ODC Theater to Present RESIDENT ARTISTS UNPLUGGED, 8/30

ODC Theater, one of the West Coast's major centers for contemporary dance and performance, announced today its newest class of resident artists: Gerald Casel, Maurya Kerr, Nicole Klaymoon, and the duo of Sheldon B. Smith and Lisa Wymore. The announcement of these five distinguished artists falls on the ten-year anniversary of ODC Dance Commons, whose upstairs Studio B will serve as venue for a one-night-only event offering a rare and candid look into the creative process of the new resident artists. Titled Resident Artists Unplugged, the event takes place Sunday, August 30 at 6pm. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased online at odcdance.org/tickets.

ODC's choreographic residencies represent a rare longitudinal commitment - three years in length - and offer crucial development opportunities to mid-career artists including artistic mentorship and critical feedback, fully subsidized rehearsal space, administrative support and mentoring, the commission of a new work to premiere at ODC Theater, as well as a fully subsidized technical residency.

"I am delighted to announce the diverse and accomplished line-up of choreographic voices that define our next cohort of resident artists," says Christy Bolingbroke, ODC deputy director for advancement. "Now, perhaps more than ever, artists need somewhere they can call a creative home. Our commitment to work with them for the next three years sets the stage and bodes well for the future of dance in the Bay Area."

In addition to its Artist Residency program, ODC sponsors a Resident Company program. Designed to foster the continued growth and development of past artists-in-residence, the Resident Companyprogram welcomes this year Amy Seiwert's Imagery, Hope Mohr Dance and RAWdance. These companies join Garrett+Moulton Productions and "place physical technique and a regular core group of dancers high among their choreographic values," says Bolingbroke.

"The variety of choreographic voices represented within our newest group of resident artists and companies demonstrates ODC's promise to support the full panoply of dance, from traditional to postmodern, from contemporary ballet to street dance, and to offer a place for artists to push the boundaries of those forms so they may evolve. As a dance company, school and theater, ODC is invested in the entire artistic life cycle and our residency programs are one important part of this large canvas."

RESIDENT ARTIST BIOS:

Philippine-born Gerald Casel was raised in California where he started dancing in public school. He holds a B.F.A. from The Juilliard School and an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has danced in the companies of Michael Clark, Zvi Gotheiner, Sungsoo Ahn, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and Stephen Petronio with whom he has also served as Assistant Director and Director of Education. In 1997, he was awarded the New York Dance Performance Award, a "Bessie," for Sustained Achievement. He has taught frequently in NYC at Movement Research and Dance New Amsterdam where he has also been an artist-in-residence. Casel is an Assistant Professor of Dance at University of California-Santa Cruz where he has been recently named a Hellman Fellow. He has also served on the faculties of Cal State Long Beach, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he was awarded the David Payne-Carter Award for Teaching Excellence. A highly sought guest teaching artist, Casel continues to work with Sasha Waltz and Guests (Berlin), UW-Milwaukee's M.F.A. program and at the American Dance Festival. Since 1998, GERALDCASELDANCE has presented original works including six evening-length dances. The company has been presented at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Dance Theater Workshop, Dance New Amsterdam, Joyce SoHo, The Yard, Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out, Danceworks Milwaukee,ODC Theater, Motion Pacific, the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, among many others.

Maurya Kerr founded tinypistol after a twelve-year career with Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Tinypistol has been honored by a 2011 Hubbard Street National Choreographic Competition award, a 2012 CHIME grant and a University of Minnesota 2014/15 Cowles Visiting Artist grant. Kerr's work has been commissioned and presented by Ballet Nouveau Colorado, the Aspen Fringe Festival, WestWave Dance Festival, REVERBdance Festival, the Black Choreographers Festival and the San Francisco International Arts Festival. Her work FUR was honored by selection for the 2013 ACDFA Baha Region gala performance. Having just collaborated with Alex Ketley and Bobbi Jene Smith on In Defense of Regret for Axis Dance Company, which premiered in June 2015, Kerr is also a winner of Whim W'Him's 2015 Choreographic Shindig and will be premiering a work for the company in fall 2015. She is on faculty with the LINES Ballet educational programs and conducts residencies nationally as a visiting guest artist with BODYTRAFFIC, Hollins University, University of Minnesota, University of South Carolina, Webster University, Pacific Northwest Ballet and The School at Jacob's Pillow.

Nicole Klaymoon is founder and artistic director of Embodiment Project. As a solo performer, Klaymoon created the dance theater production, Sixth Vowel, choreographed by Rennie Harris and directed by Kamilah Forbes of the New York City HipiHop Theatre Festival. Miami New Times art critic Chuck Strouse wrote, "Nicole Klaymoon's Sixth Vowel was THE BEST small theatrical production I have seen in this city in a decade." Sixth Vowel toured to festivals and venues including the Hip-Hop Theater Festival (NY), Illadelph Legends Hip-Hop Dance Festival (PA), Electric Lodge (CA), Miami Hip-Hop Project (FL), the Painted Bride Theater (PA), UC Riverside (CA) and Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland). Klaymoon is a recipient of a Headlands residency andODC's Sandbox Series residency sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She has performed in dance works directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Sean San Jose, Rennie Harris, Amara Tabor-Smith, Meredith Monk, Maria Gillespie, Annie Rosenthal-Parr and Anne Bluethenthal. She has facilitated a dance theater intensive sponsored by G.R.A.C.E. Africa and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Kenya, and worked as an educator/choreographer in more than thirty Bay Area schools. Klaymoon has taught in the USF dance department and is currently on faculty at Dance Mission Theater, Marin Academy High School and at ODC. She received a B.A. in Dance from UCLA and an M.F.A. from the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Sheldon B. Smith has been making dances, music and video art for over 25 years in both the Midwest and California. For the last six years he has been a full-time visiting assistant professor in the Mills College Dance Department. There he teaches various composition, music, technology and theory related courses. He has a B.A. in Dance from Colorado College and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois-Urbana. Recently he was invited to teach at the Maine Island Dance Festival, created an algorithmically derived dance film called Endless Gestures of Goodwill that premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Mills College Art Museum, and together with Scott Wells created an evening length work called Father On, which was named one of San Francisco Chronicle's 10 best shows of the year.

Lisa Wymore is an associate professor of dance within the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance at UC Berkeley and is the director of the Dance Program. She teaches courses in choreography, contemporary dance technique, performance, movement improvisation, pedagogy, and dance and technology. She received her B.A. in Political Theory from UC Santa Cruz, and has an M.F.A. in dance from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She has been twice awarded Illinois Arts Council grants for her choreography. Wymore is a certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst and is on the faculty of the Integrated Movement Studies Laban training program.

ODC Theater participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and it advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the region's economic and cultural development. The Theater is the site of over 120 performances a year involving nearly 1,000 local, regional, national and international artists.

Since 1976, ODC Theater has been the mobilizing force behind countless San Francisco artists and the foothold for national and international touring artists seeking debut in the Bay Area. The Theater, founded by Brenda Way and currently under the direction of Christy Bolingbroke, has earned its place as a cultural incubator by dedicating itself to creative change-makers, those leaders who give the Bay Area its unmistakable definition and flare. Nationally known artists Spaulding Gray, Diamanda Galas, Molissa Fenley, Bill T. Jones, Eiko & Koma, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Ban Rarra and Karole Armitage are among those whose first San Francisco appearance occurred at ODC Theater.

For more information about ODC Theater and all its programs visit odcdance.org.