Meet our Summer Institute Facilitators
We’re just a few days away from our first ever online DX Summer Institute, and we’re thrilled to introduce our team of facilitators. If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to register to join us as we explore the power and potential of dancemaking to help us respond and adapt to our rapidly changing world.
In celebration of our 45th anniversary, artists across generations and Dance Exchange's history have been paired together and commissioned to collaborate and create new work as part of our creative aging and intergenerational exchange programming in our 2020-2021 season. We’ll share more in the coming weeks and months about these creative commissions as well as the creative aging programming that’s ahead in this season. Until then…
2020 DX Summer Institute Facilitation Team
The following artists will also be joined by Cassie Meador, Executive Artistic Director; Elizabeth Johnson Levine, Associate Artistic Director; Amanda Newman, Communications Manager and Partnering Artist; and Corina Dalzell, Operations and Facilities Assistant and Resident Artist.
MK Abadoo
MK Adadoo, considered a "break out star" by Dance Magazine, crafts dance events that combine Africanist and post-modern movement vocabularies with site activating audience and community engagement. Their creative practice is rooted in the justice work of Urban Bush Women, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, and the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Abadoo is an assistant professor in the Department of Dance + Choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and in the Racial Equity, Arts, and Culture Core of VCU's ICubed, the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry & Innovation.
Judith Bauer
After a lifetime of watching dance, Judith Bauer is happy to be participating in making dance happen. Judith began dancing fifteen years ago at age 70 as a way of dealing with health issues. While she has studied other forms, she is mainly interested in improvisational dance for its ability to keep one mentally sharp and focused on responding to others. She is enjoying the challenge of facilitating classes within virtual spaces. In addition to being part of the supportive community that is Dance Exchange, Judith is a member of Quicksilver, the senior dance company of Arts for the Aging. Quicksilver dancers—all over the age of 60— use improvisational forms to engage with frail seniors in day programs and residential facilities.
Juliana Pongutá Forero
Juliana Pongutá Forero is a Colombian-born performer, choreographer and educator. Her works and practices explore the relationship between imagination, creativity, and instinct. Her original performance work has been presented in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, and the United States, she co-funded “La Montón” Dance Collective (Argentina) and collaborates with Jonathan Gonzalez (Colombia). She has worked with the Contemporary Dance Company of the National University of Arts of Argentina (UNA) Argentina, Andanzas (Peru), Compañia de Danza H3 Colombia, Orange Grove Dance, S.J. & Dancers, USA. In addition, her teaching and performance engagements have taken her to Cuba, New Zealand and Brazil. Juliana is a partnering artist at Dance Exchange since 2017, her work in the organization involves performance, creation, and facilitation, with intergenerational communities of all backgrounds.
Thomas Tyger Moore
Thomas Tyger Moore ( @thomastygermoore) is a kinetic storyteller/ healer/ facilitator/ community actionist /teacher/ artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Moore dreams and manifests his work with his soul collaborative partner Adrianne Ansley in ‘Thomas & Adrianne’ @thomasandadrianne. Moore is also an artist with Johnnie Cruise Mercer/RedProjectNYC and Dance Exchange and has performed Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and VTDance. Moore recently was in residence with Dance Exchange (DX) at Jacob’s Pillow for the 25th Anniversary of their Curriculum in Motion programming integrating arts and movement into local high school curriculum. Moore was one of 11 artists chosen for the 2017 International Dance Omi Artist Residency. He also joined DX for their residency with Great Smoky Mountain National State Park for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse and their arts integration residency in Tupelo, MS. Moore has presented his work at Alchemical Studios NYC (2018), Center for Performance Research (2019/2017), Velocity Dance Festival (2016), Georgetown and Towson University (2016), and Dance & Dessert Showcase at ADI (2015). He has also served on the 2018 CPR Spring Movement and Dance Omi Selection Panel. Moore collaborates with Gibney as a Community Actionist, leading and reimagining creative movement classes and workshops for kids and young adults about healthy relationships and dating abuse. Thomas graduated with a BFA in Dance Performance and BA in Mass Communications/Journalism from Towson University and studying to become an acupuncturist.
Vincent E. Thomas
Vincent E. Thomas, dancer, choreographer and teacher, received his MFA in Dance from Florida State University and a BME in Music from the University of South Carolina. He has danced with Dance Repertory Theatre (FSU), Randy James Dance Works (NY/NJ), EDGEWORKS Dance Theater (DC), and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (MD). His choreography has been presented at various national and international venues including DUMBO Festival (NY), Velocity Festival (DC), Modern Moves Festival (DC), Philly Fringe (PA), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK-Scotland), Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, Avignon, France, Athens, Greece, Bari, Italy, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Taipei. He received rave reviews for his performance of “Come Change” (2012) and “iWitness” (2014) in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Vincent was the Movement Coach/Choreographer for Everyman Theater’s Brother’s Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney in Baltimore, MD (2012), Mosaic Theatre’s Unexplored Interior by Jay Sander in Washington, DC (2015), and Everyman Theater’s Los Otros by Ellen Fitzhugh in Baltimore, MD (2017). He is the Artistic Director/Choreographer of the national touring What’s Going On project. Vincent was awarded the 2011-2012 Towson University Student Government Association Faculty Member of the Year, a 2014-2015 NextLook Artist for the University of Maryland College Park and Joe’s Movement Emporium, a 2012-13 American Dance Institute Incubator Artist (MD), a 2016 Baker Artist Award finalist, the 2017 Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (DC), and the 2019 University System of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity. He is an Urban Bush Women BOLD Facilitator, faculty member for the UBW Summer Institutes (NY), and Professor of Dance at Towson University (MD).
His multi-dimensional company VTDance builds on the use of contemporary dance, improvisation, text/ movement, a variety of sound sources, and collaborations with other artists, including dancers, musicians, poets, visual artists, and others [to be discovered]. These ideas coupled with witty, poignant, athletic and gestural movement are the rich palette for VTDance. www.vtdance.org
Martha Wittman
Martha Wittman has spent the past 70 years in the dance world as a performer, choreographer and teacher. As a dancer her life is bookended by her earliest years in the Juilliard Dance Theatre Co under the direction of Doris Humphrey and her recent twenty four years of working with Liz Lerman. She has been a guest artist or member of additional companies through the intervening years.
Choreography: Awards in choreography have included grants from the NEA, the Maryland State Council in the Arts, the Doris Humphrey Fellowship from the American Dance Festival, and Dance USA's College Choreography Awards.
For many years she was an Associate Choreographer with the Dances We Dance Co. led by Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin.
Teaching: Long term faculty at Bennington College, VT, summer dance programs at Universities of Calif. in Long Beach and winter terms in Santa Barbara, guest artist residencies in Ohio State University in Columbus and the State University of Indiana in Bloomington.
Now: Participating in Liz Lerman's Wicked Bodies, writing, volunteering with the Silver Spring Village, a local Aging in Place org. here in Maryland.