Bernier Dance and Peace Action presents...

Performing Artists
BernierDance
	Cindy Bernier, (Artistic Director, choreographer and founder of BernierDance), began her professional career under the tutelage of Gabrielle Taub-Darvash and as a member of Joyce Trisler’s Danscompany. For 35 years Cindy Bernier has been performing, teaching and choreographing in numerous venues. In New York, her work has been produced at The Theater at Riverside Church, NuDance Festival, Dancers Responding to Aids at St. Marks Church, Williamsburgh Arts Nexus, The D.U.M.B.O. Festival, The Bridge, Hatch, the Cool New York Dance Festival, the Jewish Community Center and Dance New Amsterdam. In Connecticut, Bernier Dance has been presented at the Yale University’s Off-Broadway Theater, The Kweskin Theater, The Rich Forum, The Quick Center for the Performing Arts at Fairfield University, The Levitt Pavilion, Sono Arts Festival, Darien Arts Council and the Crystal Theater. Since 1999 Cindy Bernier has collaborated with her dancers in the creation of 25 new works. Ms. Bernier facilitated The Sister Project, a movement workshop for women in crisis, for four years, offering free weekly workshops to women in need at the Norwalk YMCA. In 2005 Ms. Bernier founded Artists for Peace an annual event collaborating with artists who perform and inspire change while raising funds for organizations working for peace and social justice. In 2005 Bernier Dance presented its first annual CT MEETS NY DANCE FEST, where 18 choreographers and dance companies from New York and Connecticut showcase original works. ‘CT MEETS NY’ has become a dual venue series presenting at Crystal Theater in Norwalk, CT and in New York City at various venues. For more information please visit: www.bernierdance.org.
Women of the Cross Leslie Bird (Musical Director), Elaine Hairston, Leslie Manselle (Women of the Cross) have been uplifting audiences with their repertoire of original contemporary gospels and unique harmonies since 1988. Each member draws on her own background to contribute to a unified sound with a universal appeal. As long time collaborators with the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble they have performed in Stories of My Sisters, based on their own stories of the joy, hope and struggle as women of color in America; Flying Home, in conjunction with Sankofa-Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium, reflecting on issues of race and oppression, and celebrating diversity; and Time In, a collaborations with JDPE and the women of York Correctional Institution based on time as experienced behind the razor wire. The next chapter of collaboration with JDPE and the women of YCI, Dreamings, will premiere at Charter Oak Cultural Center, April 2-4, 2009. The group have been seen throughout CT and the East Coast, most recently at University of Hartford, New Britain Museum of American Art, Old State House in Hartford, Philadelphia's Museum of African American Art and with cellist/composer David Darling at the Martin Luther King Commemoration in Litchfield CT in January 2009. The group has released their first CD 'Praises!' and are currently developing a second. For more info visit www.judydworin.org.
Ginger Cox
	Ginger Cox (Artistic Director, LINK! The Movement) is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center in New York City, and the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia. She received her BFA, in Dance, from Temple University and has taught internationally in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Her company, LINK! the Movement, was created as a jazz dance company that has since moved away from being labeled by a genre to being a Movement. LINK is a multi-dimensional company that presents an electrifying repertoire without borders. For more info visit linkdancecompany.org.
Courtney Ffrench
Courtney Ffrench (Artistic Director, Vissi Dance Theater) has a BA in Media Arts from CUNY/Queens College. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Courtney became interested in dance and drama through the work of Rex Nettleford, Professor and Cultural Scholar at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. After moving to NYC, Courtney trained with the Forces of Nature Dance Company. Working with that company brought Courtney back to his African and Caribbean roots. He has also found a home in the vibrant world of the underground NYC "House" dancing culture. Visit www.vissidancetheater.com
Netta Hadari
Netta Hadari (Violinist/Composer) was born in London to Israeli parents but moved to Cape Town, South Africa to finish high school. He holds Bachelors' degree in Music from Southern Methodist Univeristy and a Masters' degree from Yale University. He has performed all over the world with solo engagements in Portugal, South Africa, Israel, Japan and the US. His primary teachers have been Paul de Kayser, Jurgen Schwietering, Emanuel Borok and Syoko Aki. Teaching is a major part of his life: he has a private violin studio in Fairfield and is an adjunct professor at Fairfield University. He is also plays klezmer music with the band Generation Klez, rock music with the Secret Ink, weird shows with Daniel Smith and the Live Music Project, and experiemental collaborations with BernierDance. Netta is also a nationally registered EMT and is a Reiki practitioner. He is a happy person and lives with his wife in New Haven.
Amina Olushola Heckstall
