Jimena Bermejo
Jimena Bermejo was born in Mexico City holds an MFA in Studio for Interrelated Media from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design and BFA in Dance from The Boston Conservatory. Jimena has performed with Spencer/Colton, Marcus Schulkind, Kate Digby, Ego Art Inc., Kelli Edwards, Lorraine Chapman The Company, Caitlin Corbett Dance Company, Sarah Slifer and as a guest dancer with David Parker and The Bang Group. Along with performing Jimena continues to teach, choreograph and create video/performance pieces. Along with performing Jimena continues to teach, choreograph and create video/performance pieces, Jimena is a dance professor at The College of The Holy Cross and Suffolk University.
Kieran Jordan
Kieran Jordan has been teaching Irish dance in the Boston area since 2001. Her classes were the first of their kind in New England, designed specifically for adults in a non-competitive format, and focused on embodied technique, musicality and performance skills, as well as Irish dance history and community traditions. Kieran is Dance Director for the WGBH production of “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn.” She has collaborated with many of New England’s finest traditional musicians and is a frequent performer at concerts and festivals all over North America. Winner of a 2008 Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Kieran holds a BA in English and Irish Studies from Boston College, a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Dance Performance from the University of Limerick, Ireland, and the TCRG certificate for teaching Irish dance. She has produced two DVDs on Sean-nós (old style) Irish dance — a documentary called Secrets of the Sole and a new instructional video entitled Musical Feet!
Annie Kloppenberg
Annie Kloppenberg’s current creative and theoretical work hinges on improvisation. She teaches and performs nationally with the improvisational ensemble, Like You Mean It, and has given scholarly papers and published work about using improvisation as a choreographic method. Called “a choreographer of nuances” by the Boston Globe, Annie Kloppenberg & Company, has been supported by notable residency programs and organizations, and, in 2010, returned/relocated to Boston. Annie’s first association with GSS began in 2002 when her first concert, Caution: Flammable, was presented by GSS’s innaugural Emerging Artist Program. Annie has worked in arts administration at Dance Theater Workshop (NYC), New York City Center, The Wexner Center (OH), and The Bates Dance Festival (ME). Annie is Assistant Professor of Dance at Colby College (ME) and holds a BA from Middlebury College (VT) and an MFA from The Ohio State University. More information: www.anniekloppenberg.com, www.lymitrio.com
Toni Matsu
Dancer, Gardener, Manager, Reader, Textile Artist. Toni suffers the odd combination of a strong artistic sensibility and an organized, button-down intelligence. Over the years it has led her to the management of a variety of arts and non-profit groups.
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Barbara Laites Collins
Barbara Laites Collins has been an educator of elementary age children for over thirty years – having served as a school principal and district literacy coordinator. Barbara brings a skill set of program development and community outreach, as well as over 50 years in dance.
David Parker
David Parker grew up in the Boston area and moved to New York City in 1979. After a decade of wide-ranging performance work in New York’s “downtown” dance world during the eighties, Parker began making his own work and, together with Jeffrey Kazin, founded The Bang Group in 1995. His work is driven by a love of rhythmic form and the humor which flows from it. He has worked internationally as a dancer and choreographer and has been commissioned to make over 25 dances for companies other than his own, including that of Lorraine Chapman in Boston. In New York City, his company has been presented in 8 full-evening programs by Dance Theater Workshop and 2 each by Danspace Project, Symphony Space and DanceNow/NYC. The Bang Group has appeared in 13 countries and 21 of the United States. It has been touringParker‘s comic/subversive, neo-vaudevillian version of the Nut/Cracker entitled Nut/Cracked for the past eight seasons including three seasons at the Roberts Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts through the Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge Festival. The Bang Group has been in residence at Concord Summer Stages Dance Festival for the past eleven summers and will return this summer with their new dance-theater cabaret show entitled Misters and Sisters. The Bang Group has been the sole dance company in residence at Manhattan’s West End Theater where Parker and Jeffrey Kazin present triannual choreographic mini-festivals. They have prioritized the presentation of Boston dance artists there and have already included Kate Digby, Kelli Edwards, Lorraine Chapman and Nicole Pierce. Parker is on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Barnard College and The Alvin Ailey School teaching Dance Composition at all three. He serves on the boards of Danspace Project, The Field and Green Street Studio. He has been a member of the Bessies Committee, is a regular adjudicator at American College Dance Festival Association, serves frequently on granting and curatorial panels and is a contributing writer to Dance Magazine. He has also recently appeared as a guest performer with Doug Elkins (Fraulein Maria), Sara Rudner (Dancing on View at the ICA), Nicholas Leicher (The Whiz) and Christopher Williams (The Golden Legend). He served as mentor for Green Street’s Emerging Choreographers program in 2008 and 2011.
Marcus Schulkind
Marcus is a founding director of Green Street Studios and has been dancing, teaching, and performing for over thirty-three years. Originally trained in Graham Technique and Graham based variants (Norman Walker, May O’Donnell, Pearl Lang), he went on to study ballet with Antony Tudor and Maggie Black at Julliard, bodywork with Zena Rommett (for whom he taught in New York), and Pilates Technique with Kathy Grant. He has performed nationally and internationally with many major modern dance companies including Lar Lubovitch, Kathy Posin, and Batsheva Dance Company of Isreal. He has taught in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East. Mr. Schulkind is a nationally recognized dancer, teacher, and choreographer, having received grants from the N.E.A., N.Y.S.C.A., Affiliate Artists Inc., Bank Boston Celebrity Series, and First Night. He has choreographed for Dennis Wayne’s Company, Princeton Ballet, David Brown, Elisa Monte, 5 by 2 Plus, People Dancing, Pick of the Crop, Little Feet, Peanut Butter and Jelly Dance Company, and in Canada for Dance Partout and the National Ballet of Egypt. Since seriously injuring his knee twelve years ago, he has been integrating physical therapies and his five year training of Pilates into his floor barre, modern, and ballet technique classes. Marcus is also a practicing acupuncturist.
Donna Wabrek
Donna, a graduate of Northeastern University (Accounting) and the University of Lowell (Music Performance), has over 15 years experience working in accounting related positions including office management, staff accountant and controller positions in various for-profit and non-profit organizations. Since Donna came on board as Treasurer at Green Street Studios in 2009, she has been hands-on in managing the finances of our organization. She enjoys the volunteer work, and having a background specifically in music, still shares a passion for all branches of the Arts.