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Cristian
Amigo, 2000
is a composer,
producer, guitarist, and ethnomusicologist. His areas of interest include
music technologies (new media), world music, and popular music (soul,
electronics, abstract, and jazz). Cristian has composed and produced music
for film, theater, radio, and television. His music has been featured
in films screened at both the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and the 1998
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival. He was a 1999 Film
Composition Fellow at the Sundance Institute's Film Composers Labs, and
recently, he participated in the 2000 A.S.K. Theater Projects/Nautilus
Music Theater Playwright-Composer Studio where he composed theatrical-musical
works. He has studied Hindustani music with Harihar Rao and jazz with
Kenny Burrell, and is currently studying composition with Wadada Leo Smith.
He performs and records in Los Angeles with David Ornette Cherry's free
jazz/funk/world music Impressions of Energy ensemble and Guinean master
guitarist Abdullai Diabete. He has worked as a session guitarist with
Cheick-Tidiane Seck, Hans Zimmer, Narada Michael Walden, Mark Mancina,
Les Hooper and others.
 Josefina
Baez, 2000
(La Romana,
Dominican Republic) performer, writer, educator. She is the founder and
director of Latinarte, an art troupe that promotes the arts, artists,
and culture, latina in general, Dominican in particular (theatre, visual
arts, literature, music and dance). Her work is highly subjective, multidisciplinary
in context and intercultural in scope. She has participated in many theatre
festivals and workshops in Europe, Latin America and Asia. A prolific
writer, her works have been published in Forward Motion magazine, Brujula/Compass,
Ventana Abierta, Tertuliando/Hanging Out and include books such as In
Dominicanish and Telele, telele, telele among others. She is a staff member
of CAL (Creative Arts Laboratory) at Teachers College/Columbia University.
Susan
Bauer, 1997
Currently an M.F.A. candidate in the Department of World Arts and Cultures
at UCLA with a particular interest in ethnology and anthropology, Susan
Bauer also holds a master’s degree in dance and movement from Wesleyan
University. A choreographer and dance educator who has taught at the secondary
and college levels for the last twelve years, her choreographic works
include collaborations with artists from America, Japan, India, and Indonesia.
Most recently, she has studied classical dance and mask-making in Bali.
There she collaborated with Asian and American artists on experimental
contemporary topeng (masked) performance. In 1997, at UCLA, she studied
with Victoria Marks and with Sardono Kusumo, visiting artist from Java.
Eve Beglarian,
1996, 1997
A composer, performer, and audio producer whose work has been performed
in the United States, Europe, Mexico, South America, Asia and the Baltic
States, Ms. Beglarian has worked extensively with dancers, from ballet
to post-modern movement art. Her chamber music has been commissioned and
performed by the California EAR Unit, Rel‰che, and the Paul Dresher Ensemble,
among others. And her experience in music theater includes collaborations
with Shi-Zheng Chen (with the China National Beijing Opera Theater) and
Terry O'Reilly (with Mabou Mines). Twisted Tutu, her performing duo with
keyboard player Kathleen SupovŽ, blends high technology with theater.
In addition to her composing and performing work, she directs and produces
audiobooks of authors including Stephen King and Anne Rice for Random
House and Viking Penguin.
Michelle Berne
, 1999
relocated to the West Coast in 1987 from New York City and her artistic
path was transformed. Since that time she has collaborated with communities
on the design and creation of large-scale public celebrations and festivals,
incorporating a range of performing and visual arts elements - giant puppets,
people-powered floats, banners, masks, costumes, music, choreography and
pageantry. As a multi-media, interdisciplinary artist, she creates larger
than life paper mache puppets, serves as a facilitator for a community's
vision, and advocates the role of the arts in everyday life. She also
teaches community workshops and conducts residencies in the schools about
the elements of celebration arts and the role of festivals in the life
of the community. During the past four years she has designed, built and
produced close to 50 festivals and celebrations, taught numerous residencies
throughout the greater Los Angeles area, and created specially commissioned
giant puppets for such organizations as the Getty Museum, Culture Clash,
and the South Coast Repertory Theatre, and for events such as the Dia
de San Juan Festival, Yiddishkayt Festival and the annual City of Santa
Monica Earth Day Festival.
