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Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance's mission is to excite dance audiences through the medium of classical ballet while expressing the immediacy and humanity of post-modern contemporary dance. Lavagnino's choreography inhabits the dynamic extremes of ballet, invoking both rigor and ease to create a passionate expression of the ever-shifting nature of our emotions and interactions. By confronting rather than transcending the physical limitations of pointe work and other virtuosities idiomatic to ballet, Lavagnino accesses extreme aspects of the human condition such as aggression, fragility, and struggle. |
| Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance is a New York City based contemporary ballet company formed in 2000 as a platform for the choreography of Cherylyn Lavagnino. The company’s mission is to excite dance audiences through the medium of classical ballet while expressing the immediacy and humanity of post-modern contemporary dance. The company has been presented for four NY Seasons by Danspace Project in St. Mark’s Church and has performed at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, DanceNow/NYC Festival, The Joyce Theater’s “Evening Stars” series in Battery Park, Symphony Space’s “Dance Sampler”, The Field’s “Uptown/Downtown” workshop and performance |
series, and three times at Inside/Out at Jacob’s Pillow. Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance has been supported by space grants from the Baryshnikov Arts Center, company residencies at The Yard and SILO, and has received corporate matching grants from Computer Associates, Inc. for the past four Seasons. The company has received funding from the American Music Center’s Live Music for Dance grant and from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in support of its bi-annual “Salon Series”. This Series of artist salons, curated by Lavagnino, feature performances of dance and live music in a gallery setting to bring together artists of various disciplines living in Manhattan to create a dialog between enthusiasts of dance, music and visual art. |
Cherylyn Lavagnino (Artistic Director/Choreographer) has an MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, as well as a BA in Philosophy from USC. Lavagnino toured nationally as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet, performing at New York’s City Center and at BAM. Her merits as a performer include work with the San Diego Ballet, Arizona Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Teatro del Espacio in Mexico City. She has performed a range of classical repertoire and contemporary work by choreographers including Balanchine, John Butler, Hans Van Manen, and Tere O’Connor, and the diversity of these experiences has informed the dialogue between classical and contemporary in her work with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.
Lavagnino has created over thirty works in the past fifteen years, and since 2000 the platform for her choreography has been Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. Many of those works were created in collaboration with composers Scott Killian and Andy Teirstein, and she regularly incorporates the performance of live music into her performances. Lavagnino’s choreography has been presented in New York City by Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church (for four NY Seasons), and by The Field, Dance Theater Workshop, Symphony Space, DanceNow/NYC, Ballet Builders at Florence Gould Hall, and The Joyce Theatre’s “Evening Stars” series. Lavagnino is a recipient of the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation’s award for choreography and of a space grant residency from the Baryshnikov Arts Center and her choreography has been supported by the American Music Center’s Live Music for Dance grant and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Manhattan Creative Communities Fund.
Cherylyn Lavagnino offers professional ballet training that emphasizes sound skeletal alignment, mechanical efficiency, and gravity in order to increase the dancer's own structural support for physical freedom, directness of intention, and ease with musical and technical complexities. Lavagnino's sophisticated and clear approach to ballet technique incorporates her wealth of information on the body with a strong sense of the person inside the movement. Through the release of personal and physical tensions, dynamic and expressive range is continually expanded and an honest level of performance is attained.
Lavagnino has taught professional ballet internationally and in several New York City studios. She was invited to teach in summer programs including Bates Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, The Paul Taylor Intensive, and the International Summer School of Dance in Tokyo. In 2002, she gave daily company class for the Lyon Opera Ballet.
On the Ballet Faculty at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts since 1987, she directed the Second Avenue Dance Company for fourteen years, and in recognition of her superior work, she won New York University's prestigious David Payne Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching in May of 2003. Lavagnino currently serves as the Chair of the Dance Department at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
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Sarah BekSarah Bek hails from various regions of the country, having danced professionally in California, Ohio and Texas; her taste for the east coast has now placed her here in New York, experimenting with new works and investing her own energy into past creations. Holding a BFA from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Sarah enjoys the vigor of the city and what it calls forth from a dancer: an open spirit and the drive to give of oneself without reserve. The delight she finds in the workings of this company of dancers, choreographers, musician and artists is contagious, and she hopes you will join us in our enthusiasm! |
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Selina ChauSelina Chau started professional dance training at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts. Upon graduation, she joined Hong Kong Ballet Company (HKB) and was promoted to Coryphée dancer in 2003. Since then she has taken on many lead roles in the company's classical and contemporary repertoire, including Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Turandot, The Merry Widow, The Rite of Spring, Rubies, and others. She became a Choreographic Apprentice with the HKB in 2007 under the directorship of Mr. John Meehan. She has choreographed for HKB's production of Swan Lake, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's production of Aida, as well as many other productions.
