Guest Dance Artists

Liz Gerring was born in San Francisco in 1965. She grew up in the Los Angeles area and began studying dance when she was thirteen. In high school she studied at the Cornish Institute in Seattle. In 1987, she was awarded a BFA from the Juilliard School. With Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown having an ever-evolving and profound influence on her own frank aesthetic, she formed the Liz Gerring Dance Company in 1998, after a brief career detour in bicycle racing. Liz was awarded the Jacob’s Pillow Prize in June 2015, and a Joyce Theater Residency and Creation award in the same year. She has been commissioned for three works at Peak Performances at the Kasser Theater in Montclair, New Jersey. In 2016/17 she was awarded a New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship.  

Janis Brenner is an award-winning dancer/choreographer/singer/teacher and is Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in N.Y. She has toured 34 countries and is recognized as a "singular performer" (Eye On Dance) with a multifaceted artistic range. Ms. Brenner's awards include a 1997 NY Dance and Performance Award (a "Bessie") for "Outstanding Creative Achievement" in Meredith Monk's work "The Politics of Quiet", a 1999 "Bessie" nomination for her performance in "Solo for Janis" choreographed by Richard Siegal, and a 1996 Lester Horton Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Choreography" in L.A. Ms. Brenner performed with Meredith Monk and the Vocal Ensemble from 1990 - 2005 (recording on ECM Records) and performs an acclaimed vocal suite from Monk's “Songs from the Hill” in concert. She has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 2009, serving as choreographic mentor for the Choreographers & Composers course as well as "Creative Process" instructor.

Livia Vanaver is the founder and artistic director of The Vanaver Caravan. For the past 47 years, Livia has been traveling throughout the U.S. and abroad with her musician/composer husband Bill Vanaver, and their company of extraordinary dancers and musicians, collecting and performing traditional dance and music from many cultures. They are acclaimed for utilizing traditional sources in the creation of original works and presenting them for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
 

William Isaac, born on the island of St. Johns, Antigua, alumnus of The Juilliard School, The School at Jacob's Pillow and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts has formerly danced with Armitage Gone! Dance, serving as the principal male artist under the directorship of Karole Armitage, along with The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Artistic Director Judith Jamison), Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Artist Directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson), Alonzo King's Line Contemporary Ballet (Artistic Director Alonzo King), Dance Theatre of Harlem (Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell), and Philandanco (Artistic Director Joan Myers Brown). Mr. Isaac has worked as assistant choreographer for the Tony award winning musical Passing Strange, first performed at The Public Theater in the summer of 2007 and then transferring to Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in February 2008. Also during this time Isaac taught company and outreach classes and assisted in staging works for Armitage Gone! Dance. Mr. Isaac also received a New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) award for his performance in Karole Armitage's Connoisseurs of Chaos.

Since changing his primary focus to choreography, Mr. Isaac has been commissioned to choreograph for the Senior Graduation Concert for Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts in New York City in 2011/2012/2014. In the fall of 2011, Mr. Isaac started his new company, Kymera Dance, with the vision of securing a place for artists like him to create. It was also important to him to invite new and interesting voices in the dance, theater and art communities to contribute. The inaugural performance for Kymera Dance was February 2012 at The Little Flower Theater in New York City. The program included a work by Karole Armitage, and two original works by Mr. Isaac. In May 2014 Kymera Dance completed it 2nd New York City season at the JCC in Manhattan. In the fall of 2014, Mr. Isaac worked with Nike and model Karlie Kloss as a creative consultant on the Nike X Pedro Lourenco campaign. He most recently worked on the creative team for El Publico, a new opera based on Frederico Garcia Lorca's play of the same title at Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.
 

For the Spring 2018 Dance Concert Eleo Pomare's masterpiece, Las Desenamoradas, was reconstructed by Professors Dyane Harvey-Salaam (winner of a 2017 Bessie Award) and Robin Becker, longtime members of the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, who performed the piece themselves over the course of more than a decade.

Eleo Pomare (Choreographer) was born in 1937 in Columbia, South America and moved to the United States at the age of ten. He graduated from the High School of Performing Arts in New York City and later trained with Louis Horst, Jose Limon, Asadata Dafora, Pearl Reynolds and Curtis James. By 1958, he had formed his own dance company and in 1960, he presented his first major performance at the 92nd St. Y to favorable reviews. The following year, Mr. Pomare was awarded a John Hay Whitney Fellowship which enabled him to live and dance in Europe from 1962-1964. There he studied with Kurt Jooss and other expressionist choreographers and also formed his second dance company which toured successfully in Holland, Germany and Scandinavia. Seeking a connection back to American culture, Mr. Pomare returned to the United States in 1965 where he again organized The Eleo Pomare Dance Company which toured throughout the U.S., Canada, the West Indies, Spain, Africa, Australia and Asia. Mr. Pomare was a highly sought after teacher and choreographer until his death in 2008 at the age of 70.

