Commissioned Artists

Gibney Company is a creation-based repertory company commissioning work from both internationally renowned and emerging choreographers who are committed to exploring connections between the rigorous, often superhuman physicality of contemporary dance alongside responsive, humanistic storytelling. 

SPRING 2020: INSIDER/OUTSIDER

White woman wearing black, standing and looking at the camera.

Banning Bouldin, Nashville native and Juilliard graduate, began her career as a contemporary dancer working internationally with such companies and choreographers as the Cullberg Ballet, Mats Ek, Aszure Barton, Johan Inger, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lar Lubovitch, Jacqulyn Buglisi, and others. In 2012, motivated by her passion to increase awareness of contemporary dance in the South, Bouldin returned to Nashville and formed New Dialect, a nonprofit contemporary dance collective that hosts year round professional development for artists and community outreach initiatives. As the company’s resident choreographer and artistic director, she has created, directed, and produced numerous works for theaters, gallery spaces, and site specific installations. Bouldin has gained national attention for her pioneering efforts in Nashville resulting in awards and nominations such as the Tanne Foundation Award, the Margaret Martin Award, the United States Artist Fellowship, the Tennessee Arts Commissions’ Individual Artist Fellowship, SouthArts Momentum initiative and others. In addition to her work with New Dialect, Bouldin frequently collaborates with companies and schools across the country. She has created original works for Visceral Dance Chicago, SALT, Whim W’him, Groundworks Dance Theatre, the Juilliard School, Booker T. Washington HSPVA, and looks forward to collaborating with Gibney Dance in their upcoming season.

Mark Caserta with his arms behind him looking away.

Mark Caserta, from Philadelphia, graduated from the University of the Arts with a BFA in Dance & Ballet Performance in 2010. He danced professionally with international touring companies Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz De Montreal and Camille A. Brown & Dancers since then. Mark was a 2018 Emerging Choreographer at Springboard Danse Montreal and recently premiered his first full evening length work at Gibney for the POP Performance Series in February 2019. In the past year, Mark was commissioned and set work on Dark Circles Contemporary Dance with partner Mikey Morado and Atlanta based company Kit Modus. Mark has presented work at Wanderlust Dance Festival, The Austin Dance Festival, The Banff Center for Performing Arts, Place des Arts and Ucine C for Springboard Danse Montreal, Steps On Broadway Choreography Lab and the Brooklyn Dance Festival. He has also set works on the University of the Arts School of Dance and Pace University. He currently teaches full time as well as co-directs the Pre Professional Company at Dance Industry Performing Arts Center, non profit the Thriving Artist Project and creating new work for his own project.

Mark Caserta joins this season as the second annual Gibney Company/Springboard EMERGE Awardee Mark Caserta, a partnership between Gibney Company and Springboard Danse Montréal which aims to cultivate, mentor, and actualize the burgeoning visions of today’s young artists toward becoming tomorrow’s creative leaders in the field.

Yin Yue looking directly into the camera with a serious expression.

Yin Yue is the founder and artistic director of YYDC. She created an innovative contemporary dance technique FoCo Technique that soon caught the attention of the dance industry and was taught by Yin Yue around the world. Yin was the winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2015 International Commissioning Project, the 2015 BalletX Choreographic Fellowship, and the Northwest Dance Project’s 5th Annual Pretty Creatives International Choreographic Competition in 2013. Yin was commissioned by all three of these widely recognized companies as well as Pennsylvania Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Limon Dance Company, Alberta Ballet, Gibney Dance, Whim W’him, Bruce Wood Dance, Ririe-woodbury Dance Company, Boston Dance Theater, 10 Hairy Legs, New Dialect, Balletto Teatro di Torino, Backhausdance. She was also awarded First Place in Choreography at National Professional Dance Competition in Shanghai, China, 92Y Harkness Dance 2016-2017 Artist In Residence, Emerging Choreographer of 2015 at Springboard Danse Montreal, as well as a finalist at the A.W.A.R.D Show 2010! presented by the Joyce Theater Foundation. Her work has been recognized by organizations and festivals such as SummerStage, Jacob’s Pillow Inside out Festival, Schrit_tmacher Festival in Aachen, Germany, New York International Fringe Festival, DanceNow NYC at Joe’s Pub and many more.

