Barak Marshall (USA/Israel)  www.barakmarshall.com

“Barak Marshall is a true auteur, a fully-fledged choreographer, with a powerful style and a unique voice.  His work is muscular, original, fevered, carried by excellent dancers, and by an internal force and an intelligence that infuse it with eloquence that is at times arresting."

                 —Raphael de Gubernatis, Le Nouvel Observateur

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Barak is the son of acclaimed dancer, choreographer and musician Margalit Oved.  Since his accidental entrance into dance in 1995, Barak fast established himself as one Israeli dance’s most innovative and unique voices.  Barak’s third work, Emma Goldman’s Wedding, represented Israel in the 1998 Bagnolet International Competition where it won first prize.  His company went on to tour extensively throughout Europe, including performances in Berlin, Lyon and Paris.  In 1999 Barak was invited by Ohad Naharin to become the Batsheva Dance Company’s first-ever house choreographer.  Barak is also a singer and has performed as a soloist with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, the Yuval Ron Ensemble and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.  Barak studied social theory and philosophy at Harvard University.  He is a guest lecturer at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures.  He currently divides his time between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles.  Barak recently received the prestigious Creative Capital Grant for his new music production, Symphony of Tin Cans, with Margalit Oved and the Balkan Beat Box.  His work MONGER—which was commissioned by the Suzanne Dellal Center—is currently touring throughout Israel, Europe, Asia and the United States.  Barak’s newest work, Rooster, premiered at the Israeli Opera House in November 2009. 

Barak will be teaching repertoire from his two last creations, Monger and Rooster, and will work-shop material for his new piece.

Lisi Estaras (Belgium)  

"Mesmerizing performers, skillfully blurring the boundaries of dance, drama, comedy, acrobatics and music they communicate to the audience not only what is explicit, but more importantly what is implicit."

                     —London Dance

Lisi Estaras began dancing at the age of 14.  She studied classical dance in the Teatro San Martin in Cordoba and together with some friends, she founded the collective Ballet Universitario—her first attempt to approach integrate other forms of dance into her work.  At the age of 19 she traveled to Israel to study at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem.  Two years later she was accepted to the Batsheva Ensemble under the co-artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and Naomi Perlov.  In 1996 Lisi moved to Europe where she began dancing with Alain Platel’s Les Ballets C de la B.  Since joining the collective she co-created and performed in the critically acclaimed pieces “Iets op Bach,” “Wolf,” “VSPRS” and “Pitie!”  She also performed in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Tempus Fugit.”  In addition to her work at C de la B, Lisi has collaborated with numerous companies and artists including Peeping Tom’s “Une vie Inutile,” Einat Tuchman’s “Bartime,” Constanza Macras, Dorky Park’s “PORNOsotros” and “No Wonder” for Schaubuhnne—Berlin.  Since 2007, Lisi has been choreographing on the les Ballet C de la B collective.  She directed and danced in “La Mancha” (C de la B, 1, 2, 3 Propositions, 2005), “Patchagonia” (C de la B, 2007), “Bolero” (Opening Festival van Vlandereen, 2009), “I Know a Place” (Istres, France (2009), and “Caracol” (Amateur Kunsten Festival, 2010). “Primero,” her latest work for les Ballet C de la B premiered in Brussels in March 2010 and will tour over 35 dates around Europe and America.

The focus of Lisi’s workshop is “Emotions in Movement.”  Participants will experiment with physicall states in the creation of movement and investigate how different qualities can help us to compose original dance phrases.  The point of departure will be material from Lisi’s latest work, “Primero,” (les ballet c de la b) as inspiration for creating a personal and unique way of moving.

Bruno Bouché (France) www.operadeparis.fr   www.artdusablier.fr   

 “Bruno Bouché, one of the most appreciated members of the corps de ballet of Paris Opera Ballet, conceived a diversified program without any lassitude, to show how the rising generation of Paris Opera Ballet dancers are now well ready not only to dance the great classical repertory on top form but to create their own choreography or to interpret the newest contemporary works. This is a very impressive demonstration that will tame those individuals who persist in maintaining ghettos barriers between classical and contemporary dance.”

                    —Gérard Mannonni

Bruno joined the Paris Opera ballet 1989 where he regularly performs the company’s repertoire including the works of Pina Bausch, George Balanchine, Angelin Preljocaj, Rudolph Nureyev and Roland Petit.  Bruno is also a core member of the Opera’s Young Dancers Project and recently founded the project “Incidence Choreographique,” which sets the work of independent choreographers on the Paris Opera dancers and performs them throughout the world.  In 2009 the company performed at the Karmiel Festival and the Suzanne Dellal Centre and will return to Israel again this year.  Bruno has recently begun to choreograph and currently appears as a guest artist in projects throughout the world.

