"...the robust dance was grand from beginning to end."
- Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

Sara Rudner

Sara Rudner, a graduate of Barnard College, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.  She participated in the development and performance of Twyla Tharp’s modern dance repertory from 1965-1985.  During this time she began to choreograph for a small group of dancers known as the Sara Rudner Performance Ensemble, conceiving and directing a series of dances that queried conventional time frames, spaces and occasions for dancing.  Since 1985 Sara has continued to pursue her interest in choreography, improvisation and performing collaborating with like-minded colleagues including Dana Reitz, Russell Dumas, Christopher Janney, Jennifer Tipton, Rona Pondick, Robert Feintuch, Anastasia Lyras and Mikhail Baryshnikov among others.  She received a Bessie in 1984 and has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.  At present, she is the director of dance at Sarah Lawrence College.

Pam Tanowitz Dance

Pam Tanowitz Dance has performed three times at Danspace Project- with presentations in 2002, 2004 and 2006.  Tanowitz’s work has also been seen at Central Park Summerstage, Joyce SoHo and Jacob’s Pillow.  PTD has performed twice at The Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process program, which enabled Tanowitz to create Informal with City Ballet soloist Tom Gold (2001) and to be apart of An Evening of Song & dance with Charles Wuorinen (2005).  In 2001 Pam Tanowitz Dance was one of only three companies in the United States invited to perform at the American Dance Festival as part of the Emerging Generations concert.

Barbara Mahler

BARBARA MAHLER is a choreographer/performer/teacher who has been working in the metropolitan area for thirty years. She received her BA degree from Hunter College, NYC under the tutelage of Dorothy Vislocky.  Although she has worked with many noted independent choreographers, she has primarily been pursuing her own choreographic vision, the solo dance (both for herself and others) since 1989,drawing upon her life experiences and artistic exposures to create moving solo dances of clarity and design for herself and others.   A noted teacher and performer of international reputation, Barbara Mahler has taught workshops and presented her work at many festivals and venues across the nation, in Canada, Scandinavia Asia, and Europe.

Sally Silvers

Sally Silvers celebrated 25 years of dance making in 2005. She has performed and taught (improvisation, composition, repertory) around the world and across the nation. Her theoretical writing, scores, and poetry have appeared in several journals including The Drama Review, an anthology of new writings by women published by Illinois University Press, and many poetry magazines.  Silvers has received support for her choreography from the National Endowment for the Arts six times, twice from Meet the Composer/Choreographer Project for collaborations with John Zorn and Bruce Andrews, from the NY Foundation for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1988.  Silvers is a New York Dance and Performance  "Bessie" winner, has co-directed 2 dance films, Little Lieutenant and Mechanics of the Brain, and choreographed 3 musicals for the Sundance Theater Festival in Utah.  She also currently dances in recent projects of Yvonne Rainer.

A Starry Lineup of Female Choreographers: Vive la Différence
- Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

In his opening remarks for “Dancing Divas,” an evening for six female choreographers as part of the La MaMa Moves! festival, Nicky Paraiso, one of its curators, gushed, “I love this program.” Then why, after three years, doesn’t La MaMa give it more than one night?

But you take what you can get, and there was much to take away from the single program presented at La MaMa Annex Theater on Saturday night. Eva Karczag and Vicky Shick began “Double Vision” side by side on their backs, legs in the air, as they interviewed each other about their lives. Both were born in Budapest; both ended up as dancers with Trisha Brown.

If on the surface their approaches seemed similar, it was enthralling to find a sensitivity for the subtle differences: Ms. Karczag’s precise attack, with its distinct peaks and valleys, next to Ms. Shick, diving under the movement with her usual refined tranquillity.

Jodi Melnick, in an excerpt from “Business of the Bloom,” offered a haunting snapshot of a woman — dainty but full of steel — that ended with a wave as stiff as a windshield wiper but charged with something close to longing.

In “Forever and Ever; Duets” Pam Tanowitz layered sections from repertory works, in which formal, concise footwork — full of itchy, rapid steps — succumbed to a sexy, slow quartet, set to Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me.” There was one unfortunate false ending in this exploration of desire, but the enchanting dancers, including Rashaun Mitchell and Melissa Toogood, pulled you back in with unflinching resolve.

The second half of the program included Barbara Mahler’s “Two for the Show,” a subdued, self-indulgent work for Jessica Winograd and herself. In the entrancing “Yellin’ Gravy,” Sally Silvers paid homage to the civil rights era. The solo, with text by Bruce Andrews, showcased Ms. Silvers’s finesse for taking skittering, oddly shaped movement to a place of febrile beauty.

“Positions — The All Star Variation,” by Sara Rudner, involved a cast of 19. As one large group shifted from position to position on the floor like a wave of motion, John Scott took over as a crazed director, telling a select few, including Ms. Rudner, where to go and how to act. As finales go, the robust dance was grand from beginning to end. It just ended too soon.