Naoko Maeshiba

Naoko Maeshiba

MSAC Artist Profile

Founded in 2002, Naoko Maeshiba/Kibism has been creating and performing works that examine boundaries between disciplines, cultures, individual and society. The mission of Kibism is to offer a theatrical experience that taps onto different states of consciousness and opens multiple channels of communication. The body is the main medium for Kibism works. Examining body’s potentials as a place where the external and the internal stimuli encounter, as a vessel through which images germinate, as a landscape for memories and histories, Kibism works investigate the relationship between our bodies and the environments we live in. ‘Kibi’ in Japanese means ‘strange beauty’. It also means ‘delicate inner workings which might not appear on the surface.’

This idea forms the foundational aesthetics of our creation. Primal passion, vivid sensuality and refined physicality collide, harmonize, and synthesize, illuminating rich layers of abstracted narrative. Born in Kobe, Japan, Naoko Maeshiba comes from a diverse background in literature, linguistic anthropology and theatre. Maeshiba’s work to date has focused on revealing the unveiled state of the body through its contact with the immediate environment. She carefully conceives and prepares space in its sculptural, auditory, and visual dimensions for dance to visit the body. Her solo and ensemble works range from site-specific improvisation in collaboration with musicians and visual artists to tightly choreographed full-evening length pieces in theatre. They have been experienced in both traditional and non-traditional venues in the North America, Europe, and Japan.

In 2007, she presented a duet, “Absence”, at a remodeled old elementary school building, M25, in collaboration with a Polish electro-acoustic duo, Wlodzimierz Kiniorski and Dariusz Makaruk. (International New Media Festival: Moving Closer, in Warsaw, Poland). Through Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project, she created “Trace” (Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, DC, 2004) with the focus on ‘displacement’ as its central theme. “Scent of Sky” with a sound artist, Alberto Gaitan tapped onto the infinity of the unknown in science/technology, using computer-generated sound bites, falling ping pong balls, and time-based video image slowly unfolding onto her body (Source Festival, Washington DC). Her twelve-performer ensemble piece “Paraffin” treated the theme of ‘loss of identity through socialization’ and received Best Dance Performance Award from City Paper’s “Best of Baltimore” 2009.

Most recently, she created “Twilight Station” with an ensemble of hearing and non-hearing performers (Questfest, Washington, DC), collaborated with a musician/sound artist Andy Hayleck in a full-evening length “Plasmic Patterns” (Baltimore Theatre Project) and “Apertures” (Tank, New York).

Complimentary Activities:

Body Wisdom: Discovering the Inner Landscape

This workshop offers a place of inquiry for investigating the depth of the body. Focusing on the body’s expression through its contact with the immediate environment, each exercise is designed to awaken the inner sense of self and develop an awareness of external visual/auditory/kinetic stimuli. Working both indoors and outdoors in nature, participants will tap into the primal essence underlying the surface and examine the relationship between body and various environments. Participants will work in solo, pairs, or an ensemble.

The workshop will culminate in a final presentation. Fees for these programs range begin at $500.

Word Dance Theater

Word Dance Theater

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

With inspired and innovative original dance/theater productions, Word Dance Theater’s sophisticated integration of dance, theater, and music has repeatedly created new and exciting viewing experiences for the public, all while paying tribute to the choreography and philosophy of Isadora Duncan. National Public Radio says that Word Dance Theater is “equally as innovative as modern dance’s firebrand, Isadora Duncan.”

The Washington Post called its latest dance/theater production, Once Wild, “An important creation” and “a bold new work of art.”

Word Dance Theater is the premiere modern dance company in Maryland offering authentic reconstructions of Duncan’s masterpieces and new choreography within a theatrical context with concert-quality live music. WDT offers main stage productions, salons for intimate non-traditional spaces, master classes, lecture-demonstrations, and residencies.

Complimentary Activities:

Word Dance Theater offers master classes and workshops for professional dancers and community movers, lecture demonstrations, and residencies; all facilitated by Kennedy Center teaching artists Cynthia Word and Ingrid Zimmer. Fees for these programs range from $500 to $5,000.

