mission

Cherylyn Lavagnino’s mission is to create movement that engages an audience by aligning the rigor of ballet with the humanistic performance values of contemporary dance. Her choreography uses the physically limiting state of dancing “en pointe” as a platform to delve into the range of human interaction and emotion. The exaggerated classical ballet form is directed to express sensitive and honest portrayals by her dancers. Music is paramount to Lavagnino’s creative process and its influence pushes and prods her imagery. Live music is a hallmark.

“Eloquence must be something Lavagnino asks of her dancers. You often feel the movement as it courses through their bodies gently or fiercely. The distortions don’t look like examples of the new virtuosity, and at their best, they seem to proceed from emotional states. The dancers gaze intently at one another and the space, while the choreography bends the ballet choreography to suit whatever possesses them, or invades them from the music.”

Deborah Jowitt, dance critic and author.

history

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance is a New York City based contemporary ballet company formed in 2000 as a platform for the choreography of Cherylyn Lavagnino. The company’s mission is to excite dance audiences through the medium of classical ballet while expressing the immediacy and humanity of post-modern contemporary dance.

The company has been presented for four NY Seasons by Danspace Project in St. Mark’s Church and has performed at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, DanceNow/NYC Festival, The Joyce Theater’s “Evening Stars” series in Battery Park, Symphony Space’s “Dance Sampler”, The Field’s “Uptown/Downtown” workshop and performance

series, and three times at Inside/Out at Jacob’s Pillow. Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance has been supported by space grants from the Baryshnikov Arts Center, company residencies at The Yard and SILO, and has received corporate matching grants from Computer Associates, Inc. for the past four Seasons. The company has received funding from the American Music Center’s Live Music for Dance grant and from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in support of its bi-annual “Salon Series”. This Series of artist salons, curated by Lavagnino, feature performances of dance and live music in a gallery setting to bring together artists of various disciplines living in Manhattan to create a dialog between enthusiasts of dance, music and visual art.

cherylyn lavagnino

Cherylyn Lavagnino (Artistic Director/Choreographer) has an MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, as well as a BA in Philosophy from USC. Lavagnino toured nationally as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet. She has performed a range of classical repertoire and contemporary work by choreographers including Balanchine, John Butler, Hans Van Manen, and Tere O’Connor, and the diversity of these experiences has informed the dialogue between classical and contemporary in her work with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. Ms. Lavagnino has created over thirty works in the past fifteen years, and since 2000 the platform for her choreography has been Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. Many of those works were created in collaboration with composers Scott Killian and Jane Chung. She regularly incorporates the performance of live music into her performances. The American Virtuosi, directed by Kenneth Hamrick and Ms. Lavagnino are developing a Dance and Live Music incentive to support their collaborative interests. Lavagnino’s choreography has been presented in New York City by Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Dance Theater Workshop, Symphony Space, DanceNow/NYC, Kaatsban International Dance Center and The Joyce Theatre’s “Evening Stars” series. Ms. Lavagnino is a recipient of the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation’s award for choreography and of a space grant residency from the Baryshnikov Arts Center and her choreography has been supported by the American Music Center’s Live Music for Dance grant and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Manhattan Creative Communities Fund.

Lavagnino is currently Chair of the Dance Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has been a full-time member of the NYU faculty since 1987. She teaches professional ballet locally in NYC and internationally; she is developing a creative exchange with the Beijing Dance Academy and Minzu University in Beijing. In recognition of her superior work, Lavagnino won New York University’s prestigious David Payne Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003.

teaching

Cherylyn Lavagnino offers professional ballet training that emphasizes sound skeletal alignment, mechanical efficiency, and gravity in order to increase the dancer's own structural support for physical freedom, directness of intention, and ease with musical and technical complexities. Lavagnino's sophisticated and clear approach to ballet technique incorporates her wealth of information on the body with a strong sense of the person inside the movement. Through the release of personal and physical tensions, dynamic and expressive range is continually expanded and an honest level of performance is attained.