Bruno will be teaching ballet technique and contemporary repertoire.  

Naomi Perlov (Israel/France)

Born in 1959 to the renowned filmmaker David Perlov, Naomi received her dance training at Tel Aviv’s Bat Dor School, Schola Cantorum in Paris and with Milton Myers in New York.  In 1984 she graduated with Honors from the Benesh Institute of Choreology and began working at the Paris Opera (G.R.C.O.P) as a choreologiste and rehearsal director.  She worked with Regine Chopinot’s Company for 4 years and since 1998 has worked with Angelin Preljocaj, assisting in his creations and restaging his ballets all over the world including “Le Parc” at the Paris Opera (1994), “L’Oiseau du Feu” at the Munich Opera (1995),  “La Stravaganza” at the New York City Ballet (1997), “Casanova” at the Paris Opera (1998), “Sacre du Printemps” at the Berlin Opera (2002) and “Medee” at the Paris Opera (2005).  From 1994-1998 Naomi was the Co-Artistic Director of the Batsheva Ensemble alongside Ohad Naharin.  From 1999-2005 she was the Artistic Director of the Shades of Dance Choreography competition. She has worked as an assistant to the choreographers Itzhik Galilee and Emanuel Gat and currently directs The Maslool, a professional dance-training program in Tel Aviv.

Naomi will be teaching modern class.

Jay Augen (Israel/Holland)

Jay Augen began his dance instruction at the age of nine at The School of the American Ballet (SAB), in New York.  From 1970-1974 he danced with the New York City Ballet under the Artistic Direction of George Balanchine.  In 1974 Jay moved to Israel and has danced with the Israeli Ballet, the Bat-Dor Dance Company, and the Batsheva Dance Company where he was a dancer, company teacher and rehearsal director.  In 1980 he left to study teaching at the School of the National Ballet of Canada.  From 1980-1982 he taught in companies and schools around the world, including the School of the Opera de Paris, the Joseph Russillo Dance Company in Paris, and the Batsheva Dance Company and the Kibbutz Dance Company in Israel.  In 1994 Jay was invited to Scapino Ballet in The Netherlands as First Ballet Master, working closely with resident choreographer Ed Wubbe. He currently teaches classical ballet in companies and schools throughout Israel and abroad.

Jay will be teaching the repertoire of Marco Goeke.

Chuck Park (South Korea)

Chuck Park is the founder of movement method Mulchanjaebi which he designed to deepen dancers' understanding of the body's physiology and maximize physical training and performance as it is applied to contemporary dance, ballet, and physical theater.  In addition Chuck has used his method to rehabilitate and strengthen numerous world-class athletes, marathon runners and body builders.  Chuck is also an expert teacher in the martial arts of karate, tae kwon do, aikido, and boxing and is a certified Pilates instructor.  

Maria Barrios Zaks (Venezuela) www.caracasballet.com

Michal Mualem (Israel/Germany)

Teachers 2007-2009

Emanuel Gat (France/Israel) www.emanuelgatdance.com 

"If you want to see the future of dance, take a long look at Emanuel Gat...Emanuel Gat was one of the sensations of the Jacob’s Pillow festival this summer, isn’t afraid to mix Schubert and Freud, Stravinsky and salsa. "

                    —The Kansas City Star

Born in Israel 1969, after his military service (1987-90), His first encounter with dance was at a workshop for amateurs led by Israeli choreographer Nir Ben Gal. Six months later, at age 23, Gat joined the Liat Dror Nir Ben Gal Company with whom he toured in Israel and around the world. Shortly after Gat began working as an independent choreographer, creating his first solo piece “Four Dances” in 1994 to music by Bach. Over the next 10 years Gat created a number of independent projects. In January 2004 Gat established his company - Emanuel Gat Dance, which received Israel’s Minister of Culture Award in 2005 for outstanding dance performance. In 2006 Gat was named a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation IcExcellence, one of Israel's highest honors for artists. The company has created since six pieces that have toured around the world. In September 2007, Emanuel moved his company to Istres, France.

Shen Wei (USA) www.shenweidancearts.org

"One of the great artists of our time."

