO, TOMMY, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, (Woodstock Playhouse), THEY WALK AMONG US (MITF / Award - Best Choreography), WINESDAY – (Associate Director / Movement Coordinator – Off-Broadway). Short Film: THROUGH THE AGES (Director / Choreographer / Producer) Multiple Film Festival Awards. Originally from Buffalo, New York. SUNY Geneseo Graduate.
Board President
Kathy J. Cooke
Kathy J. Cooke is Director of the Honors College at California State University, Los Angeles. She previously served as founding Honors Director at Quinnipiac University and Founding Dean of the Honors College at the University of South Alabama. She is a long-time supporter of Jazz Choreographer Enterprises, and the original architect of the Quinnipiac Honors Signature Experience in Jazz Dance. In addition to taking an unlikely first place in Quinnipiac's 2015 Dancing with the Stars competition, with skilled partner Ethan Pandalfi, Cooke is an American historian with grants to support oral history, community engagement, and history of reform and biology.
Featured Choreographers
Ashley Carter
Ashley Carter is passionate about her work as a dancer, teacher and choreographer; and as co-director of NYC-based company DoubleTake Dance www.DoubleTakeDanceCo.com. She has had the opportunity to perform and/or choreograph at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, SummerStage, Battery Dance Festival, Webster Hall, the New York Jazz Choreography Project and Carnival Choreographer’s Ball. Ashley is on faculty at Ballet Academy East and Joffrey in New York. She can be seen working alongside artists such as Ricky Martin, NeYo, Lady Sovereign, Nicki Minaj and Mila Kunis, for companies like Pilobolus, Balasole, Derek Mitchell, Germaul Barnes/Viewsic Expressions, Ruddur Dance, HannaQ Dance Co, the Little Opera Theatre of NY and Balasole, and for brands such as Nike, Athleta, Nokia, Microsoft, Heineken, Yahoo, Ameriprise, the Rachel Ray Show and Lush Cosmetics. She has been seen off-Broadway in “West Side Story”; performed in a music video for Sia, a Boost Mobile commercial, a feature film with Justin Timberlake, and is credited with choreographing independent feature film “The Ride of Tom and Valkyrie” and the musical “Dragula.” Recently, Ashley was featured in the original dance film “Here We Go Again” (dir. Nathan Cohen), performed as Fritz/Rat King/Russia in “DIY Nutcracker,” danced in “Barber of Seville” with the Amore Opera, and worked on “Peter Pan” for Broadway Asia.
Teresa Perez Ceccon
Native New Yorker Teresa Perez Ceccon earned a BA in Theater/Dance from Queens College. In 2020, she obtained her MFA at Montclair State University with a thesis on Latin Jazz Dance. For over 25 years, she has been performing her own choreography as well as works by a variety of highly regarded choreographers. Throughout her career, Teresa has accrued a long list of choreographic achievements performed by students and professionals at numerous diverse dance institutions and venues. In 1997 she began teaching Simonson Modern Jazz Technique classes at the legendary Dance Space (later Dance New Amsterdam). As a protégée of Lynn Simonson, Teresa conducts Simonson workshops and teacher trainings in the U.S. and abroad. Currently, she teaches virtual dance classes to her global network of students through her online enterprise Lines of Energy (www.linesofenergy.com). She is also in-person at Gibney Dance teaching weekly Simonson Jazz classes. As a guest artist/choreographer, she is frequently invited by various studios, organizations and university programs. Her most recent JCE piece, Do I Move You?, was featured in the 2019 JCE Jazz Dance Project, and she is thrilled to participate in the 15th year anniversary performance.
Jeff Davis
JEFF DAVIS is a NYC based Dancer, Choreographer & Visual Artist. He is the founder and Director of Jeff Davis Dance. Fusing art, musical theater, contemporary and jazz dance to tell unique stories. His background in dance, theater, opera and puppetry have led to multifaceted, thought provoking and highly entertaining performance pieces including 10 works for the JCE jazz dance project. He is a former Co-Artistic Director of the Hudson Vagabond Puppets touring and staging large scale puppetry. As a performer, he has been featured with Labyrinth Dance Theater, NYC Children’s Theater, Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, Josh Prince’s Broadway Dance Lab, PCLO & Pittsburgh Opera. International tours with Attack Theatre and Zullo/Raw Movement. National tour of the hit musical FOSSE.
Anthony de Marte
Anthony de Marte is a New York based dancer, actor, singer, and choreographer. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance from Muhlenberg College. He also trained in Physical Theatre at the Accademia dell’Arte and in Musical Theatre Dance at The School at Jacob’s Pillow. Favorite performance credits include Beauty and the Beast, West Side Story, and Elf. Anthony’s choreography has been featured at Teatro Virginian in Arezzo, Italy, at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn, and on various musical stages in Westchester County, New York. He would like to thank his family, friends, and mentors for their ongoing support, and Marian and Merete for the opportunity to have his work featured in the JCE Jazz Dance Project.
