Rider Dances 2022

RIDER UNIVERSITY

School of Fine and Performing Arts presents…

Rider Dances 2022

Here We R…

Bart Luedeke Center Theater Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ

Reflections by dance artists Laney Engelhard, Jennifer Gladney, Merli V. Guerra, John Barella, Julia Johnson Thick and Kim Chandler Vaccaro.

Saturday, March 5 | 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 6 | 2 p.m.

A Note from the Artistic Director Last year we were all Negotiating Balance, riding the waves of a pandemic that forced us to explore technology and online dance performance with a lively and focused urgency. We were propelled into new performance spaces, with new tools and platforms, and ideas. Thank you for joining us this weekend as we reflect on where we landed after that wild ride. Here We R. We are thrilled to be back in person, in the theater feeling the energy that connects performers and audience. We are equally thrilled to welcome several alumni back to share Where They R, as we dance through this moment together.

– Kim Chandler Vaccaro

PROGRAM Heroes of Zoom Choreography:

Julia Johnson Thick

Pressure by Billy Joel and I’m Still Standing by Elton John performed by Taron Egerton Lyn Choquette

Becca Pomponio

Anna Fredeen

Alayna Rubach

Josiah Jacoby

Marissa Stellato

Cassie Krick Jamie Pena

26 Years Choreography:

Jennifer Gladney The Winter and Divisadero by Balmorhea I Just Called to Say I Love You by Pentatonix

Melody Almodovar

Melissa Juarez

Tiffani Britton

Emma Landis

Soph Frosoni

Keiaira Rainey

Felicia Garro

Hannah Wade

Kate Harbison

Victoria Yzaguirre

Jossie Hunter

Where they R – Part 1 Video Editor:

Victoria Francesca Grisanzio, Bryce Parks

Michelle Figuieredo

Amanda Page

Courtney Gelmetti

Audrey Yeager

Aly Giampolo

Don’t Look Down Choreography:

Kim Chandler Vaccaro Prelude to Shona, Shona by Jake Chudnow

Josie Abruzzi

Emma Landis

Ryan Alger

Kaylie Smith

Lex Barreiros

Hannah Wade

McKenzie Jones

Arianna Johns, understudy

Where They R – Part 2 Video Editor:

Victoria Francesca Grisanzio, Bryce Parks Rose Conroy-Voza Kayla James Morgan Nash

Rhapsody Choreography:

John Barrella Music by Queen

Melody Almodovar

Nevaeh Peaks

Tanisha Anand

Kayla Plunto

Tiff Hawkins

Keiaira Rainey

McKenzie Jones

Kaylie Smith

Cassie Krick

Untitled Choreography:

Laney Engelhard Assistant: Niall Lessard

Music by Philip Glass, Peter Gregson, Joep Beving, Goetz Oestlind, Olafur Arnold, Stephan Moccio and Johann Johannsson Tiffani Britton

Alayna Rubach

Iris Courchaine

Marissa Stellato

Anna Fredeen

Hannah Wade

Melissa Juarez

Victoria Williams

Shannin Kavanagh

Constellation Stories Choreography:

Merli V. Guerra

Original composition by Madeleine Shapiro and Andreas Bergsland Tanisha Anand

Nevaeh Peaks

Lex Barreiros

Jamie Pena

Keke Browne

Victoria Williams

Jossie Hunter PRODUCTION TEAM Technical Director Lighting Design Costume Design Production and Set Design

Buck Linton Todd Loyd Robin Shane Yoshi Tanokura

STUDENT PRODUCTION TEAM Production Stage Manager Assistant Stage Managers

Ragan Hoffman Niky Salima, Scarlett Liput

Sound Operator

Gabby Giallusi

Light Operator

Megyn Kukulka

Projection/Camera Social Media/PR Wardrobe Supervisor Rehearsal Assistant Assistant Costume/Wardrobe

Kaiyla Campbell, Erikk Olsson Tanisha Anand Kylie Alexander Keke Browne Arianna Johns

Program

Emma Landis

Makeup

Tanisha Anand

About the Designers, Choreographers and Producers JOHN “COMIX” BARRELLA, choreographer, is a hip hop/street dance educator, choreographer, and consultant & company director of The Redef Movement: Artists of Street Dance based in New Jersey since 2007. The main company and affiliated “crews” create pieces that center around hip hop and street styles such as B-boy, Locking, Popping. Their choreography has been showcased in artistic and competitive festivals and featured on Tedx, ThemNY Filipino festival, half time shows for the New York Knicks, and Battle of the Boroughs. He developed a curriculum and program that trains teachers in hip hop terminology and technique, applying it to class structure. This program, Essentials for Dance Education, has been implemented in classrooms around the world and has offered countless teachers a look into his personal method of instruction.

LANEY ENGELHARD, choreographer, is an adjunct professor at Rider University.

She danced with American Repertory Ballet under the direction of Graham Lustig for seven seasons and followed Lustig to Lustig Dance Theatre for three more seasons.

