DANCE ON ENSEMBLE / BIOGRAPHIES
TY BOOMERSHINE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & DANCER
Ty Boomershine, born 1968, studied dance at the Fort Hayes School for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Ohio, completing his studies with a B.F.A. magna cum laude in dance from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. In addition to working with Lucinda Childs Dance, Emio Greco | PC, LeineRoebana, Dan Wagoner, Gus Solomons Jr., Bill T. Jones, Ton Simons and the Merce Cunningham Repertory Ensemble, he has also performed in various works by DANCENOISE and in Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach. He has presented his own work at Movement Research, and Danspace Project at St. Marks Church in New York, as well as at OT301, and the Holland Festival in Amsterdam.
Boomershine has been rehearsal director at the International Choreographic Arts Center Amsterdam and he continues to arrange and develop workshops and creative/educational residencies for and with Lucinda Childs. As a teacher, Boomershine has taught for professional companies, festivals, universities and open professional studios throughout Europe, the United States, Asia, and South America. He has taught workshops and master classes for Lucinda Childs and Emio Greco, and he assists Childs in the setting of her works.
Ty Boomershine has been a member of the Dance On Ensemble since 2015 and is responsible for its artistic direction since 2019.
ANNA HERRMANN, DANCER
Anna Herrmann, Switzerland 1979, began her dance education in Zurich. A full scholarship from Migros-Kulturprozent allowed her to study at the School of the
Hamburg Ballett. In 1998, upon graduation, she was invited to join The Hamburg Ballet. Anna has been a company member of Niedersächsische Staatsoper Hannover, Göteborgs Operan, Staatstheater Wiesbaden and later of the Nederlands Dans Theater where she performed from 2009 until 2016. Anna has had the privilege to create and collaborate with renowned choreographers, such as John Neumeier, Jiří. Kylián, Mats Ek, Stephan Thoss, Crystal Pite, Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, Marco Goecke, Johan Inger, Franck Chartier, Sharon Eyal, Medhi Walerski among others. Since 2015 Anna is exploring her own choreographic voice and has served as guest teacher at The Royal Conservatoire Den Haag and Arts Umbrella Vancouver.
CHRISTINE KONO, DANCER
Christine Kono, USA 1946. In 1955 she studied ballet with Igor Schwezoff and Harriet de Rea, followed by scholarships at Ballet Companies in San Francisco, New York and Chicago. From 1962 to 1971 she worked with George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Anna Sokolow and Donald McKayle, dancing for the Pennsylvania Ballet and Eliot Feld’s American Ballet Company. Christine arrived in Europe in 197I and danced at Tanzforum Köln for Kurt Jooss, Christopher Bruce, Glen Tetley and Jochen Ulrich. In 1981 she earned a masters diploma for teaching dance at the Folkwang University in Essen. She was ballet master for Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal from 1987 to 1994 and regularly taught The Forsythe Company from 2007 to 2014. She is currently guest professor at Ballet Preljocaj, Company Amala Dianor, Hollins University, and the Centre National de la Danse, Paris.
EMMA LEWIS, DANCER
Emma Lewis, United Kingdom 1968, trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School in London. She began her career as a classical ballet dancer first in Zaragoza, Spain, and then in Florence, Italy. Rediscovering contemporary dance she devoted herself to training in the Graham and Cunningham techniques at the London Contemporary Dance School, after which she joined Cullberg Ballet in Sweden staying for over eight years. During this time Emma worked with Mats Ek, Carolyn Carlson, Ohad Naharin, J.ř. Kyli.n, Johan Inger and Philippe Blanchard among others. In France she works with Joelle Bouvier, Kader Belarbi and Eric Oberdorff of La Compagnie Humaine with whom she has collaborated for over 10 years. Emma Lewis is also a certified teacher in the Alan Herdman Pilates method since 15 years, working with professional dancers, school children, non-dancers and Parkinson sufferers.
GESINE MOOG, DANCER
Gesine Moog, Germany 1976, received her Bachelor of Arts at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts 1997. After graduating she danced for the Frankfurter Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbruecken and Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Munich. In 2004 Gesine was named a “dancer to watch” by the magazine Tanz. In 2007 she toured Sweden with Riksteatern and Batsheva Dance Company’s production of Ohad Naharin’s Kamuyot. She was awarded the Riksteatern’s award for “Dancer of the year 2007” for outstanding performance and dedication. Since 2008 Gesine Moog has been a member of Cullberg Ballet, where she has worked with, among others, Mats Eck, Jiř. Kyli.n, Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Gaetano Soto, Edouard Lock, Robert Cohan, Antony Rizzi, Benoit Lachambre, Eszter Salamon, Deborah Hay, Jefta van Dinther and Ian Kaler.