Anthony Brown,
1997
A seminal figure in the development of Asian American jazz, Anthony
Brown is a percussionist, composer, and ethnomusicologist. He has received
numerous commissions and his work has been featured in films, dance pieces,
and theatrical works. Dr. Brown has performed, recorded, and published
extensively. He served as curator of American musical culture and director
of the Jazz Oral History Program at the Smithsonian Institution from 1992
to1996. Dr. Brown holds a master of music degree in jazz performance as
well as an M.A. and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley. His other
research interests include the classical and folk music of Japan, India,
and Indonesia, and the interculturation of African and Native American
music. Dr. Brown has been the recipient of grants and awards from the
Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lila Wallace—Reader’s
Digest Fund, Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, the
Asian Heritage Council, and the MacDowell Colony, among others. Among
the artists with whom he has collaborated are Max Roach, Cecil Taylor,
Zakir Hussain, Anthony Davis, and the San Francisco Symphony.
Shi-Zheng Chen,
1996, 1997
(APPEX I) Born in Hunan, Mr. Chen is a singer, actor, choreographer
and director, who worked as a leading traditional opera actor performing
throughout China. Since moving to the United States in 1987, he has appeared
as a principal in Meredith Monk’s ‘Atlas’ and ‘American
Archaeology--Roosevelt Island’. A featured vocalist of the Tan Dun
ritual opera ‘Nine Songs,’ he recently performed for the Munich
Opera’s world premiere of ‘Marco Polo’ and has been a featured
solo vocalist at Lincoln Center and major festivals throughout the world.
As a choreographer, Mr Chen worked with the New York City Opera’s
‘Turandot’ (1991-96) and Ping Chong’s ‘Chinoiserie’
for BAM. And his directing credits include: A ‘Small Delegation’
for the China Youth Art Theater, ‘Kindness’ at the Center for
Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, and the ‘Bacchae’ with the China
National Beijing Opera Company. Mr. Chen is currently teaching performance
acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Maria Cheng,
1997
A choreographer, dancer, playwright, actress, and master teacher, Maria
Cheng, was born in China. Ms. Cheng is director of dance at the University
of Minnesota. She has been awarded four National Endowment for the Arts
choreographer's fellowships, as well as grants from the Rockefeller, Jerome,
Harkness, and McKnight foundations. Ms. Cheng was featured in Robert Wilson’s
The Knee Plays, and has toured internationally with her critically
acclaimed solo concerts, Antecedents and Awsommn! She has
received dance commissions from Dance Theater Workshop, Jacob’s Pillow,
and the Walker Arts Center and has had original plays commissioned by
Red Eye, Mixed Blood, and Theatre Mu. At the Guthrie Theater, she has
choreographed theatrical productions directed by Liviu Ciulei, Michael
Kahn, and Stan Wodjewoski. Ms. Cheng also serves on several panels and
participates in numerous festivals, including Jacob's Pillow, the Indonesian
Dance Festival, and the Internationales Tanzfestival Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Dan Chumley,
1996
is a director, actor, comedian, and teacher. He has worked with the San
Francisco Mime troupe since 1967, and has been its principal director
for the last fifteen years. Dan and the Mime Troupe have presented their
'serious comedies' to local audiences in the San Francisco area, as well
as to international audiences in Europe, Central America, Canada and the
Middle East. In addition to his work with the Mime Troupe, he has collaborated
on several international productions, including 'Big Wind', which included
performers from six Asian countries. During the past decade he has developed
a workshop in Comedia D'ell Arte that is specifically geared to train
animators, and has worked for, among others: Disney, Lucas, and Dreamworks.
He has taught residencies at universities and high schools and recently
began working with 'at risk youth' in and around San Francisco. He has
been guest director at the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival creating
a country western '12th Night' and an 'As You Like It' in Kathakali style.
 Uttara
Asha Coorlawala, 1999
born in Hyderabad, India, holds a Ph.D. in Choreography & Performance
from New York University and A.B. in Theatre with Dance from Smith College,
Massachusetts. She teaches Dance Technique, World Dance History and Issues
in Intercultural Dance at Long Island University. She serves as the editor
for the Newsletter of the Congress of Research in Dance, and is a member
of the Editorial Board for Dance Research Journal. A regular correspondent
for Sruti (India's leading magazine for Music and Dance) she participates
in or covers intercultural and Asian-American dance events. Her articles
have been published in Dance Chronicle, Dance Research Journal, Sangeet
Natak Akademi Journal and included in anthologies on Indian and intercultural
dance. As a dancer-choreographer, Coorlawala pioneered what is now a growing
trend on the Indian dance scene towards innovation. Her choreographic
style and performances brought her three disciplines, modern dance, Bharata
Natyam and yoga to the dance stage. She has danced throughout India, Europe
and the United States and as a designated cultural representative of India.
She has participated in recent intercultural and Indian dance events as
consultant and mentor.