Fall 2019: Both/And

Black woman smiling at the camera with a deep shadow behind her.

Stefanie Batten Bland (Choreographic Artist, Filmmaker) Jerome Robbins awardee, Stefanie Batten Bland physically interrogates contemporary and historical cultural symbolism – and the complexities of human relationships. Her intercontinental dance-theatre Company SBB, formed in 2008 in France situates their work at the intersection of installation and dance-theatre in film and live performance settings. Currently, SBB is a Choreographer for American Ballet Theatre’s Women Movement Initiative. She lives with her family in New York City.

Asian man leaning side, kneeling in a crouched position, looking at the camera.

Born in the Bronx, NY, & raised in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Peter Chu began his training as a competitive gymnast, later nurturing his artistry at Dussich Dance Studio. Upon graduation from The Juilliard School, he performed with BJM Danse, EZdanza, Aszure Barton & Artists, Kidd Pivot, & in ‪Celine Dion‬‬‬’s Vegas spectacular, A New Day. In 2008, Peter formed a Las Vegas project based dance company, chuthis., which showcases the work of Chu & his collaborators. Chu has created works for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Charlotte Ballet II, Orlando Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street 2, Giordano Dance Chicago, SYTYCD, Naomi Stikeman’s Çaturn, Houston MET Dance, New Dialect, SALT Contemporary Dance, NDT Summer Intensive, Springboard Danse Montreal, & The Juilliard School, among others. This past season, Chu premiered new creations for Charlotte Ballet, Staatstheater Augsburg, Germany, and HSPro. He is also working on a creation with his own company, chuthis.

Artistic Collaborators 

SPRING 2020: INSIDER/OUTSIDER

Asami Morita (Lighting Design) grew up backstage and later made her way onstage as a performer. Returning to her back stage roots, she has been on tour as a lighting supervisor with Kota Yamazaki, Yasuko Yokoshi, Kashu-Juku Noh Theater among others before becoming Technical Director at Gibney. Her lighting design includes but not limited to shows by Mike Albo, Mayfield Brooks, Dylan Crossman, Hilary Easton, Jack Ferver, Gina Gibney, Jumatatu M Poe, Jill Sigman, Makiko Tamura, Caleb Teicher, Steeledance, Gwen Welliver and Nami Yamamoto.

Victoria Bek (Costume Design, Banning Bouldin’s Commission) is a Brooklyn- based Costume Artist geared towards creative, collaborative processes. She works regularly as a Craft Artisan and Technician for Broadway and OffBroadway productions, in addition to Costume Consulting for international touring companies. Her work has been presented at The Park Avenue Armory, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Highline, The New York Philharmonic, and more.

Christine Darch (Costume Design, Yin Yue’s A Measurable Existence) pursued a B.F.A. in Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design after high school. More interested in the creative process than becoming a fashion industry automaton, she switched tracks to graduate from Purchase College with a B.F.A. in Costume Design. She has enjoyed a prolific collaboration with Julia Adam designing and often building sets and costumes for her commissioned works with Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Ballet Memphis, Cincinnati Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Houston Ballet, Marin Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, and San Francisco Ballet. She also have designed ballets for many lauded choreographers including Amy Seiwert, James Kudelka, Matthew Neenan, Jae Man Joo, Brian Reeder, Dwight Rhoden, and Merian Soto.

Caitlin Taylor (Costume Design, Mark Caserta’s UMEUS) Born and raised in the Poconos, Pennsylvania, Caitlin moved to New York City to attend Marymount Manhattan College where she graduated with a B.F.A. in Dance. After graduation, in addition to freelancing as a dancer, Caitlin began working as a costume and wardrobe assistant for the Ailey School and Elena Comendador at Treehouse Productions, building for companies such as Shen Wei Dance Arts, Complexions, and American Ballet Theatre’s Make A Ballet. Caitlin has designed costumes for Sidra Bell Dance New York, UNA Projects, NVA & Guests, Welcome to Campfire, Marymount Manhattan College, Cirio Collective, The Dash Ensemble, HIVEWILD, Loni Landon Dance Projects, and has done costume development for Alexander Whitley Dance Company, the touring production of RENT, and Doug Varone and Dancers. Assisting designer Mark Eric, Caitlin has worked on commissions for Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and Ballet X. Caitlin continues to perform internationally as a freelance dance artist.

