CORPS

Choreography Milka Djordjevich
Performance Martita Abril, Dorothy Dubrule, Ayano Elson, Allie Hankins, Tiara Jackson and DaEun Jung
Music Celia Hollander
Lighting Madeline Best
Technical Director & Lighting Associate Katelan Braymer 
Vocal Coach Odeya Nini
Dramaturgy Tim Reid
Company Manager Gabriella Rhodeen

BIOGRAPHIES 

Milka Djordjevich is a choreographer, performer and educator who questions preconceived notions of what dance should or should not be. Her work has been shown at many venues across the country, including the American Realness Festival, BAMPFA, the Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, the Hammer Museum, the Kitchen, LAX Festival, Machine Project, MAK Center, PICA’s TBA Festival, The Philadelphia Thing, REDCAT, Santa Ana Sites and the Whitney Museum, and internationally in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, and the UK. Djordjevich was a 2020 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award recipient, a 2017-2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellow, a 2006-2007 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2008/2010 danceWEB Europe Scholar. She has had residencies at Abrons Arts Center, ARC Pasadena, Baryshnikov Arts Center, CAP UCLA via Los Angeles Performance Practice, Fabrik Potsdam, Jacob's Pillow Lab, LMCC Swingspace, PACT-Zollverein and Workspace Brussels, among others. Other projects include serving as guest editor for Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence and initiating the Monday Morning/Night Class series at Pieter. She has taught at CalArts, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), Pomona College, Pasadena City College, and University of California at Irvine, Riverside and Los Angeles, Wesleyan University, among others. In 2016, Djordjevich established STANA, an organization cultivating local, national and international dance connections.

Martita Abril is a performer, choreographer, organizer, and teaching artist from the border city of Tijuana, México. She’s worked with dance artists and companies throughout México, South America, and the US, including Lux Boreal, Cristina Baquerizo, Kim Brandt, Rebecca Davis, Daria Fain and Robert Kocik The Commons Choir, Allyson Green, Mina Nishimura, Cori Olinghouse, Okwui Okpokwasili, Will Rawls, and was a performer in Simone Forti’s Dance Constructions at the Museum of Modern Art. Martita is currently working with Yanira Castro, Kat Galasso, Abigail Levine, and Yoshiko Chuma and continues to create her own work. She’s been a PECDA Scholar as a “Young Creator” and received a Mexican national fellowship from FONCA to continue making work in New York City. Martita was selected for the Fresh Tracks Residency at New York Live Arts and has served as a mentor for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Program from 2015-2020. Her work has been seen at New York Live Arts, Sunday Service at The Knockdown Center curated by Yanira Castro, Movement Research at the Judson Church, CPR Performance Studio Open House, NYFA, HERE Art Center, Potiker Theater at UCSD, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, and site-specifics throughout NYC and Tijuana. She is currently the Programs and Events Manager at Movement Research (MR) and coordinates MR at Judson Church on Monday nights Martita-abril.org. 

Dorothy Dubrule is a choreographer and performer based in Los Angeles. Her choreography is often made in collaboration with people who do not identify as dancers and has been performed in theaters as well as bars, clubs, galleries, sound stages and sports arenas. Prior to moving to LA, she danced with DIY performance art collective Club Lyfestile and comedic fly girl crew Body Dreamz in Philadelphia. She has performed in the work of visual artists, choreographers and directors such as Emily Mast, Kate Watson-Wallace, Lea Anderson, Melinda Ring, Milka Djordjevich, Narcissister, Tino Sehgal and Zoe Aja Moore. Dorothy received an MFA in choreography and performance from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and was the Executive Director of Pieter Performance Space from 2017 to 2022.  As a board member of Grex, the West Coast Affiliate of the AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems, she explores themes of social identity and power as they arise in art contexts. Following the publication of her essay, "What I'm Doing When I'm Selling Out," on SF MoMA's digital platform, Open Space, Dorothy is currently working on a collection of personal narratives written by dancers and actors who have been contracted by visual arts institutions to perform in live exhibitions.

