THE CORE MEMBERS
+ JOSE VIDAL. Choreographer
Chilean born, Jose studied Anthropology and Sociologies before beginning his dance training 1994. With his first Piece with Francisca Sazie, Aurelio Aurelia, He obtained the awards for best work and best interpreters at the New Theatrical Trends Festival in Santiago.
He attended the young choreographers' programme at ADF Duke University USA, and went on to study in New York with artists like Susan Klein and Barbara Mahler, David Dorfmann, Wally Cardona, Barbara Grubel, Jeremy Nelson, David Zambrano, Mark Haim and Will Swanson.
In 1997 he joined Czech-Italian Company DéjàDoné. He assisted Simone Sandroni choreographically for the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovac Republic and he worked with the Ernesto Company in Theatre Varia, Brussels, Belgium. In 1998, he joined Transit Company in Barcelona.
In 1999 he created the duet Pantalones Grises, and Roundtrip, dance performance for six male actors that was invited to the Harare International Festival of the Arts 2000, Zimbabwe.
In 2001 He carried out the choreographic design and direction for the plays Los ojos rotos, and Circulando directed by the renowned Chilean actress María Izquierdo, and create El Cumpleaños for Ballet de Santiago.
That same year he was awarded a FONDART (Funds for the Development of Culture and Arts) to stage Pichanga, presented in a big tour in Chile and Mendoza, Argentina. Pichanga was considered by many as a landmark for Chilean contemporary dance.
He was a professor at Universidad ARCIS for the drama school between 2002 and 2005, and in 2007 he graduated with an MA in choreography from London Contemporary Dance School, Kent University.
Since 2007 He has being assossiated with The Place as an artist in residence, where he created the pieces 81 frames 21 minutes (2006) and Progressions (2007). He was awaerded with the residency Choreodrome in 2007, 2008 and 2009 which is a space to research ideas and develop new work. He has being part of the seasons of Resolution and Touch Wood 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2009 he was commissioned to create a piece for the Place Prize, sponsored by Bloomberg. And he was invited to show his pieces Inventario and The Kiss in Spring Loaded 2009.
Lately we has been awarded with the program of residencies across Europe ChoreRoam.
In touch Wood 2009, he will present his new creation from Choreodrome 2009, Loop.
+GIULIANA MAJO. Performer.
Giuliana Majo studied at London Contemporary Dance School. Since graduating and forming her own company, Skinworks I.C. She has performed for Gaila Teatro Danza, Ti Draso Dance Company and Jose Vidal & Company in london and Italy, and she has been working as a movement director for several Theatre Companies, like Arcola Theatre.
+MONTSERRAT VENTURA. Performer.
Montserrat trained at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and at the Laban Center in London. Since 1992 has been extensively working for numerous dance companies in Spain and England. She also has studies in film and Shiatsu. Since 2001 she is based in London where she has worked with Zephyr and Zanussi and with Jose Vidal since 2006.
+CRISTOBAL MUHR. Performer.
Born in Santiago, he received a degree in Acting at the Universidad Católica de Chile, obtained further training in contemporary dance at Ecole Peter Goss, and a Master in Theater at the Université Paris 8 Saint Denis, both in Paris. In Chile, he has been involved in institutional and independent theater, highlighting his work as a permanent member of Teatro Ensimenor Company. In London, he participated in several contemporary dance festivals and residencies with Jose Luis Vidal at The Place since 2007. He has also directed several acting and movement workshops, in which he has always stressed the different ways of relating both disciplines organically.
+ FERNANDO EZQUERRA. Video and Photography.
Started in Barcelona with a studio partnership on 1994 and later joined Vasava before moved to London in 2001 where he worked for renowned fashion brands as a graphic designer. He has been collaborating with artist and arts collectives for the last 15 years.
HAVE WORKED WITH US
+RENATA GASPAR. Performer.
Renata Gaspar graduated from Escola Superior de Dança, Lisbon, in 2003. She then joined Companhia de Dança de Lisboa in 2004 and in 2005 she attended the One Year Certificate at London Contemporary Dance School/The Place. She then joined Jose Luis Vidal & Company in 2006. In 2009, with a scholarship from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, she completed the MA Performance Making at Goldsmiths College. Now she's doing an internship with Station House Opera with the support from Inovart/DGArtes.
+NICK LAWSON. Performer.
Nick studied dance at London Contemporary Dance School, and went on to perform for EDge post graduate dance company, working with choreographers such as Siobhan Davies, Sue MacLennan, Trisha Brown and Annais Bout. Since graduating Nick has enjoyed free lance teaching and performing, dancing for Aletta Colins, Jen Irons and Marc Brew and h2dance. He enjoys improvisation and investigative work and he also does a variety of teaching and education work for companies such as CandoCo, Jose Vidal and Dance United.
+ PEPA UBERA. Performer.
Pepa Ubera was born Spain, where she gain a degree in ballet from the Professional Conservatory of Madrid. In 2003 she moved to London to study contemporary dance at London Contemporary dance school. She has been a freelance dancer since 2006, dancing for Anh Ngoc Nguyen, Johann Bjorgvinsson, Welsh National Opera, ENO, Codigo Dance Project, WBNR dance Project, Sadlers Wells Independent Opera, Tom Dale and 30 Bird Productions. Pepa is also part of Beatabet Arts Collective where she develops her own dance research, individually and with other members of the collective. She joined Hopscotch for their 2009 Choreodrome Residency.