Lavagnino has taught professional ballet internationally and in several New York City studios. She was invited to teach in summer programs including Bates Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, The Paul Taylor Intensive, and the International Summer School of Dance in Tokyo. In 2002, she gave daily company class for the Lyon Opera Ballet.

On the Ballet Faculty at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts since 1987, she directed the Second Avenue Dance Company for fourteen years, and in recognition of her superior work, she won New York University's prestigious David Payne Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching in May of 2003. Lavagnino currently serves as the Chair of the Dance Department at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.

artists

Sarah Bek

Sarah Bek hails from various regions of the country, having danced professionally in California, Ohio and Texas; her taste for the east coast has now placed her here in New York, experimenting with new works and investing her own energy into past creations. Holding a BFA from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Sarah enjoys the vigor of the city and what it calls forth from a dancer: an open spirit and the drive to give of oneself without reserve. The delight she finds in the workings of this company of dancers, choreographers, musician and artists is contagious, and she hopes you will join us in our enthusiasm!

Selina Chau

Selina Chau started professional dance training at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts. Upon graduation, she joined Hong Kong Ballet Company (HKB) and was promoted to Coryphée dancer in 2003. Since then she has taken on many lead roles in the company's classical and contemporary repertoire, including Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Turandot, The Merry Widow, The Rite of Spring, Rubies, and others. She became a Choreographic Apprentice with the HKB in 2007 under the directorship of Mr. John Meehan. She has choreographed for HKB's production of Swan Lake, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's production of Aida, as well as many other productions.

Selina continues her creative work in New York. In September 2009, she created A Celebration of Dreams for China's 60^thAniversary at the Rose Theatre, Lincoln Center. Her work The New York Exchange was performed at La MaMa Moves Dance Festival, and Nightscape was created on members of the Tisch Dance Second Avenue Dance Company. In 2010 Selina recieved her MFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is also certified at the 200-hour level to teach alignment-based Vinyasa yoga and Mind Body Dancer ^TM curriculum classes, which were developed for dancers and performing artists. Selina has also danced with the Metropolitan Opera's production of Nixon in China.

Kristin Deiss

Kristin Deiss grew up in Philadelphia, PA where she first received her dance training at the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet before attending both the School of American Ballet as well as the Miami City Ballet School. Kristin recently graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University with an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, and has performed original works by Pamela Pietro, Sydney Skybetter, Cherlylyn Lavagnino, and John-Mark Owen. She is a certified yoga teacher through the Mind Body Dancer® 200 Yoga Teacher Training, and also holds advanced certifications in both Reiki and Integrated Energy Therapy. This is her first year with CLD.

Justin Flores

Justin Flores began his dance training with Debbie Busby at the age of 16. He is a graduate of the Houston Ballet Academy and holds a BFA from the University of Oklahoma. He has danced with the Eugene Ballet, Smuin Ballets/SF, ODC Dance, The Foundry, Liss Fain Dance Company, Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Capacitor Performance Group, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, and Ballet X. Currently he is working on projects with Thomas Ortiz Dance Company and the Metropolitan Opera. He has giving performances in the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and Europe. Mr. Flores is also a student of Classical Chinese Medicine and Acpuncture at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York. He is very happy to be performing with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

Giovanna Gamna

Giovanna Gamna is originally from Florence, Italy. she moved to the States to continue her dance education at SUNY Purchase. After earning her BFA in Dance and Performance, she has been living and freelancing in New York. She has had the good fortune to perform for Cori Kresge, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Dema Dance Company, Luca Veggetti, and Lior Shneoir, among others. This is her first year with CLD.

Michael Gonzalez

Michael D. Gonzalez grew up in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, where he trained at Larkin Dance Studio under the direction of Michele and Shirley Larkin. After graduating from St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists in 2008, he attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he earned his BFA in Dance upon graduation in 2011. While at school, he performed works by Gus Solomons Jr., Pamela Pietro, James Martin, and Lucinda Childs. He also danced with Andrew Jannetti and Dancers, the Charles Weidman Foundation, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Since graduation, Mr. Gonzalez has performed with the Metropolitan Opera and has stayed on as a performer with the Charles Weidman Foundation. He currently dances with the Met and is a company dancer with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Company and Sen Curran Company.