Larry Keigwin (Hofstra alum) is a native New Yorker and choreographer who has danced his way from the Metropolitan Opera to downtown clubs to Broadway and back. He was awarded a “Bessie” in 1998 as a performer in Mark Dendy’s Dream Analysis and founded Keigwin + Company in 2003. As the Artistic Director of K + C, Keigwin has led the company as it has performed at theaters and dance festivals throughout New York City and around the world. 

Claire Porter of Claire Porter/PORTABLES, a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, is a writer, dancer and choreographer whose work has been performed in Scotland, Germany, Holland, Latvia, Korea and India and in the US at The Joyce Theater, Town Hall, American Dance Festival, Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival and The Kennedy Center with the American College Dance Festival. She is a Laban Movement Analyst and recently led two professional development workshops in Laban Motif Writing for Hofstra’s Dance Education and Physical Education majors.

Adam Barruch began his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television. He later attended the the Juilliard School and currently creates and performs work under the epithet of his own company, Anatomiae Occultii. Adam was an artist-in-residence at the 92Y in 2016-2017. He is working on a new physical theater production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Fredrick Earl Mosley is founder and artistic director of the not-for-profit Diversity of Dance, Inc. (founded in 1998) and its programs: Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts (EMIA) and Hearts of Men (HOM). EMIA is one of the nation’s leading new summer intensives, serving more than 175 students annually. In 2014, HOM launched its very successful inaugural season as a summer intensive serving more than 50 male dancers of all ages in an intergenerational community of brotherhood through dance. Mr. Mosely has taught at some of the most noted conservatories and institutions of higher learning, including Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, the Joffrey Ballet School, SUNY/Purchase, Ohio University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Yale University. He is currently on the faculty of Montclair State University, New York University and the Ailey School.

David Parker, Artistic Director of The Bang Group, began his career as a teenager tap dancing on the sidewalks of Boston. While attending Bard College, he was introduced to modern, post-modern and classical forms of dance and began putting them all together. He has pursued an unusually diverse performance career which includes "downtown" dance, traditional modern, classical character roles, rhythm tap, experimental tap and singing and acting. He has received numerous awards and honors for his choreography which has toured nationally and internationally and he was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for choreography.

Igal Perry, Founder and Artistic Director of Peridance Contemporary Dance Company and Peridance Capezio Center, is a world-renowned choreographer, ballet master, and dance educator. Mr. Perry's elegant choreography, often in collaboration with contemporary composers, has been described as having "shrewdly theatrical timing" (Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice), portraying "craftsmanship and admirable choreography" (Jack Anderson, New York Times), and being "blessedly inventive" (Jennifer Dunning, New York Times). His works have been set on prestigious companies and dance festivals, including the renowned Florence Dance Festival and Invito Alla Tanza (Italy), Batsheva and Bat-Dor Dance Companies and the Karmiel Dance Festival (Israel), Complexions Contemporary Ballet (NYC), Companhia de Danca de Lisboa (Portugal), and Alberta Ballet (Canada).

Seán Curran
Known for his wit, intelligence, ingenuity, and uncanny physical humor, Seán Curran successfully blends myriad influences into a purely original style. A champion Irish step dancer in his native Boston, Curran went on to become a leading dancer (and Bessie Award winner) with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and later an original NYC cast member of STOMP! In 2012 Seán Curran Company was chosen by DanceMotion USA (produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music) to perform and teach throughout Central Asia as cultural ambassadors of the US State Department. In addition to creating dances for his company, Curran frequently choreographs for opera productions and has also served as the co-chair of Dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Doug Varone
Choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, television and fashion. He has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award, two individual Bessie Awards, two American Dance Festival Awards, and four National Dance Project Awards. His New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers has been commissioned and presented by leading international venues for nearly three decades. Varone has also created works for the Limón Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Rambert Dance Company (London), Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancemakers (Canada), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Bern Ballet (Switzerland) and An Creative (Japan), among others. As an opera director and choreographer Varone has worked with The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and companies across the United States. His numerous theater credits include choreography for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters throughout the U.S. Varone teaches workshops and master classes both nationally and abroad and is currently on the faculty at Purchase College.

Lindsey Leduc ’04
A cum laude graduate of Hofstra University, Lindsey Leduc’s choreography was showcased at the American College Dance Festival 2003 gala. While in New York, she also performed with Robin Becker Dance. She earned her Actors Equity card performing off-Broadway under Hinton Battle and went on to Chicago to study at the Giordano Dance School. She was promoted to Giordano II and then to Giordano Dance Chicago where she remained for seven years performing and teaching, nationally and internationally. Now working as an independent artist, Leduc continues to travel extensively. In 2013, she was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine and also contributed an article, “Why I Dance.”

Terry Creach
Terry Creach directs the New York City-based Creach/Company, which has presented at prominent venues throughout the US, and internationally including most recently, The Kitchen/NYC, Symphony Space/NYC, Aronoff Center/Cincinnati, and Teatro de la Danza/Mexico City. Mr. Creach has performed with numerous New York City choreographers and companies including James Cunningham’s Acme Company, Vanaver Caravan, Jane Comfort, Rachel Lampert, and Annabelle Gamson. Mr. Creach has been a guest choreographer and guest faculty at prominent dance programs across the country including, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, the University of Maryland/College Park, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Juilliard School. He has been a faculty member at Bennington College since 1987. He has received choreography fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and, most recently, from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc.