VTDance

VTDance

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Vincent E. Thomas founded VTDance as an outlet for performance projects including solo, group, and collaborative choreographic endeavors. VTDance is multi-dimensional. The work builds on the use of contemporary dance, improvisation, text/movement, a variety of sound sources, and collaborations with other artists, including dancers, musicians, poets, visual artists, and others [to be discovered]. These ideas coupled with witty, poignant, athletic and gestural movement are the rich palette for VTDance. Vincent is able to provide performances to fit any number of audiences and accommodating to a variety of spaces. “iWitness,” the award-winning choreographer contemplates acts of humanity in this deeply moving, multi-layered work, exploring simple truths in human behaviors and implied truths in human documents from the Pledge of Allegiance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “iWitness” studies the ideals we seek and the philosophers and humanitarians we attempt to follow. Pledge springs from the Pledge of Allegiance; Render and Proceed investigates the convolution of media and its effect on the human condition and society; ‘Come Change’ considers the past and present for a hopeful tomorrow. Other solos and excerpt works include: ‘Grandmother Project’, ‘L.O.V.E. Project’, ‘Shadows’, ‘Occupy’, and a range of improvisational structured solos. Vincent E. Thomas is a 2008 Kennedy Center Local Dance Commission Award recipient.

Complimentary Activities:

Vincent E. Thomas offers community engagement activities to deepen the experiences with audiences through a variety of workshops. Workshops include community engagement, community building, and community movement for all ages, children to senior adults. Fees for these programs range from $500 to $2,000.

SOLE Defined

SOLE Defined

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Dynamic, Infectious and Energetic!

SOLE Defined, a 501 (c)3 charitable organization, is a percussive dance theater show based in the Washington, DC area. Founded in 2011 by Quynn Johnson & Ryan Johnson, this award-winning show takes an exciting twist on theater and percussive dance. SOLE Defined creates a free flowing conversation through music and movement by fusing body percussion, tap dance and tapping on roller skating. Quoted by the Washington Post for performing “the coolest number of the night with its high-stepping and toe tapping blend of style,” SOLE Defined’s national and international credits include The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, The International Cajon Festival in Lima, Peru, and the DancEncore International Dance Festival in Canada. Turing their bodies into a human drum, SOLE Defined brings the rhythms of the world to you.

Complimentary Activities:

SOLE Defined creators, Quynn Johnson, and Ryan Johnson understand the importance of arts integration and the performing arts ability to reinforce academics. With this mission, they created the SOLE Stepz Arts in Education program. SOLE Stepz offers artist residencies, workshops, and assemblies in schools and youth servicing organizations. The goal of SOLE Stepz is to promote positive self-expression through the performing arts. We achieve this by using percussive dance (tap and body percussion) was a tool to educate and promote collaboration, teamwork, and the importance of self-expression among youth grades K-12. SOLE Stepz also teaches the traditions and history of tap dance and body percussion, basic steps, and improvisation where students enhance their ability to create their own movement.

To build successful programming, SOLE Stepz selects an appropriate Maryland State Dance Standard and corresponding 21st Century Skills. In addition, SOLE Stepz utilizes both formative and summative assessments in the form of instructional rubrics, self-evaluation, and student performance. It is our goal to expand our school partnerships and reach schools across multiple Maryland school districts. Below is a short description of the SOLE Stepz assembly, residency, and workshop program.

ASSEMBLY: SOLE STEPZ

This energetic performance promotes the traditions and history of tap dance and body percussion, aiming to inspire and motivate students.

Grade Level: K-12th

Connections: History, Dance, Movement

RESIDENCY: SOLE STEPZ

Explores music & movement through percussive dance while learning collaboration, teamwork and the importance of self-expression.

Grade Level: K-12th

Connections: History, Dance, Music

Fees for these programs range from $900 to $1,150.

Silk Road Dance Company

Silk Road Dance Company

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray, the award-winning, critically acclaimed Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC) presents an extensive repertoire of dances from Central Asia, Iran, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and beyond. Silk Road Dance Company has performed internationally in Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore. and Canada. With the goal of promoting “cultural understanding through Beauty and Delight,” their pioneering performances offer a glimpse of ancient cultures, especially the Islamic world.

Silk Road Dance Company present programs reflecting decades of field research and study by Dr. Gray who teaches at George Washington University and has received many awards for her life-time of creative work; the ensemble is frequently engaged by Central Asian and Middle Eastern embassies and communities.