Taylor Knight and Anna Thompson are co-founding artistic directors of slowdanger (Composer, Mark Caserta’s UMEUS), a multidisciplinary performance entity based in Pittsburgh PA. Anna/Taylor have created with Sidra Bell, Bill Shannon, MICHIYAYA Dance, Gia Cacalano, Anna Henson, Jasmine Hearn, Maree Remalia|merrygogo, Beth Corning, Mark C. Thompson, The Pillow Project|Pearlann Porter, Jil Stifel, Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson (s+vois) and more. Their work has been experienced at Springboard Danse Montreal, The MoMA, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Place Des Arts, Université du Québec à Montréal, Dance Place, The VIA Festival, The Andy Warhol Museum, The Pittsburgh Biennial, BAAD!, Usine C, and more. slowdanger is one of Dance Magazine’s 2018 ‘25 to Watch’, emerging choreographers for Springboard Danse Montreal 2018, guest artists at Movement Invention Project, and Sidra Bell’s MODULE. Their work has been supported by The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant 2018, The Heinz Endowments/Pittsburgh Foundation Investing in Professional Artists Award 2019, The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Special Presenters Initiative with Dance Place, The Opportunity Fund 2017/2019, The Pittsburgh Foundation Andrew W. Mellon Grant 2019, The Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative 2016/2019.

LJOVA ‘Lev Zhurbin’ (Composer, Banning Bouldin’s Commission) was born in 1978 in Moscow, Russia, and moved to New York with his parents, composer Alexander Zhurbin and writer Irena Ginzburg, in 1990. He divides his time between composing for the concert stage, contemporary dance & film, leading his own ensemble LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND, as well as a busy career as a freelance violist, violinist & musical arranger. Among recent projects are commissions from the City of London Sinfonia, The Louisville Orchestra, a new work for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, a string quartet for Brooklyn Rider, a clarinet quintet for Art of Élan, and works for The Knights, Sybarite5 and A Far Cry, as well arrangements for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, tenor Javier Camarena, conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Alondra de la Parra, the Mexican songwriter Natalia Lafourcade, Argentine composer/guitarist Gustavo Santaolalla. Ljova frequently collaborates with choreographers Aszure Barton, Damian Woetzel, Christopher Wheeldon, Katarzyna Skarpetowska (with Parsons Dance).  He is an alum of the Sundance Institute’s Film Composers Lab. His music has been licensed by HBO, PBS, BBC, CNBC, and NHK networks, among many other independent projects.

Besides films, Rutger Zuydervelt (Composer, Yin Yue’s A Measurable Existence) also composes music for dance pieces, like Alix Eynaudi & Kris Verdonck’s (EXIT), Alexander Whitley (The Measures Taken and Beheld), and Marta Alstadsæter & Kim-Jomi Fischer (As Much As It Is Worth and Engel). He also worked on multiple pieces by Spanish/Dutch choreographer Iván Pérez, the most recent being BECOMING, which featured Zuydervelt performing the music live on stage. Then there’s Zuydervelt’s installation work, in which the dialogue with the environment plays an important role. He did projects for Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAi (Dutch Architecture Institute), the new Armando Museum MOA, Sounds Like Audio Art in Saskatoon (Canada), the Into the Great Wide Open Festival, Netwerk in Aalst (Belgium) and children’s museum Villa Zebra in Rotterdam. There’s a first time for everything, and in 2016 Zuydervelt started working on his first video game score, for the hugely successful American sci-fi adventure Astroneer, launched in December that year.

Fall 2019: Both/And

Shane Ballard (Costume Design, Stefanie Batten Bland’s 5 ST. FIFPERHANWAY PLACE APT 2A) is an Emmy Award winning Costume Illustrator and Designer. He recently worked as an illustrator on the design teams for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and forthcoming Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect. Illustration credits also include: the fi lm Harriet, NBC’s The Wiz Live, Broadway hit, Ain’t Too Proud and HBO’s The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. His costume design credits include: Hair for Berkshire Theater Group, An Octoroon for Rutgers Theater Company, Madame Infamy for The NY Musical Theater Festival, One Day at 3LD Art and Technology Center, Oliver The Musical at El Museo del Barrio and Inappropriate at The Odyssey Theater. His work in the world of dance includes costume design for dance artists Brotherhood Dance and Mersiha Mesihovic. This is his 3rd collaboration with Stefanie Batten Bland. He designed the costumes for the premier of her recent work, Look Who’s Coming To Dinner and last year’s, Embarqued. Ballard currently teaches Costume Design and Illustration at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School Of The Arts.

