Wallie Wolfgruber & Company is a New York-based dance group that creates contemporary works expressing the artistic vision of founder/choreographer Wallie Wolfgruber. Informed by an international worldview, yet strongly individualistic, the work ranges from soothing to provocative, pairing elegance with awkwardness and physical fearlessness with disarming vulnerability. It includes collaborations with composers, film- and video artists, and peers from the world-wide dance community.
Artistic Vision Statement
"My artistic vision is based on the belief that dance has the ability to heal and bring about positive change in ourselves and the world at large. In all my work I aim at addressing the beauty as well as the pain of our shared human condition. I am interested in breaking down political, cultural, gender and racial barriers and promoting a sense of interconnectedness between all beings. I see my work as neither experimental nor traditional but follow a singular vision for each new creation. The vocabulary for my pieces is drawn from a vast repository of data gathered over a lifetime as a dancer and dance maker and fueled by my passion to keep exploring and changing."
-Wallie Wolfgruber, 2008
Company Bios
Wallie Wolfgruber
Artistic Director/Choreographer
Wallie Wolfgruber is a German-born choreographer living in NYC who has danced with some of the greats of the international modern dance scene including Lar Lubovitch and Ohad Naharin. She has performed in over 30 states of the US as well as in Canada, Central- and South America, Asia, and Europe. She served as Mr. Lubovitch’s choreographic assistant setting his signature work Concerto 622 and performed his acclaimed duet Fandango worldwide. In 2010 she became the Director of Dance at SUNY Purchase.
Her choreography has been presented in Germany, Canada, and France and in NYC at the Abrons Arts Center, La Mama E.T.C., the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and with DanceNow at the Joyce Soho, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, the Duke Theater on 42nd Street and DTW. Her interests include collaborations with composers, film and video artists. Her video dance A Hands- On Affair (created with British photographer/video artist Alvin Booth) was selected for the Dance on Camera West International Festival in Los Angeles and for the Lincoln Center Dance on Camera Festival in NYC.
She holds an MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and has extensive teaching and directing experience. She was the Undergraduate Program Director at SUNY Brockport and has been on faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brookyln, at Manhattanville College and at Florida State University.
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Rebecca Bliss
Dancer
Rebecca Bliss is a native of Jacksonville, Florida where she began her dance training and attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. She continued her education at Florida State University and graduated cum laude with a B.F.A in dance. While attending FSU, she was a member of Dance Repertory Theater performing works by Lynda Davis, Terry Creach, Rick McCullough, and Bruce Wood. She has also performed works by Susan Marshall and Tim Glenn. While still a student at FSU, she danced leading roles in two of Wallie Wolfgruber’s works. Upon graduation, she was invited to join Wallie Wolfgruber & Company and moved to NYC.
Janet Forward
Dancer
Janet Forward grew up in Rochester, NY, where she was a competitive ice skater before discovering her love for dance. She studied with Wallie Wolfgruber at SUNY Brockport (BS in dance) and has worked with her both as dancer and choreographic assistant in various productions including the Abu Ghraib piece American Blessings. She has also performed with Sasha Soreff , among others, and is a licensed massage therapist.
Michael Blake
Dancer
Michael Blake began his dance career in the Murray Louis Dance Company where he danced from 1982-1984. In 1986 he joined the José Limón Dance Company, dancing principal roles until 1991. Michael danced with Donald Byrd/The Group from 1991-1998. He has also danced with the Joyce Trisler Danscompany, Shapiro and Smith, and Janis Brenner and Friends. He has appeared on stage at the Supper Club NYC, national tour of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, and in the films THE ADVENTURES OF CRI CRI, and UNSETTLED DREAMS. He has taught numerous workshops both nationally and internationally, and is on the theater arts faculty at Rutgers University, and HB Studio NYC, teaching Movement for Actors. Michael teaches Limon at the school of Ballet Hispanico, and currently dances with PARADIGM Dance.