Engelhard has been a guest artist with Hubbard Street Dance Company II, performed in Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular, and danced with Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance in Asheville, NC. She has set original dance works for Rider Dances since 2007.

JENNIFER GLADNEY, choreographer, summa cum laude Rider ‘06 is an adjunct professor at Rider where she earned a double major in Elementary Education and Dance and a minor in Early Childhood Education. She has been on the faculty at the Princeton Ballet School since 2005 and was a company dancer with the American Repertory Ballet. Gladney is also on the faculty of Martin Center for Dance, and Mercer County Community College. She has been part of Rider Dances since its inception in 2005 and was the first senior honors student to choreograph, Cross Phases, for this event.

RAGAN HOFFMAN ’22, production stage manager, senior Technical Theater major and Arts Administration minor. Rider credits include Assassins (ASM) and Bright Star (SM), The Wolves (PSM) and Elegies (PSM) and Pete Her Pan (PSM). Outside credits include Mamma Mia (Stage Manager), Beauty and the Beast* (Production Stage Manager/ Co Light Designer), Little Shop of Horrors (Production Stage Manager) and A Christmas Carol (light designer) all with The Off Broad Street Players in NJ and Bright Star (Production Stage manager) with Triple Threat Workshop, NJ. *Perry Award for Outstanding Lighting Design and Perry Award for Best Production

MERLI V. GUERRA, M.F.A. in Dance, Rutgers University, is an award-winning choreographer and interdisciplinary artist combining dance, film, art, and design.

She is co-founder and artistic director of Luminarium Dance Company. Guerra has performed lead roles as a modern dancer and classical Odissi Indian dancer with acclaimed companies on tours to India (2007, 2012) and Japan (2009); and most recently traveled across Tanzania creating a series of site-specific screendances in response to its national park ecosystems (2021). Guerra’s choreographic works have been presented by 100+ events across the U.S., and abroad in Argentina, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and Spain. Guerra is an adjunct professor at Rider University and a lecturer at Rutgers University. Learn more at merliguerra.com and luminariumdance.org.

BUCK LINTON, technical director – Between earning his MFA in Scenography and Technical Design (Virginia Tech) and joining Rider as its Technical Director in 2012, he professionally produced nearly 200 productions with such venues as The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and McCarter Theatre.

Selected works include Travesties, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Take Flight, Herringbone, Lookingglass Alice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Falstaff, Die Zauberflöte, Pelléas et Mélisande, Dialogues des Carmélites, La Clemenza di Tito, Oreste, Sunjata Kamalenya, The Odyssey Experience, Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto, Turandot, Chicago, EDDA (Ping Chong & Sequentia Ensemble, international tour). Since then, he has produced more than 100 productions for Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts in theater, dance, and opera.

TODD LOYD, lighting designer, is the lighting director for Rider University’s Department of Theatre and Dance. He supervises the lighting for every performance that the department produces, in addition to mentoring several students who assist in designing, hanging, focusing and programming the lighting for each show. At Rider he has designed more than 30 productions including plays, musicals, dance recitals, cabarets, and operas. Some highlights include Rider Dances: Moving in Our Community, Bright Star, Hair, Heathers: The Musical, The Theory of Relativity, Once on This Island, White Christmas, She Kills Monsters, Catch Me If You Can, The Penelopiad, All Shook Up, Our Town, A Chorus Line and Metamorphoses. Other selected professional projects include Rock of Ages and Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Forestburgh Playhouse), Journey to Oz (Children’s Theatre of Charlotte and Experiential Theater Company), and The Gun Show (Passage Theatre).

ROBIN I. SHANE, costume design, is an assistant professor of Theatre in the School of Fine and Performing Arts of Rider University, where she has been the resident costume designer since 2012. Shane has been a professional costume designer for over 25 years and has designed for theater, dance, opera, film and TV in New York, Philadelphia and regionally in such varied theaters as Theatre Exile, Philadelphia

Artists’ Collective, EgoPo, Passage Theater, Shakespeare Theater of NJ, The National Constitution Center, The Revision Theater, the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theater, Soho Rep and The Harrisburg Opera. Robin holds an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and a BA in Theater and Psychology from Wesleyan University, and she is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

YOSHINORI TANOKURA, set and projection design, originally from Tokyo, is currently teaching scenic design at Rider University. For the past decade, he taught at East Stroudsburg University. He holds a master’s degree in Scenography from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, and an M.F.A. in Set Design from the University of Connecticut. As a freelance designer, his design credits include Moon Over Buffalo (People’s Light & Theater), Clever Little Lies by Joe DiPietro (Westside Theater, NYC), Exonerated (Delaware Theater Company), and Peter and the Starcatcher (Adrienne Arsht Center) for which he received the Carbonell Award for the Best Scenic Design in 2015. He has assisted John Lee Beatty on a number of Broadway productions, such as Venus in Fur, Doubt, and The Color Purple. He is a member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

JULIA JOHNSON THICK, choreographer, is an adjunct with priority status, teaching Rider’s Musical Theater majors tap dance since 2013. She and her husband, Bob, founded the Off-Broadstreet Theater in Hopewell where she functioned as managing producer and choreographer. Together they produced over 300 shows over 32 years. In NYC, she danced with Gregory Hines’ Tap Company and Luigi Jazz.

