| Dinah Gray choreography/ |
Dinah Gray, originally from Los Angeles, began her dance training with Yvonne Cusack in Rosemead, California. After graduating from the Virginia School of the Arts, she attended Goucher College as a Rosenberg Scholar in dance and received her BA in Dance Performance and Choreography. While at Goucher, she was a featured dancer in works by Doug Varone, John Clifford, Mark Dendy, Christopher D’amboise, and Carolyn Dorfman. She was also a soloist in the reconstruction of Bronislava Nijinka’s 1937 ballet, Chopin Concerto. She has danced professionally with The Ballet Theatre of Annapolis, The Baltimore Opera, The Kimberly Mackin Dance Company, and Off Center Dance Theatre. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University where she wrote under the guidance of poets Marie Howe, Lucie Brock-Boido, and Richard Howard. While in New York, she studied Horton technique with Milton Myers, and was a founding member of the Scholarship Ensemble at STEPS on Broadway. Gray is a Pilates instructor in the StottPilates technique and is also a tutor and teacher for the Princeton Review. |
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Peter V. Swendsen music/ |
Peter V. Swendsen explores the capacity of electro-acoustic sound and digital media to challenge and extend our engagement with performance. His music has been called "highly skillful" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and "the sonic equivalent of ether" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Swendsen is currently a Jefferson Scholars Fellow and Ph.D. student in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia, where he is also an instructor in the McIntire Department of Music. He received his MFA from the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music and his BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His work has been heard throughout the United States and recently in Italy, Slovakia, India, Spain, and Chile. Swendsen has studied composition with Gary Nelson, Richard Povall, and Kristine Burns, and more recently with Gail Wight, Maggi Payne, Fred Frith, and Pauline Oliveros. He is currently studying with Matthew Burtner and Judith Shatin, creating and performing with interactive environments, dance, installation, video, and sound. He serves as webmaster for the Society of Composers, Inc. and as Assitant Editor, Publications for Journal SEAMUS. Swendsen works extensively in collaboration with choreographers. |
| Ashley Thorndike choreography/ |
Ashley Thorndike, a native of Tacoma, Washington began her dance training at age 15 with the Tacoma Performing Dance Company and instructor Lynn Carpenter. She completed a BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah in 2000. In college she received honors from the Orchesis Society for her choreography, performed in work by Molissa Fenley and many emerging choreographers, and taught in an elementary and a high school. After college she moved to New York where she studied at DanceSpace. Since moving to Charlottesville she has completed a master’s degree in counseling and has continued to develop artistically. In September 2002, she presented the evening length work shape[no]context in a concert presented by the UVa Women’s Center’s Young Feminist Artists series. She has worked with local choreographer Sage Blaska in addition to her work with Prospect Dance Group. Her local teaching experience includes the PVCC modern guest artist series, mini-workshops with a youth program, and guest instructing the UVa course Dance/Movement Composition as Art. She currently works for Community Attention, a social service agency, the Young Women Leaders Program, a mentoring program for adolescent girls, and teaches adult and teen dance classes. |
© 2003-04 Prospect Dance Group.