ABOUT

Press Kit you can view and download here.

Here[begin] Dance Co. is a collection of artists that employ a wide range of media converging on the common theme of exploring and exposing the human condition. We are interested in making dances, talking to people, and playing with space, time, tools, technology, paper and paint. Our motto is “Make it now and with whatever you have available”. Often times theatrical, our collaborations explore non linear stories, movement invention, spoken word, and object installation.We are equally interested in making set performances, as well as structured improvisations. Visual art is a big inspiration to us and is sometimes a reason for a creation of a new piece. Our performance series Current:an evening of dance and art has the goal producing and sharing what lies in the imagination of our peers. Ongoing company members/collaborators are percussionist Toshi Makihara, composer and lecturer Greg Dunn, dancers and choreographers Eric Conroe, Jil Stifel, Allison Lorenzen, Liza Clark, Christina Gesualdi and Gina Stikney. Our home is Mascher Space Cooperative in South Kensington.

If you are interested in any of the following, please contact Zornitsa at zornitsa@herebegindance.com
Hopefully we can make a lot happen and have fun in the mean time.

• Emergent Improvisation workshops and performances
• Release technique classes
• Being presented at "Current: an evening of dance and art"
• Collaboration driven choreographically set pieces
• Anything to do with paper and its application in performance
• or any other creative collaboration ideas.
  

Zornitsa Stoyanova (director) is a native of Bulgaria and holds B.A. in Dance and Sound Design from Bennington College where she studied with Dana Reitz, Eva Kartzag, Brendan McCall, Paul Matteson, Keith Thompson and Terry Creach.
After graduating, she moved to Philadelphia and started dancing with Amnesiac Music and Dance and was one of the co-founders of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd(Bilwa, Emily Sweeney, and Mikeronesia) . During this time, Zornitsa started working professionally as a lighting designer, launched a dance company called Here[begin] Dance Co., and started producing "Current: an evening of dance and art" series at Mascher Space Cooperative.
While still in college her choreographic work was shown in Bulgaria, Kontakt Budapest Festival in Hungary, and St. Marks Church in New York City. She has danced for Brigitta Herrman's, AUSDRUCKSTANZ, Emergent Improvisation Project directed by Susan Sgorbati, Eiko & Koma, Paul Matteson, and Austrian choreographer, Willi Dorner. In her own work she is exploring different kinds of traditional and not so traditional mediums and is interested in installation as part of performance. This fall she graduated Headlong Performance Institute and is presently working on a new piece that explores the gory and creepy, looking for the line between lightheartedness and fear. She hopes to create a piece that shows the darkness of human nature though the lens of beauty and humor.

Toshi Makihara (sound) studied drums, percussion and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi, a prominent percussionist in Tokyo. Since arriving in the United States, he has worked with various new music ensembles as well as with numerous dance and theater companies internationally. Makihara has worked with Joel Thome's WORLD SOUND, and provided original music to Arden Theater Company, Diversions Dance Company (Wales), Pennsylvania Ballet, ZeroMoving Dance Company, Merian Soto / Performance Practice, Leah Stein Dance Company and Zornitsa Stoyanova's Here[begin] Dance Company. Over the years, he has worked with musicians including Steve Beresford, Peter Brotzmann, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Amy Denio, Thurston Moore, William Parker and John Zorn. He has also collaborated with poets, visual artists, filmmakers and performance artists widely.

Lisa Rothstein (dance) earned a B.A. in dance and mathematics from Connecticut College.  There she trained in various release modern techniques as well as contact improvisation.  While studying, Lisa performed in works by professional choreographers Alexandra Beller, David Dorfman, Doug Elkins, Heidi Henderson, Adele Myers, and Lisa Race.  Last fall, Lisa performed bodies in urban spaces by Austrian choreographer Willi Dorner, as part of the Philadephia Live Arts Festival.  Originally from Havertown, PA, Lisa has selected Philadelphia as the first stop on her path to a career in dance, and is delighted to be making art with Here[begin] Dance Co.  She is further thrilled to occasionally venture to NYC to create with Rebecca Elias and BE Dance Collective.  Lisa is excited to continue her learning through an exploration of dance, art, and creation.

Christina Gesualdi (dance) is originally from Bristol, Pennsylvania.  She finished her BFA in Modern Dance Performance with an Emphasis in Choreography at The University of the Arts in May 2007.  She has studied with and performed the works of artists such as: Curt Haworth, Silvana Cardell, Jeanne Ruddy, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and John Jasperse.  Christina has recently enjoyed dancing for local choreographers: Molly Root, Ashley Searles, and Zornitsa Stoyanova.  Her choreography has been shown at The Arbons Art Center in New York, Mascher Space Co-op's IN FLUX series, and of course, at all of Pink Hair Affair's performances.  When Christina is not dancing, she can be found teaching for the Princeton Review, writing, turning other peopleʼs trash into treasures, and collecting spandex leggings.

Kate Speer’s (admin) work ranges from performance, choreography, to research scholarship. She holds a BA in dance and biology from Swarthmore College and has studied with such artists as David Dorfman, Michael Foley, Robert Een, Odile Duboc, Leah Stein, and Lisa Kraus. Currently, she is dancing with Anne Marie Mulgrew and Dancers and Philly Contact Collective. In addition to her work with Here[begin] Dance, Speer also supports the Philly dance community administratively as Company Manager for Leah Stein Dance Company and as an intern for Headlong Dance Theater and the nEW Festival. Speer’s newest research project which examines the choreographies of David Dorfman, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Jérôme Bel was presented at Dance Under Construction XI Conference at UCLA. Her own choreography has been presented at ETC Performance Series and React/Dance’s South Philly Solon.
website: www.myspace.com/kate_speer
photo credit: Lindsay Browning

Fun Facts:

Astro: Zornitsa is Pisces and yes she is truly from Bulgaria.
Hair: half black half blond
Signature move: roll of the shoulder, while getting in a lunge, and making weir noices.
Choreographic tool: doing your habits and shuffling them over and over again until you do something quite uncomfortable. Really, just go crazy.
Moment on stage: smeared in black paint laying pretending to be dead, while Greg Dunn explains the connection between her "dead" center and Feminism, Fascism, and Fertility.