The JCE JAZZ DANCE PROJECT
OCTOBER 2022
The JCE Jazz Dance Project is a celebration of jazz dance featuring original works by emerging and established choreographers. Audiences of all ages will be treated to dances in a variety of jazz styles, from swing to contemporary, and the chance to see the richness of this great American art form. Come celebrate 15 years of jazz dance with us!
Featured choreographers include:
Barbara Angeline
Avital Asuleen
Ashley Carter
Sharlane Conner
Jeff Davis
Emmanuel De Jesus
Danielle Diniz
Tony Fraser
Cat Manturuk
Vanessa Martínez de Baños
Bobby Morgan
Tommy Scrivens
Jaime Shannon
Danita Shaheen
Ai Toyoshima
Cory “Nova” Villegas
Marian Hyun and Merete Muenter, Artistic Directors
“Midnight Moonlight” choreographed by Austin Marquez
Photo: Jan La Salle
DATES
Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 23, 2022 at 4 p.m. – a talkback with the choreographers follows the performance
LOCATION
KnJ Theater at Peridance
126 E. 13th Street
New York, NY 10003
www.peridance.com
Tickets Available Now
Early Bird Price through September 30th: $25
(Promo Code Earlybird)
Online Sales: $35 General; $25 children and students with valid high school or college ID’s (Promo Code Student)
Groups of 10 or more, paid in advance: $25. For group sales: info@jazzchoreography.com
If you can’t attend the performances, we hope you’ll consider donating to JCE.
For Early Bird or Student discount, enter Promo Code after choosing the performance date, then click Apply.
Online ticket sales will close one hour before the performance time; thereafter tickets will be available only at the door.
Useful Information
Covid Policy:
We ask that audience members wear masks inside the theater out of consideration for our staff and artists who are over 65 or have immune deficiencies.
Refund Policy:
Refunds up to 1 day before event. Eventbrite’s fee is nonrefundable.
Door Policy:
Please present a printout of your receipt (and valid high school or college ID for students) at the ticket desk to claim your tickets. Doors will open one half hour before show time. The ticket desk will close when the show begins, so please arrive on time. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of management.
Artistic Directors
Marian Hyun
Marian Hyun has studied jazz and ballet with Luigi, Bob Audy, Ed Kresley, Shirley Bassat, and Julia Dubno. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she was a freelance writer and a writing instructor at the New School before enrolling in the Dance Education Lab (DEL) at the 92 nd Street Y. Since then she has taught dance to people of all ages, from two-year-old pre-ballerinas to senior citizen jazz buffs in New York studios and community centers, including the 92 nd Street Y. She has choreographed for the JCE Jazz Dance Project, Choreographer’s Canvas, and the Fridays at Noon Marathon at 92 nd Street Y. In May 2007 at New Dance Group, Marian produced the first performance of the New York Jazz Choreography Project (now the JCE Jazz Dance Project), a showcase devoted to jazz dance. It sold out. Subsequent performances of the Jazz Project have been produced semiannually by Jazz Choreography Enterprises, Inc., a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization established in 2007 to promote the creation of original jazz choreography. Marian is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Jazz Choreography Enterprises.
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 Theatre). 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). Short Film: Through the Ages (Director/Choreographer/Producer) Multiple Film Festival Awards. Originally from Buffalo, New York. SUNY Geneseo Graduate.
Danielle Diniz
Danielle Diniz is the Associate Artistic Director of Jazz Choreography Enterprises. She has choreographed works for the JCE Jazz Dance Project and will become the Co-Artistic Director on January 1, 2024. She recently was Artist in Residence at Tribeca BMCC via CUNY Dance Initiative and has been commissioned by Jacob's Pillow, Avant Chamber Ballet, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Ballet Hartford, Central Utah Ballet, Earl Mosley's DoD, Stars of American Ballet and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, among others. She choreographed the musicals 'An Unbalanced Mind’ (Off-Broadway), “On the Air” (Galley Players) and “My Way” (Theatre By the Sea), and presented work at the McCallum Theatre/Palm Desert Choreography Festival and the NYTB Choreography Lab at Baryshnikov Arts Center. She is a winner of the New York Dance Project Choreography Competition, a grant recipient from NYFA/City Artist Corps, choreographs/ADs at AMDA and has served as Associate Choreographer for Lorin Latarro. She is on faculty at Kanyok Arts Initiative and Manhattan Youth Ballet and teaches for Steps and Peridance. Cornell University Graduate.