Ramona Kelley

Ramona Kelley grew up in California where she trained at Berkeley Ballet Theater. In 2006, she was an awardee and scholarship recipient of the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA). She went on to earn a BFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she began working with Cherylyn Lavagnino. In addition to working with CLD, Ramona has danced for Oakland Ballet Company and Sidra Bell Dance NY among others. She danced the principal role of “Betsy” on the international tour of Twyla Tharp’s acclaimed production Come Fly Away.

Christine Luciano

Christine Luciano hails from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where she trained with Boston Ballet and continued her studies on scholarship at the Walnut Hill School for Performing Arts under the direction of Michael Owen. She holds a BFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has been fortunate to work with choreographers such as Samuel Kurkjian, Kate Hutter, Lauri Stallings, Diane Noya, Graham Lustig, and Sydney Skybetter. Along with dancing, Ms. Luciano is a certified yoga teacher with Mind Body Dancer®. She is delighted to be dancing with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

Christine McMillan

Christine McMillan, originally from St. Louis, MO, currently dances for the Metropolitan Opera where she has worked with numerous choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Benjamin Millipied, Doug Varone, and Mark Morris. At the Met, she has danced soloist roles and appeared in HD broadcasts and on PBS. Christine received a Bessie citing her versatility and her work with Ben Munisteri. She is a certified yoga teacher through OM Yoga. Prior to moving to NY she danced with Richmond Ballet. She started working with Cherylyn over 12 years ago and is pleased to be joining her dancers again. xoxo Jay.

Laura Mead

Laura Mead grew up in Austin, TX and Berkeley, CA. She received a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School, where she performed works by Jessica Lang, Ronald K. Brown, Mark Morris and Paul Taylor, among others. Laura originated the principal role of Betsy in Twyla Tharp's Broadway musical Come Fly Away, which garnered her an Astaire Award nomination. Laura served as Dance Captain on a national tour of Tharp's Movin' Out. She has also performed with American Repertory Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, Morphoses and Jessica Lang Dance.

Patrick John O'Neill

Patick John O'Neill was born and raised in Rochester, New York and has been dancing since the age of two, under his mother's guidance. He has studied all types of dance at various local dance studios in the Rochester and Buffalo areas. Patrick graduated with his BFA in Dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to working with for Cherylyn Lavagnino, since graduating Patrick has been granted the opportunity to be a company member for Lucinda Childs as well as the Steps Repertory Ensemble. Patrick's love for performance does not end with dance, but extends out into choreography, theater and voice.

Joshua Palmer

Joshua Palmer, native of Maine, moved to New York to attend NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he received his BFA in dance in '07. He has also studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, the Bates Dance Festival, and the Tisch Summer Dance Festival. While in New York, he has been fortunate to work with choreographers Hilary Easton, T. Lang, Alethea Adsitt, and Danielle Russo. Josh currently has the privilege of dancing for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Doug Elkins, Gibney Dance, Douglas Dunn, and Erica Essner.

Adrian Silver

Adrian Silver is a dramaturg, dancer and writer currently pursuing an MFA at Columbia University. He has danced with Oakland Ballet, Ballet Contemporaneo de Caracas, and numerous companies/choreographers here in NYC including Kazuko Hirabayashi and Martin Lofsnes' 360 Dance Company. He also works as assistant director for Martha Clarke and as a literary reader for The Play Company, directed by Kate Loewald.

Lila Simmons

Lila Simmons hails from Portland, Oregon. She trained at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Jefferson Dancers under the direction of Steve Gonzales, the Northwest Dance Project under the direction of Sarah Slipper, and as a Trainee with the Nevada Ballet Theatre under the direction of James Canfield. Lila graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dance in May 2012. She also dances with Classical Contemporary Ballet Theatre and Ballet Inc. This is her first year with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

Samuel Swanton

Samuel Swanton grew up in Holden Maine, where he began his training and professional career with the The Robinson Ballet. He went on to attend The Walnut Hill School for the Arts and currently holds a B.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Samuel currently dances with Dusan Tynek Dance Theater has had the pleasure of performing with choreographers such as Patricia Hoffbauer, Pat Catterson, and Gus Solomons Jr.