+ LORETO LEONVENDAGAR. Performer.
She graduated as an actress from the UC in Chile, 2001. Since then she has been working in different areas of the theatre field. She is part of an independent chilean theatre company 'niños prodigio teatro' and teaches 'voice' in the acting school. She is currently finishing her master programme in International Performance Research, between Amsterdam and UK (UvA and Warwick universities). She joined Hopscotch for their 2009 Choreodrome Residency.
+ ALBERTO RUIZ. Performer and Sound Artist.
Graduated from Sound Arts and Design at the London College of Communication in 2009 with a First Honors Degree. His compositions are influenced by "musique concrete" and sound design for films. Since 2006 he has been working with many dance choreographers while creating his own performances and purely acoustic works. He has presented works in London at Resolution '09 and Touchwood '09 at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre, the Adventures in Movement '09, Dance and Physical Theatre Festival at the Arcola Theatre, Newington Dance Space in 2009 and at the Royal Festival Hall (2008), also "While Rome burns..." exhibition organized by The Queen Elm Artists at Couchwerks in 2009; Performing Art Festival (Brighton); Centro Cultural Moncloa in 2008 (Madrid) and Act Festival '08, Performing Art Festival (Bilbao).
+ANDREW HARDWIDGE. Performer.
From the onset of his dance career Andrew has practiced, studied and observed dance all over the world. This cross cultural exposure has informed and become integral to Andrew's practice and understanding of dance, movement, choreography. He recently received a One Year Certificate from LCDS and currently works as a freelance dancer and choreographer, researching and making work. This year he established the arts venue Showdome in Hackney Wick. http://www.showdome.org/. He joined Jose and Company for their 2009 Choreodrome Residency.
+JULIETA FIGUEROA. Performer.
She has woked extensively for stage, film and television. Since 2004 Julieta is studing Choreography at the Ernst Burch School in Berlin where she is currently working in her final project. In september 2007 she joined Jose Vidal for a residence project at The Place where they presented Inventario in Touch Wood and in Resolutions! 2008.
+THOM RACKETT. Performer.
He spent the last year performing with Edge08 after completing his studies at London Contemporary Dance School. Hi is art of the dance collective MWAG (Mother Wanted a Girl) and an accomplished musician, playing piano and drums professionally.
+SEKE CHIMUTENGWENDE. Performer.
Seke was born in London and studied dance at Lewisham College and London Contemporary Dance School. Since 2004, Seke has performed internationally with Alias Cie, DV8 Physical Theatre, Lost Dog, Henrietta Hale, Rick Nodine, Karl Jay Lewin, Rannva Karodottir, Tino Sehgal, Ruby Worth, Zephyr in Zanussi and 5 Men Dancing. Seke has also been practicing and performing his own solo improvisation work since 2006.
+LUIS CORVALAN. Performer.
Luis is a dancer and choreographer who has mainly been working on concepts of classical physics: time, the relation between movement, speech, and the poetics of dance. He began his artistic research in 2000 -at the end of his training as a mechanical engineer- with Physis. He runs stages-laboratory with dance Spiral in Santiago, Chile, and created in 2006, with the choreographer Paula Sacur, Puede ser… pero no es suficiente.
During his stay in Montpellier (2006-2007) he created:Viviendo con Dolores del río, a research on pain, and Las tres marías, an experimental short film .
In 2007 he joined Hopscotch –Jose Vidal & Company- for two residencies at The Place, London, with Inventario.
During 2007-2008, attended the training «From the interpreter to the author» in CCN with Maguy Marin, where he creates Project Power PointSSS. At present he is studying the Master of Dance at the University Paris 8, where he analyses the character of the amateur in contemporary dance.
+GARETH GREEN. Lighting designer.
Trained at London Contemporary Dance School. He works as a freelance lighting designer, dancer and member of faculty at London Contemporary Dance School rehearsing EDge, The Postgraduate Performance Company. He has lit work for companies such as: Mother Wanted a Girl, Oskola (Euskal Herria),Green Bean, La Tipica (Madrid), Lost Dog, Rick Nodine, Alex Broadie (Place Prize 2006) as well as Jose Vidal and the original version of ‘The Kiss’ as part of the Place Prize 2008.
+MANUEL VAZQUEZ. Photography
Manuel was born in Colombia and lives and works in London. He recently completed an MA in Photography and Urban Culture at Goldsmiths University, where he explored in more depth the exposure of city life - the focus of his photographic work to date. Manuel has participated in group exhibitions in New York, UK ,Italy, Spain, Canada and Colombia. Manuel has attended workshops at the International Center of Photography and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. After studying Economics in Colombia, Manuel moved to Spain in 1998 where he began his studies of photography and worked as a photo-editor. He has been a freelance photographer since 2004.
+TONY HORNECKER. Set designer.
Tony Hornecker works primarily in the fashion and advertising field for publication such as Dazed ad Confused, I-D, British and Japanese Vogue and Another Magazine. Previous clients include Stella McCartney, Kylie Minogue, Sony, Puma and Hackett.
+MICHAEL PICKNETT. Music Composer.
Michael is a new composer, specializing in both instrumental and electronic music. After completing his MA at Guildhall School of music and Drama, he was awarded a coveted fellowship in contemporary composition. Since 2006, his critically acclaimed work has been performed internationally.
+ MARCIN DUDEK. Visual Artist.
