Artist Bios
The years 2007 and 2008 marked many highlights for Kristi Spessard as a choreographer and performer. She was a 2007/08 Mabou Mines Suite Resident Artist. Also, while collaborating with photographer Anja Hitzenberger in the Changing Room Project, Gia Kourlas described her solo work as, “strangely evocative... which enigmatically charts a woman’s unsentimental evolution “. As a performer in Guta Hedewig’s Dog Days, Deborah Jowitt of the Village Voice, praised her dancing saying, “In a brilliant bit of acting, Spessard lounges in a chair and silently talks to God over the telephone, adjusting imaginary balls, and reacting with astonished outrage”. Meanwhile, she was the cover artist of Ballet Tanz Magazine’s 2007 Yearbook.
Under the auspices of URBANCHOIR Project, Kristi is directing mass improvisational dance inspired by movement theorist/architect, Rudolf Laban. Her current project, Connecting Landscapes a Berlin/NY Movement Choir will premier in Berlin on October 5th, 2008. This follows her role as founding organizer and curator of an eighty-person performance, LIMS Mosaic: Changing Landscapes, a Movement Choir, in Washington Square Park on November 8th, 2007.
Kristi is currently choreographing Hippolytus for the Barnard Theater Department (October 23-25). Her creative work, which is increasingly straddling theater and dance, is an exciting new direction and is influenced by her experiences teaching actors and dancers, most recently as a movement for actor’s teacher at Marymount Manhattan College and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and dancers at University of the Americas – Mexico, Rudgers University and Virginia School of the Arts. Her dance and performance residencies have also included: Alfred University, University of Southern Florida and Western Michigan University.
Kristi’s entrance into dance was marked by national recognition. She is the recipient of an NEA/NALAA Arts Corp Fellowship, North Carolina Dance Alliance Scholarship and an American College Dance Festival Scholars Award. Over the years her work has received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a Field Independent Artist Challenge Grant and many private foundations and individual donors. Kristi has a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from The Ohio State University and is a Laban Certified Movement Analyst.
Illya Azaroff (set designer) Architect and artist, founder of the Design Collective Studio www.dccstudio.com, an architecture and arts group located in lower Manhattan. Drawing on his background in architecture, art and contemporary dance, Azaroff’s work is often collaborative. His projects range from museum installations and set design to contemporary architecture and furniture design. He is honored to be serving as Vice President for Design Excellence at the AIA New York Chapter.
In the realm of performance, Illya has worked with dozens of choreographers including Tere O’Connor, Patricia Nanon, Luciana Achugar, Wendy Osserman, Heather Harrington, David Hurwith to name a few. His 2008 work includes critically acclaimed Dog Days with choreographer Guta Hedwig, Fully Manicured Raw Spots with Wendy Blum and most recently, Changing Room with Anja Hitzenberger that received an LMCC Swing Space grant. Illya is currently designer in residence for Freefall Dance ltd., and designed Clever Hans presented at the Here theater in 2006. In 2003 his set for Auto.public with choreographer Mark Jarecke received a SARA Award of Merit from the Society of American Registered Architects.
Balinda Craig-Quijada (performer) is currently spending the year in New York City on sabbatical from Kenyon College where she is Associate Professor of Dance. She teaches dance history, contemporary modern dance and choreographs for BCQ Dance. Craig-Quijada is author of children's book "Dance is Fun!", and is a Regional Director on the board of the American College Dance Festival. She has a MFA in choreography from The Ohio State University and a BA in Religious Studies. Craig-Quijada has taught and performed her work in Seattle, Chicago, Beijing China and Venezuela. Balinda is happy to reunite in this project with Kristi Spessard who she has known since 1992.
Anja Hitzenberger (Video Artist) is a photographer, filmmaker and video artist whose work focuses on the body in motion. She has been commissioned to create video installations for dance performances, live photography on stage, and has been collaborating on site-specific architecturally-aware pieces. Her photography work has been exhibited in both group and one-person shows in New York and throughout Europe, and published internationally. Her video installations have been part of dance performances at Dance Theater Workshop, NY; Danspace Project, NY; Yale Repertory Theatre, CT; The Yard at Martha's Vineyard, MA; Sommerszene Salzburg, Austria; ImpulsTanz, Vienna, Austria. In 2006 Anja spent three months in Paris at the Cité International des Arts, where she shot a new film to be released in 2008. In the summer of 2007 she created "Changing Room" thanks to a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, where she photographed dancers of different body shapes and movement background inside an abandoned storefront. www.strudelmedia.com
Maya Seidel (performer) was born and raised in Israel. She trained at the Joffrey Ballet School in NYC and graduated in 2005 from the New School University with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. Since graduating, Maya has worked with Theresa Duhon, Ellis Wood, Pascal Rekoert, Dialogue Dance Collective, and performed work by German conceptual artist Jonathan Monk. She showed her work at the 2007 Vox Nouvox 60X60 Festival in NYC. Maya appeared in the recent film The Bentfootes directed by Kriota Willberg, and in NY Film Academy productions Shadow Runner and Leave Them Alone. In 2008, Maya began working with Pilobolus Dance Theater as a PCS (Pilobolus Creative Services) dancer. She performed with Pilobolus in the Ford “Powered by You” TV commercial. In addition to performing, Maya teaches yoga, Pilates, and Hebrew to people of all ages.
Patrick Shaw (performer) was born in Washington DC on New Years Day. Since moving to New York this past year, he has acted in the The Silos of Dwaynesburg, 365 Days/365 Plays, and Diving in December for the New York Fringe festival. A founding member of Fourth River Theater Ensemble (Pittsburgh) and Full Stop Theater (New York), he looks forward to working more as a dancer, playwright, and visual artist. He has a B.A. in Theater and American Studies from Kenyon College and has trained at the National Theater Institute.
Lutin Tanner (performer) hails from Mankato, MN. He received a BA in Dance and Theatre from Western Michigan University. A technical internship at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, introduced him Garth Fagan Dance, who he performed nationally and internationally with for 5 years. Moving to New York City in 2000, Lutin has performed with Dzul Dance, Silver/Brown Dance, Earl Mosley, M.e.l.d Dance Works, Duhon Dance, and toured to China with Nai Ni Chen Dance. He has been commissioned to choreograph two pieces for Middle Collegiate Church, performing one of them at the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia with Adrienne. Lutin continues to perform as a freelance dancer and present his own choreographic work throughout NYC and abroad.
Kara Thurmond (designer) recently moved from the Big Apple to the Hudson Valley where she lives with her husband, Andrew Amelinckx, and dog, Boo. She has a BA in Philosophy from Mary Washington College in Virginia and has studied photography, printmaking and mixed media at various schools including the Art Student League of New York and the Corcoran in Washington DC. Her work has been shown in New York City, Stamford, Connecticut, Washington, DC, Roanoke, Virginia and Catskill, New York. Kara has 14 years of experience in conceptualize and designing print, web and e-business collateral. Both Kara's fine-art work and graphic design work has received several awards.