Barbara Siman is an accomplished director and choreographer who has worked
extensively throughout the northeast and
beyond, including choreographing the
Broadway production of "Mayor."
Her extensive
regional credits include work at Carnegie
Hall, the Paper Mill Playhouse, and the Walnut Street Theatre. Siman has been honored to work on regional productions, touring productions and revues with such marquis-makers as Mary Rodgers, James Hammerstein, Christine Baranski, and Marvin Hamlisch.
Barbara Siman will be choreographing and co-directing the 2010 production of Charles Strouse’s An American Tragedy.
Alberto Del Saz is the Artistic Director
of the Murray Louis and Nikolais Dance
Company as well as Co-Director of The
Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance.
Del Saz is the Reconstruction Director of
the Nikolais/Louis repertory and has staged the Nik-olais/Louis repertory on university and professional dance companies around the world. Among others: The Juilliard School, Conservatoire de la Danse de Paris, and The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
Alberto Del Saz will be staging Alwin Nikolais’ “Crucible” as
a part of the Master Choreographers dance concert.
Meredith Rainey began dancing at the age of 15 in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale. In 1985, he became a trainee with the Milwaukee Ballet, and joined the Company two months later. In 1987, he joined the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet, and he remained with Pennsylvania Ballet when the collaboration ended in 1989. He was promoted to Soloist in 1999 Mr. Rainey has performed principal roles in many works including George Balanchine’s Agon, Serenade and The Four Temperaments; Paul Taylor’s Arden Court and Company B; Alvin Ailey’s The River; Lar Lubovitch’s Waiting for the Sunrise and Concerto Six Twenty-two; John Butler’s Carmina Burana; Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Great Galloping Gottschalk; and Kevin O’Day’s Quartet for IV He has also had leading roles in full-length ballets.
He has premiered works for such renowned choreographers as Dwight Rhoden, David Parsons, Kevin O’Day, Val Caniparoli, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Christopher D’Amboise, Robert Weiss, Richard Tanner, Jean Grand-Maitre, Ib Anderson and Pennsylvania Ballet’s Jeffrey Gribler and Matthew Neenan.
In addition to dancing with Pennsylvania Ballet, he has performed as a guest artist throughout the United States and Europe. He was a demi-soloist with Dance Theatre of Harlem for a brief period in 1995, and currently, when he is not performing with Pennsylvania Ballet, he tours with Dwight Rhoden’s company, Complexions.
The recipient of a 1995 PA Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant for Choreography, Mr. Rainey has been commissioned to create works for Pennsylvania Ballet, Delaware Ballet, Phrenic New Ballet, and Philadanco for its 25th anniversary celebration.
Nicholas Leichter received a BA in dance from Connecticut College
where he studied with Jacylnn Villamil and Martha Myers. He was a member of Ralph
Lemon Company from 1993–1995, and has performed with the companies of Jennifer
Muller, Ronald K. Brown, and Gus Solomons jr.
Sought after for his teaching abilities almost as much as his choreographic talent,
Leichter has taught throughout the United States, at festivals in Eastern and Western
Europe, Asia, and Canada, and he has been on faculty at Tisch School of the Arts and
the American Dance Festival, in Durham, New York, Russia, Korea, and most recently
Shanghai.
Leichter has created over 25 works for his own company, including commissioned
works Free the Angels (for VCU), Undertow (for In The Company Of Men), Carmina
Burana and Rite of Spring (for the Brooklyn Philharmonic), and Sweetwash with Eisa
Davis (for The Duncan Theatre at Palm Beach Community College). Leichter has also
been commissioned to create works for others, most recently for students at
Connecticut College, Wayne State in MI, and Pomona College in CA.
Leichter has an
eclectic approach to movement and a hybrid style that fuses traditional and
contemporary forms in surprising and subversive ways that are always fun to watch.
In recognition of Leichter’s approach to contemporary dance, he has received support
from TIAA-CREF, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, New York Foundation for the
Arts (two BUILD Grants and two Choreography Fellowships), Jerome Foundation, The
Greenwall Foundation, Pentacle’s HelpDesk, Dance/USA and the NEA as part of the
National College Choreographic Initiative, The 92nd Street Y New Works in Dance
Fund, The Joyce Theater Foundation, New York City, with major support from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Jocelyn Hrzic is a graduate from Point Park University with a B.A. in dance. She danced/directed for Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Carribean. She also danced with Maxine Sherman's Company and Theatre West Virginia. She danced on full Scholarship at Steps on Broadway in New York City.
Joci teaches master classes for Penn State University and Point Park University, as well as set choreography. She started The Gala Weekend performance at Grier School with guest teachers A.C Ciulla, Mia Price,Tracie Stanfield, Paul Abramhamson, and Chio Yamada. She just started her own professional dance company called "Fluidity".
Joci has been artistic director for the Grier Summer Program the last two years as well as teaching at Point Park's international summer dance workshop and Allegheny Ballet's Summer workshop. She has studied with Mia Micheals, Joe Lanteri, Dwight Rhoden, Wade Robson, Val Suarez, Max Stone, Tyce Diorio, Jason Parsons, as well as many others.
Monica Bill Barnes is a New York based choreographer and performer. She has created twelve evening-length dance works, numerous site-specific events and several cabaret numbers for her company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company.
Since moving to New York from her native California in 1995, Barnes choreography has been produced in over twenty venues in New York City including Danspace Project, Symphony Space, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Dancenow/NYC/The Festival, Movement Research at the Judson Church and La Mama.
Her work has been presented in 30 cities throughout the United States and abroad, including The International Fabbrica for Choreographers (Florence, Italy), The Fourth International Dance and Movement Festival on the Volga (Yaroslav, Russia), Tanz Festival (Karlsruhe, Germany), Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego, CA), DancePlace (Washington, D.C.) and The Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Larry Singer is one of the leading acting teachers of his generation. It is with 20 years of teaching experience that Larry established the Larry Singer Studios in 2006, where he continues the rich traditions of Actors' Training, while exploring new methods to support every actor's endeavor to prosper as an artist.
Along with conducting his three professional studio classes, Larry is currently a faculty member of the MFA School of the Arts Theatre Program at Columbia University (since 2002). Larry has taught and/or directed at New York University(1992-96, 2007) as part of CAP 21, of which he is a founding board member, AADA (1988-91), AMDA(1990-95) and three ongoing professional classes at The Michael Howard Studios(1989-2006), where he served as Associate Director for 10 years. There, as well as being the core acting teacher for the Conservatories, he also served as the first Summer Conservatory Director and launched a One-Year Conservatory program designed to develop the actor's artistic process as well as provide career training.
In 2006 he was a recipient of the Meritorious Service Award for his contributions to peace through culture and education.
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