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STEPHEN KOESTER:
Stephen Koester was formerly co-Artistic Director of Creach/Koester,
a company of men based in New York City that toured throughout
the US, Canada, and Europe. With partner Terry Creach, Stephen
received five consecutive choreographic fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts, plus an additional fellowship
from the New York State Foundation for the Arts. Stephen is
currently on the modern dance faculty at the University of
Utah and continues to choreograph both with the department
and outside of it. Projects include commissions for the Utah
Ballet, Maricopa Institute for the Arts and Taiwan International
Dance Festival. Between the time of dancing with Creach/Koester
and his university appointment, Stephen traveled the world,
ran a spectacular bed and breakfast just outside of Yellowstone
National Park, and continued teaching at universities throughout
the country, including a residency at the University of Montana.
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Larry Keigwin & Nicole Wolcott
Larry Keigwin, Artistic Director of Keigwin + Company is
a native Long Islander and graduate from Hofstra university
where he received a BA in dance. Since then he has been choreographing
and performing in an array of projects that have taken him
from the Metropolitan Opera House, to downtown clubs, to Broadway
and back. From 1997-2000, he was the associate artistic director
of Dendy Dance & Theater and received a Bessi Award for
his performance in "Dream Analysis." He has also
danced in the companies of Robin Becker, Jane Comfort, John
Jasperse, Doug Elkins, Zvi Gotheiner, Ben Munisteri and David
Rousseve. Recent Metropolitan Opera engagements include Doug
Varone's “Le Sacre du Printemps” and Julie Taymor's
“The Magic Flute.” In the area of musical theater
Keigwin was the Associate Choreographer for the Radio City
Rockette production of “Carnivale,” a Disney Musical
Workshop “When you Wish,” the Off-Broadway musical
“The Wild Party” and recently performed in the
Broadway show “Dance of the Vampires.” He is the
creator of “Keigwin Kabaret,” a fusion of modern
dance, vaudeville, and burlesque acts, which is presented
by the Public Theater at Joe's Pub and the Leonard Nimoy Thalia
Theater at Symphony Space. Keigwin also enjoys choreographing
for pop sensation Fischerspooner, drag artist Varla Jean Merman
and Penny Arcade.
Nicole Wolcott is the Associate Artistic Director of Keigwin
+ Company and co-producer of Keigwin Kabaret. She has been
a member of such dance companies as Hoi Polloi, The James
Kelly Choreography Project, Montana Transport Company, Gus
Giordano, and Jan Erkert and Dancers. Nicole has performed
at the Metropolitan Opera House under the direction of Julie
Taymor and Mark Dendy and is part of Noemie Lafrance's new
work to be presented at the Macallan Pool in Brooklyn in September
of 2005. She taught at the University of Montana as adjunct
faculty and continues to teach in New York and as a guest
artist and teacher to all ages around the country. Her choreography
has been presented in New York at Symphony Space, Chashama
Theater, Galapagos, Dance Space, Joyce SoHo, Joe's Pub at
the Public Theater, as well as Summerdance Santa Barbara,
Bates Dance Festival, and the American Dance Festival. Nicole
also works with the band Artanker Convoy and video artists
Bruna de Araujo and Andrew Personette. Together they create
site-specific performances for numerous venues around the
New York metropolitan area and will be traveling to Brazil
in the spring of 2006. They are known collectively as MUX.
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Sondra Loring
Sondra Loring has enjoyed dancing with many different choreographers
in New York city. She has worked in the community, founding
the Improvisation Festival/NY (with Julie Carr), curating
the Bread to the Bone series, and creating and editing JUICE,
a dance and performance journal. She has danced in the companies
of Laura Dean, CoDanceCo, Neil Greenberg and David Rousseve/REALITY.
Her own work has been presented at Danspace Project, Dance
Theater Workshop, PS122, DIA Center for the Arts, and in Mexico,
Venezuela, Michigan, and California. She received a Bessie
Award in 1996. Sondra teaches yoga and dance in Manhattan
and in different parts of the world. She lives with her girlfriend
and their son in upstate New York.