Selina continues her creative work in New York. In September 2009, she created A Celebration of Dreams for China's 60thAniversary at the Rose Theatre, Lincoln Center. Her work The New York Exchange was performed at La MaMa Moves Dance Festival, and Nightscape was created on members of the Tisch Dance Second Avenue Dance Company. In 2010 Selina recieved her MFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is also certified at the 200-hour level to teach alignment-based Vinyasa yoga and Mind Body Dancer TM curriculum classes, which were developed for dancers and performing artists. Selina has also danced with the Metropolitan Opera's production of Nixon in China. This is her third year dancing with CLD.
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Justin Flores
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Giovanna GamnaGiovanna Gamna is originally from Florence, Italy. she moved to the States to continue her dance education at SUNY Purchase. After earning her BFA in Dance and Performance, she has been living and freelancing in New York. She has had the good fortune to perform for Cori Kresge, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Dema Dance Company, Luca Veggetti, and Lior Shneoir, among others. This is her first year with CLD. |
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Ramona KelleyRamona Kelley grew up in Berkeley, California where trained at Berkeley Ballet Theater. In San Franscsco she performed with Austin Forbord/RAPT Productions and Terry Sendgraff Motivity Aerial Dance. In 2006 she was a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA) awardee in contemporary dance. She holds a BFA in dance from Tisch School of the Arts, where she currently serves as guest teacher as well as ballet mistress for various choreographers. In New York, she has performed with Cherylyn Lavagnino, Sidra Bell, Helen Heinman, and Janusphere Dance. Currently, Ramona is on tour with Twyla Tharp's Come Fly Away.
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Laura MeadLaura Mead grew up in Austin, Texas and Berkeley, California. She holds a BFA in Dance from Juilliard. Laura originated the principal role of Betsy in Twyla Tharp's Broadway musical Come Fly Away, afor which she received an Astaire Award nomination. She also performed with American Repertory Ballet and the national tour of Tharp's Movin' Out. |
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Patrick John O'NeillPatick John O'Neill was born and raised in Rochester, New York and has been dancing since the age of two, under his mother's guidance. He has studied all types of dance at various local dance studios in the Rochester and Buffalo areas. Patrick graduated with his BFA in Dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to working with for Cherylyn Lavagnino, since graduating Patrick has been granted the opportunity to be a company member for Lucinda Childs as well as the Steps Repertory Ensemble. Patrick's love for performance does not end with dance, but extends out into choreography, theater and voice.
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Joshua PalmerJoshua Palmer, native of Maine, moved to New York to attend NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he received his BFA in dance in '07. He has also studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, the Bates Dance Festival, and the Tisch Summer Dance Festival. While in New York, he has been fortunate to work with choreographers Hilary Easton, T. Lang, Alethea Adsitt, and Danielle Russo. Josh currently has the privilege of dancing for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Doug Elkins, Gibney Dance, Douglas Dunn, and Erica Essner. |
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Eric Williams
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Guillermo E. Brown (Composer / Vocalist / Percussionist)
Jane Chung (Mosaic String Quartet / Composer)performs as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the United States, Europe and Asia. A dedicated advocate of chamber and new music, her collaborations include the Da Capo Chamber Players and FLUX Quartet, as well as work with composers Mario Davidovsky and Eric Chasalow. In recent years, Chung has collaborated extensively with dance. With the support of a Yale AlumniVentures grant, Chung has created and premiered numerous works throughout the Northeast with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and another noted choreographer, Randy James. Her engagements in the 2009-10 Season include performances with the highly-acclaimed Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, a collaboration for which her playing has been described by critics as "excellent" and "sweet-voiced." Chung performs on a 1782 Joseph and Antonius Gagliano violin.