Featured Choreographers
Barbara Angeline
Barbara Angeline is the founder and artistic director of Hysterika Jazz Dance. She is a full-time instructor at Rutgers, teaching Jazz, Broadway Jazz, History of Broadway Dance, Dance History, and Improvisation. She has an M.A. in Dance Education (NYU) and B.A. in Dance (UC Irvine). Barbara’s historical collaboration process was used for her works: Tightrope (a tribute to the contributions of Bob Fosse); eat Crow (inspired by the movement style and life of Josephine Baker); and Rhapsody (in the style of George Balanchine). HJD’s premiere work, “Mi Maschera (Mask Me)”, was an original jazz dance that explored Venetian Masks in the Baroque Period as they related to issues of female identity. Presented Jazz Dance Choreography – Historical Collaborations with Dance Luminaries (NDEO, Chicago). Barbara created and moderated panel of jazz dance educators from around the country to discuss Jazz Dance in Higher Education and The Professions: Where Do We Go From Here? Performance credits include Broadway Backwards 5, 6, 7, Oakland Ballet, Broadway Bares, Gypsy of the Year Awards, Equity national tours and musicals, Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Danced with/for Woody Allen, Jerry Mitchell, Graciela Daniele, Bob Bartley, Bernadette Peters, and Aretha Franklin. Hysterika Jazz Dance is dedicated to expanding the legacy of jazz dance as a rich, powerful, historical American art form.
Avital Asuleen
Avital Asuleen is a director and choreographer of musicals, plays, and devised works, and is very excited to be making her JCE choreographic debut! Director/choreographer highlights: Beauty and The Beast (Woodstock Playhouse), The Floorshow, Ephemera (Combustion Collective). Musical Theatre choreography favorites: Guys and Dolls (Bigfork Summer Playhouse), Footloose, Shrek, Tarzan, The Music Man (Berkshire Theatre Group), Newsies, Crazy For You (Frenchwoods Festival), Thoroughly Modern Millie, Legally Blonde, Chicago (Polaris Productions), and the NYC premiere of The Queen Bees (Queens Theater in the Park). Her concert choreography has been seen at Steps on Broadway, the 92nd St. Y, Green Space Studios, New York Theatre Barn’s Choreography Lab, and The Choreographer’s Canvas. Avital is a certified Giordano Jazz Dance Instructor, has taught at Alvin Ailey’s Professional Division and Broadway Dance Center, and is a teaching artist with New York City Center and The Mark Morris Dance Center. She is the Artistic Director of Combustion Collective and is also the founder and director of the Choreography Lab, now in its 9th season at New York Theatre Barn. Special thanks to everyone at JCE and to Dann!
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.
Sharlane Conner
Sharlane Conner’s recent musical theater credits include “On Your Feet” (John W. Engeman Theater), the first regional production of “On Your Feet” (Gateway Playhouse) and “In the Heights” (Olney Theatre Center). Past stage experience: The Actor’s Fund CTFD Gala, “Gilded” at the Capital Fringe Festival, “Broadway Bares,” Bare Opera’s “Goyescas,” Chicago Int’l Salsa Congress, NY Int’l Salsa Congress, and “Apollo Club Harlem.” She has toured internationally with Catapult Entertainment (seen on “America’s Got Talent”) and her recent TV/Film credits include “Younger,” “Tick Tick Boom,” “Pose” and “The Tick.” Sharlane majored in Dance at Dean College and trained at The Alvin Ailey School’s Summer Intensive and Independent Study Program. She previously worked at Dance With Me Studios (owned by DWTS pros Maks & Val Chmerkovskiy) where she trained and competed in multiple ballroom, Latin and social dance styles. Sharlane is thrilled to be back performing and choreographing again for JCE!
