25.01.2023 Views

Dance Makers 2023 Program

This year, “Dance Makers” features new, imaginative dance pieces created by nationally acclaimed contemporary choreographers. Their eclectic STORIES will be embodied by our fierce and versatile dancers. “Dance Makers” promises to be a season favorite by highlighting a range of works from the aesthetics of jazz dance performed to Miles Davis and syncopated, athletic Afro-Cuban movement, to more dramatic solo and duet works. The featured artists include Gilliane Hadely (Orlando, FL), Lisa del Rosario (Austin, TX), Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez (Miami, FL), and Tania Vergara Perez (Sarasota, FL).

This year, “Dance Makers” features new, imaginative dance pieces created by nationally acclaimed contemporary choreographers. Their eclectic STORIES will be embodied by our fierce and versatile dancers. “Dance Makers” promises to be a season favorite by highlighting a range of works from the aesthetics of jazz dance performed to Miles Davis and syncopated, athletic Afro-Cuban movement, to more dramatic solo and duet works. The featured artists include Gilliane Hadely (Orlando, FL), Lisa del Rosario (Austin, TX), Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez (Miami, FL), and Tania Vergara Perez (Sarasota, FL).

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

and Cassidy Noblett and the New York City Rockettes. Ms Cristina has performed<br />

in multiple productions of the “Tales of Hoffman” with The Palm Beach Opera in<br />

(2014). This year is Ms.Cristina’s Fourth season with the Sarasota Contemporary<br />

<strong>Dance</strong> company; she has recently been promoted to “Development Associate”<br />

where she manages/refines all SCD Donor events and relationships.<br />

Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers (Founding<br />

Company Member/Associate Director of SCDE) was<br />

nominated for Best Female <strong>Dance</strong>r in Australia in 2009,<br />

has performed throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, and<br />

the United States with Australian <strong>Dance</strong> Theater and<br />

Cloudgate 2. Previously Assistant Professor at the Taipei<br />

National University of Arts, she has danced with and<br />

choreographed for Sarasota Contemporary <strong>Dance</strong> since<br />

2012. In 2013, Xiao-Xuan co-choreographed Dreamfall featuring music by NOW<br />

Ensemble with Leymis Bolaños Wilmott. She has also danced as a soloist in Leymis’<br />

Summer Days, of which the Sarasota Herald-Tribune wrote, “With…Dancigers’<br />

total ownership of the characterization, it was stunning.” She was also a soloist in<br />

Gerri Houlihan’s Every Little Movement, of which the Bradenton Herald wrote,<br />

“A highlight on opening night was the long and unspeakably gorgeous solo<br />

by Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers. If you appreciate dance at all, you find yourself<br />

wishing the solo would never end.” In 2017, she choreographed and performed<br />

the solo Signal for New Music New College to music by Luciano Berio, with the<br />

Herald-Tribune calling the performance “stunning...precise”. Xuan is also the<br />

dance instructor at Parkinson’s Place in Sarasota, and Associate Director of Sarasota<br />

Contemporary <strong>Dance</strong> Ensemble.<br />

Monessa Salley (<strong>Dance</strong>r/Production Lead) South<br />

Carolina native, Monessa Salley, is in her 4th season<br />

dancing, teaching professionally, and currently serving<br />

as Production Lead with Sarasota Contemporary <strong>Dance</strong><br />

Company. She is also an adjunct dance educator for<br />

the Booker High School <strong>Dance</strong> Dept. and serves as a<br />

teaching artist for several arts organizations including,<br />

The Van Wezel Performing Art Center (Artworks<br />

Anywhere), Wholehearted Education, Suncoast Black<br />

Arts Collaborative, and assistant choreographer for West Coast Black Theater<br />

Troupe. She holds a B.A. in <strong>Dance</strong> Performance from Winthrop University and an<br />

M.Ed. in Divergent Learning from Columbia College. After continued education and<br />

serving as a certified dance educator for 12 years in SC, she went on to pursue her<br />

MFA in <strong>Dance</strong> Performance and New Media at New York University’s Tisch School of<br />

Arts. She has previously toured and performed professionally with Sapphire Moon<br />

<strong>Dance</strong> Company, Vibrations <strong>Dance</strong> Company, T.O. <strong>Dance</strong> Inc., The Power Company<br />

Collaborative, and NYU’s Second Avenue <strong>Dance</strong> Company. Salley enjoys sharing<br />

the joy and passion of dance with all ages. She has a mind, body, spirit approach<br />

to dance and relishes in refining her craft as a performer and teacher, generating<br />

health, healing, and happiness through dance, and enhancing community relations.<br />

7

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!