Coming Up
2024 SEASON
Chasing The Light Dance Film and Live Performance
Alchemy Arts Collective in association with SOULSKIN Dance
April 27, 2024, at 7pm
Joshua Tree Retreat Center in the Sanctuary
Reception will follow
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Collaboration with Film Designer Jaco Strydom
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Choreographers Barbara Koch and Adrianna Thompson
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Dancers Artists:
Sophia Rumasuglia
Oren Yaari
Robert Valdez
Barbara Koch
BEAUTY
Project Season 10
SOULSKIN Dance Premiere in New York City
MMDG James and Martha Duffy Performance Space
September 27 & 28, 2024
Choreographer
Adrianna Thompson
Adrianna is the Artistic Director of SOULSKIN Dance which has premiered works at Dance Mission Theater, PUSHFest, SjDANCEco, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Santa Barbara HH11 Dance Festival, and was commissioned by the Aspen Art Museum in 2016 to create a site-specific work for SOULSKIN as part of the museum’s Alan Shields exhibit . Adrianna danced professionally in New York City with Battery Dance Co, Carolyn Dorfman Dance Co, Mark DeGarmo & Dancers, and worked with Bella Lewitzky, Milton Myers, Jonathan Wolken, Brenda Daniels, Risa Steinberg, and Mary Jane Eisenberg. As Artistic Director of MEFTAS Dance Theatre in NYC, her choreography was presented at Joyce SoHo, the Cunningham Studio, The Riverside Theatre, Mulberry Street Theater, the Downtown Arts Festival, Trisha Brown Studios, Movement Research, Theater for the New City, Dance Space, and the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, CO. She was on faculty for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet for ten years, and guest faculty for Alonzo King LINES Ballet. In April 2019 SOULSKIN Dance premiered Parallel Dialogues in Boulder and premiered a new ballet, Golden Mean to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus Art Movement at Dance Mission Theater. Adrianna was commissioned for two dance films, Shelter in Place (2020), and CLOSER (2021) and the Ballet Phoenix Rising for the Aspen Fringe Festival. Closer was presented alongside SOULSKIN's The Awakening at Dance Mission in Fall 2021. She is a GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® Specialized Master Teacher and has been practicing the method for 30 years
Choreographer/Performer
Barbara Koch
Barbara was born in Muncie, Indiana. She attended high school at North Carolina School of the Arts and received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts. She received a scholarship as an exchange student from London Contemporary Dance School. She also trained with Stefan Wenta, Bella Lewitzky, Shelly Senter, Bill Evans and Zvi Gotheiner. She worked with Zvi Dance in NYC for over a decade and has the pleasure of touring with the company to Columbia, Germany, Poland, Russia and across the USA. Barbara has also worked for Tandy Beal, Dandelion Dance Theater, Aerol Grimes, Chen and Dancers, Lula Washington Dance Theater, and The Well Tempered Ballet. She was involved in a project on Gotland Island in Sweden. It was a collaboration of 5 choreographers and dancers from the UK, The Royal Swedish Ballet, and the The Cullberg Ballet. The project toured Stockholm, The Royal Opera House in London and a beautiful medieval church on Gotland Island. As a solo artist Barbara has performed her work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, India, and Nepal. She has also created and performed pieces on trapeze. Barbara is thrilled to be joining SOULSKIN for this season!
Film Designer
Jaco Strydom
Videographer
Jaco Strydom (Filmmaker) is a filmmaker and visual designer based in Los Angeles. He has created dance films, visual projection designs and installations for Dance Brigade, SoulSkin Dance, Axis Dance Company, and PERSpectives Dance. He was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in 2019 for the installation of “Sin Palabras II: The Butterfly Effect," choreographed by Krissy Keefer. In 2021 he created a 30-minute dance film with choreographer Adrianna Thompson — “Closer” premiered at Aspen FallFest and was also shown in San Francisco. His collaboration with Axis Dance, "Roots Above Ground” choreographed by Marc Brew, toured Germany, Dubai, and the US in 2021/2022 and was featured on the The Joyce's digital streaming platform.
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ARTISTS
Erika Hassan
Erika's first performance as a professional dancer in NYC was in Adrianna Thompson’s Led Sequins over a decade ago. Erika also danced for choreographers Maureen Fleming, Heidi Latsky, Javier Dzul and Jennifer Muller. She traveled to Brasil, dancing in Marcelo Pereira’s Zen Companhia de Danca from 2000-2003, and to Japan to study with Butoh Master Min Tanaka. Erika performed in Tanaka’s theater Plan B in Tokyo in 2001 and in 2003. Back in New York she danced in and produced Ambivalent Skin at Theater for the New City in 2005. The following year she co-produced, danced and co-directed The Guest House with Adrianna Thompson also at Theater for the New City. She is a master trainer for GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® and part of the International Naam Yoga Teacher Training team. Erika joined SOULSKIN in 2013.
