Vol. XXV No. 1
September 2009

New Faculty Join Dance and Music Divisions

DANCE

 Janis Brenner, who joins the faculty as the artistic mentor for the Choreographers and Composers class, is the artistic director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in New York. She has toured in 31 countries and has been recognized with numerous awards, including a 1997 New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award for outstanding creative achievement and a 1996 Lester Horton Award for outstanding achievement in choreography. Her work has been commissioned and restaged by more than 45 companies and colleges in Germany, Sweden, France, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Russia, and the United States. Ms. Brenner has been performing with Meredith Monk and the Vocal Ensemble since 1990, recording on ECM Records. She has worked with Theo Bleckmann and Michael Moschen, and was a soloist with Annabelle Gamson’s company and with the Murray Louis Dance Company (1977-84), where she worked with Rudolf Nureyev, Plácido Domingo, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joseph Papp, Batsheva Dance Company, and Alwin Nikolais. In 1998, Ms. Brenner had her first two memoir essays published by DanceView Magazine. She served on the board for the Gender Project in New York, which seeks to empower women in dance, and is on the advisory board of the Yard in Chilmark, Mass.

 Dance composition teacher Wally Cardona moved to New York City in 1986 to study dance at The Juilliard School, where he received his B.F.A. During his first summer in New York, he was invited by Benjamin Harkarvy, then the Dance Division director, to attend the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, where he met Ralph Lemon. Mr. Cardona danced with Mr. Lemon’s company until 1995. In 1992, Mr. Cardona’s first work premiered at the Festival International de Danse in Cannes; his next work, Made In Voyage (1995), was performed in seven countries; and in 1997, Wally Cardona Quartet (WC4) was founded and WCV, Inc. was formed. Since then, Mr. Cardona’s work has been presented at festivals in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Commissions include Portland Institute for Contemporary Art; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival; the Myrna Loy Center/Helena Presents; Sushi Performance; Danspace Project; Dance Theater Workshop; Le Marietta Secret/Le Quartz de Brest; Ricochet Dance Productions; Group Motion and Hidden City; Paradigm; and soloist Risa Steinberg. As a teacher, Mr. Cardona has taught workshops throughout the world and is currently on the dance faculty at the Eugene Lang College of the New School in New York City. The recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship and a “Bessie” Award for the creation of Everywhere (which marked his debut at BAM’s Next Wave in 2005), Mr. Cardona resides in Brooklyn.

 Charla Genn, who will teach ballet technique, instructs company ballet classes at the Metropolitan Opera, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Les Ballets Trockaderos de Monte Carlo. As a choreographer, she created several modern and contemporary ballets for Ballet Manhattan and American Repertory Ballet. Ms. Genn has also staged works for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, American Repertory Ballet, Washington Ballet, Goucher College, and the Richmond Academy in Vancouver, Canada. She created roles for Alvin Ailey, Robert Cohan, Daniel Ezralow, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Margot Sappington, and Robert North. Ms. Genn began her professional career in South Africa with Johannesburg City Ballet and Cape Town City Ballet. She danced as a soloist and principal dancer with the Bat-Dor Dance Company of Israel and with the Eglevsky Ballet, under Edward Villella. After two years as ballet mistress and principal dancer with New York Festival Dance Theater, she became its associate artistic director. In 1985, she co-founded Ballet Manhattan with her husband, Paul Croitoroo. Ms. Genn is a dance rehabilitation specialist, working one-on-one with professional dancers recovering form injuries and operations.

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