Claire Westby

Claire Westby is a native of Minnesota where she studied at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and at Saint Paul City Ballet. She holds a BFA in Dance from Tisch School of the arts, NYU, with a minor in anthropology. She has been lucky enough to work with Cherylyn Lavagnino, Matthew Jenjeski, Uri Sands, Gus Solomons Jr. and Gerald Casel. Recently Claire performed at The Whitney in Trisha Brown's retrospective and at The 92nd Street Y for The Weidman Foundation. Claire is also a member of Liz Gerring Dance Company and a founding member of RedCurrant Collective.

Eric Williams

Eric Williams is a movement researcher, educator and expresser. His academic background includes a stint at the Harid Conservatory and a conferral from the University of South Florida. Since his relocation to the city, he has had the pleasure of working with the likes of such movement designers as Jennifer Muller/The Works, Darcy Naganuma and Abraham.In.Motion. This is Eric's first season with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and he is very much enjoying immersing himself in the company's rich ethos and dynamic.

collaborators

Guillermo E. Brown (Composer / Vocalist / Percussionist)

Jane Chung (Mosaic String Quartet / Composer)performs as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the United States, Europe and Asia. A dedicated advocate of chamber and new music, her collaborations include the Da Capo Chamber Players and FLUX Quartet, as well as work with composers Mario Davidovsky and Eric Chasalow. In recent years, Chung has collaborated extensively with dance. With the support of a Yale AlumniVentures grant, Chung has created and premiered numerous works throughout the Northeast with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and another noted choreographer, Randy James. Her engagements in the 2009-10 Season include performances with the highly-acclaimed Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, a collaboration for which her playing has been described by critics as "excellent" and "sweet-voiced." Chung performs on a 1782 Joseph and Antonius Gagliano violin.

Catherine DeAngelis (Costume Designer)

Kenneth Hamrick (Composer, Musician). Kenneth Hamrick is a multi-talented keyboard artist and conductor of opera, dance, choral, and chamber music, specializing in Baroque, Classical, and early-Romantic music and performance techniques. His crossover recording with members of the New York Philharmonic on the Delos label made it to the top of many charts. Hamrick is Artistic Director of the American Virtuosi/Fusion Bande with noted performances of handel, Monteverdi, Lully, Mozart and Rameau in modern renderings. He is active in contemporary theater and dance, conducting operas for the New York for Encompass Opera Theater at the Connelly Theater, Alice Shields' CRISEYDE at Elebash Hall Fifth Avenue, and an extensive tour with tap legend Savion Glover in Classical Savion. Other projects in the world of dance have included work with the Limon Dance Company through a NEA American Masterpieces grant program, collaborations with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, and performances for Limon at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Born and raised in Alabama, he earned degrees at Huntingdon College, University of Montevallo, and completed performance studies in harpsichord and organ in the doctoral program at the Eastman School of Music.

Scott Killian (Composer) has composed works for such major American companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance-Chicago, Nikolais/Louis Dance, and the José Limón Dance Company. Mr. Killian created numerous works with Cherylyn Lavagnino, as well as with Danny Shapiro and Joanie Smith, Johannes Wieland, ZviDance, and others. As a composer/sound designer for theatre, Mr. Killian has served as Resident Composer for the Berkshire Theatre Festival since 1997. Among the many other theatrical venues are the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater, Women’s Project, The Acting Company, Rattlestick Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C., Shakespeare & Co., Seattle Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, George Street Playhouse, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Boston’s Huntington Theatre, GEVA Theatre, Theatre Calgary and the Vancouver Playhouse. Music for film includes Witnessing, a documentary film which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired on MSNBC, the film Undetectable: the Changing Face of AIDS (premiered on PBS and the NOW Film Festival/NYC) and Swan Lake, Minnesota an award-winning video adaptation of the classic ballet produced by the A&E network in conjunction with PBS.