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Lar Lubovitch
One of this country’s most versatile, popular and widely
seen choreographers, Lubovitch founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance
Company 39 years ago and has choreographed more than 100 dances
for the company. Based in New York City, the company has performed
in virtually all 50 American states as well as in more than
30 foreign countries.
Works created by Lubovitch for his company are also included
in the repertories of other select companies throughout the
world, including (among others) the New York City Ballet,
American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish
Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,
Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project and Netherlands
Dance Theater.
Lubovitch made his Broadway debut in 1987 with the musical
staging for the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical, Into
the Woods, for which he received a Tony Award nomination.
In 1993 he choreographed the highly-praised dance sequences
for the Broadway show The Red Shoes. For his work on that
show, he received the 1993-94 Astaire Award from the Theater
Development Fund. In 1996 he created the musical staging (and
two new dances) for the Tony-Award-winning Broadway revival
of The King and I. In 2004 he was honored with the Elan Award
for his outstanding choreography.
In addition to his work for stage, screen and television,
Lubovitch has created dances for ice-dancing, Olympic gold
medalists John Curry, Peggy Fleming, and Dorothy Hamill and
has choreographed a full-length, ice-dancing version of The
Sleeping Beauty, starring Olympic medalists Robin Cousins
and Rosalynn Sumners.
Born in Chicago, Lubovitch was educated at the University
of Iowa and the Julliard School in New York. His teachers
at Julliard included Antony Tudor, Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow
and Martha Graham.
Lubovitch’s work is renowned for its musicality, rhapsodic
style and sophisticated formal structures. His radiant, highly
technical choreography and deeply humanistic voice have bee
acclaimed throughout the world.
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Christine L. Milodragovich (Costume Designer)
Ms. Milodragovich is a professor emeritus from the Department
of Drama/Dance at The University of Montana. Her teaching
focused on costume design, costume history, costume construction
and crafts, pattern development, and textiles. When designing
costumes and quilt elements for the play Quilters, she was
seriously bitten by the quilting bug. In the intervening years
she has explored quilting as an art form, venturing beyond
traditional patterns and fabrics. Her work as a quilt artist
serves to inform her costume designs, particularly in regard
to color, texture, and scale. Her creative activity in costume
design includes A Trip to Bountiful, A Streetcar Named Desire,
Death of a Salesman and To Kill a Mockingbird for the Montana
Repertory Theatre national tours as well as A Christmas Carol,
Amadeus and The Heiress for the Department of Drama/Dance.
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AMY RAGSDALE:
Artistic Director – Headwaters Dance Co.
Ms. Ragsdale was born in New York City. She earned a B.A.
in Art History from Harvard/Radcliffe College and an M.A.
in Movement Studies from Wesleyan in Connecticut. After graduation
she joined Impulse Dance Co. in Boston and then moved a couple
of years later to New York, where she danced with Fred Benjamin
Dance Co., Laughing Stone, and Ze’eva Cohen and Dancers,
touring the East Coast as well as to South Korea and Sicily.
She moved to Montana in 1988 to become the Head of the Dance
Program at The University of Montana, which she directed for
12 years. While living in Missoula, she returned to New York
to be a guest performer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane
Dance Co. and Douglas Dunn and Dancers. While in Montana she
co-founded The Montana Transport Dance Company (Mo-Trans),
which toured the state and region for 12 years. Her choreographic
work has been performed in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Oregon,
Montana and New York, as well as televised on Montana PBS,
KSPS – Spokane Public Television, and CNN’s World
News. She is the recipient of the Montana Arts Council’s
Fellowship for Artists, The University of Montana School of
Fine Arts Outstanding Faculty award and The University of
Montana’s Outstanding Faculty award. Her choreographic
work has been funded by the NEA, the Paul G. Allen Foundation
for the Arts, the Montana Arts Council, the PROP and Chutney
Foundations, and US Bancorp among others. She is the founder
and Artistic Director of Headwaters Dance Co. as well as a
Full Professor of Dance in the Drama/Dance Dept. at The University
of Montana.
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