Rider University School of Fine and Performing Arts

Presents

Rider Dances 2021: Negotiating Balance

Premiere: Friday, March 26 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVGyT12Ml6HkAurY1hsnagQ

Director’s Note March 26th, 2021 In my work I often refer to "waves of motion" inside the body, and balance, then, is a constant negotiation. The waves of 2020 turned into a storm. We had a just closed a concert celebrating the energy that unites our dance community, when we were tossed into a cyclone that was incessantly changing directions. Rider Dances 2021: Negotiating Balance is a testament to the creativity and spunk of our entire production/creative team, and the resiliency and energy of an amazing group of students. Not only did they ride the waves, they also grew exponentially, forging new processes and pathways in making and presenting dance. We hope you enjoy the very first, virtual Rider Dances, our response to negotiating balance through a most tempestuous year. Kim Chandler Vaccaro

We could never do it without our amazing Production Team Buck Linton Technical Director, Covie Compliance Master Todd Loyd Lighting Design and Google Driver Tyrone Palmer Scene Shop Foreman Robin Shane Costume Design/ Mask Maker Extraordinaire Yoshi Tanokura Projection and Set Design And incredible students … Sidney Martinez Production Stage Manager Ryan Alger Assistant Stage Manager/Costumes Christa Campisi Assistant Stage Manager Arianna Johns Assistant Stage Manager Bella Puso Social Media and PR Danielle D'Abundo Social Media and PR Josiah Jacoby Crew/Covie-Clean Support Sophie Smith Brody Crew/Covie-Clean Support Casey Curcio Crew/Covie-Clean Support Giuliana Demarinis Crew/Covie-Clean Support Abigale Rajpaul Program Steven Gagliano Fly Op Christine Ruggieri Fly Op Special Thanks Ivan Fuller, Producer, and Chair of the SFPA Theatre and Dance Department; Victoria Grisanzio, Rider '21, Filmmaker, and Consultant who contributes tirelessly to the Dance Program, and Robin Shane, Designer, for tireless matching of masks to the idea.

Program Act I

RELIGHT Choreography: Kim Chandler-Vaccaro, Editor: Alexa Goldblum

Music: Je Raate Mor based on the poetry of Tagore Vocals: Somdatta Pal, Piano: Eli Yamin

Lighting Design: Todd Loyd, Costumes/Masks: Robin Shane Tanisha Anand * Alexa Barreiros * Kylee Czepiel * Danielle D’Abundo *

Julia DeCumber * Jewels Essis * Alexa Goldblum * Josiah Jacoby * Somdatta Pal * Victoria Williams

Act II

FRAGILE CREATIONS Choreography: Jennifer Gladney, Editing: Tiffani Britton

Projection Design: Yoshi Tanokura, Music: Thomas Newman Lighting Design: Todd Loyd, Costumes/Masks: Robin Shane

Tiffani Britton * Cara Buchanan * Iris Courchaine * Danielle D’Abundo * Christina Ficarra * Felicia Garro * Emma Landis * Morgan Nash *

Hannah Wade

Act III ODE TO ELLA

Choreography: Justin Dominic Music: In a Sentimental Mood, Ella Fitzgerald,

Clinical Archives Mix Alexa Barreiros * Kaniah “Keke Browne * Cassie Krick * Michelle Lukach

* Amanda Pescatore * Alayna Rubach * Emily Tubbs * Koy Withers

Music: Boy 1904 by: Jonsi and Alex Somers Choreography: Laney Engelhard Editing/Assistant: Niall Lessard *

Cara Buchanan * Iris Courchaine * Anna Fredeen * Morgan Nash * Aniky Salima * Hannah Wade * Victoria Williams

Act IV

SOUL TRAIN Choreography: John Barrella

Music: We Got Our Own Train by Heavy D, Groove Is In The Heart by Dee-Lite, Koke by Tribe, Entrow by Graham Central Station

Melody Almodovar * Tiffany Britton * Alexa Goldblum * Josiah Jacoby * Melissa Juarez * Victoria Jean Kreutzer * Cassie Krick * Michelle Lukach

* Alayna Rubach

https://thehumanexperience Choreography: Gabriella Boes

Editor: Rebecca Gialanella, Projection Design: Yoshi Tanokura Music: In This Shirt by The Irrepressibles