Danielle Diniz
Danielle is the Co Artistic Director of Jazz Choreography Enterprises and has choreographed for the Ailey BFA program, Jacob’s Pillow, New York Dance Project, Ballet Hartford, Central Utah Ballet, Stars of American Ballet, Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, St. Paul’s ballet program, Columbia Ballet Collaborative and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, among others. She was also honored to be Artist in Residence at Tribeca BMCC via CUNY Dance Initiative last year. She choreographed the musicals ‘My Way’ and ‘On the Air’, made her Off-Broadway choreographic debut at the AMT Theatre with ‘An Unbalanced Mind,’ presented work at the McCallum Theatre/Palm Desert Choreography Festival and the New York Theatre Barn Choreography Lab at BAC and was awarded a grant from NYFA. She choreographs musicals for AMDA and has served as Associate Choreographer for Lorin Latarro. She enjoys teaching at Steps on Broadway, Peridance, Mark Morris and Manhattan Youth Ballet and has a B.A. from Cornell University.
Tony Fraser
Gregory Kollarus
Gregory Kollarus is a proud alumnus of the Long Island High School for the Arts (LIHSA) dance program. He also attended the Martha Graham Teen Program and went on to study at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City and Joffrey Midwest. He is a proud graduate of The William Esper Studio where he studied the Meisner technique. Gregory is a co-founder of Logos Dance Collective, for which he co-choreographed “Allegory of the Cave,” “Echolocation,” “Flutter,” “The Missing Shade of You,” and “Curved Spacetimes,” performed with all of the founding member of Logos Dance Collective: Barbra Montero, Patra Jongjitirat, and Theresa Duhon. He also created his own jazz piece, “Falling Into the Current.” Gregory is a dance instructor at the Studio for Performing Arts in Commack, Long Island alongside with Jamie Chandler-Torns, and the Alden Moves Studio in Brooklyn owned by Alden LaPaglia. Gregory and Alden co-choreographed and performed “Once in A Life Time” at the Dixon Place Theater and for the APAP City Center. Gregory has been seen in productions of “West Side Story” at the John Engeman Theater, “Carrie the Musical,” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
Vanessa Martínez de Baños
Vanessa Martínez de Baños is a recognized dancer, teacher and choreographer, and co-director of DoubleTakeDanceCo.com (NY SummerStage, Battery, Carnival, Jazz Choreography Project, etc). Featured twice in Dance Informa Magazine, DoubleTake Dance (DTD) has recently received several commissions: Rock that Rolls choreographic commission for Dancing Wheels in Cleveland, OH; HT Chen New Steps residency NYC; Next Step commission and performance for JPAC NYC. Currently she dances and choreographs for DTD, Daniel Gwirtzman and American Tap Dance Foundation. Other companies/choreographers include DIY Nutcracker, BalaSole, Noir Tribe Media, RSW & associates, ABT, Little Opera Theater, Ikada, Ryan Beck, Derek Mitchell, Guillém Alonso, Lynn Schwab and Tony Waag, L’OREAL, Heineken, Ameriprise, Yahoo, Ursus Vodka, KDDance, Tag Heuer, Lush Cosmetics/Gorilla Perfumes, Fuse TV, X- Box/Kinect (Times Square with NeYo and Lady Sovereign), Rachel Ray Show etc. Film credits include “Friends With Benefits” with Justin Timberlake (IMDB 2011). Vanessa is passionate about her teaching career. On faculty at Steps, Joffrey, BAE and a Tap City Leader, she’s been featured on CNN, NBC and TV Globo in Brazil.
Cat Manturuk
Cat Manturuk is the founder and artistic director of DANCE CAT-ALYST, a soul-driven contemporary dance company. A native of Detroit, MI, she holds a BFA in Dance and BS in Exercise Science from Western Michigan University. After graduating, Cat was a scholarship student at Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Center in Chicago, later moving to LA, where she performed with LA Modern and Ballet Company, Blue13 Dance, Regina Klenjosky Dance Company, and Collage Dance Theatre. Upon her arrival in New York, she joined Dance 2XS and became rehearsal director to Decadancetheatre. Her music video credits lie with BET and MTVIndia, and she has been featured in Dance Spirit, Shape, and Elle magazine.
DANCE CAT-ALYST outreach programs and performances: Nanjing, China; the NY Jazz Choreography Project; Battery Downtown Dance Festival; Brooklyn Dance Festival; Detroit Dance City Festival; Wellspring Cori Terry & Dancers; NYC’S Chelsea Piers Sports Center and Sky Rink; and Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. Cat is a recipient of the ACDF Excellence in Performance and Choreography Award, a Harkness Scholarship, a National Dance Association Outstanding Scholarship, and Presidential Award. Her choreography has been noted as “creating heat…” by the LA Times and teaching role as “crisply alive…” by the NY Times.
