2018 Festival Artists
ARCOS Dance
ARCOS experiments rigorously to discover adventurous new forms of contemporary performance—inspired by questioning dominant understandings of the world, turbulent processes of traditions in flux, and the complexity of being human today. They have presented work at festivals and institutions including MacCallum, SITE Santa Fe, Currents International New Media Festival, {254} Dancefest, Online Performance Art Festival, BarnStorm DanceFest, Dance Co-Op, CounterCurrent, and a critically acclaimed, award-winning production at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. ARCOS has received artistic residency at Texas State University, Colorado College, Texas A&M University, Connecticut College’s Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, University of Colorado Boulder, University of North Texas, Playa Summerlake, Ucross Foundation, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Mexico Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Donors Trust, Hatchfund, Rea Charitable Trust, Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation, and the City of Austin. ARCOS also offers professional-level training classes, performance intensives, development workshops, and grants to independent artists and youth.
http://www.arcosdance.com/
Rebecca Lemme
Acts of Matter
Rebecca Lemme is a choreographer, performer, educator, and visual artist. Founded in 2014, she is also Artistic Director of the performance group Acts of Matter. Her choreographic work has been commissioned for numerous universities and professional companies, and she teaches extensively in contemporary, ballet and jazz technique. Significantly informed by both Release and Laban/Bartenieff techniques, she has created a unique movement style for the stage and the classroom that encourages investigation, problem solving, and versatility. Rebecca holds a BA from Princeton University (2002) in English and Theater and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts (2013) in Choreography.
Rebecca is an Assistant Professor of Dance at California State University, Long Beach. She has been a full-time faculty member at California Institute of the Arts, where she also taught during her MFA candidacy. Additionally, Lemme has been on faculty at Columbia College Chicago, Roosevelt University, Hubbard Street’s Lou Conte Dance Studio, Visceral Dance Center, and Joffrey Ballet Chicago. Additionally, she has guest taught at the American College Dance Festival, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Wake Forest University, Beloit College, and the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, and has been a Choreographer in Residence at Grand Valley State University setting work and teaching master classes within the Dance Department. Through a holistic approach to dance education her classes merge critical thinking processes with skill building and art making. In addition to contemporary technique, she teaches ballet and jazz with an emphasis on whole-body connectivity.
Jessica Miller Tomlinson
Jessica Miller Tomlinson graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Contemporary Dance. As a young dancer, Jessica had the fortunate opportunity to apprentice with the NC Dance Theatre under the direction of former New York City Ballet principals Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride. Upon moving to Chicago, she continued her training on scholarship at the Lou Conte Dance Studio. Jessica was honored to collaborate with Lauri Stallings of the Hubbard Street Dance Company and perform with her company NANDANSE.
Jessica is currently in her twelfth season as a dancer, choreographer and dancer with Thodos Dance Chicago with whom she has performed and toured both Nationally and Internationally. She also serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Thodos Youth Ensemble. Throughout her career she has performed works by Warren Conover, Gail Gilbert, Rick McCullough, Lauri Stallings, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Ron De Jesus, David Parsons, Neta Pulvermacher, Mark Morris, Zac Whittenberg, Ahmad Simmons, KT Nelson, Lar Lubovitch, Francisco Avina and Stephanie Martinez, Lucas Crandall, Brian Enos, Kevin Iega Jeff, Kevin Wynn, KT Nelson, Brock Clawson, Ahmad Simmons, Robyn Mineko Williams, Ann Reinking and Bob Fosse.
http://www.jessicamillertomlinson.com/
as may be felt
photo: Philip Knowlton