Lighting Design: Todd Loyd, Costumes/Masks: Robin Shane Christina Ficarra * Anna Fredeen *Melissa Juarez * Victoria Jean

Kreutzer * Emma Landis * Kayla M. Pluto * Marissa Stellato * Emily Tubbs

Act V

KALEIDOSCOPE Choreography: Merli V. Guerra

Music: Magic Pony by YNKE Lighting Design: Todd Loyd, Costumes/Masks: Robin Shane Melody Almodovar * Tanisha Anand * Kaniah “Keke” Browne * Jewels Essis * Somdatta Pal * Amanda Pescatore * Aniky Salima *

Marissa Stellato * Koy Withers

Thank you to the Designers and Choreographers

JOHN "Comix" BARRELLA, Choreographer, is a hip hop/street dance educator, choreographer, and consultant & company director of The Redef Movement,: Artists of Street Dance based in New Jersey since 2007. The main company and affiliated "crews" create pieces that center around hip hop and street styles such as B-boy, Locking, Popping, and choreograph to Hip Hop, Funk, Rock, Soul, Blues among other styles of music. Their choreography has been showcased in artistic & competitive festivals and featured on Tedx, ThemNY Filipino festival, half time shows for the New York Knicks, and Battle of the Boroughs. Currently, John has developed a curriculum and program that trains teachers in hip hop terminology and technique, applying it to class structure. This program, Essentials for Dance Education has been implemented in classrooms around the world and has offered countless teachers a look into his personal method of instruction.

GABRIELLA A. BOES, Choreographer, is based in New Jersey. She graduated from Rider University in 2020 with a BA in Dance Performance. In 2019, she worked with Dr. Kim Chandler-Vaccaro and co-choreographed Moons & Tides for the Rider University Dance and Sustainability Project. In the months that followed, Gabriella presented work with Dr. Kim at the 2020 National Dance Education Organization Conference, in Miami, FL. Gabriella’s goal is to provoke emotion and give her audience a fresh perspective, while using movement that doesn’t just look appealing but feels good for her dancers.

JUSTIN DOMINIC, Choreographer, is a professional dancer, educator, choreographer, and filmmaker. He has trained at the Arts High School, Ailey School, American Ballet Theatre, and Joffrey Ballet School. Justin received a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and went on to perform and tour with several contemporary dance companies - Missa Brevis with the Limon Dance Company, Hard Nut with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Nai Ni Chen Dance Company, LaneCoArts, and Keigwin + Co. In addition, Justin has performed work by George Balanchine, Lar Lubovitch, Janis Brenner, and many more. After finishing his MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Justin continues to fulfill his

passion for teaching as a guest artist and lecturer at high schools and universities. In 2018, he joined Dance Heginbotham and returned as a dancer with the Met Opera Ballet. Justin is most proud to create and produce his first film, Unapologetic Me: BLACK | GAY | MAN.

LANEY ENGELHARD, Choreographer, is as Adjunct professor at Rider University. She danced with American Repertory Ballet under the direction of Graham Lustig for seven seasons and followed Lustig to Lustig Dance Theatre for three more seasons. Engelhard has been a guest artist with Hubbard Street Dance Company II, performed in Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular, and danced with Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance in Asheville, NC. Englehard has set work for Rider Dances for the past 14 years.

JENNIFER GLADNEY, Choreographer, summa cum laude Rider ‘06 is an Adjunct Professor at Rider where she earned a double major in Elementary Education and Dance and a minor in Early Childhood Education. Gladney has been in the faculty at the Princeton Ballet School since 2005 and was a company dancer with the American Repertory Ballet. Gladney is now on the faculty of Martin Center for Dance, and Mercer County Community College, where she directs the annual dance concert. She has been part of Rider Dances since its inception in 2005 and was the first senior honors student to choreograph, Cross Phases, for this event.

MERLI V. GUERRA, Choreographer, is a professional dancer and award-winning interdisciplinary artist with a background in ballet, modern, and classical Odissi Indian dance. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Luminarium Dance Company - an award-winning contemporary company in Boston, MA and a satellite company in Princeton, NJ. She has also performed lead roles with acclaimed companies on tours to Indian (2007, 2012) and Japan (2009). Guerra is a freelance choreographer, filmmaker, writer, and designer whose works have been presented by 80+ events across the U.S., as well as Argentina, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. She is currently a part-time Lecturer and MFA in Dance candidate, at Rutgers University.

