2008 Choreographers

Paige Cunningham
Paige Cunningham studied under Sheila Cohen at Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts. She received her B.F.A. from the Juilliard School and went on to dance for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, touring throughout Europe, Australia and the U.S. Ms. Cunningham received an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was chosen as one of three choreographic fellows at Summer Stages Dance to create a new work on students. She has taught at the Cincinnati Ballet, Alabama School of Fine Arts and Boston Ballet among others. Currently, Ms. Cunningham is a Visiting Artist at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago teaching Contemporary Ballet, Modern and choreographing her own work as well as setting a Merce Cunningham MinEvent on students. In the fall of 2008, she will become a full-time, tenure track faculty member at the Dance Center of Columbia College. Paige is an active choreographer and performer throughout Chicago and the Mid-West.

Jacqueline M. Garcia
Jacqueline Garcia is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2001, summa cum laude, with a BA in Dance and from the University of Cincinnati with a Masters in Business Administration in 2005. She will also be conferred with an MA in Arts Administration in 2008 from UC’s prestigious College-Conservatory of Music. While studying in Cincinnati, Jacqueline worked intimately with Contemporary Dance Theater. She had the opportunity to choreograph and perform in CDT’s 2003 Choreographers without Companies concert. After this experience, she worked for two years as the Assistant to the Director, under Jefferson James. Jacqueline recently premiered her own evening-length concert at the Wild Dancing West Festival in Albuquerque in June 2008. Jacqueline’s choreographic works and collaborations have been presented in Cincinnati by Contemporary Dance Theater, the Mockbee and the College-Conservatory of Music; and in Albuquerque by VSA N4th Art Center, Keshet Dance Company and the University of New Mexico’s Dance Department. She has danced and choreographed with Blythe Eden Dance Company and has worked administratively with Contemporary Dance Theater, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and Keshet Dance Company.

Jeri Gatch
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Jeri Deckard Gatch is a Modern Dance teacher, choreographer, and performer. She earned her BS: Kinesiology from Indiana University, and her MFA: Performance/Choreography from Temple University where she also taught for 2 years. Jeri was adjunct faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Dance and Theater Departments. Since moving back to the Mid-West with her Cincinnati born husband, Jeri has worked through the Contemporary Dance Theater, Growth In Motion, and performed with several local choreographers. Jeri choreographed for a workshop at the Playhouse In the Park, lead pre-school Creative Movement, was a Modern Dance faculty teacher at the 2002 Ohio Dance Festival, and guest teaches. Jeri was commissioned by Miami University to set a new work on their company and she completed an Artist’s Residency at Berea College in Kentucky. Currently, Jeri is working at DeSales Elementary School through the Artlinks program, is on the Board of OHDance, and a Journey To Adulthood youth advisor. Supporting and inspiring all of her movement projects is Jeri’s family, for which she gives thanks. She and her cyclist husband enjoy their parents, grandparents, and friends and are embracing life and its ongoing adventures with their children Lily and Lewis.

Tricia Gelmini
Tricia Gelmini is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She received a BA in dance from Antioch College and an MFA in dance from Smith College. She is currently a member of the Cincinnati based dance company MamLuft & Co. Dance. She lives and works in Yellow Springs.