Bobby Morgan
Bobby Morgan is a freelance choreographer, DJ, spiritualist and student of life based in NYC with a background in many styles such as ballet, jazz, hip hop, house, voguing, modern, and contemporary. The main source of his passion across all those different genres is his love for music. Sound has the ability to create different realms in the imagination. Because Bobby grew up as a part of both concert and commercial dance worlds, one of his missions as a choreographer is to curate spaces for those that live in between both of those worlds. Throughout his training, summers were spent at Complexions, Ballet Hispaníco (Choreographer’s Lab) and performing at Jacob’s Pillow, while also being on scholarship at commercial dance conventions (Monsters of Hip Hop, Intrigue, ASH). Bobby has trained under choreographers such as Dana Foglia, Desmond Richardson, Erica Sobol, Jon Ole Olstad, and many others in the concert, commercial and underground street worlds. Another mission is to assist in raising the vibration of the collective on the planet in these times of darkness, uncertainty and uncharted territory. Through movement and sound, his intention is to always remind us of the importance of human connection, keeping the heart space alive, and remembering why we’re here.
Fréyani Patrice
Fréyani Patrice is the Artistic Director of Ntrinsik Movement and its junior company, “IFE The Movement.” She was born in Queens and raised in Brooklyn, where she started her formal training at Restoration Youth Arts Academy. She continued her training at LIU Post where she received her BFA in Dance Studies. Over the years she was given the opportunity to work with well-established performers/choreographers such as Michael Leon Thomas, Akira Armstrong and Ronald K Brown. Ntrinsik has performed in various theaters in the Tri-state area. She was able to judge the “Step It Up Dance/Step Competition,” which was held at the Apollo Theater, and choreographed the opening number for the competition. Fréyani was featured in the New York “Times” for her performance in Saya Woolfalk’s “ChimaTEK” and Spike Lee’s campaign with Cadillac. She is thankful to God, and for her family and close friends for their constant support and love.
Spencer Pond
Tommy Scrivens
Tommy Scrivens is a Florida native, where he trained at New Tampa Dance Theatre. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a BFA in dance performance in 2005. While training, he has had the opportunity to work with many world-renowned choreographers and dancers. Tommy has performed with Columbus Dance Theater Contemporary Ballet Company, in the United Kingdom tour of Tap Fusion, as a guest artist with BalletMet, Columbus, Collide, and Parsons Dance. Later in his concert dance career, he danced with dre.dance, Nicholas Andre Dance, marInspired, and Kristin Sudeikis Dance. In addition to company work, Tommy has been featured in several movies, musicals, and TV shows. Some highlights include The Big Gay Musical movie, City Center Encores’ production of “Where’s Charley?” and “Fiorello” and the premier of Rosie O’Donnell’s return to prime-time TV on Rosie Show, featured on the OWN network. He has had the honor of working with the Verdon/ Fosse Estate on archiving and restaging the legendary work of Bob Fosse and is a principal member of American Dance Machine for the 21st Century. Tommy performed in the pre-Broadway run of the new musical Roman Holiday in San Francisco, Sophisticated Ladies directed by Andre DeShields and appeared in the FX show Fosse/Verdon starring Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell. As a choreographer and teacher, Tommy has worked all over the world including Brazil, China, and Russia. He has worked with performers of all ages and ranges including professional, pre-professional, students with intellectual and physical disabilities, students with autistim, and blind students. In the United States, he has been privileged to teach at Peridance, Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, The Ohio State University, Adelphi University, Manhattanville College, Marymount Manhattan, CAP21 with Molloy University, and many dance studios across the nation. Throughout his career Tommy has been an assistant choreographer for shows like Motown the Musical, the Miss Florida Pageant, and several shows from the NYMF festival. Most recently, he assisted the director and choreographer for the North Shore’s Smokey Joe’s Cafe and the 2022 Jimmy awards, choreographing for the Food Network show Beat Bobby Flay, and was movement director for the original play The SupaDupa Kid at Barrington Stages. Tommy is an adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan’s Musical Theatre Program. He was just named the inaugural Legacy Teacher for ADM21 and a protégé with the Verdon/Fosse Legacy LLC .
