CHOREOGRAPHERS

Peggy Baker was a founding member of Dancemakers (Toronto), toured internationally throughout the eighties with New York's Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and performed in the inaugural season of Mark Morris's and Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. Since 1990 she has performed primarily as a solo artist in a repertoire featuring works by some of the most esteemed choreographers of her generation, frequently sharing the stage with pianist Andrew Burashko. She is Artist-in-Residence at the National Ballet School in Toronto.

Molissa Fenley was born in Las Vegas in 1954. She grew up in Nigeria, lived in Spain, and returned to the US where she received a degree in dance from Mills College in California in 1975. She moved to New York City and formed Molissa Fenley and Dancers in 1977. Since 1988 Molissa Fenley has concentrated on choreographing and performing solo works. For her company, she has received commissions from the American Dance Festival, The Kitchen and Dance Chance, Dia Center for the Arts, The Joyce Theater, the University of Illinois and the Mills College Darius Milhaud Retrospective, among others. She has created works for the Ohio Ballet, Australian dance Theater, Deutsche Oper Ballet of Berlin, National Ballet School of Canada and has work in the repertories of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Elisa Monte & David Brown, Dance Alloy (Philadelphia), Peggy Baker and Felicia Norton.

Christopher Gillis was a featured soloist with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1976 until 1993. He had the rare distinction of having choreographed four works for the Paul Taylor Company and his works are in the repertories of many companies throughout the world. All works received tremendous critical response, which led Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times to name Christopher Gillis "as a choreographer who we should be on the lookout for." Christopher Gillis dies of complications from AIDS in August 1993.

Margie Gillis is an internationally acclaimed Canadian solo dance artist. As choreographer and performer of over 70 solo dance works, she has mesmerized audiences and earned rave reviews for her personal, emotional and dramatic portrayals of human hopes, fears, joys and anguish. Born in Montreal, Ms. Gillis comes from an extremely talented family, including the late Christopher Gillis, with whom she shared a very special partnership. 1995 marked the 20th anniversary of Margie's solo dance career, with performances in Toronto, Ottawa, new York, Los Angeles, Montreal and Paris. 1996 included tours of Europe and the U.S.A. and a CBC television special dedicated solely to the unique artistry of Margie Gillis. She will tour Canada, Europe and the U.S.A. in 1997 and 1998. Margie Gillis has the distinction of being appointed to the Order of Canada.

Zvi Gotheiner was born and raised in Israel. He began his artistic career as a gifted violinist with the Young Kibbutzim Orchestra, where he attained the rank of soloist and Concertmaster by age 15. he began dancing at 17, and soon after formed his first performance group, presenting his choreography to high acclaim at the Conference of Israeli Choreographers. He first came to New York in 1978 on a dance scholarship from the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation, and went on to dance with the Joyce Trisler Danscompany, Feld Ballets/NY, and the Bat-Sheva Dance Company. After directing Tamar Ramle, and the Jerusalem Tamar Dance Companies (Israel) and the Israeli Chamber dance Company (New York), he founded Zvi Gotheiner & Dancers in 1989. The Company's performances have received critical acclaim in New York City at The Kitchen, The Joyce Theater, Joyce Soho, The Fiorello Festival, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and Central Parks' SummerStage, as well as a variety of experimental venues. He has received several choreographic fellowship awards and numerous choreographic commissions. Zvi also has a reputation as fine teacher across the country, in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Eleanor King, pioneer modern dancer, performed as a soloist with the original Doris Humphrey-Charles Weidman Concert Company. A fellow colleague of Jose Limon with whom she did her first choreography, she danced for five decades. She taught and performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Far East. Emeritus Professor, University of Arkansas, she is listed in Foremost Women of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge) and American Women: Who's Who in the West. She researched classical dance and drama in Japan, shaman dance in Korea, trance dance in Bali, Sri Lanka, and Burma, with two Fulbrights and a Vogelstein Foundation grant. Her works are noted in books by John Martin, Margaret Lloyd, Anatole Chujoy, Donald McDonagh. King's memoirs, Transformation: The Humphrey-Weidman Era, was published by Dance Horizons in 1978.

Barbara Mahler began dancing in NYC at Hunter College where she received her BA. Her own work as has been presented in New York at venues such as P.S. 122, St. Marks' Danspace, the Gowanus Arts Exchange and has toured extensively across the US, Europe and Canada. She has taught workshops in conjunction with the companies of Trisha Brown and Stephen Petronio. Barbara teaches ongoing classes at the Susan Klein School of Dance in NYC (since 1980) and maintains a private practice in bodywork and movement therapy.