Ayano Elson is an Okinawan–American choreographer and performer based in New York. Her choreography has been presented by the Chocolate Factory, Gibney Dance, ISSUE Project Room, Knockdown Center, Movement Research, and Roulette. Ayano was a 2018 Movement Research Van Lier Emerging Artist of Color Fellow, a 2020 Art Cake Dancer-in-Residence, and a 2021 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council at Governors Island Artist-in-Residence. She has performed in works by Laurie Berg, Kim Brandt, Jessica Cook, Milka Djordjevich, Simone Forti, Kyli Kleven, Abigail Levine, and Haegue Yang at venues including the Chocolate Factory, Danspace, ISSUE Project Room, MCA Chicago, MoMA, MoMA PS1, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, Pioneer Works, REDCAT, Roulette, and the Shed. Ayano is currently an artist-in-residence at Abrons Arts Center and Center for Performance Research. ayanoelson.com

Allie Hankins is a dancer and maker based in Portland who recently performed in a dream wherein she announced "Today I am Truit" before jumping into a pool. The next day, in waking life, she learned that 'truit' is a word used by the lucid dreaming community to mean 'trout'. She is an inaugural resident artist and current steward of FLOCK, a dance center and creative home to Portland’s experimental dance artists spearheaded by Tahni Holt, and in 2013 she co-founded Physical Education, a performance co-operative/support group of sorts, comprised of herself, keyon gaskin, Taka Yamamoto, and Lu Yim. Physical Education hosts open reading groups, curates performances, and teaches workshops nationally. Allie’s current endeavors include learning American Sign Language, preparing to teach step aerobics, and doing one-on-one portrait sessions over zoom. Her website is alliehankins.com

Tiara Jackson is a performance artist, movement director, and model living on unceded territory of the Kizh, Gabrieleño, and Tongva people (so called Los Angeles, CA). She uses movement as a way to transcribe initial feelings and subconscious thoughts. Her work billows between bliss, sorrow, and comedy to represent the vast emotions one may experience in any moment. Jackson earned a BFA in Dance with a minor in Natural Science from the California Institute of the Arts (2013). Her choreographic work has been presented at Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), Thymele Arts, ArtShare LA, and Sade Gallery. She has collaborated with multiple interdisciplinary artists including Katherine Helen Fisher of SafetyThirdProductions, Standard Vision, Caitlin Adams of Heid Co.(New York), and experimental opera creator Anna Luisa Petrisko. Her craft has expanded into the commercial world as a featured dancer in music videos by artists such as Katy Perry, Khalid, Molly Sarle, Little Monarch, Coco, and TOKiMONSTA.

DaEun Jung is a dancer-choreographer whose work reveals her past and present body memories. Jung’s work has been supported by venues and organizations including REDCAT, LA Performance Practice, Pieter, Electric Lodge, Highways, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and Korea Foundation. She has been awarded artist-in-residencies from Brockus Project Dance, LA Dance Project at 2245, Santa Monica Cultural Affairs at Camera Obscura Art Lab, LAPP at Automata, and Show Box LA at We Live in Space as well as a residency-lab program Forward Dialogues 2019 at MANCC.  

A master artist of the 2019 Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and 2019-2020 Cultural Trailblazer of City of Los Angeles Department Cultural Affairs, Jung redefines the principle, form, and structure of Korean dance in inter/multi-cultural settings as a continuation of her graduate study at UCLA where she received her MFA in choreography and Westfield Emerging Artist Award. Previously, she performed in Asia, Europe, and North America as a dancer of Gyeonggido Dance Company in South Korea. Having six years of specialized training in dance through the Gugak National Middle/High School as a recipient of the National Theatre of Korea Award, she obtained a BA in dance from Ewha Womans University in Seoul. Daeunjung.com

Madeline Best is a Lighting Designer, Performer, Mother and The Director of Operations at the Chocolate Factory Theater. Madeline’s design practice comes from an interest in the way light affects space and the way the light feels as an audience member or performer. Her lighting design subtly supports the work of collaborative artists. Recent projects have included the following artists Katy Pyle/Ballez, Heather Kravas, Ursula Eagly, Milka Djordjevich, Efrian Rozas, luciana achugar, Andrea Kleine, Anne-B Parson/Big Dance Theater, and more. Madeline grew up in Durham, North Carolina studied at Bennington College and currently lives in Long Island City, Queens. 