Federico Garcia
Originally from New Mexico where he began his dance training as a teenager at the suggestion of friends with Michele and Kevin Self, Federico went on to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and The Rock School summer programs among others. While earning a degree in opera performance at New Mexico State University he continued to study dance performing with the university contemporary dance company and thus began his move into modern/contemporary dance. He began dancing with Dzul Dance shortly after moving to New York in 2012 and has also danced with Staten Island Ballet, Darrell Thorne and other projects around the city.
Kennyth Montes De Oca
Montes De Oca is a Dominican Republic native and a Rutgers University alum holding a BFA in Dance. He has performed works by Bill T. Jones, Darrell G. Moultrie, Frederick E. Mosley, George Balanchine, Maxine Doyle, Keith Thomson, Maxine Steinman, Randy James, and many others. Montes de Oca is a former Ballet Hispano’s BHdos dancer, and currently is a member of the Company of Collaborative Artists under the direction of Camille Moten. This is their fourth season with Dzul Dance.
Oren Yaari
Oren’s relationship to dance is a reflection of his family’s encouragement to be wildly bold and courageous with creativity. Their graceful acceptance informed Oren’s openness to all forms of movement and in recent years has led him to find his own version of dance. As an untrained dancer, movement to him as only ever served as a tool for tender expression with a strong emphasis on connecting himself and others back to truth. In the past year, Oren has worked under the supervision of Francesca Dominguez performing in her latest work of “Galvanizing Steel” as part of her MFA thesis from Hunter College, as well as “Nesting” which was done in collaboration with Doug Varone at Gibney Performing Arts Center.
Sophia Rumasuglia
Sophia Rumasuglia is a Bay Area native that has performed professionally with Joffrey Ballet in New York, Ballet Austin, and Bay Pointe Ballet. She is currently a freelance performance artist in the Bay Area and has worked on projects with Ballet Bernasconi, No Strings Attached, Emotion Arts and Metamorphosis Ballet. She received her BFA from St. Mary’s college, and is a certified yoga and GYROTONIC® trainer.
Robert "Buddy" Valdez
Affectionately known as “Buddy”, Robert received his dance training at the San Francisco Academy of Ballet and the San Francisco School of the Arts. He also earned a BFA from The Juilliard School. Some of the companies Valdez has performed with include Luna Negra Dance Theater, 360º Dance Company, Riedel Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Flexicurve, Armitage Gone! Dance, and ZviDance. Commercial work includes NYFW, Fashion/One, Comedy Central, & Janet Jackson’s Made for Now music video. Valdez is SAG-AFTRA Eligible.
Andrea Dusel-Foil
Andrea Dusel-Foil is originally from Casper, WY and has performed professionally in North Carolina, Maryland, Las Vegas, Copenhagen, and New York. This is Andrea’s fourth season with Dzul Dance. Additional credits include- Concert Dance: Martha Connerton Kinetic Works, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Ballet Mink, The Coppola Rhythm Ensemble, The Flowers Project, Miriam Barbosa Dance (Transcending & Bliss), and Dzul Dance. Variety: The Cougar Ball, The Cougar Ball Third Time’s a Charm, and Night of 1000 Stevies. Teaching: Ballet Theatre of Maryland Conservatory of Classical and Contemporary Dance, and University of Nevada Las Vegas. Education: UNC Charlotte (BA in Dance), North Carolina Dance Theatre (Professional Training Certificate), Alvin Ailey (Independent Training program), Pennsylvania Western University (MA in Exercise Science). When Andrea is not dancing you can find her teaching Pilates, Lagree Fitness, Yoga and Barre around NYC. In early 2018 she started her business Andrea Dusel-Foil Fitness, and is very passionate about helping others to reach their health and fitness goals in a supportive and non-judgemental manner.
Emanuel Colombo
Originally from San Cipriano, Argentina, Emanuel Colombo comes to us via Peru where he has performed on stage and television. He trained at renowned and prestigious institutes such as the IUNA Institute in Buenos Aires and Dactilares in Lima, Peru. Emanuel danced and acted regularly as a cast member on several National Peruvian shows such as El Gran Show, Operation Triunfo, and Al Fondo Hay Sitio. In 2013 he had his musical theater debut as Peter in the Mandragora production of Hadas in Lima , Peru and continued to perform consistently in the Peruvian theater. In 2017 he starred as a lead in Los Tres Cerditos y un Lobo No Tan Feroz in Miami, Florida. Following many theater roles such as Gigi and Pablo in La Cage Aux Faux he finally landed in Oakland, California where he performed in Ramon Ramos' CubaCaribe. In addition he has competed in and continues to dance one of his passions, Ballroom Dancing. He currently lives in Oakland where he teaches dance and is delighted to be performing in the Bay Area.