She has worked as a guest artist at The Ed Sullivan Theatre, Hines and Hatchet, Broadway Dance Center, and continues to teach at a New Jersey dance studio. Her diversified background includes being the NJAIAW Collegiate State All-Around Champion in gymnastics.

KIM CHANDLER VACCARO, artistic director & choreographer, taught at the Princeton Ballet School for over 30 years. In 2005 she wrote the music and choreographed Mi Fuego for the inaugural Rider Dances, followed by original works every year since. Dr. Vaccaro created the B.A. in Dance Performance, the Dance Minor degree, a minor degree in Movement Science and the B.A. in Dance Science. She is the co-author of Jazz Dance Today with Lorraine Person- Kreigel, the editor of Dance In My Life, and a contributing author to Jazz Dance: Roots and Branches. Her research for the past seven years has centered on Critical-Mindbody-Thinking, (CMBT) seeking methodologies that intersect thought and action, perception and feeling.

She developed the movement system and wrote a book on CoMBo: Conditioning for Mind-body.

Congratulations to the Senior Dancers!

JOSIE ABRUZZI ’22, double major in Elementary Education and Dance studies.

During her time at Rider, she has been a dedicated Dance Mentor, and was involved in many different clubs, organizations, and jobs on campus. She performed in many Rider Dances concerts and is completing her student teaching in Elementary Education this semester. She is co-recipient of The Mildred C. Hawkins Fine Arts Endowed Scholarship RYAN ALGER ’22, is a senior Technical Theater major with a concentration in Makeup Design and a minor in Dance. She is a member and choreographer in Rider Dance Ensemble, has served as the public relations chair and president, and is currently serving as merchandise chair. She is also a member of Alpha Psi Omega and is currently serving as the sunshine chair. After graduation she plans on furthering her studies in makeup design.

TANISHA ANAND ’22, is an international student from India, majoring in Dance and minoring in Social work. She is the president of Global Outlooks club on campus, an International Students Mentor and a Dance Mentor. Tanisha also was a student worker at the library. She has received the dean’s scholarship for all four years and was awarded a Dance Merit Scholarship for 2021-2022 school year..

TIFFANI BRITTON ’22, double major in Dance Performance and Film and Television, she served on the executive boards of numerous clubs and organizations including 107.7 The Bronc, Rider Unified Sports (Special Olympics New Jersey), and Alpha Phi Omega. She is also a choreographer for the Rider Dance Ensemble. She is a co-recipient of The Mildred C. Hawkins Fine Arts Endowed Scholarship along with multiple National Broadcasting Society AERho awards IRIS COURCHAINE ’22, is a triple major in Acting, Technical Theater and Dance.

She has performed in Rider Dances every year, designed costumes for Rider’s production of Pete (Her) Pan, and was most recently seen at Rider in Polaroid Stories.

ANNA FREDEEN ’22, is a Dance Science major with a minor in Psychology.

She has been a member of Rider Dance Ensemble and Rider Dance Team, and she is a Dance Mentor. She worked with freshmen in her senior research capstone: The Effect of Ballet on Athletic Performance Measures. She was recently awarded the Choreography Connection Award from the National Choreography Intensive, was nominated into Phi Sigma Tau, and was a co-recipient of Rider’s Dance Merit Scholarship.

EMMA LANDIS ’22, is a double major in Dance Performance and Psychology. She has performed in Rider Dances every year, was a part of the Rider Dance Ensemble and Psi Chi, the International Honors Society for Psychology. She will be starting the Master in Applied Psychology program at Rider University immediately following graduation.

KAYLA PLUNTO ’22, is a Dance Performance major with a minor in Arts Entertainment Industries Management. She earned an Associate of Arts degree from Mercer County Community College. She has been part of Rider Dance Ensemble, Dance Team and is a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

HANNAH WADE ’22, is double majoring in Elementary Education and Dance Studies with a minor in Special Education and a certification in ESL. Throughout her time at Rider, she has been a part of the Rider Dance Ensemble, served as a mentor for the School of Fine and Performing Arts, and is a sister of Zeta Tau Alpha. She has performed in Rider Dances for the past three years.

VICTORIA PAIGE WILLIAMS ’22, is a Senior BA Acting major with a minor in Dance. Her previous dance credits include Everything Is Falling Into Place (Choreographer/Dancer), Negotiating Balance (Dancer), Moving In Our Community (Dancer), Dance And Sustainability Project (Soloist/Dancer). Over the summer she made her first self-produced dance film titled Anything But Ordinary.

Special Thanks TO KAYLEY TEZBIR, MELISSA GREENBERG & THE ECO-REPS FOR ALL THEY DO FOR RIDER AND THE PLANET

B RO N C S G O G R E E N.COM

Westminster College of the Arts

2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

R I D E R.E D U/A RT S