Internationally recognized for authenticity and artistry, SRDC has been the subject of broadcasts on Uzbek, Tajik and Arabic television, the BBC, and VOA. SRDC has performed nationally throughout the US and has appeared at the most prestigious venues in Washington, DC, including the White House, the Library of Congress, and the Kennedy Center.

The ensemble performs Uzbek, Uighur, Afghani, Algerian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bollywood, Classical Persian, Crimean Tatar, Chinese, Egyptian, Georgian, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kazakh, Kurdish, Moroccan, Russian Romani (‘Gypsy’), Tajik, Turkmen, and Ukrainian dances.

Complimentary Activities:

“Discovering the Silk Road” is an educational presentation that introduces audiences to the history, geography, culture, costuming, and traditions of Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond. Workshops can include dance instruction at a variety of levels, from introductory classes for beginning students to master classes for professionals. Fees for these programs range from $200 to $500

Sankofa Dance Theater

Sankofa Dance Theater

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Sankofa Dance Theater creates and presents world-class, authentic African art in the form of dance, music, and folkways for national and international audiences. The work of the Company is rooted in healing and bringing intercultural understanding to the global village while staying true to the definition of the word “Sankofa” which means to learn from the past in an effort to build for the future. Sankofa Dance Theater reaches back into the rich legacy of African culture and history to move forward into greater awareness and sensitivity to the world community

Complimentary Activities:

Dance Classes: Sankofa Dance Theater offers workshops that feature traditional African Dance or Drum technique. Dance classes often feature movements from the Casssamance Region of Senegal, West Africa … movements that are chosen because they bring a flowing beauty while at the same time giving the spirit that follows the path of the rhythm that is intrinsic to the pulsating, pounding wonderfully repetitious, yet always unique beat of Africa.

The Griot Storyteller: The Griot is the historian in the African village, but is known as the storyteller in the modern world. Sankofa Dance Theater takes storytelling to new heights by adding a musical backdrop, drama, song, and sometimes dance. Some stories are Old World, taking the listener on a travelogue journey all the way into the village. Others are New World and cutting edge in a way that bridges yesterday, today and tomorrow. Sankofa Dance Theater offers Griot programs designed for young, mixed age, or adult audiences. Fees for these programs begin at $500.

Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble

Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble conveys the joy and power of percussive dance while illuminating the culturally diverse roots and branches of American music and dance. Since 1979, Footworks has delighted audiences internationally with theater productions, festival performances, arts-integrated school assemblies and residencies, workshops, and youth and community outreach programming.

Footworks always performs with its own band of stellar musicians and Musical Director Mark Schatz has received numerous awards including the 2015 MSAC’s Individual Artist Award for Composition. Founding Director Eileen Carson is a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellow, a Certified Teaching Artist, and a recipient of MSAC’s Individual Artist Award for Choreography (1997, 2014).

INCREDIBLE FEETS celebrates music and percussive dances from many diverse cultures, and influences of these joyful traditions come together in original choreography.

DESTINATION BALTIMORE illuminates the multicultural history of Maryland and the vital role that music and dance plays in the shaping of our state and nation.

“…the Bolshoi of Barndance!” – The Washington Post

Complimentary Activities:

Footworks is dedicated to teaching and working with youth and the community and is recognized for over 35 years in Arts-In Education. Footworks presents Community Performances, School Assemblies and Residencies, Community Outreach, Workshops, Master Classes, and Professional Development for teachers. Footworks currently offers:

KEEPING THE BEAT: Multicultural Influences in American Music and Dance (Concert)

IRISH ROOTS AND AMERICAN BRANCHES (Concert)

ROOTS AND RHYTHM: Exploring the Cultural Diversity of the United States (Residency)

COMMUNITY RHYTHM PROJECT

BUSTIN’ LOOSE (Creative Movement Course)

MULTICULTURAL DANCE CLASSES (a wide range of styles)

Fees for these programs range from $200 to $2,000.