	Amina Olushola Heckstall (Director, Ballet International Africans), is sought after in the US African Dance community as a dancer reputed to embody the essence of the Aftrican ancestors in her movement and choreography. Her many years of training in all forms of dance, especially the cultural arts of the West African Diaspora, enable her to cross cultural boundaries through her choreography and community work around the world. She has traveled to Senegal on Babacar & Cheick M'Baye's "Going Home" Trips and more recently to Guinea to study with the Ballet of Matam, and other local African Ballets in Conakry, Guinea West Africa. Amina performs with Les Mervielle De Guinea African Ballet and has been an instructor and guest artist with the all-Guinean Tokounou All-Abilities Dance Company (a company of variously abled African dancers and drummers). She performed in Rome and Grosseto at La Farfala(Butterfly), a festival showcasing artists with disabilities. In addition to her extensive outreach and work with at-risk children, she teaches Jazz dance and African dance, song, drum, and folklore in many after school programs, dance schools, and community centers. She has received a 2001 Sam and May Rudin Foundation Community Service Fellowship in Arts Education and is a four time recipient of The Citizens For New York's Building Blocks and New Neighbors Grant. Amina created a 7-day concert production with M'Bemba Bangoura's, G'Bassikolo Dancers And Drummers for Dance Dimensions, in Toronto. Both her own company and Les Mervielle De Guinee have been regularly featured at The African Film Festival in NYC. Her company premiered Remember Me, Africa at New Dance Group Theater in NYC. Amina can also be seen dancing in Afro-Punk, European/ Nigerian artist, Wunmi's new video, Crossover from her album, A.L.A. - African Living Abroad. For more into visit www.balletintlafricans.com.
Daniela Hoff
Daniela Hoff (Artistic Director, Daniela Hoff Dance Company) was born in Germany and studied at the School for the Arts in Amsterdam. In Europe and the US, Daniela studied and worked with members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal/ Pina Bausch, and many choreographers including Michele Ann de Mey, Christina Briggs, Edward Winslow, Mary Seidman, Erica Essner, and Peggy Peloquin. She has received many scholarships, support for residencies. Her choreography has been presented internationally at many festivals and venues including the Plankgas Festival, ITS-Festival, Phillip Morris Dance Theater, Cathedral Arts Festival/NJ, Dancespace, Cunningham Studio, d.u.m.b.o. Dance Festival, Cool New York Dance Festival, Triskelion Arts, CT meets NY Dance Fest, DancenOw/NYC, DTW, Flea Theater, DNA, Mulberry Street Theater, Clark Studio Theater/ Lincoln Center, Joyce Soho, and DTW. She has recently been featured on public TV. For more info please visit www.danielahoff.com.
Katayoun Kamyab, Afshin Goodarzi
Katayoun Kamyab, Afshin Goodarzi (Musicians) are students of Iranian Classical music. Katayoun studied Tasnif, the singing of rhythmic songs and Afshin studied Iranian instrumental radif on the setar with Ostad Reza Derakhshani. They have performed at many cultural and benefit concerts in Connecticut and New York. Katayoun and Afshin have been married for 26 years.
Nikole LaChioma
	Nikole LaChioma (Artistic Director, The Parker Project) has a BFA Cum Laude in Ballet Performance from Marymount Manhattan College. She is artistic director of The Parker Project and company director and faculty member at the Performing Arts Center of Connecticut. Her work has been seen at the New York International Dance Festival, BCEFA/DRA's Solstice in Times Square, City College, SUNY/Purchase, City Center, CT Dancers For Good, The Slipper Room, CT MEETS NY Dance Festival and other venues in the tri-state area. A choreographer for musical theater productions, she recently staged two works on Florida Dance Theatre. The Parker Project was created in the memory of Steve Merrihew in the hopes of continuing his legacy. In the short time that he was with us he made an outstanding and everlasting impression on the world around him. The artistic director, company members, and board of The Parker Project, Inc. wish to emulate his values, wit, perseverance, drive, and passion close to them when they create. Our hope is to be as bold and as clever as him. Visit www.theparkerproject.org.
Anabella Lenzu
Anabella Lenzu (Artistic Director, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama) is a dancer, choreographer and teacher with 18 years experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy and the US. She completed her classical ballet training at the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, and traces her modern dance formation to her studies of Humphrey/Limòn and Graham techniques and repertory of Anna Sokolow. She also studied tango and the folk and traditional dances of Argentina, Spain and Italy. In 1994, she founded and directed L’Atelier Centro Creativo de Danza, her own dance school in Argentina. Since arriving in NYC in 2005, she has conducted classes at Dance New Amsterdam, Peridance, Mark Morris Dance Center, and Sarah Lawrence College, while also giving lectures, master-classes and residencies at Universities throughout the US and abroad. She is also a regular writer for a number of dance and arts magazines. For more info visit www.anabellalenzu.com.
Jessica St. Vil-Ulysse
Jessica St. Vil-Ulysse (Director, KaNu Dance Theater) received her BA in Mass Communications and Dance from Lehman College. She received a scholarship and completed the independent study program at the Alvin Ailey School. Jessica teaches workshops and classes in Ballet, Modern, and Afro-Caribbean dance, in many schools, studios and programs, including Pratt Institute, the NAACP, NYC Sports and Arts, and the Dance New England Foundation in Maine. Currently a teaching artist for the Alvin Ailey School, she is also a founder and co-owner of Danse Xpressions in Valley Stream, NY. She has worked with choreographers Christopher Huggins, Martial Roumain, Marcea Daiter, Sean Curran, Kayoko Sakoh Kwame Ross and Dyane Harvey, and danced with Feet of Rhythm, Joan Peter’s Dance Company, Vissi Dance Theater, Tamboula D’ayiti, Opus Dance Theater and Rod Rodgers Dance Company. She collaborated with Unimix films as choreographer for One More Try. Her company’s mission is promote change and peace in Haiti by sharing Haitian heritage, history and culture with audiences, and raising awareness of current conditions in Haiti through contemporary modern and Afro-Haitian dance. Ka Nu is short for “Ka pa Nou” which in Haitian-Kreyol means ”Our Situation.” Her choreography has been presented at Summer Dance Series at Morgan Park, Dance in America Series at Henry Street Settlement, NY Empire State Plaza in Albany at the Festival of Nations, 2007 Children’s Black Dance Conference tribute to Katherine Dunham, and most Brooklyn Libraries’ 2008 Haitian Flag day celebration. Grateful for all opportunities she has been given, she aspires to continue to enrich her life and the lives of others through the arts.