 Daniel
Diaz (Oseiku), 2000
has been
a professional musician for more than 30 years and has performed and/or
recorded with artists such as Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, Nona Hendryx,
Carols Santana, Joe Cocker, Urban Bush Women, Chuck Davis Dance Company,
the Alvin Ailey School, Forces of Nature and the International Afrikan-American
Ballet among many others. In most recent years, he has been involved in
a number of projects that focused on multi-cultural and multidisciplinary
work. He has been active in a video documentary "Conguero!"
which documents the lives of these talented musicians. In addition, he
was the director of Miami X Change, a project that brought together Haitian
and African American artists with students and community groups to use
arts and culture as a means of promoting understanding.
Paul Dresher,
1996, 1997
is a composer and musician who is noted for his ability to integrate diverse
musical influences into his own personal style. He works on many forms
of musical expressions including opera, musical theater, chamber and orchestral
formats. Paul is highly regarded for his live instrumental and electro-acoustic
chamber music performances, touring both nationally and internationally.
Paul has also written scores for theater, dance and film and is a frequent
collaborator with modern dancers, performance and visual artists such
as Margaret Jenkins and Rinde Eckert. Paul has had a lifelong interest
in the music of many cultures which has led to the study of Hindustani
music with Nikhil Banerjee and Ghanaian drumming with C.K. and Kobla Ladzekpo
amongst others.
 Kenny
Endo, 1997, 1999
is an internationally known taiko (Japanese drum) performing artist
and leader in the field of utilizing the traditional taiko in innovative
jazz/fusion settings. A native of Los Angeles, Kenny began early training
in western drums and percussion for performance with classical, jazz,
and rock musicians. In 1975, he began working with the San Francisco Taiko
Dojo and in 1980 embarked on a decade long odyssey in Japan studying with
the masters in classical, festival, and group drumming. He is the first
non-Japanese national to be honored with a "natori," stage name and master's
degree in classical Japanese drumming called "Hogaku Hayashi." Kenny has
appeared on audio and video recordings, television, film soundtracks,
and commercials. He has performed with such artists as legendary jazz
drummer Art Blakey, Latin percussionist Airto Moreira, taiko artist Hayashi
Eitetsu, jazz musicians John Kaizan Neptune (shakuhachi, flute), Paul
Jackson (bass), tsugaru shamisen artist Sato Michihiro. Transcending cultural,
gender, and age barriers, Kenny's original compositions have been well-received
by audiences throughout the world including the USA, Japan, Canada, England,
Belgium, Egypt, Australia, and the former USSR. He works as a soloist,
in ensembles, and in collaborations with artists of various genres. He
leads three ensembles, based in Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Tokyo and is
actively sought after for workshops by universities and taiko groups across
the nation. He recently completed a month long residency with the Lincoln
Center Institute in New York, a residency with the Children's Theatre
Company of Minneapolis composing music for the touring play "Folktales
of Japan," a collaboration with a Beijing opera singer, Korean Pansori
singer, and Noh actor, and concerts in Canada, Washington D.C. (Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Smithsonian Institute),
New York, and Los Angeles. In June 1999, Kenny's ensemble will tour Germany
and in 2000, performances are scheduled for the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis),
Vermont, Michigan, Washington, Stanford, New York, Paris, Berlin, and
more. He maintains a busy performing schedule while also acting as Artistic
Director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific, a school of traditional Japanese
drumming based in Honolulu. He has also been named Principal Instructor
of Japanese Percussion at the Japanese Music Institute based outside of
Sacramento, California.
Miriam Gerberg, 2000
is a composer,
ethnomusicologist and performer. Her work with world musics includes a
specialty in Moroccan and Syrian Jewish musics, in addition to classical
Arabic music, Japanese koto and Javanese gamelan. As a composer, she has
been commissioned to write works for chamber orchestra, improvisational
ensembles, opera, music theater, chamber instrumental & vocal, dance
and video. Her compositions have been performed across the U.S. and in
Israel, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and Sumatra, and she has performed
original collaborative music/dance works with choreographer John Munger
in the duo Footloose in Motley since 1992. In recognition of her composing
works, she has received numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including
Eli Wiesel Award for Jewish Culture and Arts (twice) and Brooklyn Opera
Theater's Chamber Opera Award among many others. She has studied with
many master artists as well as earned a composition degree from Crane
School of Music, and MA in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University and
trained as an American Sign Language Interpreter. Currently based in Los
Angeles, in addition to her compositional and performing work, she is
Director of Outreach for the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA.