BUCK LINTON, Technical Director, has overseen the construction and installation of every production within the Department of Theatre and Dance since the fall of 2012. Through his 70+ productions at Rider, he has mentored students in crafts and skills related to construction, rigging, budget, management, and planning all aspects of scenic production. Recent Rider productions include Bright Star, The Dance and Sustainability Project, Will Rogers Follies, Theory of Relativity, Heathers: The Musical, White Christmas, She Kills Monsters, among many more. Buck has also produced dozens of productions at the Westminster Choir College including il Trionfo, Die Zauberflöte, Pelleas et Melisande, Dialogues des Carmelites, Il re Pastore, La Clemenza di Tito, and Oreste. Other professional works include Sunjata Lamalenya and The Odyssey Experience with the Experiential Theatre CO., Damn Yankees with the Forestburgh Playhouse, and Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto, and Turandot with Opera New Jersey.

TODD LOYD, LIGHTING DESIGNER, is the Lighting Director for Rider University's Department of Theatre and Dance. He designs the lighting for every performance that the Department produces in addition to mentoring the students that assist in designing, hanging, focusing, and programming the lighting for each show. At Rider he designed over 30 productions including plays, musicals, dance concerts, cabarets and operas. Some of the highlights include The Will Rogers Follies, Sophocles, Oklahoma!, The Dance and Sustainability Project, Heathers, the Musical, The Theory of Relativity, Disgraced, Once on This Island, White Christmas, She Kills Monsters, and A Chorus Line. Other selected professional projects include Rock of Ages and Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Forestburgh Playhouse), Journey to Oz (Children’s' Theater of Charlotte and Experiential Theater Company)., and The Gun Show (Passage Theatre.)

SIDNEY MARTINEZ, Production Stage Manager, is a sophomore technical theatre and sociology major. Her Rider credits include Rider New Works (Stage Manager), Girls Like That (Assistant Stage Manager), and Bright Star (Assistant Stage Manager). She has also received The Kennedy Center’s Certificate of Merit: Excellence as a Stage Management Team for her work on the production of Bright Star.

ROBIN I. SHANE, Costume Designer, has been the resident costume designer at Rider for the past 5 seasons. Favorite designs include Catch Me If You Can, Ubu Roi, All Shook Up, The Praying Mantis, Machinal, Lucky Stiff, Merrily We Roll Along, Metamorphoses (KCACTF Honorable Mention) and The Full Monty. Recent productions include God of Carnage at the Montgomery Theatre, The Captive with the Philadelphia Artist’s Collective, and Yes! And’s Silliest Story Ever Told at Plays & Players in Philadelphia. Robin is also the current Resident Designer at Passage and had previously served as the Resident Designer for EgoPo Productions in Philadelphia. Other favorite productions include Xanadu, Dreamgirls and The Rocky Horror Show (Revision Theater) and Brundibar; Comedy on the Bridge and But The Giraffe (The New Victory Theater/Yale Rep/ Berkeley Rep.) Other credits include Jean Cocteau Rep, Soho Rep, The Mint, Chicago Opera Theater, The Juilliard School, New York University and The Harrisburg Opera, as well as the large and small screen. Robin serves on the Board of Yes! And Collaborative Arts in Philadelphia. She earned her MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

YOSHI TANOKURA, Set and Production Designer, is in his second year at Rider. His credits at Rider include Bright Star and Hair. Yoshi’s professional design credits include Moon Over Buffalo at the People’s Light and Theatre, Clever Little Secret by Joe DiPietro at the Westside Theatre in NYC, Exonerated with the Delaware Theatre Company, and Peter and the Starcatcher at the Adrienne Arsht Center. He has also received the Carbonell Award for the Best Scenic Design in 2015. Yoshi is a member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

KIM CHANDLER-VACCARO, Artistic Director, Choreographer, Associate Professor of Dance, has taught at the American Repertory Ballet’s Princeton Ballet School since 1989 where she was also an educational consultant. In 2005 she wrote the music and choreographed Mi Fuego for the inaugural Rider Dances, which has been followed by original dances every year. Chandler Vaccaro wrote the BA in Dance Performance for Rider, the Dance Minor degree, a minor degree in Movement Science and BA in Dance Science. She is the co-author of Jazz Dance Today with Lorraine Person Kreigel, the editor of Dance In My Life, and a contributing author to Jazz Dance: Roots and Branches. Her research centers on Critical-Mindbody-Thinking (CMBT) methodologies

that intersect thought and action, and perception and feeling. She developed the movement system and authored CoMBo: Conditioning for Mind-body to foster self-actualization and optimal personal potential in her students.