                —The Washington Post

Choreographer, director, dancer, painter and designer, Shen Wei is widely recognized for his defining vision of an intercultural, interdisciplinary, utterly original mode of movement-based performance.  Born in a rural village of Hunan, China in 1968, to Chinese opera professionals, he left home at the age of nine to study the form and subsequently won a position at the Hunan State Xian Opera.  In 1991, he became a founding member—dancer and choreographer—of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first such company in China. Upon receiving a scholarship from the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab, Shen Wei moved to New York City in 1995.  In July 2000, he formed Shen Wei Dance Arts and the company extensively on five continents.  Shen Wei has received numerous awards. He is a 2007 MacArthur “Genius” and United States Artists Fellow. He has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the American Dance Festival’s Ben Sommer Fellowship among others.  Shen Wei is also a painter, designer, and photographer. His book of photography, Tibet, was created to raise awareness of that region. Its proceeds support the Pandedajie School and Dickey Orphanage in Lhasa.

Idan Cohen (Israel)  www.idan-cohen.com

Born in 1978 and raised in Israel on Kibbutz Mizra.  The kibbutz (a socialist community) life has had a strong impact on Idan's artistic life and work.  He received a scholarship to study theater and fine arts at the Art colony in Israel 's Negev (desert) and then joined the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.  Since 2003 he has been creating, performing and teaching as an award-winning independent choreographer.  A psychological sensibility, a keen sense of musicality, and a profound understanding of the cultural context, makes Idan Cohen's work a rare combination of analysis and compassion.  In March 2007 Idan received second prize for his work "A year in a fish life" at the No Ballet competition in Ludwigshafen, Germany and in 2008, Idan's "My sweet little fur"' won first prize at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany.  His latest work, "Swan Lake" was premiered in June 2009. 

Ronit Ziv (Israel) www.ronitziv.com

“Tide, the new dance piece by Ronit Ziv, has the ingredients which have made Ziv one of the most outstanding choreographers in the country.”  

                    —Time Out, Tel Aviv

Ronit Ziv—choreographer, dancer, teacher—is the winner of Israel's Young Choreographer Award in 2002 and 2005. A graduate of the Thelma Yallin School of Art, and studied acting at Beit Zvi and has worked as an independent choreographer since 1998.  Her work “Rose Can't Wait,” won first prize in the 1999 Shades of Dance Competition in Tel Aviv. She has created for the Batsheva Ensemble including “It Will End in Tears” (1999) and “Marilyn’s Night” (2000) and “Take It Off, Take It Off” (2001).  In 2001, she created “Apres Midi” for L'Esquisse Company and the National Center for Contemporary Dance CNDC in Angers, France, and in 2002 she presented her first evening-length work, “Undress,” at the Rivoli Theater in Porto in Portugal.  Ronit’s works have been performed throughout Israel and Europe including performances at the Pina Bausch Festival, the Enzimi Festival in Rome, the Marseille Festival, the Sanzwechen Music Festival in Dresden, the Netherlands’ Grand Theater in Groningen and Düsseldorf’s Tanzhaus.   Ronit has taught master classes in Moscow, Italy, Portugal, Germany and France, and was selected for a term of residency at the Pact Zollverein choreographers’ center in Essen.  She was just awarded Teva Pharmaceutical’s “Creation and Community” grant which promoted excellence in dance. 

Niv Scheinfeld (Israel) www.nivoren.com

 "A wonderful evening…Scheinfeld, Laor and their dancers display exquisite movement, with delicate nuances".

                    —Time Out, Tel Aviv

Born 1972 in Kibbutz Hanita, Niv began his dancing in 1991 as a dancer at the Liat Dror & Nir Ben Gal Dance Company.  In 1997 he left the company to work independently.  In addition to creating for his own company, Niv has created pieces for Batsheva Ensemble, the Kibbutz Dance Company, Muza Dance Company among others .  In 2004 Niv started collaborating with actor and dramaturge Oren Laor in the creation of dance-theatre productions. Niv teaches technique, repertoire and choreography at the Kibbutzim Seminar in Tel Aviv, the Rubin Academy of Dance in Jerusalem and holds workshops and master class around he world.  Niv is the recipient of the "2007 Promising Young Choreographer" award from the Israeli Ministry of Arts and Science and the “2009 Rosenblum Award for the Performing Arts.”

Sheetal Gandhi (USA) www.sheetalgandhi.com

"A performer who straddles modern dance and Broadway, Gandhi shifts seamlessly in and out of monologue, movement, and song, and from one character to the next."