 Danongan
"Danny" Kalanduyan, 2000
was the first
Filipino to receive the National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National
Endowment for the Arts, in recognition of his devoted teaching and performing
Magindanaon kulintang in the United States for the past twenty-three years.
He comes from a musically inclined family in Cotabato, Island of Mindanao.
He solidified the kulintang aspect of the Mindanao State Dance Troupe
in their tour of Asia in 1971. After receiving his MFA in Ethnomusicology
from the University of Washington in 1984, he taught at the University
for eight years and then began to take music into the community, schools
and universities through twelve years of teaching and performing. He has
received grants from the John D. Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment
for Folk Arts, California Arts Council, and Henry Luce Foundation. He
currently resides in the Northern California Bay Area.
 Roko
Kawai, 2000
is a dancer,
choreographer and educator, born in Tokyo and now living in Philadelphia.
She studied traditional Japanese dance and Bharata Natyam while majoring
in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has collaborated
extensively, including working with Helen Todd of New Zealand, jazz masters
Reggie Workman and Oliver Lake, stage designer Hiroshi Iwasaki, musicians
Toshi Makihara and David Forlano. One of her most transforming collaborations
has been with HipHop dancer/choreographer Rennie Harris. Her current works
explore abstract narratives about our relationship to place, migration,
rootedness and boundaries. She is interested in tradition and innovation
and the dialogue between the two. In January 2000, she returned to her
study of traditional Japanese dance while continuing her investigation
of improvising and scoring.
 C.
Jason Koontz, 1999
is currently a teaching assistant with the world music center at West
Virginia University, working towards a doctorate degree in world music
performance. His duties at WVU include teaching the steel band, taiko,
and Indian ensembles, as well as teaching undergraduate lessons in western
percussion. He received his B.M.A. from Eastern Kentucky University in
Richmond, Kentucky, and his M.A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Jason has engaged in active research in both West Africa and India and
performs with Indian musicians, as well as play Indian music on the steel
drum for the fusion group Global Rhythms. He has a strong interest in
the North Indian tabla, and has studied with Srinivas Krishnan from Bombay,
and most recently with Pandit Sharda Sahai from Benares. He continues
to study the tabla and is planning a return visit to India in December
1999. In addition, he is also studying Balinese gamelan with Made Hood,
and performs frequently with the WVU African Drum and Dance Ensemble under
the direction of Dr. Paschal Yao Younge, a native of Ghana.
Dan Kwong, 1999
is a Los Angeles-based performance artist. Drawing from his own struggles
and discoveries as a Chinese-Japanese-American male, he explores the personal,
the historical, the social and the unspeakable through performances that
intertwine monologue with athletics, multi-media, dance, martial arts,
music, and a generous sense of humor. Touring extensively since 1990,
he has performed at venues all across the United States and in London
and Mexico City. He is recipient of numerous fellowships recognizing his
excellence in performance art from the National Endowment for the Arts,
Rockefeller Foundation, Art Matters Inc., Brody Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace,
and Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and was nominated for the
Alpert Award in the Arts. He is founder and curator of "Treasure
in the House", L.A.'s first Asian Pacific American performance and
visual art series presented annually at Highways Performance Space in
Santa Monica. He has been Technical Consultant for Highways since their
inception in May of 1989 and serves on the Board of Directors for the
18th Street Arts Complex and Highways. A native Angeleno and graduate
of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he has also studied judo,
tai chi chu'an, aikido and iaido. In his spare time he can usually be
found at the local bowling alley, trying to have a life.
 Eva
Lee, 1999
originally from New England, moved to the islands in 1976 and received
her B.A. degree in Drama and Dance from the University of Hawaii. Before
settling on the Big Island, she worked as an administrator, performer
and choreographer for Honolulu-based companies. For the past 12 years,
she has produced her own work for audiences in Hawaii, China, New York,
Canada and Spain. Eva has been a featured artist on cultural programs
aired on PBS, ABC, CBS, and China's National Television networks. She
has received wide recognition for her performing and choreographic achievements
from many internationally renown individuals in dance, drama, music, art
and literary communities. She has received numerous Hawaii State Dance
Council Choreographic awards since 1978 as well as a Fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Arts in 1993. Her choreographic works have
been commissioned by Shanghai Ballet, Beijing Ballet, Kunming Opera, and
Dance China. Eva often collaborates with visual artists who are strongly
committed to the action in social, cultural and natural expressions in
the arts. She is director of the Choreographers' Hui and a recipient of
the 1996 Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Individual Artist
Fellowship. She is presently developing programming in the arts for the
Volcano community and guest artists.