Jeff Davis
Jeff Davis is a NYC based Dancer, Choreographer and 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. He recently choreographed Caravantasy for the Spring JCE Jazz Dance Project. His work French Trio premiered at the 2019 Fresh Fruit Festival, winning outstanding dance. His collaborations with Glitter Kitty Theater include Director and Choreographer of the Gunfighter Meets his Match for the New York Musical Festival (NYMF) and One for the Ages! at Theater for the New City. He is a former Co-Artistic Director of the Hudson Vagabond Puppets, touring and staging large scale puppetry. He is also co-creator of The Dick & Anita Holiday Hour! and The Lovely WILDS with composer Elliot Roth. 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 and Pittsburgh Opera; international tours with Attack Theatre and Zullo/Raw Movement; national tour of the hit musical FOSSE.
Emmanuel De Jesus
Emmanuel De Jesus is an eclectic and multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Puerto Rico. He trained in ballet and other dance disciplines and moved to NYC over a decade ago to further his career as a Model/Dancer. He has worked and toured around the world. Credits include Hermès, Elle UK, Swarovski, Bernardo in West Side Story‘s 50th anniversary world tour, NBC Latino, and he has choreographed, toured and danced as a backup artist for many Latin Artists. His career as a performer solidified his love for stage makeup artistry. He specializes in creative makeup design and choreography for New York’s premiere entertainment events and creative houses.
Danielle Diniz
Danielle Diniz has been commissioned to create new works for Jacob’s Pillow, Performance Santa Fe, Avant Chamber Ballet, two ballets for Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Ballet Hartford, Central Utah Ballet, was a featured choreographer for DanceBreak, has an upcoming ballet for Ballet Excel Ohio, and will have artistic residencies via CUNY Dance Initiative at Tribeca BMCC 22/23 and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning this fall (MMF). She is a winner of the New York Dance Project Choreography
Tony Fraser
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.
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.
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.
Tommy Scrivens
Tommy Scrivens is a Florida native. He graduated from The Ohio State University with Contemporary Ballet Company, in the UK 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. Most recently Tommy performed in the pre-Broadway run of the new musical “Roman Holiday” in San Francisco, appeared in the FX show “Fosse/Verdon,” and in “Sophisticated Ladies” directed by André DeShields. As a choreographer and teacher, Tommy has worked all over the world. In the US he has been privileged to teach at Peridance, Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, The Ohio State University, Adelphi University, Manhattanville College, and Marymount. Most recently, he assisted the director and choreographer for the North Shore’s “Smokey Joe’s Café” and the 2022 Jimmy Awards, and was movement director for the world-premiere of “The Supadupa Kid” at Barrington Stages. Tommy is currently an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan’s Musical Theatre Program, and 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.
Danita Shaheen
Danita Shaheen is a dance-based educator, performer and creator from NY. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Disagreeable Creatures, a movement-based collaborative. She graduated magna cum laude from Marymount Manhattan College’s BFA program with a double concentration in ballet and modern dance. She consistently collaborates with artists from all artistic disciplines, and has performed nationally and internationally with numerous contemporary, modern, jazz and hip hop companies. Additionally, Shaheen has appeared in multiple video projects and has been an invited guest choreographer at many prestigious institutions, including Shoreline Ballet, The Spence School, The Brearley School, Montclair High School and Connecticut Dance Center. She has had the honor of working with Ariel Rivka Dance, Dance Cat-alyst, Kilowatt Dance Theater, Salma Allam and Dancers, Jeff Davis, The Cantigas Woman’s Choir, Grace Rising Dance, Tamara Saari Dance, Jacobs Campbell Dance, Gehring Dancetheatre, Banana Peel Dance, dancesbyremi, Ryan McNally, Kaleidoscope Dance Theater, DoubleTake Dance, MAD About Dance , H.T. Chen and Dancers, AERA, Beth Soll & Company, Andrea Gise and Dancers, Laura Ward/ Octavia Cup Dance Theatre, and Nina Buisson Contemporary Move. She is thrilled to be presenting her work at JCE Jazz Dance Project.
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
JCE Jazz Dance Project is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and Restart NY supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the State Legislature and administered by LMCC. LMCC serves, connects, and makes space for artists and community.