Performing Artists

BernierDance

Cindy Bernier, (Artistic Director, choreographer and founder of BernierDance), began her professional career under the tutelage of Gabrielle Taub-Darvash and as a member of Joyce Trisler’s Danscompany. For 35 years Cindy Bernier has been performing, teaching and choreographing in numerous venues. In New York, her work has been produced at The Theater at Riverside Church, NuDance Festival, Dancers Responding to Aids at St. Marks Church, Williamsburgh Arts Nexus, The D.U.M.B.O. Festival, The Bridge, Hatch, the Cool New York Dance Festival, the Jewish Community Center and Dance New Amsterdam. In Connecticut, Bernier Dance has been presented at the Yale University’s Off-Broadway Theater, The Kweskin Theater, The Rich Forum, The Quick Center for the Performing Arts at Fairfield University, The Levitt Pavilion, Sono Arts Festival, Darien Arts Council and the Crystal Theater. Since 1999 Cindy Bernier has collaborated with her dancers in the creation of 25 new works. Ms. Bernier facilitated The Sister Project, a movement workshop for women in crisis, for four years, offering free weekly workshops to women in need at the Norwalk YMCA. In 2005 Ms. Bernier founded Artists for Peace an annual event collaborating with artists who perform and inspire change while raising funds for organizations working for peace and social justice. In 2005 Bernier Dance presented its first annual CT MEETS NY DANCE FEST, where 18 choreographers and dance companies from New York and Connecticut showcase original works. ‘CT MEETS NY’ has become a dual venue series presenting at Crystal Theater in Norwalk, CT and in New York City at various venues. For more information please visit: www.bernierdance.org.