David Lefkowitz,
1996
is a composer and musician. He studied with such notables as Samuel Adler,
Pulitzer Prize winners George Crumb, and Karel Husa. Before coming to
UCLA, he taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Eastman School
of Music. In 1993, he was a composer-in-residence at the Honeoye Central
School, New York, under the auspices of the 'Meet the Composer' program.
His works have been performed throughout the United States as well as
in Japan and the Netherlands. His numerous awards include an ASCAP Foundation
Grant to Young Composers(1993) for Autumn Flowering, first prize in the
Fukui International Harp Music Award (1992) for Calder's Closet, and the
"Special Prize" for best harpist/composer collaborative team
in the second Fukui International Harp Music Awards Competition (1995)
for Ancient Rituals, Distant Landscapes. A Japanese label CD of Calder's
Closet was released in 1993.
Angelia Leung,
1997
A choreographer and dancer who is a founding member of Chopsticks &
Sneakers, a collective of Asian and Asian American choreographers, Angelia
Leung has also earned a B.A. in psychology, a B.S. in education, and an
M.A. in dance. She is currently an associate professor in the Department
of World Arts and Cultures, for which, beginning in the fall of 1997,
she will serve as vice chair. Born in China, Ms. Leung has taught internationally
and has presented her works throughout the United States and in Canada,
Mexico, Taiwan, Scotland, and Finland. Her particular fields of interest
include improvisation, choreography, movement analysis, fundamentals and
technique, dance education, and production management.
Liu Qi-Chao,
1997
Trained in both traditional Chinese and Western music at the Shanghai
Conservatory, Liu Qi-Chao is a composer, performer, scholar, teacher,
and a founding member of the Pacific Zheng Ensemble and of Chi Music.
Mr. Liu has served as resident composer for the renowned Beijing Oriental
Song and Dance Ensemble, and is best known for his composition of the
score for the theatrical adaptation of The Woman Warrior. He is
currently working on a collaborative piece for a production titled Traditions
in Transformation, commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation. A virtuoso
performer, he has performed with the Kronos Quartet, Jon Jang, and Anthony
Brown, at venues including the Scotland Early Music Festival, the Royal
Albert Hall, and at the Chicago Jazz Festival. In addition, Mr. Liu has
authored several books on Chinese music and lectured extensively throughout
the U.S.
Victoria Marks,
1996, 1997
(APPEX I) A choreographer and educator, whose works have been performed
throughout the USA and Europe, she is currently Assistant Professor of
Choreography in the UCLA World Arts and Cultures Department. Prior to
Los Angeles, she lived in the U.K., where for over three years she worked
as an independent choreographer and as director for the choreography program
at the London Contemporary Dance School. Whether creating dance for the
stage or for film, in community settings or for professionals, Ms. Marks
is a "portrait artist" who develops the unique character of
the individuals or groups she works. A recipient of grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts and other state and private foundations, she received
a Fulbright Fellowship in choreography, and numerous awards for her dance
films, which have aired on the BBC in the U.K. and throughout Europe.
 Carol
Lyn McDowell, 1999
was born in San Francisco and raised in cities across the United States.
She began her dance studies with Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin in Hawaii,
graduated from Bennington College with a double major in Choreography
and Theater Design in 1979, and moved to New York City. She was a member
of Kei Takei's Moving Earth, touring Europe and Israel as both a performer
and lighting designer, and in 1983 she began an important relationship
with performance artist Tim Miller. For the next three years she performed
with Tim in productions at The Kitchen, The Next Wave Festival (Brooklyn
Academy of Music) and tours to the Kai Theater Festival (Belgium), Colorado
Dance Festival, California and Canada. She has also performed with the
improvisation-based dance companies of Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chuma, Yvonne
Meier, and New York Butoh dancer Poppo, and created the role of Jan in
Karen Finley's work The Theory of Total Blame. Together with Diane Butler,
Barbara Dilley, and Polly Motley, Carol is a founding member of the Mariposa
Dance Collective in Boulder, Colorado. Her choreographic works have been
presented in Boulder, Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Hawaii, Houston, Austria and Germany. In 1985 she received a New York
Dance and Performance Award (BESSIE) for her "architecture of light"
in John Bernd's Be Good to Me. From 1992 - 98 she was a faculty member
of the InterArts Department, The Naropa Institute, in Boulder, Colorado
and also served as the Director of the Performing Arts Center at the Naropa
Institute. Currently she is in her first year of the M.F.A./Choreography
Program in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA.
Treva Offutt,
1996, 1997
(APPEX I) Originally from Cleveland, Ms. Offutt is a dancer, singer,
actress and visual artist who for the past five years has been a member
of Urban Bush Women touring extensively internationally. She has a B.F.A.
from Rhode Island School of Design in illustration and animation, and
has taught mask-making, mural and performance workshops around the country.
