jklm studio | by kori martodam
collaborators
kori martodam
Kori Martodam grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and graduated from Denison University in 2003 with a BFA in Theater and Contemporary Dance. After teaching and traveling for several years, she returned to Cincinnati and embarked on a career in Nurse Anesthesia. Kori currently works as a CRNA at Swedish Medical Center and practices dance at Velocity. The greater project of her life is the weaving together of these two disciplines of art and science; balancing sense with expression, and certainty with what can be discovered in following a hunch. Improvisation is an opportunity to play in the unfolding of experience and to simultaneously perceive and make meaning. Kori feels very lucky to improvising in JKLM Studio, and grateful to be working with an ensemble of such wonderful people.
kara beadle
Kara Beadle is a movement artist from San Antonio, Texas, who values improvisation, collaboration, and an active experience shared between performer and audience. She received her B.A. in dance studies from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, in 2016. At Ponderosa in Stozenhagen, Germany, Kara began exploring movement with citrus in the piece Tinted Tangerine. She continues this exploration now as a Seattle-based artist. Since moving to Seattle, Kara has performed in Open Studio #32 at On The Boards, Boost Dance Festival, and Full Tilt.
tiffany bierly
Tiffany Bierly is a Seattle based dance artist who hails from Central Pennsylvania and is an educator, performer, and choreographer. She recently graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a MFA in dance. Previously, she received her BA in Theater with a dance performance focus and a BS in Kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University. She has performed in the DC Fringe Festival, the Painted Bride in Philadelphia, Austin Dance Festival, and the 254 Fest in Waco, Texas. Tiffany has presented her choreography at the American College Dance Festival at the College of Brockport, as well as DanceUpClose and DanceMakers Concerts at Texas Woman’s University. Tiffany studied dance at Ponderosa Movement and Discovery in Stoltzenhagen Germany and at the Dublin Dance Festival in Ireland. Tiffany has also participated in the Bates Dance Festival and the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation. Beyond performance and choreography, Tiffany has taught dance and fitness classes at various studios and senior centers in Pennsylvania and Texas.
hilary bowen
Hilary Bowen is an emerging dance artist currently based in Redding, California. She spent most of her life in China and grew up navigating between worlds. Hilary graduated from the University of Washington in 2015 with a BA in creative writing and dance. Previous forays into the world of improvisation include her senior research project From the Studio to the Pasture, which investigated the connections between dance and horses. Improvisation fascinates and inspires her because it is the intersection of people and their plans navigating spaces that often call us to be highly flexible. And in those moments of openness breathtaking possibilities are released. Hilary is grateful for the opportunity to be back creating with JKLM.
megan davis bushway
Megan Davis Bushway is a dance and movement educator based in Columbus, OH. Megan currently teaches for BalletMet, Momentum: Excellence at the Speed of Dance, and the Columbus Modern Dance Company. She regularly offers Pilates Mat and Reformer classes at the Jewish Community Center and Core Poetry. Additionally, Megan is a Teaching Artist for OhioDance and in VSA’s Adaptation, Integration, & the Arts program. Megan currently dances with Sea<>Bus and collaborates on choreographic projects with Athens-based artist Megan Yankee. Past performance credits include works by Susan Rethorst, Melanie Bales, Susan Hadley, Fritha Pengally, Cynthia Nazzaro, and Paige Phillips. In addition to her work as an educator and performer, Megan also specializes in dance film and documentation. She has been commissioned by local artists to document work and is the videographer for OhioDance. Megan received an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University and a BA in Art Therapy and Dance from Springfield College. More at www.megandavis.org.
spring cheng
Spring Cheng is passionate about improvisation with elements such as movement, music, theatre, voice and the alchemy of those. For three decades, she has been cultivating her life force, called Qi in her native Chinese culture, through movement traditions such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi. Currently Spring is pursuing channeling this life energy into creative expression in a way that resonates with the field of the audience and the larger collective. She has been performing and producing shows at Velocity Dance Center and Taoist Studies Institute. More at springcheng.com.
emily curtiss
Emily Curtiss graduated in May 2016 with a BFA in Choreography and Performance from the University of Montana. She culminated her time at UM by producing her own evening-length production of performance improvisation. While in Montana she also performed with Bare Bait Dance Company and Headwaters Dance Company. Since moving to Seattle she has been dancing with SeaBus Dance Company and JKLM Studios, participated in the Bridge Project, Converge Dance Festival, Seattle International Dance Festival, Full Tilt Dance Festival, and showed choreography as a part of the I C O N I C Art Exhibit. She also has a passion for teaching dance, and enjoys teaching creative movement for children and OULA dance fitness. More at emilycurtiss.weebly.com.