Diane Germaine
Diane Germainegraduated New York’s Performing Arts High School and became Principal Solist of the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company, NYC receiving critical acclaim for roles in Fatal Birds, Metallics, The Path, Shadows, and as poetess Anne Sexton in A Consort For Dancers (“a superstar modern dancer…boneless as a shadow and in control of every kinetic nuance,” New York Times). As Artistic Director of Diane Germaine & Dancers, NYC she choreographed 25 works and received grants from the NEA and CAPS for signature work Playground (“…a violent sensual work….It hurls itself through the space rushing towards the final denouement with a disconcerting fury," Soho News), and for RadiOhio, Hotel Nicaragua, Archipel, and The Ocean Floor and Those Who Live There. Commissioned works for Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater included Lorcantos, I've Got a Crush On You, and Controlling The Population. In 2000, Such a Landscape was created for Choreographers Without Companies Concert and it was subsequently invited to the Ohio Dance Festival Showcase where it received high praise from critics (“…Traversing both comedy and tragedy in equally compelling ways, the two sections performed, Grande Valse Brillante and Taki Pejzaz, created memorably nightmarish tableaus.…(the) solo in the section (Taki Pejzaz) was the most powerful of the evening," Columbus Dispatch). Ms. Germaine was awarded a 2001 OAC Choreography Fellowship, and a ‘01-‘02 grant from the City of Cincinnati for the full-evening project Didi, a Life premiered in April 2002. She also received grants from the City of Cincinnati and OAC for a full-evening retrospective in December, 2003 which included the premiere of Fallout, a revision of Playground, and a revival of Such a Landscape. Recent works include: the poignant solo Rain (2002), Dust (2002) an intense and devastating work created in response to 9:11, the sensual, tuxedoed, and on its head Nighthawks (2003) Fallout (2004), So Little Time (2004), the sexy, intriguing, haunting Fated Tango (2005), and the beautiful, cerebral and quirky Monologue and Little Deaths (2007). Ms. Germaine has been a Master Instructor/Guest Choreographer at Universities all over the USA as well as for First Chamber Dance Company in Port Townsend, Seattle and Walla Walla, abroad for Bat-Dor, Batsheva, The Kibbutz Dance Company, Norsk Opera Ballet in Oslo, and London Contemporary Dance Theatre at The Place. She acknowledges the following individuals/studios contributing to her training: Contemporary: Bertram Ross/Mary Hinkson/Ethel Winter from the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Paul Sanasardo/Donya Feuer of Modern Dance Artists, Inc., and Norman Walker; Classical: Edward Caton at Joffrey’s American Dance Centre, Maggie Black, and Robin Howard. In addition to choreography Ms. Germaine is also a writer. She was on scholarship at Women Writing for (a) Change 2002-2004. She has read her work on WVXU radio, at Walnut St. YWCA in Cincinnati, Woodstock Jewish Congregation and the Poetry Society’s Open Mic Monday night series in Woodstock, NY, and at Joseph-Beth Books in Cincinnati. Her poem My One Girl appears in the October 2007 issue of Chronogram Magazine. Ms. Germaine recently organized the premier “Small Streams” concert series of Cincinnati Choreographers’ Collective, April 2008 on which she premiered “NYC Density.” Ms. Germaine.is currently completing her play entitled Not Yet, a funny, poignant two-character work on ageing, and compiling the poetry for her first chapbook.

Whitney Jacobs
Whitney Jacobs graduated in spring 2005 from Ohio University with a BFA in performance and choreography. Since 2003 she has been a company member in Azaguno (a professional West African dance and drum ensemble), and has had the opportunity to perform nationally and internationally throughout the U.S, Canada, and Taiwan. During the summer of 2004, Jacobs received the Student Enhancement Award and the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award, which fully funded her to travel to Ghana during a three-week intensive study course to further investigate West African dance and music. Jacobs’s primary education includes choreography, modern, jazz, and ballet techniques, dance history, kinesiology and teaching. Jacobs was auditioned and cast by Murray Louis to perform in reconstruction of Alwin Nikolais’, Tensile Involvement, and has also appeared in works by Ursula Payne, Travis Gatling, and Gina Gibney. She worked as the Studio Coordinator and Jazz dance instructor at Contemporary Dance Theater. Currently she is living in New York, where her work has been presented at the Dance Theater of Harlem Festival, and at The Tank. She is also working with accomplished choreographers such as Christopher Campbell and Jennifer Archibald and performed at the Performance Project hosted by Dance New Amsterdam.