Jacob Lawson (Violinist / Composer) has composed arrangements for best selling recording artists including Guster, Sixpence None-the-Richer, Jars of Clay, Ce Ce Winans, Vienna Teng, and Venus Hum as well as dozens of other major label artists. He has performed with these and other artists including Tim McGraw, Jill Sobule, and Richard Julian throughout the US and Europe and has appeared in broadcast on the BBC, Vh1, CBS and ABC. In the world of dance he has created three works for Tami Stronach Dance including “Pinchas, the Fish People, and the Great Flood” which was developed with Resident Artist grant at HERE Arts Center. He has also composed for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance and Shapiro and Smith Dance. For film he has scored director Geoff Ryan’s first feature, “Fray” which will be released Fall 2011. He also arranged and performed on the soundtrack of “Boy Wonder”. He composed the music for The Flying Machine’s critically acclaimed stage adaptation of “Frankenstein” at the Soho Rep. that toured nationally. His compositions for theatre have also included numerous collaborations with Scott Killian for the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare & Co., Theatre Calgary, George Street Playhouse and many others.

Kyle Olson (Percussionist / Composer) is a drummer and composer currently living in Brooklyn. These days he’s been accompanying dance classes at NYU, Mark Morris, and the Joffrey School, and composing music for companies such as Cherylyn Lavagnino, Elisa Monte, Adele Myers, Gerald Casel, and for various members of the Second Avenue Dance Company at NYU. Outside of the dance world, Olson plays and has played drums with The Americans, Bad Nancy, Mark Ronson, Daniel Merriweather, and Sean Lennon. Visit http://www.myspace.com/drumko to hear other samples of Olson’s original music and for links to some of his other music projects.

Andy Tierstein (Composer). As writer and composer, has written scores for numerous choreographers, for theatre, and for film. Grants, awards, and honors include three NEA Opera/Musical Theatre Awards, a Meet the Composer Choreographer/Composer Commission; several Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Awards; a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; a MacDowell Fellowship; a Richard Rodgers Development Award; and numerous ASCAP awards. His CD Mannahatta was featured on WNYC’s New Sounds program. He has composed music for Donald Byrd’s The Beast, and Stephen Petronio’s Drawn That Way, Chris Elam’s Throw People, and has scored, arranged, and/or directed a number of musical theatre pieces, including Papushko, Winter Man, and The Wild. Music for film includes the BBC film Men, with choreography by Victoria Marks; The West, which premiered on PBS; and a BBC documentary series on Chinese scroll painting, Masters of Space. Teirstein’s viola concerto Maramures, recorded by the Prague Radio Symphony, was released on Masterworks Recordings. Original cast member of the Broadway musical hit Barnum. Appeared on Search for Tomorrow and in the film Sophie’s Choice. Commissioned by the University of Arizona to write a large-scale piece for seven choirs to accompany Liz Lerman/The Dance Exchange in their piece Hallelujah. Also commissioned by the Composer's Forum to write an original composition for symphony orchestra and choir for WashingtonState Millennium Concert.

Betsy Weis (Visual Artist). As a child, Weis tried to avoid nature as she found it a hellish experience. She loved the city: concrete and traffic were familiar and reassuring. However, the narrow view of the ocean from her bedroom window offered an opportunity to think about nature in a different way. Then, through the study of the artists Titian, Giorgione and Friedrich, she found their romantic renderings of idealized landscapes a tempting world apart from her urban aesthetic. Years later, art school provided her the means to convey an aesthetic and experiential perception of nature. Now, she photographs nature. Using a digital camera, she records images of wild landscapes. In her studio, she continues her work, her digital process evolving into a sensuous memory of a dreamy, fluid, natural landscape. Weis received her BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and her MA in painting from NYU. She has exhibited her paintings and digital photo based works throughout the United States in solo and group exhibitions. Her most recent work can be seen currently at OK Harris Gallery in New York in a group exhibition called Arcadia. This will be Weis’ 5 th collaboration with CLD.