Ryoko Kudo
Dancer
Ryoko Kudo was born in Japan and became a New Yorker at age 8. She studied at Emerson College and received her BFA from The Boston Conservatory. She was a soloist with the Limón Dance Company until 2009, and has also worked with Sophie Maslow, Martha Graham Dance Ensemble, Thang Dao, Jonathan Riedel, Kathryn Alter, and Pajarillo Pinta'o among others. As an aerialist, she performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with Airealistic and continues to venture into the air from time to time. Ryoko teaches dance in the Limón style at various universities and studios in the U.S. and Mexico. She also teaches pilates at Equinox and Pilates of Rye. Ryoko joined Wallie Wolfgruber and Company in 2009.
Gabrielle Lamb
Dancer
Gabrielle Lamb is a native of Savannah, Georgia, and was trained at the Boston Ballet School. She was soloist in Les Grands Ballets Canadiens from 2000-2009 and now performs with Morphoses, the Wheeldon Company. Her repertoire includes principal roles in works by George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Quanz, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, and Nacho Duato; and she has created leading roles in new ballets by Mauro Bigonzetti and Shen Wei, among others. She is a winner of the 2009 National Choreographic Competition of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; and her short dance films have been presented by Les Grands Ballets, Dance Camera West, the American Dance Festival, and the Dance Films Association of New York. Alastair Macaulay of the New York Times described her most recent work as "a charming piece of whimsy" with "the quality of play that often characterizes good or great art."
Jake Laub
Dancer
Jake Laub danced with Ballet Chicago and then with Luna Negra Dance Theater before recently making the move to New York. He met Wallie Wolfgruber at his first class after arriving in New York and couldn’t be more thrilled to be dancing with her company. He is also a company member of Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn and has worked with choreographers Julia Gleich and Yung-li Chen, among others. In Chicago he received a degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
Daniel Madoff
Dancer
Daniel Madoff has been a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 2007. He has set and performed Mr. Cunningham's oldest known solo, Totem Ancestor. He received his BFA in Dance from Purchase College in June 2006. He has also danced with the Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, NØA Dance, under the direction of Nelly van Bommel, and with Pam Tanowitz. He started working with Wallie Wolfgruber in 2009.
Kelly Slough
Dancer
Kelly Slough trained at The Washington School of Ballet under Mary Day and went on to dance with The Washington Ballet and The State of Alabama Ballet. After moving to New York, she worked with Mark Morris as a dancer in the original cast of the opera “Nixon in China”. She danced with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company and was a principal dancer with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. As a freelance artist she has perfomed with Robert Kovich, and Sung-soo Ahn among others. She has taught at George Mason University and Hunter College as well as master classes for the Lubovitch Company in the US and abroad. She is currently on faculty at the Mark Morris Dance Center. Kelly is thrilled to be working with Wallie and this wonderful group of dancers and would like to thank Bill, Alex and Erin for their love and support
Rebecca Rigert
Dancer
Rebecca Rigert, originally from Minneapolis, has performed with several New York modern dance companies, among them The Joyce Trisler Danscompany, The Elisa Monte Dance Company, The Jamison Project, The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, rhythMEK and Complexions. Rebecca had the honor of performing as partner to Mikhail Baryshnikov in his White Oak Dance Project, and was chosen to recreate the role of Mary in Martha Graham's El Penitente, among other roles. Rebecca has worked as Choreographic Assistant to Lar Lubovitch, coaching stars from ballet and modern companies around the world, including American Ballet Theater, and such Broadway productions as The Red Shoes, The King and I and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She has had the privilege of working on projects with choreographers Mark Morris, Garth Fagan, Dwight Rhoden, Irene Hultman, Zvi Gotheiner and Wallie Wolfgruber. Rebecca was featured as a guest artist with The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performing Lar Lubovitch’s acclaimed Fandango in 1997. She has been a guest teacher at the Juilliard School for many years, as well as a textile designer and sculptor.
Dirk Platzek
Dancer
Dirk Platzek has worked with Tanzforum Cologne, Elisa Monte Dance Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, The Whiteoak Project, Wallie Wolfgruber and Zvi Gotheiner and Dancers, among many others. In 2000 he received an MFA in Design and Technology from the Parsons School of Design and has since worked as an Interaction Designer. The site for his design studio can be viewed at http://www.wunschfeld.net.