Devi Dance Company

Devi Dance Company

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Two decades ago this company was founded by Nilimma Devi, an internationally-renowned classical Kuchipudi dancer from South India. The first in a handful of breakout women performers in a gender monopoly, Nilimma mastered the complex art of Kuchipudi and took it to new levels of concept and presentation once in the United States. She collaborated with martial artist Thang Tha to take the lyricism of Kuchipudi to the dynamism of controlled force. Bringing the depth of the Sanskrit poetry to the audience, she had an American poet with Indian cultural affiliation translate words and recreate live readings in the music score. Meaning and experience has been the Devi Dance Company’s byword and has stayed true to the challenge of reinterpreting culture and tradition in beautiful new ways.

Christopher K. Morgan & Artists

Christopher K. Morgan & Artists

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

Christopher K. Morgan & Artists is a professional contemporary dance company said to be “direct, transcendent and entrancing” by The Washington Post. Voted Best Dance Company in the Washington City Paper’s 2015 annual reader’s poll, CKM&A can perform a wide range of compelling dances that appeal to diverse audiences. CKM&A works to demystify contemporary dance through community dialogue and online video content, providing presenters with excellent tools (eye-catching photos, customized preview videos, thoughtful text) for marketing the work and developing an audience. The company is in its third year in residence at American Dance Institute in Rockville, MD. CKM&A provides professional and pre-professional educational opportunities through its intensives, workshops and university residencies, peer-to-peer artist facilitation and commissions work by other choreographers. Director Morgan is also currently touring his NEFA / NDP funded evening-length solo work Pohaku, which is eligible for NDP Tour Support. “Among the best, if not the best, of the Washington Area’s choreographers.” Critical Dance

Complimentary Activities:

Morgan and other company artists are accomplished educators and are available to teach master classes to any level of student. Morgan is also a gifted facilitator and could lead an engaging discussion about the work before or after the presentation, participate in a panel exploring some of the issues in the work, or create an engagement activity tailored to the needs of the individual presenter and community. Issues of identity are sometimes explored in Morgan’s work, and this can lead to rich discussions with a variety of different communities. Fees for these programs range from $200-$1000.

The Barnstormers and RockCandy Cloggers

The Barnstormers and RockCandy Cloggers

MSAC Touring Artist Profile

The Barnstormers, Slim Harrison & Tom Jolin perform as a duo on a variety of traditional folk instruments including fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, hammered & mountain dulcimers, autoharp, jaws harp & button accordion. They are often joined by Sam (Samantha) & Joe Herrmann of the Critton Hollow String Band for concerts & barn dances.

Sam plays hammered dulcimer and guitar, Joe plays fiddle, banjo, mandolin & guitar. The RockCandy Cloggers, (Rock Howland & Candy Ranlet) perform choreographed and freestyle flatfoot clogging.

When they are not dancing, they join the band on fiddle & mandolin, concertina, dulcimer, autoharp & bass. The Barnstormers & RockCandy Cloggers have toured North America & Europe for over 30 years.

School performances include: “Exploring the Roots of American Folk Music” & “Exploring the Roots of American Folk Dances” as well as an environmental program titled, “It All Flows into the Chesapeake Bay”. The Barnstormers also provide performances based on many themes and programs suitable for all ages. STEM and Common Core Standards are a focus of school performances and arrangements can be made to include “The Science of Sound”, “Math in Music & Dance”, & “Tech Tools & Engineering Musical Instruments”

The Barnstormers work with the MD State Arts Council, PA Council on the Arts and Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts (Slim is a Master Teaching Artist). Select performances include: Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Smithsonian, Appalachian Fest, American Roots Music Festival, Rudolstadt, Moelln, Halsingbo & Viljandi Festivals in Europe as well as schools, barn dances & festivals all over North America and Latin America.

Complimentary Activities:

Workshops and Residency Programs can be included following performances.

“Exploring the Roots of American Folk Music & Dance” residencies include workshops for each class where students work as an ensemble and try up to 12 different traditional instruments.

Additional workshops can include folk dances & recycled instrument building. An All School “Fiesta/Hoedown” concludes the residency and parents are invited to join in the fun!

Stem and Common Core Standards are the focus of “The Science of Sound,” “Math & Music,” and “Tech Tools & Engineering of Musical Instruments” as well as the environmental program, “It All Flows Into the Chesapeake Bay”. Community Barn Dances/Hoedowns provide a wonderful opportunity for folks to gather and interact with no prior skill needed.