Congratulations to the Seniors

DANIELLE D’ABUNDO, '21 is a double major in Elementary Education and Dance Studies, with a minor in Early Childhood Education. She received the Governor’s Award in Arts Education for dance before coming to Rider and is a recipient of a Rider University Dean Scholarship. Danielle performed in Rider Dances: Light and Motion, was involved in numerous dance clubs, and is the current Vice President of the Rider Dance Troupe.

JEWELS ESSIS, '21 is a BA in Dance Performance major with a minor in Psychology. She has been dancing since the age of five and has always found the stage to be home. As an undergraduate student, she is taking two graduate courses in counseling which has enriched her knowledge. Jewels will be attending the Masters in Counseling/Dance Movement Therapy Program at Rider beginning fall 2021. She is excited to learn more, and then teach individuals who are struggling with mental and physical illnesses that dance can be a form of healing for the body, the mind, and the soul. CHRISTINIA FICARRA, '21 is an Arts and Entertainment Industries Management and Dance Performance double major. She was instrumental in the 2019 Dance and Sustainability Project as both an administrator and dancer, is a recipient of the Mildred S. Hawkins Fine Arts Endowed Scholarship. Christina is also an active participant and former Vice President of the Rider Dance Ensemble. ALEXA GOLDBLUM, 21 is a Sports Media and Dance Performance double major. She is a recipient of the Provost Scholarship. Alexa is working towards Lambda Pi Eta National Communication Association’s Honor Society and Order of Omega Honor Society. She is also an active member of the Rider Dance Team and is currently working as a member of the Redef Movement Dance Company in NJ.

VICTORIA JEAN KREUTZER, '21 is a Dance Performance and Psychology major. She performed on Rider’s Dance Team, as well as choreographed, performed, and held the Secretary Board position for Rider Dance Ensemble. In 2020, she showcased her own choreography, Like Clockwork, in Rider's Dance Day performance. Victoria joined Luminarium’s Satellite Company in 2019 for Global Water Dances: South Performance. She was also featured in Merli V. Guerra’s 8.7 Million minus 1 and Like Mercury in the Palm of My Hand . Victoria is working with John Barrella/The Redef Movement. She performed in Rider Dances for the past 3 years and was the Production Stage Manager for 2020 Senior Capstone performance.

MICHELLE LUKACH, '21 is a Dance Performance major with a minor in Event planning. She is a recipient of the Rider Institutional Grant and Transfer Award. Michelle is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, participant in the Rider Dance Ensemble, and former Communications Intern at Dance New Jersey. She was recently featured as the featured artist on YouTube in the Raritan Valley Artists Series #4

MORGAN NASH, '21 is a Dance Performance major and Earth & Environmental Science/Marine Biology double minor. Morgan is a recipient of the Rider University Dance Merit Scholarship. She is a member of the National Honor Society of Dance Arts, and the student group, Rider Dance Ensemble. She participated in the Princeton Ballet School Conservatory program and as a current Trainee with American Repertory Ballet will be performing in Swan Lake under the direction of Ethan Stiefel.

SOMDATTA PAL, '21 has been trained in Bharatnatyam, an classical Indian dance form, since the age of 4. She is also a vocalist with a rich tableau of music genres including the music of Rabindranath Tagore, India’s polymath Nobel Laureate, which she has rendered to audiences at Princeton University and audiences at the Indian Council of Cultural in London, Berlin, Budapest, and The Hague. Somdatta has three curated performances titled Sea Thy Melody, Tagore Meets Gospel, and Sangam with Grammy nominee Ron Korb. Her journey will continue at Rider University where she is finishing a degree in Liberal Arts/Dance and will enter the Dance Movement Therapy program in Fall 2021.