Community arts interaction has led her to begin developing a workshop
based on visual, vocal and movement techniques. Currently she performs
and does vocal arranging for the group Ancient Vibrations, which brings
together musicians, singers and dancers who perform sacred and traditional
songs from Jamaica. Her travels have allowed her to study vocal, theater
and dance techniques with professionals from many cultures.
 Joan
Pangilinan-Taylor, 1999
is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She graduated Magna Cum laude
from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in
Modern Dance. She is a member of Hedwig Dances Performance Company, a
company in residence at the Chicago Cultural Center, and has danced with
Jubilee African American Dance Ensemble and Contemporary Dance Fort Worth.
Joan has worked with the Asian Council for People's Culture (ACPC) and
U Theater of Taiwan as a resident artist, program coordinator and workshop
facilitator. She has performed and studied with community theater arts
companies in the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea, and
has also worked with several indigenous groups in the Philippines, including
the Manobo community of Arakan Valley, Mindanao where she was a researcher
and guest artist with Kaliwat Theater Collective. She has presented her
choreography at the International Dance Festival (the Philippines), Chicago
Cultural Center, International Open Air Theater Festival (Korea), Mokpo
People's Theater Festival (Korea), and Mindulani Theater Festival (Philippines).
Joan has undergone intensive training in South East Asian martial arts
and ritual dances since 1987 before she moved on to study modern dance
in the United States. In her works, Joan combines her training in Modern
dance and Asian traditional movement to create a multi-cultural dance
expression that crosses the boundaries of Asian traditions and Western
expression.
Snezana Petrovic,
1997
Prior to emigrating from Yugoslavia, Snezana Petrovic worked for over
fifteen years as a highly acclaimed set and costume designer in theater,
film and video. Today, she is a video artist and designer, performance
artist, costume and set designer, and scenographer. Several of her video
art works have been exhibited and she also pursues her interests and skills
in making props and puppets, painting, and video production and editing.
Having received a B.A. from the Academy of Fine Arts from Belgrade University,
and an M.F.A. from UC Irvine, Ms. Petrovic has taught costume and set
design at California State University, Los Angeles.
 Thomas
Riccio, 1999
is Associate Professor and Chair of the Theatre Department at the
University of Alaska-Fairbanks and is the producer of Tuma Theatre, an
Alaska Native performance group. Since coming to Alaska in 1988, his work
as a stage director and creator has been devoted to the exploration and
documentation of indigenous performance. Performance projects have included
work with the Zulu in South Africa; a nationally touring, inter-tribal
project in Zambia; a project with the Sakha National Theatre of central
Siberia; and work in St. Petersburg, Russia with a group devoted to pre-Christian,
Slavic rituals. Thomas has conducted workshops with professional, university,
and community groups around the world. He was a visiting professor at
the Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul where he developed
a collaboratively evolved piece based on traditional Korean mask and Pansori
performance. In addition to his performance work he has extensively documented
the traditional performance and rituals of the cultural groups he has
worked with. Prior to his appointment at the University of Alaska, he
was the Artistic Director of the Organic Theater in Chicago, a major off-loop
theatre, and has served as the resident director and dramaturg for the
Cleveland Play House. He is the author of several plays and adaptations,
and has published articles in TDR, TheatreForum, Theatre Research International,
Theatre Topics, and Shamans Drum. He is currently working on "Performing
Place", a book about his indigenous and intercultural performance
work. Thomas is the director of Litooma, a network of international performing
artists dedicated to the exploration and development of intercultural
and indigenous performance expression. He received his M.F.A. from Boston
University and did further study at New York University's Performance
Studies program. For more info: www.uaf.alaska.edu/theatre/litooma
 Paulina
Sahagœn, 1999
is a theater artist, director, dancer and educator who has performed
on both sides of the Mexico/U.S. border. Her theatrical career encompasses
the independent Mexican and Chicano Theater movements, working and performing
with Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino. She has worked extensively with
the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas as a director
and actress. In 1998 she was awarded the Gateways Initiative for the creation
of a new interdisciplinary bi-national theatrical production. Paulina
has performed and/or collaborated with Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Harry Gamboa
and the late Reza Abdoh. Presently she is a member of Great Leap, a performing
arts company, touring the Los Angeles Unified School District, and universities
and colleges across the country. She has developed educational programs
for at-risk youth at the Mark Taper Forum and the Los Angeles Theater
Center. Paulina received her B.A. in the Department of World Arts and
Cultures, and is a graduate of the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theater
and has studied with the Commedia Dell'Arte Master, Carlo Mazzone Clemente.