JONE SAN MARTIN, DANCER
Jone San Martin, Spain 1966, studied dance with Mentxu Medel at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and at Mudra International in Brussels. She was a dancer at the Ballet Nacional de Espana, at Ulmer Theater, with Jacopo Godani in Brussels and at the Ballet Royal de Wallonie in Charleroi. She joined Ballett Frankfurt in 1992 and was a dancer at The Forsythe Company from 2005 to 2015. She was a guest at the Avignon Festival in 2004 where she performed the solo “Tourlourou”, created for her by Carlotta Sagna, as part of the ‘Sujets à Vif’ series. In 2006, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asociaci.n de Profesionales de Danza de Gipuzkoa. Since 2014, she is Associated Artist of Dantzaz Kompainia in Donostia. She curated the Performing Arts Programme for DDSS16 (Donostia / San Sebastian Cultural City in Europe 2016).
LIA WITJES-POOLE, DANCER
Lia Witjes-Poole, Canada 1979, received her formal education at Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, British Colombia. While in their Youth Dance Company, she danced with renowned Canadian choreographers such as Joe Laughlin, Gioconda Barbuto and Wen Wei Wang. Lia started her professional career in Toronto with Desroisiers
Dance Theatre. Moving to the Netherlands she worked with Pieter de Ruiter, Jennifer Hanna, Itzik Galili, Omar Rajeh, Heather Ware, and LeineRoebana. Lia has also made two dance films with Ivar Hagendoorn. Lia has taught ballet and contemporary dance at the Amsterdam Academie voor Theater en Dans, The Dutch National Ballet Academy, Codarts in Rotterdam and has come full circle to Canada where she has been developing an international educational exchange between Arts Umbrella and the Dutch dance institutions.
MIKI ORIHARA, DANCER
Miki Orihara, Japan, 1960, was a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company, for which she earned a Bessie Award in 2010. She has performed on Broadway in The King and I and with among others Elisa Monte, Rioult Dance, Twyla Tharp, Martha Clarke, and Robert Wilson. She has taught at Art International in Moscow, Peridance, the Ailey School, New York University, Henny Jurriëns Stichting (Holland), Les Et.s de la Danse Paris. She is on faculty at the Graham School and The Hartt School (University of Hartford). Miki Orihara choreographed Searching Dimensions in 1995, followed by VOICE, for M’Deux Ballet in Nagoya, Japan (2001), Stage (2008), Prologue (2014) and Shirabyoshi (2017). In 2018 she released the first Martha Graham technique DVD. Miki was featured in the inaugural performance of Peace is… at the United Nations as part of the Permanent Mission of Japan in April 2017 and August 2018.
MARCO VOLTA, DANCER
Marco Volta, Italy 1969, studied dance at “Lo Studio” Dance School Bussoleno, Italy. He has been dancing for several theatres and independent dance companies in Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland since 1994, among them Balletto Teatro di Torino, Tanztheater Wien, Theater Freiburg and Cois Ceim Dance Theatre.
As a choreographer he has created several works that have been presented in Seoul, New York, Turin and Basel, among other places. Marco is currently Lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts, Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Dance and Higher Education for Contemporary and Urban Stage Dance. He also works with children and teenagers, for example with the miniMIR Education Dance Program and the Young Ensemble Hermesdance. In 2015 he obtained a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Dance Culture at the University Bern.
TIM PERSENT, DANCER
Tim Persent, South Africa 1964. Tim graduated from Rambert School in 1986, and danced for Second Stride and Rambert Dance Company in London. From 1987 to 1994 he was a member of the Rotterdamse Dansgroup. since 1994 he has been a dancer and artistic collaborator with LeineRoebana in Amsterdam. In the Netherlands he has performed with choreographers Krisztina de Châtel, Paul Selwyn Norton, Michael Schumacher and Roland Shankula. Tim was awarded the Silver Dance Prize in 1993 and the Golden Swan in 2004. Tim has worked as Artistic Director of the International Theaterschool Festival (IST) in Amsterdam, consulted for the Dutch Arts Council and the Dutch Performing Arts Fund. Since 2017 Tim is teaching at CODARTS Dance Academy in Rotterdam and since March 2019 he is the first certified SAFE FLOOR coach in the Netherlands.