Jane Jerardi

Performer

Ginger Wagg, a dance artist focused primarily on improvisation and multidisciplinary collaboration, is committed to bringing visibility to experimental performance by using alternative venues. Since 2004, Ginger has developed an intense desire to use curation and production as a means to collaborate and explore with both artists and audience.

In spring of 2005, Ginger was proud to team up with Jerardi, to co-curate the three part site-induced series IN SITE: Spill, Listen, Crave, which took place across the city and involved nearly 24 visual and performing artists. This project was nominated for two 2005 Metro DC Dance Awards and was funded by the 2005 Young Emerging Artist Award Ginger received from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. In addition to being committed to collaboration she creates and performs her own installation work including happeningistime in January 2006 which took place at the Spare Room gallery in Baltimore, MD; the multi-medium art house The Apartment Show in Adams Morgan in June 2004; and is it loud when you listen? performed at both the art house and as a part of Jerardi's floor plan at the Gallery at the Warehouse Theater in February 2004.

Ginger also continues to perform with three improvisational dance companies. She had the pleasure of performing with Sharon Mansur/mansurdance (MN) at the 2006 Inaugural Capital Fringe Festival and has worked with SM/md since spring 2002. Ginger is proud to be have danced with Daniel Burkholder/The PlayGround (DC) since early 2003 and to be part of the company’s performance earlier this year which earned them a nomination at the 2006 MetroDC Dance Awards. Working with Shua Group & Agata Olek (NYC) during and since the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in 2004 has been quite instrumental in expanding Ginger’s imagination and skills as an experimental performer. In addition her to work with these companies, she has performed in collaboration with Amber Kendrick for Kendrick’s Master’s thesis in Architecture at Catholic University; for choreographer Marcy Schlissel (NYC); with Havana Select, a DC-based Afro-Cuban music and dance troupe; and for Deborah Jinza Thayer at the 1999 Minneapolis Fringe Festival. Since 1998, she has studied and performed improvisation and contact improvisation at numerous intensives including the Seattle Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation, Wild Meadows, and the White Mountain Summer Dance Festival. Her training also includes the summer program at the Zenon School in Minneapolis, MN and she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

Performer

Brian H. Buck is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where he received numerous letters of appreciation and accommodation, a good conduct medal, and was honorably discharged in January of 1995. He received his Associate Degree in English, from the Community Colleges of Baltimore County/Essex, where he also started dancing. Brian has performed with Dimensional Dance Media, the student company, in the works of Aina Delpi Sneed, Anna Rider, Vanessa Johnson-Jackson, Jan Taylor, and Shannon Glascow. Brian received his Bachelor degree in Dance from the University of MD where he performed with Maryland Dance Ensemble in the works of Alvin Mayes, Stephanie Thibault, Jen Roth, as well as his own work. In addition, Brian has worked extensively with Daniel Lepkoff. Brian is currently an assistant Property and Events Manager at Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture.

Composer

Amy Farina is a musician living in Washington, DC.  Primarily a drummer and vocalist, she currently performs in the band The Evens.  Previously she has played in The Warmers, Moats Definitely, Mister Candy Eater, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists and with Lois Maffeo.  She created and performed the original, recorded score for 33 Desires.

Visuals

Michael Wichita's photographs have been seen in Metro Weekly, the Advocate, The Washington Post and the Village Voice, and in several local art shows in the metro area. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, he is currently assistant photo editor at the AARP Bulletin. He has collaborated with Jerardi on video visuals for both Efficiency and Mono: singular, one and most recently, with Ginger Wagg, on Façade.

Composer

British artist Robin Rimbaud (also known as “Scanner”) creates absorbing, multi-layered soundscapes that twist technology in unconventional ways. From his early controversial work using found mobile phone conversations to his focus on trawling the hidden noise of the modern metropolis as the symbol of the place where hidden meanings and missed contacts emerge, his restless explorations of the experimental terrain have won him international admiration from Bjork and Stockhausen. Scanner is committed to working with cuttingedge practitioners and has collaborated with artists from every imaginable genre, including musicians Bryan Ferry and Laurie Anderson, The Royal Ballet and Random Dance companies, composers Michael Nyman and Luc Ferrari, and artists Mike Kelley and Derek Jarman. As well as producing compositions and CDs, his diverse body of work includes soundtracks for films, performances, radio, and site-specific inter-media installations. Robin created the original score for Efficiency.

Composers

The Caution Curves is an evolving musical experiment, employing a gymnastic, abstract vocal style in conjunction with a free-jazz percussion backdrop as well as an atmosphere of drone created with electronic devices. Tristana Fiscella, Amanda Huron, and Rebecca Mills are inspired by those who have taken a particular idea and developed it so that it has become evident that they have created their own language. They can be seen, pushing odd, peripheral ideas and making them central to their work. A piece is most successful when it’s well rehearsed and the performers know exactly what is coming next, but still have the freedom within that piece to respond to the uniqueness of the environment or the mood of the location. The Caution Curves are collaborating with Ginger Wagg and Jerardi to create the installed and live score for Façade.

"imbued with the kind of sensitivity and challenging approach to sound that signals great potential for future development." -Mia Clarke, The Wire

Sculptor/Costume Design

Agata Olek Oleksiak graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland with a degree in cultural studies. In New York, she rediscovered her ability to crochet and since that time has started her crocheted madness. Her unique crocheted wearable sculptures premiered at the Williamsburg Arts and Historical Society Surrealist Fashion Show in October 2003. In 2004, her work was exhibited at the 5BE Gallery in Manhattan. Agata designed public installations for the 2004 Life Arts Festival in Philadelphia and 2004 Toronto Fringe Festival, where by introducing crocheted objects – chairs, ladders, couches, tables – she offered an inference to domestic and workplace environments. In February 2005, she created crocheted balloons installation for Spill at Transformer in Washington, DC, in a collaborative project with Jane Jerardi and Ginger Wagg. In 2004, Agata received the Ruth Mellon Award for Sculpture and was selected for 2005/2006 residency program at Sculpture Space Utica, NY. Agata has designed sets and costumes for dance, theater, and film. She has also taught costume design workshops for Materials for the Arts (www.mfta.org), the source of inspiration for many of her creations. For more information on her work see www.agataolek.com.

Composer

Lucas Zarwell is a Washington area composer who has created original scores for numerous choreographers, performance artists, and theatre pieces. Commissions include scores for works by Brian Buck, Peter DiMuro/Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and Sharon Mansur in addition to sound scores for the work of Cherry Red Productions. His score for Naoko Maeshiba's Communitas at Theatre Project in Baltimore was created with the support of a grant from the American Composers Forum. In addition, he produced DC’s neo-burlesque vaudeville show, the Lobster Boy Revue for many years. He has collaborated with Jerardi on multiple projects including the scores for Mono: singular, one and Close.