She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. degree in the Department of World
Arts and Cultures at UCLA.
 Lenny
Seidman, 1999
found his calling to music in his mid-twenties. After studying classical
and jazz piano for five years, he discovered the tabla which has remained
at the core of his music-making. Since then he expanded his focus to include
the study and performance of analogue electronic music as well as South
Indian classical music. He founded and served as artistic director for
several ensembles, including Lotus, the Shamanistics, and the Splinter
Group, a dance/percussion ensemble. He has worked and performed with Zakir
Hussain, Simon Shaheen, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Michael Daugherty,
Jamaaladeen Tacuma, John Blake, among others. In 1979, Lenny became the
resident composer/musician with Group Motion Dance Company which toured
Germany and the United States, and has worked with numerous independent
choreographers in Canada, Finland and throughout the U.S. He is presently
co-director of Spoken Hand, a 16-member traditional hand drumming orchestra
comprised of four batteries: Afro-Cuban bata, Brazilian samba, West African
djembe and North Indian tabla. Lenny continues to perform with Atzilut,
an eight-piece Jewish music ensemble rooted in Middle Eastern and Balkan
modes and rhythms. He teaches tabla and rhythm theory and has presented
lecture/demonstrations at Oberlin College, Berklee College of Music, Temple
University, Haverford College and the University of the Arts. He is currently
artist-in-residence at Swarthmore College and since 1986 has been the
music curator for the Painted Bride Art Center (Philadelphia) coordinating
over 200 concerts and residencies of jazz, world and new music, many of
which focused on the bridging of cultures and educational outreach.
Karen Shimakawa,
1999
is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance and Asian American Studies
at the University of California at Davis. Her research focuses on Asian
American performance/media studies, Asian American cultural politics,
cultural transnationalism and critical race theory. She received her Ph.D.
in English Literature from the University of Washington in Seattle, and
a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law. Publications include "'Who's
to Say?' Or, Making Space for Gender and Ethnicity in David Henry Hwang's
M. Butterfly" and "Fake Intimacy: Locating National Subjectivity
in Dennis O'Rourke's The Good Woman of Bangkok". She is currently
completing manuscripts for two books: 'made, not born': National Abjection
and the Asian American Body on Stage (a book-length study of Asian American
cultural politics in performance) and Orientations: Mapping Studies in
the Asian Diaspora (an anthology co-edited with Kandice Chuh focusing
on the institutional and political ramifications of historical and contemporary
inter-relations between Asian and Asian American Studies), both forthcoming
from Duke University Press.
 Peter
Tokofsky, 1999
is an Associate Professor in the Folklore and Mythology Program of
the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. He received his B.A.
from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Folklore
and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He has conducted extensive
field research on village celebrations, particularly pre-Lenten carnival,
in southwest Germany. His publications based on this research focus on
how festive occasions provide a vehicle for individual and collective
creativity, social commentary and memory. He has also published on various
aspects of folktales and fairy tales, on folklore theory and history,
and on museum display. Tokofsky is currently a contributing consultant
to "Carnaval!" an exhibition on carnival celebrations around
the world which will show at various museums starting in 2002. He is also
beginning a long-term project documenting family traditions among the
diverse populations of Los Angeles and tracking the ways in which immigrant
groups accommodate their traditions - such as rites of passage and seasonal
celebrations - to changing social, economic and environmental conditions.
 Minh
Tran, 1997, 1999
is a contemporary dance artist who has been working throughout the
West Coast as a choreographer, performer, producer, and educator for over
a decade. He spent his childhood training as a Vietnamese opera performer
at the National School of Fine and Performing Arts in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh
City), Vietnam. Currently an Oregon resident, he received his Master of
Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Washington and is recognized
for his distinct conceptual approach to contemporary dance, as well as
for his broad range of performance work. Minh has received numerous regional
grants, fellowships, and commissions in support of his work including
Oregon's Regional Arts and Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon
Ballet Theatre, Portland State University's Contemporary Dance Season,
San Francisco Performances, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts, Seattle's On The Boards, and the University of Washington. As an
educator, his research is specialized in Southeast Asian dance and culture.
Minh will serve as a guest professor at the University of Washington in
the fall of 1999, where he will teach modern dance, ballet, and World
Dance & Culture.