Michael Wall
Composer
Michael Wall has made work for the Jose Limon Company, Wallie Wolfgruber, Mark Haim, Lisa Race, David Dorfman, David Grenke, Randy James, Martha Tornay/East Village Dance Project, Jenn Nugent, Heather Mcardle, Everything Smaller and Merge Dance. Michael and designer Jamie Karczewski have formed the company ASIMPLESOUND, llc. which produces music and resources for dance, film and other mediums. All of his music and new recordings can be found on www.asimplesound.com
Alvin Booth
Photographer/Video Artist
Alvin Booth was born in Hull, an industrial city in the Northeast of England. He left school at the age of seventeen and trained to become a hairdresser. He later moved to Oxford where his interest in photography grew. In 1989 he gave up hairdressing and moved to New York City. He divides his time between New York and the southwest of France. More recently Booth has been working on film and sculpture installations -works that study the link between the still and moving image. He is looking forward to the publication of his third book Triptych in Spring 2009.
Alvin Booth is represented by the following galleries:
Hamiltons Gallery (London); Fifty One Fine Art Photography (Antwerp); Fahey/Klein Gallery (Los Angeles); Robert Klein Gallery (Boston); Etherton Gallery (Tucson);
Acte2 (Paris) and In Focus Gallerie (Cologne).
Lawrence Goldhuber
Dancer/ Choreographer
Lawrence Goldhuber: Works include Sleeping Giant at the Abrons and Mass MoCA, Whose Broads Stripes on the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial, Julius Caesar Superstar at Danspace Project, The Cost of Living with British group DV8 in Sydney, London and Hong Kong, and SWELL(ing) Relatives by Valeria Vasilevski at La Mama, E.T.C. Born in New York City, Mr. Goldhuber trained as an actor at Boston University. He received a 1995 New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award for “sustained achievement as an influential presence in modern dance” and served as the co-host for the 2002 Awards. He is the recipient of a 2002 Fellowship in Choreography from NYFA, as well as funding from the Jerome, Harkness, Bossak/Heilbron, and Joyce Theater Foundations, the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, and the American Music Center. His work has been commissioned by The Joyce Theater, DTW, PICA, Danspace Project, PS122, LMCC, and Jacob’s Pillow. His company, Goldhuber & Latsky performed internationally and received commissions from The American Dance Festival (Primus/Tamaris Fellowship), The Whitney Museum, The Cannes International Festival de Danse, etc. Goldhuber began working with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1985 (guest appearances 2004,06 and 08) touring worldwide and creating roles in such landmark dances as Still/Here and Last Supper at Uncle To m’s Cabin (both seen on PBS). Other dance and theater work includes Fred Ho's Journey Beyond the West at BAM, and the title role in Golem for the Henson International Puppet Festival. In addition to performances with Keely Garfield in New York and London, and Sherry Vine at Wigstock, and Wallie Wolfgruber at La Mama, Larry performed regularly at the legendary downtown club Jackie 60. Visit www.goldhuber.com for more information and photos.
David Grenke
Choreographer/Dancer
David Grenke is the founder of ThingsezIsee'm Dance/Theater and a former principal dancer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. He has also danced for Dennis Wayne's Dancers and The Joffrey Concert Dancers, and he was a founding member of the Armitage Ballet. His choreography has been presented in New York at Lincoln Center, Dance Theatre Workshop's Fresh Track Series, The Guggenheim Museum's Works and Process Series, The Dia Center for the Arts, Pace University and Riverside Church. Outside New York his works have been performed at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The American Dance Festival, The Cannes International Festival, Kaatsbaan International Festival, and on tours of Russia, Poland, Denmark, Taiwan and Argentina. Support for these tours has come from the U.S. Embassy, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Harkness Foundation. Mr. Grenke is a recipient of ADF's 1998 Doris Duke Award for new work, the 1997 Scripps/ADF Humphrey-Weidman-Limón Fellow for Choreography, and the Nora Kaye Award for dance. He is Chair and Full Professor of Dance at the University of California, Davis.
Susan Shields
Choreographer
Susan Shields, formerly with the White Oak Dance Project and Mikhail Baryshnikov's partner in the duet The Argument (choreogrpahed by Mark Morris), Laura Dean and Dancers, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and the Mark Morris Dance Group, Full Professor at George Mason University. Has choreographed for and received commissions from the Washington Ballet, Richmond and American Repertory Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Boston Ballet ii. Choreographed the duet Displaced for Wallie Wolfgruber and David Grenke.