                     —The New Yorker

Sheetal Gandhi is an intercultural, multidisciplinary performer and choreographer. Her first concern as an artist is to create work that stirs deep within the human experience. Originally from Northern California, Sheetal’s career has spanned genres and disciplines. Sheetal was the original creator and performer of a leading role in Cirque du Soleil’s “Dralion,” and toured with the international cast from 1999-2001. In 2004, she appeared in the Broadway production of Bombay Dreams and for three years was Co-Artistic Director of the modern dance company California Contemporary Dancers in San Francisco. Her solo and group work has been presented in theaters and festivals throughout he USA, Mexico, Canada, Ghana, Israel and India. Sheetal draws on her strengths and professional successes from an African village to the subway platform to the Broadway stage to create work that blurs cultural and disciplinary boundaries, promoting intercultural understanding through artistic excellence

Iddi Saaka (Ghana/Israel) www.iddiandgalia.com

Having learnt dance throughout his childhood in his village in Northern Ghana, Iddi received his  BA in Dance from the University of Ghana and his MFA from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. He has studied traditional West African dances and drumming, and contemporary African Dance in Burkina Faso. Saaka has choreographed and performed throughout the United States. Africa and Israel.  Iddi Saaka is a working artist with interest and experience in the design and implementation of artistic and cultural projects in Africa and worldwide.  Saaka’s role as co-director of the Asetena Pa project for Ghana, a project that engaged people living with HIV/AIDS and local artists in a collaborative process and performance, gave him additional skills and experience in design, management and facilitation of projects that use the arts for positive change in society.   He has taught Ghanaian dance at UCLA as well as in Israel and Africa.  He is the recipient of  UCLA’s Graduate recognition award, the Jean Irwin Award and the Glorya Kaufman Award in addition to awards of Distinction and Outstanding performance from the University of Ghana.  He currently lives in Israel with his wife, Galia and their two children.

Jackie Lopez (USA) www.versastyledance.com

Jackie Lopez aka Miss Funk is a Los Angeles native. She graduated in June of 2004 from the Department of World Arts and Cultures, UCLA with a dance emphasis. Jackie is a professional dancer, choreographer, and cultural educator who has worked with students and artists of all ages from Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Israel. She has a wide range of training and knowledge within Salsa and Hip-Hop styles.  She is currently the Program Director for The Flourish Foundation, which is non-profit private philanthropic organization, which begun as a response to lack of funding in the arts. She has been working with Rennie Harris “Puremovement” since 2005 and owes much of her training to him. Lastly, she is fortunate to be leading a company like Versa-Style, where every dancer brings their own unique talent into practice. She hopes to inspire and motivate at least one soul at a time.

Judy Mitoma (USA) www.wac.ucla.edu

Judy Mitoma is the Director of the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance the founding chair and a professor of dance at the Department of World Arts & Cultures.  The recipient of the 2003 John D. Rockefeller Foundation Judy has spearheaded many special projects including Asian Performing Arts Summer Insitutues and the World Festival of Sacred Music Institutes. In 1990, she was Co-Curator of the Los Angeles Festival with Peter Sellars.  In 1995, with major funding from the Ford Foundation she established the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance (CIP) and the Asia Pacific Performing Arts Exchange (APPEX) program.  In 2003 and 2004, she produced the Art of Rice Traveling Theater an original full-length concert work, created by 11 international APPEX artists.  In 1996, she inaugurated the UCLA National Dance/Media Project, a ground breaking five-year initiative funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.  Under the auspices of CIP and Professor Mitoma’s direction, this project supports the field of dance by providing advanced professional workshops for filmmakers working in the field of dance.  Professor Mitoma is the Editor-in-Chief of the publication/DVD, “Envisioning Dance on Film and Video.”  She is a co-founder of Bridge: Choreographic Dialogues.

Sabela is an interdisciplinary artist who’s work transforms speech into a physical energy and sound into a visual performance with movement that is electric on transmission.  He has taught dance and performed internationally as a vocalist, dancer and poet.  A native of California, Sabela is a graduate of UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. Sabela has been a principal dancer with Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM). His production Rome and Jewels, won 3 Bessie Awards and 2 Alvin Ailey Awards, and has performed for sold-out audiences nationally and internationally.  In addition to his work with RHPM, Sabela has toured extensively in Cool Heat Urban Beat, a fusion of tap and hip-hop.  Sabela has conceived, written, scored, choreographed and presented three new dance theater works, Philly XP, BulletProofDeli, and 40 Acres & A Microchip: Salvation or Servitude from his EXPERIMENT EARTH sound-movement triptych. Sabela has performed at the New York Hip Hop Theater Festival, PS 122, The Joyce Theater and Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, Grad Halle de Parc de la Villette in Paris, Theatre Jean Vilar (Suresnes), the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C., MCA in Chicago, the Holland Dance Festival, Spoleto Dance Festival, and the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia.

“Yu’s vision is unique and engaging ……. astounding and magical”