Curator Bios
Aretha Aoki is from Vancouver, BC. Her choreography has been performed at Brooklyn Studios for Dance, A.P.E Gallery Ltd., Danspace Project, the Academy of Music, Movement Research Festival, Center for Performance Research, CATCH, Exit Art Gallery (Culturebot’s “Ephemeral Evidence”), New York Live Arts (2011/12 Fresh Tracks artist), the Kitchen (Emily Roysdon’s A Gay Bar Called Everywhere), the Chen Dance Center (2010 Newsteps artist-in-residence), the Firehall Arts Centre, AUNTS, the 92nd St. Y, and Studio 303 (2007 Vernissage-danse artist in residence). As a performer, she has worked with Emily Johnson/Catalyst Dance, Rebecca Serrell Cyr, devynn emory, robbinschilds, Vanessa Anspaugh, Heather Kravas, Juliette Mapp, Daria Faïn, Maura Donohue, Elizabeth Ward, Martin Lanz, Faye Driscoll, Lisa D’Amour & Katie Pearl, and others. Aretha is Editorial Associate at Contact Quarterly, and holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University and MFA from Smith College.
Elliott Jenetopulos works in design and production of dance and performance, and as a collaborator on Sarah Maxfield's Nonlinear Lineage, an artist-driven archive of experimental dance and performance. As a lighting designer, Elliott has worked with Jen Rosenblit, Anna Sperber, Enrico Wey, Marissa Perel, The Builders Association, luciana achugar, Lorene Bouboushian, niv Acosta, Tess Dworman, Ursula Eagly and others.
Eleanor Smith is a freelance dance artist living in Brooklyn. She currently dances for Ivy Baldwin Dance, Levi Gonzalez, Molly Poerstel, and Katie Workum. She has also performed in works by Vanessa Anspaugh, Kim Brandt, Juliana F. May/MAYDANCE, Kayvon Pourazar, and robbinschilds. Eleanor was a 2010 Fresh Tracks artist at Dance Theater Workshop and a 2012 Studio Series artist at New York Live Arts. She has been making work with collaborator Molly Lieber since 2006. Their current project premieres in January for the 2017 COIL Festival, co-presented by PS122 and Baryshnikov Arts Center. From 2012-2015 they made Rude World (co-commissioned by PS122 and The Chocolate Factory Theater for the 2015 COIL Festival), Tulip (Roulette, 2013, Judson Now at Danspace Project, 2012), and Beautiful Bone (The Chocolate Factory Theater, 2012). They were a 2015 Rosas Summer Studios Artist, 2014/2015 RAMP (PS122) Residency Artist, a 2014 Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) Artist in Residence, nominated for a 2013 New York Dance and Performance (BESSIE) Award for Emerging Choreographer, received the 2013 NYFA Fellow Finalist Award, and were guest artists at Connecticut College last Fall.
Tara Aisha Willis is a dance artist and PhD candidate in Performance Studies, NYU, where she researches black feminisms and experimental dance. Her choreography has been shown at Movement Research at Judson Church, BAX, Roulette, THROW, Dixon Place, The Painting Center, and AUNTS; her writing appears in the Movement Research Performance Journal, The Brooklyn Rail, and Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. She edits for TDR/The Drama Review and Women & Performance, is co-editor with Thomas F. DeFrantz of a forthcoming issue of The Black Scholar. In 2015 she’s danced for Kim Brandt, Megan Byrne, Sarah A.O. Rosner, and Anna Sperber.