Celia Hollander is a Los Angeles based composer and artist working with audio, scores, performance, installation and text. Her work critically engages ways that audio and the act of listening can shape temporal perception and question cultural infrastructures. Her work has been performed or installed at institutions and venues including MOCA, The Getty, Skirball Cultural Art Center, Various Small Fires, Human Resources and Zebulon. Her discography includes releases on Leaving Records, Recital and Noumenal Loom and she is a resident dj on Dublab Radio. She holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts where she studied music composition.

Katelan Braymer is a Lighting Designer and Technical Director for Theatre, Dance and Opera. Designs: Drift, 90Sugar, Time, ROSEWOOD (Micaela Taylor); It's Alive, Fefu and her Friends, Hir, Underneath, Silent, Forgotten, Kiss, A Taste of Honey, The Hairy Ape (Odyssey Theatre); Land of the Sweets, Company Debut (Movement Headquarters Ballet); Terra (LACDC); Safe and Sound, Gnarled (Kevin Williamson); Daughter of the Wicked (Shanit Schwartz); You In Midair (Danna Schaeffer); and notes on change_ (Erica Sobol). US/International Tours: All the Sex I've Ever Had: Chicago, IL / Ghent, Belgium / Helsinki, Finland / Austin, TX (Mammalian Diving Reflex); Halfway to Dawn, Stardust (David Rousseve); Inflatable Trio, Ruth Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Lionel Popkin); and Pang! (Dan Froot).  Films in production: Harbor (Ivana Horvat), Mad Woman (Marc Ancito), and Tracers (First Two Rounds). Katelan has been a Lighting Assistant at the LA Opera since 2011.  www.KatelanBraymer.com

Tim Reid is an artist, writer, and facilitator for others. He makes performance and theater. He has been presented in Los Angeles at Human Resources, PAM Residencies, Machine Project, Highways, and Pieter Performance Space, as well as Links Hall (Chicago) and Chicken Coop Contemporary (Portland) as part of PICA's TBA Festival, among others. He has been an ensemble member with The Neo-Futurists (Chicago), with whom he wrote and performed for their long-running late night show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, and Gawdafful National Theater (Los Angeles). He is currently a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at NYU where he writes about clowns.

Odeya Nini is a Los Angeles based experimental vocalist and contemporary composer. At the locus of her interests are textural harmony, gesture, tonal animation, and the illumination of minute sounds, in works spanning chamber music to vocal pieces and collages of musique concrète. Her solo vocal work extends the dimension and expression of the voice and body, creating a sonic and physical panorama of silence to noise and tenderness to grandeur. Odeya's work has been presented at venues and festivals across the US and internationally, such as the LA Phil, The Broad Museum, The Banff Centre, Merkin concert Hall, MONA and Art Basel Miami, from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, Australia, Mongolia, Madagascar and Vietnam. She also leads Voice Baths, seminars, workshops and retreats exploring the transformative and healing qualities of embodying the voice. www.odeyanini.com

SPECIAL THANKS

Justin Streichman
Chris Peck
devika wickremesinghe
Laurel Atwell
Annabella Vidrio
Shannon Nulf
Josie Bettman
Tara Sheena
Shannon Scrofano
Dot Armstrong
Clare Croft
Ben Johnson
Miranda Wright
Megan Steele
Leon High School JROTC
The Cuffs
Luke McGowan

And extra special thanks to the UCLA and AMDA students who took part in the research and development.

FUNDING CREDITS

The creation of CORPS is made possible, in part, by individual donors, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at Florida State University, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, CalArts Dance, Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Pillow Lab at Jacob’s Pillow and by a commission from New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency program with additional support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and Partners for New Performance.