Jaime Shannon
Jaime Shannon began her dance training at the age of four at the Lee Lund Studio of Dance in Milford, CT. In 2006 she received her B.A. in dance from Hofstra University where she studied with Lance Westergard, Stormy Brandenberger, Robin Becker, Carla Wolfangle, Rachel List, and Amy Marshall. Since then, Jaime has performed professionally with Azul Dance Theatre, Dance Cat-Alyst, Soluq Dance Theater, Lauren Hale Dance, and Kelley Donovan and Dancers. In 2010 Jaime met Tony Fraser and together, they quickly became a dynamic partnership in the swing dance community. Together they have performed and taught various styles of swing dance throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. In 2014 Jaime formed Kilowatt Dance Theater (KDT), a dance company specializing in the roots of early jazz dance, swing, lindy hop, and blues in combination with modern and contemporary dance. KDT has had the honor of performing at such noted venues as Jacob’s Pillow, The Battery Dance Festival, Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing, and Jazz Choreography Enterprises.
Ai Toyoshima
Ai Toyoshima is a New York based performer. Since she moved to New York in 2017, she has worked intensively with Finis Jhung, Mindy Jackson, Nicholas Palmquist and Fredrick Earl Mosely. Her favorite credits include the Bryant Park Modern Dance Summer Series, the Joyce Theater, the 20th annual Dumbo Dance Festival and the Steps Beyond Foundation Performance Lab. Ai is looking forward to reconnecting with the world after two years of the pandemic! Follow her on her Instagram @toyosienne to get more information about her next performance!
Cory “Nova” Villegas
Cory “Nova” Villegas, a native of the Hunts Point area in the Bronx, embarked on her dance journey at the tender age of five, immersing herself in Salsa On 2 at Starlite Dance Studio under the guidance of David Melendez. Continuing her passion at Dancers DreamZzz School of Dance under Debbie Melendez and the mentorship of Kimberly Rivera, known as “The Lady of Soul,” Cory honed her skills. Her dedication led her to Lehman High School, where she trained under Penelope Kalloo, a former member of the Forces of Nature Company, exploring ballet, Afro-Caribbean, Bollywood, Contemporary, and various Modern dance styles as a member of the Lehman High School Dance Company. It was during this time that Cory created her inaugural Salsa piece, “Acuyuye.” Post-graduation, Cory transitioned into teaching at Dancers DreamZzz and Lehman High School while furthering her studies at Lehman College under Michael Manswell, specializing in Dunham Technique. Eager to delve deeper into Dance Education, she pursued her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at Hunter College’s Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program, mentored by renowned choreographers Pedro Ruiz Jr. and Maura Donohue. Cory’s choreographic prowess flourished with works like “Creciente” (2017), “La Liberacion” (2018), and “Calle Soul” (2018), showcased at prestigious events including the Bronx Borough Arts Dance Festival, Ailey CitiGroup Theater, and the EstroGenius Festival. She also graced stages with her performances for artists like Don Omar and collaborated with Forza Malizia Dance Co.
Beyond dance, Cory found a passion for lighting design, illuminating venues such as Hunter College’s Kaye Playhouse and the Jamaica Center Performing Arts Center. In 2019, she co-founded Soul Dance Co.: The Soul Experience, serving as Artistic Director alongside Kevin Williams. Cory’s dedication extends to her role as Beacon Dance Program Director and Artistic Director of the Beacon Dance Company at Beacon High School. Currently pursuing an MFA at Hunter College, Cory is slated to graduate in May 2024. Her journey is marked by gratitude for her gift of dance and the love she’s received in showcasing her work, a testament to her enduring passion and commitment to the art form.
INSPIRATIONAL JAZZ DANCE ARTISTS
We thought you might enjoy seeing some videos of dance artists who influenced and inspired some of our choreographers in this edition of the New York Jazz Choreography Project.
Anthony de Marte
I found the song “Plain Gold Ring” a few years before I created movement to it. I stumbled across the song as most millennial do – via shuffling music on Spotify and YouTube playlists and seeing what comes up. When I first listened to it, I was entranced by the way in which the melody and instrumentation build alongside with the singer’s angst and improvisations. However, I was not yet in a place where my body could access a movement vocabulary appropriate to the music. As I began training in modern dance and composition, the tools I was developing allowed me to find the sense of grounding and freedom that I felt the music called for. This merged with the musical theatre and heels-based jazz styles that continued to influence me to create the sensual, fluid dance style of “Plain Gold Ring.”
Gregory Kollarus
“Snowflakes,” the music for my piece, was composed by Aleksandr Tsfasman, a Soviet-era jazz musician. At that time Russian musicians did not typically write jazz music. So the idea is about two things that don’t belong together, but somehow work. I let my mind wonder, and thought about two people in love vacationing in a place that somehow is summer and winter at the same time. Hence, my piece, “Summer Snow.”
Jeff Davis
My piece is inspired by the amazing music of Harry Belafonte. His vocal style evokes a lot of joy and creates very vivid imagery to me. I wanted to make a story of sailors in the Caribbean dreaming of being reunited with their loves. If any movie has a physical influence it might be the Havana scene from the film version of “Guys and Dolls.” I also love this picture of Katherine Dunham from a movie called “Casbah.”
Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers in “Hellzapoppin'” (1941)