COMPANY  }  CHOREOGRAPHERS

Summer Splendors 2013 Choreographers

Loni Landon / Choreographer

Loni Landon was born and raised in New York City. She received her training from the NYC High School of Performing Arts, Dance Theater of Harlem, The School at Jacob's Pillow and The Scholarship Program at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School, under the direction of the late Benjamin Harkarvy and Larry Rhodes. After graduation she worked with Aszure Barton on the opening of the Baryshnikov Arts Center before joining Ballet Theater Munich, under the direction of Phillip Taylor. In 2007, the company changed to Tanz Theater Munich, under the direction of Henning Paar. During her time in Munich, she was exposed to a variety of European choreographers such as, Jirí Kylián, Stephan Thoss, Rui Horta, Robert North, Tony Rizzi, Cayetano Soto, Mirko Hektor and Marco Goerke. Under Phillip Taylor's guidance she began exploring choreography. In 2009, she was a finalist in the Hannover International Choreography Competition. Her work has been shown in The State Theater of Munich, HT CHEN'S Newsteps Choreography Series and at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. Loni was one of two winners of Northwest Dance Project’s Pretty Creatives International Choreographic Competition in 2010 and returned to create Covered on the company the following year.

Carla Mann / Choreographer + Chair, Reed College Dance Department

Carla Mann has been creating, teaching and performing contemporary dance since 1983. Mann's choreographic work investigates the dancing body as both a carrier of meaning and as a site for abstraction--she seeks those moments in movement which are both vehicles for nuanced thought and reckless excursions into the unknown. Mann's recent choreographic work includes site-specific performances, dance video installations, collaborations with Portland Taiko and Hand2Mouth Theatre as well as work for the concert stage. Based in Portland, Oregon, her choreography has also been presented on the east and west US coasts, the Czech Republic and China. A performing member of Minh Tran & Company, Mann has also danced with tEEth, Oslund+Co/Dance, Imago Theater, JED, the Navigators, Benny Bell & Co. and Keith Goodman's Dance Gatherer, and in the works of Jennifer Monson, Bonnie Merrill, Cydney Wilkes, Sue Brantley and Heidi Duckler's Collage Dance Theatre, among others. In addition to choreographing and performing, Carla teaches beginning through advanced levels of contemporary technique, choreography, improvisation and cultural studies in dance.  Carla serves as Chair of the Dance Department at Reed College, where she has taught since 1995. Carla has created four works especially for Northwest Dance Project. Illumine premiered in 2010.

Sarah Slipper / Artistic Director, Northwest Dance Project

"Sarah Slipper is truly gifted. This is what dance should be ... she found the point at which the form of dance (steps, technique, feet, performance) combine to create a work of art." - The News Record
An award-winning choreographer, Sarah Slipper studied at the Royal Ballet School, was a principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and appeared as a guest artist worldwide. She has worked with internationally renowned directors and choreographers such as Arnold Spohr, Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen, Jiri Kylian, and Agnes de Mille. She has served as Ballet Mistress of Alberta Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre, and teaches master classes throughout North America. She was awarded the Grand Prize for Choreography at the International Choreographic Competition at Saint Sauveur in 2000. In 2006, her ballet created for the inaugural Northwest Dance Project, A Fine Balance, was nominated for the prestigious Benois de la Danse award and performed at the event’s gala at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.  Sarah has created over 40 works for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Washington Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, Louisville Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY, Ballet Pacifica, and the Jefferson Dancers.

 

Minh Tran / Artistic Director, Minh Tran & Company

Minh Tran was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States in 1980 as a political refugee. In addition to receiving dance training in classical Vietnamese opera at the National School of Fine and Performing Arts in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), he holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Washington and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration / Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from Portland State University with a Certificate in Dance. Minh has created over thirty choreographic works since 1989. As both a dancer and choreographer, his work has received numerous grants, fellowships, awards and commissions. Minh is a member of the Dance faculty at Reed College and serves on the advisory committee for New York's Dance Theater Workshop Suitcase Fund / Task Force on Southeast Asia / Mekong Region which is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. He additionally serves as an arts consultant for Dance Advance, which supports dance culture in the Philadelphia area, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Minh’s work has been performed throughout the western United States, at Dance Theatre Workshop in New York, and internationally in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. This is Minh’s second work for Northwest Dance Project — in 2010 he created Evanescence on the company.