corina iona dalzell
Corina Iona Dalzell migrated to Seattle in the fall of 2013. Since then she has performed in the work of Shannon Stewart, Sarah Kathryn Olds, Kimberly Holloway, Hannah Simmons, Noelle Chun, and Pe|MO, Alyza Delpan Monley, and The Three Yells. Corina serves the Seattle inclusive arts community as a movement arts facilitator specializing in workshops for individuals with disabilities. Originally from the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio, Corina holds a BA in dance and collaborative studies from Bennington College. More at www.corinadalzell.com.
eve hermann
Eve Hermann studied visual and literary art at Indiana University. She has danced in Columbus, OH, since 2012 in works choreographed by CoCo Loupe, Nicole Garlando, Michael Morris, Christeen Stridsberg, and Jeff Fouch. She was a company member of Columbus Moving Company for the 2014–2015 season. From late 2013 to early 2016, she owned and operated Feverhead, a warehouse rehearsal and performance space in Columbus providing low-cost rentals for the performing arts, including: dance, theater, and music. Her performance work is primarily based in structured improvisation and presence practices influenced by Gaga, Butoh, and body awareness exercises. She is a licensed massage therapist, Craniosacral Therapy Practitioner and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner in Training. More at www.evehermann.com/dance.
josh hines
Josh Hines graduated from The Ohio State University with a BFA in dance improvisation and performance in 2014. Since graduation he has been establishing himself as Columbus, Ohio dance artist, teacher, and improviser. He has been collaborating with Columbus Moving Company for the last three years as a performer, teacher, and choreographer. Josh finds dance improvisation is paramount for his work: “For me there is nothing more human than curiosity and living in the moment. The sincerity that improvisation generates causes dancers to become more genuine in their movement, more alive and sensitive. The applications of dance improvisation are endless and that is what I love about it so much.” More at joshramseyhines.com.
kelly hurlburt
Kelly received a B.F.A in Dance at The Ohio State University in 2014, with a special focus in Alternative Medicine and Movement Therapies. She has currently set roots as an artist and dancer in Columbus, Ohio where she can be found teaching at BalletMet and Artisan Dance, creating new works and facilitating modern and improvisational dance in the community. She continues into her 3rd year collaborating and dancing with Columbus Moving Co(CMCo). She is also thrilled to be dancing with Sea<>Bus, a company of two parallel collectives in Columbus and Seattle, both researching and exploring improvisation in performance. She has performed in works choreographed by the likes of Bebe Miller, Susan Van Pelt Petry, Rami Be'er and Noa Zuk. Kelly spent half a year training and performing in Israel, she danced and collaborated in a film project set in the natural landscapes of Denmark; directed by Ann Sofie Clemmensen, and she has led workshops, both at home and abroad, in Denmark and China. Her interests in holistic health and alternative medicine have influenced her dancing and teaching styles, allowing her to focus on creating safe, mindful and wholesome experiences for movers and makers; both novice and experienced.
christopher hydinger,
musician
Christopher Hydinger's The Antenna Project provides instrumental live-scores (improvised, context-specific audio compositions) for all variety of experiences including extended duration performance, yoga, meditation and other movement-based classes, events, performances and happenings, films, ceremonies and gatherings of all kinds. He employs electric guitar, an effects pedal, and various methods of interfacing to create full-registered music ranging from subdued waves of droning minimalism to exuberantly celebratory maximalism. While in Seattle he has performed at venues such as Benaroya Hall, Neumos, The Crocodile, Chop Suey, On The Boards, the Henry Art Gallery, Northwest Film Forum, and the Triple Door, sharing the stage with such acts as Low, Woven Hand, David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), The Gossip, Sun City Girls, The Makers, Tara Jane O’Neil, Kinski, The Dead Science, and Climax Golden Twins. He is currently active in The Music of Grayface, 3844, and The Antenna Project. More at wcsartanddesign.com.
racine lemons
Racine has always had a love for movement. Her earliest memory of dancing was taking a community dance class and performing when she was eight years old. Since then she has been chasing opportunities to perform, move, and train. This journey brought her to become a certified yoga teacher and move to Seattle in 2014 to train in dance actively. She has performed with Noelle Price and Leah Jones. She’s participated in TakePAUSE and Tint Dance Festival, and will be extending her education at Gibney Dance in the winter and at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for her MA in the fall of 2019.
molly levy
Molly Levy grew up in Berkeley, California where she trained at Berkeley City Ballet and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. She continued her education in New York at Ailey/Fordham, pursuing dance and education and graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Dance in May 2016. Molly has also trained at LINES Ballet, Robert Moses Kin, Bates Dance Festival, and Northwest Dance Project’s LAUNCH. She recently returned to the West Coast and lives between Boise and Seattle dancing, with LED, Verlaine and McCann, and others. More at mollylevy.com.
