Performers
Company: Jess Curtis/Gravity
In 2000 Jess Curtis founded GRAVITY as a research and development vehicle for very live performance. Gravity aspires to the creation of exceptionally engaging physical entertainment that explores and addresses issues and ideas of substance and relevance to a broad popular public. With Gravity, Mr. Curtis has created two full-evening performance works, "No Place Like Home" (2000) and "fallen" (2001); and a number of shorter experimental works, "Rachael Lincoln© (see footnotes)"(2004) with Rachael Lincoln and "Performance Research Experiment #1" (2004) with Jörg Müller. In addition to the creation of live performances Gravity also produces and facilitates educational experiences for both professionals and lay people in movement and performing arts. Gravity is dedicated to the highest quality of work at an international level and maintains offices and staff both in San Francisco and Berlin.
www.jesscurtisgravity.org
Jess Curtis, Choreographer/Director
Jess Curtis is a director and performer of interdisciplinary dance/performance. Working independently, and in the collective performance groups CAHIN-CAHA, Cirque Batard (France/USA'98-2002) CORE (USA '94-'98), and CONTRABAND (USA'85-'94) he has created and collaborated on numerous award-winning performance works known for their intense physicality, emotional honesty and athletic beauty. In 2000 he founded Jess Curtis/GRAVITY as a research and development vehicle for very live performance. Gravity aspires to the creation of exceptionally engaging physical entertainment that explores and addresses issues and ideas of substance and relevance to a broad popular public. Jess has received four Isadora Duncan Dance awards, was a recipient of the prestigious 2001 California Dancemakers Fellowship and recently was awarded a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for his work, fallen. He is currently at work on a new evening length piece entitled "Touched: Symptoms of Being Human" which will premiere in June 2005 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts where he is a Fellow in the Wattis artist-in-residence program.
Matthias Herrmann, Composer/Musician
Matthias Herrmann studied cello with Rudolf Mandalka at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Düsseldorf, Germany. He has created numerous award-winning scores for the productions of international dance theater companies including Do Theater (St. Petersburg), Fabrik Company (Potsdam, Germany), Howard Katz (Berlin/New York) and Jess Curtis/Gravity (San Francisco/Berlin). As a founding member of PostHolocaustPop, a collaborative Art-Band with Howard Katz and Ansgar Tappert, he is touring internationally and released numerous CDs. Most recently he created soundscapes for Video-installations, music for short film and also composed the score for a theatrical reading of the LiteraturWERKstatt Berlin in 2004. He is also involved in other artistic collaborations with Paul Beiersdorf, Stephanie Maher and Kathleen Hermesdorf, FormVollEndeT, Mangrove Kipling and different musical formations, among others Die Krassnajas and MoarkoVentent.
Gabi Beier, Dramaturge
Gabi Beier first studied mathematics and did post-graduate work in astronomy. Since 1996 she has worked as a dramaturge for both contemporary and classical choreographers in a variety of projects. In 2002/03 she was one of the editors of the first "Dictionary of Theatre Pedagogy" which was published in summer 2003 (Schibri Verlag Milow). Her work has also been published in "Zeitschrift für Theaterpädagogik", the German journal for theatre pedagogy and she contributes dance criticism regularly to numerous newspapers.
Andrew Wass, Performer/Collaborator
Andrew Wass began dancing at U.C. San Diego, studying under Jean Isaacs. Upon graduation he began studying with Eveoke Dance Theater and Lower Left. Influential teachers have included Kirstie Simson, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung, Martin Keogh, Nina Martin, Shelley Senter and Mary Overlie. Andrew has performed with Lower Left since 1999. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2002 he has performed in work by Scott Wells, Jess Curtis and Shelley Senter.
Ulrike Bodammer, Performer/Collaborator
Ulrike Bodammer (Berlin, Germany) graduated in 2002 from L'Ecole Supérieur des Arts du Cirque in Brussels where she specialized in partner acrobatics. She has worked with the Belgian nouveau cirque company Feria Musika, Wire Monkey Dance Company, from Massachusetts, and has performed her own work at venues such as the "Half Machine Festival" in Copenhagen. She is also a Reiki master and teacher.
Maria Francesca Scaroni, Performer/Collaborator
Maria Francesca Scaroni (Brescia, Italy) studied modern jazz, contemporary dance, and contact improvisation with teachers such as Daniel Tinazzi, David Zambrano, Andrew Harwood, and Daniel Lepkoff. She has been a member of the company Manuela Bondavalli Danza and danced in television productions for Canale 5 and Rai 2 in Italy. She is currently enjoying cross training with Aikido and Tango.
Mark Stuver, Performer/Collaborator
Mark Stuver began his career in dance at Middlebury College. There he worked with Peter Schmitz and the Middlebury College Dance Company under Andrea Olsen, collaborated with Paul Matteson and studied improvisation with Penny Campbell. In San Francisco Mark has danced for Kathleen Hermesdorf, Leslie Seiters, Sara Mann, and Lizz Roman. In New York he has worked with Lisa Race and Ezra Caldwell. Performances have taken him from 42nd and Broadway, NYC to Soweto, South Africa, San Francisco's Mission District, The Kennedy Center, Macau, China, Northern Italy, and across the US. While on tour, Mark teaches master classes in partnering and release technique, repertoire and vertical dance. Mark recently developed a solo, Taken, that was shown in San Francisco and Jackson, Wyoming. He continues now in his rewarding collaborations with Rachael Lincoln and in his travels and adventures with Project Bandaloop. This is his first time working with Jess Curtis.
Lea Martini, Performer/Collaborator
Lea Martini lives in Berlin, where she completed an advanced training in contemporary dance at the Etage. Further dance and performance studies led her to the Netherlands at the European Dance Development Center (EDDC) in Arnhem and the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. Her work has a trans-disciplinary focus, most recently including a movement study of schizophrenia in collaboration with psychologist Philip Jonasch. As a dancer she has appeared in the work of Berlin choreographers Christoph Winkler and Yvonne Hardt. Her own solo work Identity Sucks was presented this year at the Berliner Tanztage (Dance Days) at the Sophiensaele Theater in Berlin.
Rainer Grönhagen, Technical Director
Rainer Grönhagen lives in Berlin and has worked for the last 20 years as a lighting designer and technical director at home and abroad. He has collaborated with a number of international artists including Cocoro-Dance/Vancouver, Shinichi Momo Koga/SF/Berlin, Degenerate Art Ensemble/Seattle, Do-Theatre/St.Petersburg , Fabrik/Potsdam, Staatsbank Berlin and Industrietempel e.V./Mannheim. He is currently at work on a new project called "light-Visions" which is based upon Plato's cave allegory.