Catherine DeAngelis (Costume Designer)
Scott Killian (Composer) has composed works for such major American companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance-Chicago, Nikolais/Louis Dance, and the José Limón Dance Company. Mr. Killian created numerous works with Cherylyn Lavagnino, as well as with Danny Shapiro and Joanie Smith, Johannes Wieland, ZviDance, and others. As a composer/sound designer for theatre, Mr. Killian has served as Resident Composer for the Berkshire Theatre Festival since 1997. Among the many other theatrical venues are the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater, Women’s Project, The Acting Company, Rattlestick Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C., Shakespeare & Co., Seattle Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, George Street Playhouse, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Boston’s Huntington Theatre, GEVA Theatre, Theatre Calgary and the Vancouver Playhouse. Music for film includes Witnessing, a documentary film which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired on MSNBC, the film Undetectable: the Changing Face of AIDS (premiered on PBS and the NOW Film Festival/NYC) and Swan Lake, Minnesota an award-winning video adaptation of the classic ballet produced by the A&E network in conjunction with PBS.
Jacob Lawson (Violinist / Composer) has composed arrangements for best selling recording artists including Guster, Sixpence None-the-Richer, Jars of Clay, Ce Ce Winans, Vienna Teng, and Venus Hum as well as dozens of other major label artists. He has performed with these and other artists including Tim McGraw, Jill Sobule, and Richard Julian throughout the US and Europe and has appeared in broadcast on the BBC, Vh1, CBS and ABC. In the world of dance he has created three works for Tami Stronach Dance including “Pinchas, the Fish People, and the Great Flood” which was developed with Resident Artist grant at HERE Arts Center. He has also composed for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and Shapiro and Smith Dance. For film he has scored director Geoff Ryan’s first feature, “Fray” which will be released Fall 2011. He also arranged and performed on the soundtrack of “Boy Wonder”. He composed the music for The Flying Machine’s critically acclaimed stage adaptation of “Frankenstein” at the Soho Rep. that toured nationally. His compositions for theatre have also included numerous collaborations with Scott Killian for the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare & Co., Theatre Calgary, George Street Playhouse and many others.
Kyle Olson (Percussionist / Composer) is a drummer and composer currently living in Brooklyn. These days he’s been accompanying dance classes at NYU, Mark Morris, and the Joffrey School, and composing music for companies such as Cherylyn Lavagnino, Elisa Monte, Adele Myers, Gerald Casel, and for various members of the Second Avenue Dance Company at NYU. Outside of the dance world, Olson plays and has played drums with The Americans, Bad Nancy, Mark Ronson, Daniel Merriweather, and Sean Lennon. Visit http://www.myspace.com/drumko to hear other samples of Olson’s original music and for links to some of his other music projects.
Andy Tierstein (Composer). As writer and composer, has written scores for numerous choreographers, for theatre, and for film. Grants, awards, and honors include three NEA Opera/Musical Theatre Awards, a Meet the Composer Choreographer/Composer Commission; several Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Awards; a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; a MacDowell Fellowship; a Richard Rodgers Development Award; and numerous ASCAP awards. His CD Mannahatta was featured on WNYC’s New Sounds program. He has composed music for Donald Byrd’s The Beast, and Stephen Petronio’s Drawn That Way, Chris Elam’s Throw People, and has scored, arranged, and/or directed a number of musical theatre pieces, including Papushko, Winter Man, and The Wild. Music for film includes the BBC film Men, with choreography by Victoria Marks; The West, which premiered on PBS; and a BBC documentary series on Chinese scroll painting, Masters of Space. Teirstein’s viola concerto Maramures, recorded by the Prague Radio Symphony, was released on Masterworks Recordings. Original cast member of the Broadway musical hit Barnum. Appeared on Search for Tomorrow and in the film Sophie’s Choice. Commissioned by the University of Arizona to write a large-scale piece for seven choirs to accompany Liz Lerman/The Dance Exchange in their piece Hallelujah. Also commissioned by the Composer's Forum to write an original composition for symphony orchestra and choir for WashingtonState Millennium Concert.