Ka-Ron Brown Lehman
Ka-Ron Brown Lehman - dancer/ teacher /choreographer, recently moved from LA, California to Cincinnati, July 2007. Formerly was in charge of the Artistic Direction of the Dance Department at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she also taught Contemporary Modern and Choreography, and was known for spotting talent, motivating students, and helping students to unlock their emotions through dance. Ms. Lehman’s twenty-one years at LAHCSA earned her the 2006 Alumni Association’s Outstanding Arts’ Educator Award and a Distinguished Teacher Award by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. For her forty-three years as a dedicated dance educator. Ms. Lehman received the American Choreography Educator Award in 2004, along with nominations for Disney Teacher of the Year for 2005 and 2006. Choreographically her achievements like Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, numerous musicals for C.B. Jackson’s Inner City Cultural Center, Othello with Ted Lange, associate Choreographer to Joe Layton’s Broadway, Rockín Roll-The First 5000 Years, commissioned works for the Lehman Dance Company, re-staging of classic ballets such as Rite of Spring, Firebird, Cinderella, a national commercial for Bayer Aspirin, starring Ben Vereen, and numerous others, helped gain her notable recognition. In 1993, Ka-Ron created the Annual Lehman Awards to honor members of the dance community, and educate young dancers about their pioneers’ rich legacy of dance. Ka-Ron dedicates this premiere work to the dance community of Cincinnati and thanks them for their warm embrace. Ms. Lehman invites you to view her resume at myspace.com/lehmandance

Jeanne S. Mam-Luft
MamLuft&Co. Dance is a modern dance company that has recently found a new home in Cincinnati, Ohio. Director, Jeanne S. Mam-Luft is a choreographer, photographer, and designer of many kinds (including architectural, costume, lighting, scenic, graphic, and web). Her vision as an interdisciplinary artist brings together the talents that contribute to and comprise MamLuft&Co. Dance. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, where she also studied scenic design. Mam-Luft was born while her parents were escaping the Khmer Rouge genocide; her experiences as a refugee and an immigrant have shaped her artistic expression. Mam-Luft has been the recipient of significant scholarships from Bates Dance Festival, as well as of American Dance Festival. Her work has been funded by the Merck Corporation and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, among other private supporters in the Pittsburgh area. She has produced her work in Pittsburgh, Dallas, and now, of course, Cincinnati. MamLuft&Co. Dance is currently collaborating with video artist, Vince Linz, on several projects including a dance-for-camera short film and (along with experimental composer Michael Perdue) a collaborative evening for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

Judith Mikita
Judith Mikita teaches modern dance at the university of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music. Recently, her choreography has been presented at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cleveland’s Poetry not in the Woods Series, Miami University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, The Performance and Time Arts Series, and the Biagiotti Art Gallery in Florence, Italy. Judith toured nationally with the Chicago-based dance companies of Shirley Mordine, Jan Erkert, and Bob Eisen. She also worked with Martha Clarke (Pilobolus co-founder) and Lucas Hoving (Jose Limon Dance Company principle). Judith has served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Antioch College and as guest artist-n-residence at the University of Utah. Judith holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and BA in Theater and Dance from Indiana University. Her dance video, Palimpsest, made with video artist Charles Woodman, was presented at the New York International Independent Film Festival.

Jan Van Dyke
Jan Van Dyke has wide experience as a producer and administrator as well as artist and has set her choreography on a variety of artists ranging from the Washington Ballet to students at the Western Australia Academy for the Performing Arts in Perth. Currently Chair of the Department of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she is also director of the Jan Van Dyke Dance Group and produces the NC Dance Festival, an annual showcase of regional work. She formerly directed a studio and company in Washington D.C. for 8 years, touring nationally with her company and as a solo artist. During this time, she spent many weeks in Cincinnati, teaching and choreographing for CDT. A 1993 Fulbright Scholar, she spent one semester teaching dance in Portugal and was awarded a NC Arts Council Choreography Fellowship in the same year. In 2001, she was honored by the North Carolina Dance Alliance for Contributions to the Development of Dance in this state.