Victoria Bek (Costume Design, Peter Chu’s FORMING OUT) is a Brooklyn- based Costume Artist geared towards creative, collaborative processes. She works regularly as a Craft Artisan and Technician for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, in addition to Costume Consulting for international touring companies. Her work has been presented at The Park Avenue Armory, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Highline, The New York Philharmonic, and more.

Grant Cutler (Composer, Stefanie Batten Bland’s 5 ST. FIFPERHANWAY PLACE APT 2A) (b. 1983) is a composer and interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates sound, photography, video, book-arts, and emerging technologies. Over the last decade, he has scored award-winning films and plays, made work commissioned by Abraham Cruzvillegas, performed inside a James Turrell sculpture, shared stages with world-renowned artists including Ólafur Arnalds and Isabel Allende, and installed quadraphonic sound environments in Manhattan galleries. Cutler’s recent work takes form in multichannel sound installations, experimental composition, generative websites, and music for film, exploring the profound effects of engaging in deep silence, the entropic nature of memory, and exposing the mystical in the quotidian.

Asami Morita (Lighting Design) grew up backstage and later made her way onstage as a performer. Returning to her back stage roots, she has been on tour as a lighting supervisor with Kota Yamazaki, Yasuko Yokoshi, Kashu-Juku Noh Theater among others before becoming Technical Director at Gibney. Her lighting design includes but not limited to shows by Mike Albo, Mayfield Brooks, Dylan Crossman, Hilary Easton, Jack Ferver, Gina Gibney, Jumatatu M Poe, Jill Sigman, Makiko Tamura, Caleb Teicher, Steeledance, Gwen Welliver and Nami Yamamoto.

Tsubasa Kamei (Set Design, Peter Chu’s FORMING OUT) is a scenic and lighting designer who works in theater and dance globally and internationally. His credits include: Scenery and Lighting for MERCY (World Premiere), Lighting for FOUR CORNERS; DANCING SPIRIT; NEW CONVERSATIONS: IRON MEETS WATER (World Premiere) for Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company. He has also designed THE CALL (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) and WHERE THE LIGHT SHINES THROUGH (TU Dance), all choreographed by Mr. Ronald K. Brown.

Jake Kelberman (Musician, Peter Chu’s FORMING OUT) is a guitarist, composer, and educator from Philadelphia who has performed at venues including Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center in New York City, The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He has competed in the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition in Montreux, Switzerland and was a finalist in both the Wilson Center Jazz Guitar Competition in Milwaukee and the “Keep an Eye” Jazz Competition in Amsterdam. Jake has performed and recorded with artists including Wycliff e Gordon, Ulysses Owens Jr., Jim Snidero, Gerald Veasley, Walt Weiskopf, Deana Martin, Terell Staff ord, Josh Lawrence, and Chelsea Reed. As a composer, Jake has been commissioned by the Philadelphia Jazz Project to write music inspired by the work of environmental photographer Edward Burtynsky and has collaborated with choreographer Peter Chu, composing new music for works which have been performed by The Juilliard School, The Charlotte Ballet, and Giordano Dance Chicago. Jake is a professor of jazz guitar at Temple University and has worked as a teaching artist with universities and organizations including the EMESP Tom Jobim School in São Paulo, Brazil, The University of Belize, Regional Dance America, and West Virginia Wesleyan University. An advocate for social change through music, he has worked with organizations including Concerts in Motion, Philadelphia Community Arts Network, West Park Cultural Center, and with El-Sistema inspired programs including The National Youth Orchestra and Choir of Belize and Harmony Program in New York. Jake is a member of the Global Leaders Program 2020 cohort, holds a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Performance and Political Science from Temple University, and a masters’ degree in Jazz Studies from the Juilliard School under the direction of Wynton Marsalis.






related articles

https://gibneydance.org/wp-content/languages/ar-en.html
gibneydance.org