Ricardo D. Trimillos,
1999, 2000
Facilitator of the APPEX Writers Residency, is Professor of Ethnomusicology
and Chair of Asian Studies at the University of Hawai'i (Honolulu). He
publishes on Hawaiian performance, the musics of East and Southeast Asia,
and Western and Asian musical theatres. His present project examines national,
ethnic, and gender identity; culture ad public policy; and issues of cultural
representation and entitlement. He is committed to making research widely
accessible through film - "Kumu Hula", and "Jewels of the
Islands: Filipino Music" and recorded anthologies "Musics of
Hawai'i". He has written for the Smithsonian Institution and Brooklyn's
651 An Arts Center. He lectures about Asian and Hawaiian culture for community
groups in the U.S., the Philippines, and German-speaking Europe. Trained
as a concert pianist, he currently performs the Japanese koto and musics
of the Philippines. He is music director for University productions of
Japanese kabuki, including "Sukeroku", and Philippine sarsuwela
(operetta) - "Pilipinas circa 1907". His Ph.D. in Music was
completed at UCLA, writing on the Muslim Tausug of the southern Philippines.
He was keynote speaker for the 1997 Inroads/Asia Conference at UCLA. His
great moment in 1999 was having Kenny Endo complete his M.A. thesis and
graduate this May.
Amy Trompetter,
1996, 1997
As a director and scenographer, Ms. Trompetter specializes in visual
theater for outdoor festivals, orchestras, and puppet operas. Thus, her
eighteen years as performer, designer and director for the renowned Bread
and Puppet Theater. A visual creator, she has been described as ‘a
director who constructs actors and designs stage visions’. Having
conducted workshops in Italy, France, Nicaragua, Mexico, Japan and Botswana,
she brings her experience to the World Theater Program at Barnard College
as a faculty member. Past academic positions include Associate Professor
of Theater Design at Bates College and director of the Antioch College
Theater. A world theater program which she instituted included Asian theater
residencies and she also tours her works internationally. Most recently,
she designed and directed a giant puppet opera for the Orchestra of St.
Luke’s Children’s Free Opera and Dance Series as well as having
designed costumes and sets for the 1996 Edinburgh Festival.
Denise
Yuriko Uyehara, 2000
is an interdisciplinary
performance artist, writer and playwright and has been a resident artist
at the 18th Street Arts Complex in Santa Monica. Since 1989, she has been
in engaged in experimental performance, working with various communities
in Los Angeles. Much of her work springs from autobiographical materials
and oral histories of individuals who have impacted her along the way.
She teaches community-based performance and writing workshops for various
communities including Asian women and men, senior citizens, queer populations
and the general public. She has collaborated with several international
artists and has conducted public art investigations which encourage people
to tell their stories. She continues to work in collaboration with groups
of people such as an A.S.K. Theater Group fellow and with ten culturally
diverse artists under the direction of Robbie McCauley to create "The
Other Weapon", a multi-media presentation based on oral histories
from Black Panthers in LA.
Valeria Vasilevski,
1997
A New York-based writer and director of performance works that combine
visual, textual, and musical elements, Valeria Vasilevski has studied
folk performances at village festivals in Japan, and has undertaken extensive
research on performance in Asia and Africa. Ms. Vasilevski has received
numerous awards in recognition of her work, including a Fulbright to study
with Grotowski in Poland. Her piece on intercultural explorations, Song
of Lawino, was an Ugandan epic adapted as an all-women musical theater
piece, and Fire Works featured a classical Chinese music ensemble
playing American country music. Ms. Vasilsevski directed The Watchtower
at Dance Theater Workshop, Insekta with Diamanda Galas at Lincoln
Center, and The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz, which will premiere
in the Netherlands this fall.
 Cheng-Chieh
Yu, 1999, 2000
received her
M.F.A. in Dance from Tisch School of Arts, New York University. Her choreography
has been presented at New York City venues such as Performance Space 122,
LaMaMa Etc., Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, Dance Theater Workshop, Taipei
Theater, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, and Movement Research at Judson
Church. Her performance credits include dancing for Cloud Gate Theater
in Taiwan, The Jose Limon Dance Company in New York City, and The Bebe
Miller Dance Company and the Ralph Lemon Dance Project Geography Part
2. Cheng-Chieh has been the recipient of residencies, grants, and commissions
from the Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency at the Akiyoshidai Art
Village (Japan), Bennington College (Vermont), Movement Research (NYC),
Chinese Information and Cultural Center (NYC) and The Cultural Council
of the Government of Taiwan. She has extensive teaching credits internationally
and in the United States, including the Academy of Performing Arts (Taiwan),
Beijing Dance Academy, and in NYC at Movement Research, The Limon Institute,
New York University and Dance Space.
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