jonathan lilly
Jonathan Lilly is a martial artist-turned-dancer based in Seattle. After training in aikido for more than twenty years, he was introduced to dance, and realized that the movement skills he had been developing in the martial arts could be applied instead for artistic creation. In the past four years he has trained with many different teachers of improvisational dance, with a particular focus on a physically-based dance form called contact improvisation. Jonathan sees the practice of improvisational dance as a way to hone one’s ability to respond physically and emotionally in any situation. In his day job, he is a researcher studying ocean physics, in which he holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a PhD from the University of Washington.
hana newfeld
Hana Newfeld is an emerging dance artist. She was born into a family of yogis that granted her the space to have an open mind and body. Through yoga and never being able to sit still, she found dance at the age of 14 and quickly became enamored with the endless possibilities of the body. Along with dancing, she dove deeper into yoga and has become a certified teacher. She is now completing her final year of her BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University where she has tested the connections between dance and mindfulness. She also discovered film to be the medium to display her process of weaving these movement forms. She will continue to search and explore these methods through creating art.
leah russell
Leah Russell comes from a background based in physical theater. She received her BFA in acting from Cornish College of the Arts but quickly discovered a love for dance. Her primary interest lies in exponentially expanding the possibilities for finding freedom of expression within the body. She draws from a variety of movement styles including contemporary technique, hip hop, yoga, and capoeira, to create a movement style that is athletic and dynamic. Improvisation is her true love and she is delighted to have the opportunity to create work with a talented and dedicated cast.
joe shirley
Joe Shirley plunged into dance with Group Motion Friday Night Workshops in Philadelphia in 1987 and performed with Ausdruckstanz Dance Theater in 1989 before traveling west to seek his destiny. After a few years in Montana performing with the Whitefish Theater Company, he arrived in Seattle where he studied improvisational dance over the years with too many great teachers to count. With his partner Spring Cheng, he is co-founder of Resonance Path Institute where he facilitates and teaches Feelingwork, a practice of focused awareness into the subtle dimensions of being. More at resonancepath.org.
seabus collaboration
Sea ↔ Bus is a cross-country collaboration between dancers in Seattle, Washington, and Columbus, Ohio. In the summer of 2016, Seattle dancers Kori Martodam and Jonathan Lilly met Columbus dancer Josh Hines at a weeklong workshop at EarthDance in Northampton, Massachusetts. The three discovered a mutual interest in physical movement as an art form, with an emphasis on dance improvisation in performance—and Sea ↔ Bus (SEAttle + ColumBUS) was born.
The first creation by Sea ↔ Bus, Indigo, brought together ensembles from the two cities for performances in Seattle during June 16–18. The performers also include Hilary Bowen, Spring Cheng, Emily Curtiss, and Joe Shirley from Seattle, and Megan Davis Bushway, Eve Hermann, Kelly Hurlburt, and Hana Newfeld from Columbus. These two groups worked separately on similar improvisational scores and dance exercises, creating a familiarity between dancers as well as a common movement vocabulary. All dancers then met in Seattle for a weeklong intensive prior to the performance.
The dancers use their experiences and skills in collaboration to refine different contemporary improvisational dance practices including, but not limited to, group work, solo and partner work, improvisational scores as well as different compositional methods. Sea ↔ Bus is an experiment in the power of dance as a unifying language, and in the possibilities of creating performance in real time, in this moment.
venues
cairn farm flowers
Carly is a strong believer in not simply using the soil, but rather building the soil. She hopes that by the time she finds her own permanent farmland, the the land she is currently leasing will be left in better condition than when she started with it. It is Carly’s intention that Cairn Farm, along with other like-minded farmers, guide others on their path to sustainable flower farming.
seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com/
good weather bicycle cafe
Good Weather is a bike shop, cafe, bar, and design house. They are always finding was to provide a safe and comfortable space for people to ask questions, meet other people, and hang out.
Seattle is known nationally for its grey, rainy season, but the long winters don’t define who we are. Good Weather is defined by finding the good in a situation and exploring the best of what a warm sunny evening as well as a damp cold day has to offer.
velocity
Velocity Dance Center is Seattle’s center dedicated to contemporary dance, and an essential incubator for new dance in our region. With artist-driven, community-responsive programming, Velocity provides vital resources and advocacy for one of the most active dance communities in the nation. Velocity’s programming includes classes, workshops, residencies, performances, discussions, and two annual international festivals.