Bebe Miller
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bebe Miller began childhood dance study with Murray Louis at the Henry Street Settlement on Manhattan's Lower East Side. From 1976 to 1982 Miller danced with Nina Weiner and Dancers, where she developed a quietly intense, passionate style. In 1984 she formed the Bebe Miller Company with an "interest in finding a physical language for the human condition." Miller's choreography has been noted for its mix of virtuosic, athletic speed and the fragile human impulse behind it. Miller has choreographed works for the Boston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, and the PACT Dance Company of Johannesburg, South Africa. Among her awards and fellowships are two Bessie awards for performance (1986 and 1987), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1988), and an American Choreographer Award (1988).

Nathan Trice
Nathan Trice is the Founder and Artistic Director of nathantrice/RITUALS, a project-by-project dance theater based in New York City. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Nathan completed the Alvin Ailey Certificate Program in 1993 and, since then, has worked with MOMIX, Complexions, Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater, Donald Byrd/The Group, DanzAiza, Burnt Sugar Arkistra, Forces of Nature Dance Co., and Heidi Latsky Dance Theater.

Catherine Turocy
Catherine Turocy is recognized as one of today’s leading choreographer/reconstructors and stage directors in 17th and 18th century period performance, with more than 60 Baroque operas to her credit.

She has been decorated by the French Republic as a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters. She received the prestigious BESSIE Award in New York City for sustained achievement in choreography as well as the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence. In 1980 she received the Dance Film Association Award for “The Art of Dancing” video produced with Celia Ipiotis and Jeff Bush.

A founding member of the Society for Dance History Scholars, Ms. Turocy has lectured on period performance practices around the world including the Royal Academies of Dance in London, Stockholm and Copenhagen; the Festival Estival in Paris and The Society for Early Music in Tokyo. She has served as consultant to Clark Tippet of American Ballet Theater and Edward Villella of the Miami City Ballet. As a writer she has contributed chapters to dance history textbooks, articles to Opera News and Dance Magazine, many which have been translated into French, German, Japanese and Korean. A chapter in Janet Roseman’s book, Dance Masters: Interviews with Legends of Dance, published by Routledge, is dedicated to her work.
 

Victoria Marks
Victoria Marks creates dances for the stage, for film, and in community settings. Marks’ recent work has considered the politics of citizenship, as well as the representation of both virtuosity and disability. These themes are part of her ongoing commitment to locating dancemaking within the sphere of political meaning. Ms. Marks is a Professor of choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA where she has been teaching since 1995. She is a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and has been the recipient of multiple grants and fellowships from the NEA, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the London Arts Board, among others. She has also received awards for her dance films including the Grand Prix in the Video Danse Festival and the Best of Show in the Dance Film Association’s Dance and the Camera Festival.

Ms. Marks set a piece on the Fall 2010 Faculty Dance Concert that featured Hofstra dance students as well as the program’s four full-time faculty members. Ms. Marks returned to Hofstra in the spring 2011 to serve as a participant in a three day conference titled Into Sunlight: The Impact of War on the Social Body From the Vietnam Era to the Present. The conference was presented by the Department of Drama and Dance and inspired by the David Maraniss’ book They Marched Into Sunlight. Ms Marks has worked with war veterans to develop dance and film projects.
 

Martha Clarke
Widely considered one of the most important choreographers in America, Martha Clarke accepted an appointment from Hofstra to serve as a Presidential Scholar in the Department of Drama and Dance for the spring 2007 semester. She taught as well as choreographed students for the Spring 2007 Faculty Dance Concert. She is known for her groundbreaking, visually-inspired music theater pieces.

Martha Clarke is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (otherwise known as the “Genius Award”) and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1984 Martha Clarke created a series of sketches based on the work of the 15th-century painter Hieronymus Bosch called The Garden of Earthly Delights, which received both a Drama Critics Award and the L.A. Drama Critics Award. Her 1986 piece Vienna: Lusthaus, which evokes the decadence of fin de siècle Europe, won an OBIE for best new American play.

In 1988, Ms. Clarke’s Miracolo d'amore was presented at the Spoleto Festival USA and at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Endangered Species, a work for performers and live animals, was created for Music-Theatre Group and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1990.

Ms. Clarke was a founding member of the Pilobolus Dance Theater before beginning her own troupe, Crowsnest, in the late 1970s. Her choreography has been performed by the Nederlans Dans Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Rambert Dance Company and Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project.

• Pascal Benichou
• Ellen Cornfield
• Chris Elam
• Errol Grimes
• Heidi Latsky
• JoLea Maffei
• Paul Matteson
• Rosalind Newman
• Olivia Rosenkrantz
• Jody Sperling
• Lakai Worrell
• Cathy Young