Dawn Karlovsky, Founder and Director of Karlovsky and Company Dance and Yaseen Manuel and Marlin Zoutemn of New World Dance Theater speak with Nancy about their careers, as well as the collaborative dance presentation "Conversations" on March 24th and 25th of 2023.
Karlovsky & Company Dance was established as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization in 2012 by its Founder and Artistic Director, Dawn Karlovsky. Prior, the company operated as Dawn Karlovsky & Dancers from 2004-2012. Since the inception of the company, the work of Karlovsky & Company Dance has been commissioned internationally with tours to France and South Africa, and nationally presenting in New York City, Minneapolis and Duluth MN, Tulsa, and San Francisco-Bay Area. Karlovsky & Company Dance aspires to connect with audiences through the art of dance, and to provide an experience for the viewer that evokes personal reflection. ———
Through the company’s investigative choreographic approach, Karlovsky & Company Dance reaches diverse audiences with opportunities to witness and experience dance in a distinctive, thought-provoking manner. This process-oriented, somatically-motivated approach generates dances that are visceral, poignant, and expressively stimulating.
Karlovsky & Company Dance is committed to connecting with the community and offering educational outreach programs that helps to build more receptive and informed audiences. The works by Karlovsky & Company Dance bring depth and diversity to contemporary dance in St. Louis with an aim to make dance more accessible and to invigorate the artistic climate of our city. ———
The work of Karlovsky & Company Dance extends beyond the region with a long history of presenting site-specific community performances, concert work, and residencies nationwide and internationally. Karlovsky & Company Dance engages performing artists by promoting collaboration and facilitating employment opportunities for artists to cultivate and extend their own personal, artistic ambitions. ———
The company believes that the arts play an integral and vital role in our human existence and contributes to the cultivation of a healthy, evolving cultural future. Karlovsky & Company Dance is in residence at the Grandel Theatre in St. Louis, MO. ———
New World Dance Theatre is a Cape Town based contemporary dance company, with Celeste Botha and Marlin Zoutman at the helm of this exciting vibrant dance institution. Specializing in all facets of the entertainment and performing arts industry ------
The Rep is a live professional theatre company. Founded in 1966, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis is a fully professional theatrical operation belonging to the League of Resident Theatres, The League of St. Louis Theatres and is a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national service organization for the not-for-profit professional theatre.-----
Danny Williams became The Rep’s Managing Director in January 2022. An experienced arts administrator, Danny has expertise in nonprofit accounting, senior management, and organizational development. Prior to joining The Rep, Danny worked at The Public Theater in New York, where he served in various roles since 2006. Most recently, as Senior Director, Finance and Administration, he managed the daily and strategic financial operations of the $50 million nonprofit organization, successfully launched an organization-wide intranet, partnered with the development team to achieve fundraising goals, and collaborated on long-term financial planning and analysis, including cash investment strategies, budget analysis, and project management. Noteworthy and favorite productions include Broadway productions of Fun Home, Eclipsed, Hamilton, and Hair along with Off-Broadway productions of Here Lies Love, Into the Woods, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, White Noise, and Rock Bottom. ------
As a performer, Danny was featured in the 2002 Westport Country Playhouse pre-Broadway production of Our Town starring Academy Award winner, Paul Newman. He also performed extensively as an improvisor at various venues in New York. Williams directed several NY Fringe Festival productions including Gated and Yellow Brick Wall, both written by Marisa Marquez. For several years, Danny has been affiliated with the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, Montana, bringing world class theater to the Treasure State. Danny produced productions of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, directed by Laura Savia, the world premiere production of Levity by Stephanie DiMaggio, directed by Stella Powell-Jones, The Last Five Years directed by Jason McDowell-Green, and [title of show] directed by Danny Sharron. -----
Williams has held roles with Musical Theatre International and Manhattan Theatre Club and has served as an adjunct professor in the performing arts management master of fine arts program at Brooklyn College. He earned degrees in marketing and theater from Fairfield University and spent a semester abroad studying at Regents University in the United Kingdom.------
Grant Benoit, Director of Education for Craft Alliance, stopped by to talk about some exhibits and the institution. ------
Grant Benoit (American, 1990) is an interdisciplinary artist who observes notions of memory through printmaking, sculpture, and craft methods. In his practice, Benoit combines traditional printmedia with installation and sculpture to reinterpret the mechanics of memory in more human ways through the lens of the domestic space. Through printing wallpaper, he works through ideas of domesticity, place, and memory through a print practice that speaks to printmaking's industrial beginnings. ------
He received his Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University in 2015, and his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts from Spring Hill College in 2012. Benoit exhibits nationally and internationally, most recently being selected to exhibit work at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey, DEMO Project in Springfield, IL, Williamson Museum in Wirral, England, and Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL. Benoit was a 2016-17 Artist in Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the 2017-18 Community Artist at the Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts. He is a member of the 12 member collective, Good Children Gallery in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. ------