Women of the Cross

Leslie Bird (Musical Director), Elaine Hairston, Leslie Manselle (Women of the Cross) have been uplifting audiences with their repertoire of original contemporary gospels and unique harmonies since 1988. Each member draws on her own background to contribute to a unified sound with a universal appeal. As long time collaborators with the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble they have performed in Stories of My Sisters, based on their own stories of the joy, hope and struggle as women of color in America; Flying Home, in conjunction with Sankofa-Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium, reflecting on issues of race and oppression, and celebrating diversity; and Time In, a collaborations with JDPE and the women of York Correctional Institution based on time as experienced behind the razor wire. The next chapter of collaboration with JDPE and the women of YCI, Dreamings, will premiere at Charter Oak Cultural Center, April 2-4, 2009. The group have been seen throughout CT and the East Coast, most recently at University of Hartford, New Britain Museum of American Art, Old State House in Hartford, Philadelphia's Museum of African American Art and with cellist/composer David Darling at the Martin Luther King Commemoration in Litchfield CT in January 2009. The group has released their first CD 'Praises!' and are currently developing a second. For more info visit www.judydworin.org.

Ginger Cox

Ginger Cox (Artistic Director, LINK! The Movement) is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center in New York City, and the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia. She received her BFA, in Dance, from Temple University and has taught internationally in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Her company, LINK! the Movement, was created as a jazz dance company that has since moved away from being labeled by a genre to being a Movement. LINK is a multi-dimensional company that presents an electrifying repertoire without borders. For more info visit linkdancecompany.org.

Courtney Ffrench

Courtney Ffrench (Artistic Director, Vissi Dance Theater) has a BA in Media Arts from CUNY/Queens College. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Courtney became interested in dance and drama through the work of Rex Nettleford, Professor and Cultural Scholar at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. After moving to NYC, Courtney trained with the Forces of Nature Dance Company. Working with that company brought Courtney back to his African and Caribbean roots. He has also found a home in the vibrant world of the underground NYC "House" dancing culture. Visit www.vissidancetheater.com

Netta Hadari

Netta Hadari (Violinist/Composer) was born in London to Israeli parents but moved to Cape Town, South Africa to finish high school. He holds Bachelors' degree in Music from Southern Methodist Univeristy and a Masters' degree from Yale University. He has performed all over the world with solo engagements in Portugal, South Africa, Israel, Japan and the US. His primary teachers have been Paul de Kayser, Jurgen Schwietering, Emanuel Borok and Syoko Aki. Teaching is a major part of his life: he has a private violin studio in Fairfield and is an adjunct professor at Fairfield University. He is also plays klezmer music with the band Generation Klez, rock music with the Secret Ink, weird shows with Daniel Smith and the Live Music Project, and experiemental collaborations with BernierDance. Netta is also a nationally registered EMT and is a Reiki practitioner. He is a happy person and lives with his wife in New Haven.

Amina Olushola Heckstall

Amina Olushola Heckstall (Director, Ballet International Africans), is sought after in the US African Dance community as a dancer reputed to embody the essence of the Aftrican ancestors in her movement and choreography. Her many years of training in all forms of dance, especially the cultural arts of the West African Diaspora, enable her to cross cultural boundaries through her choreography and community work around the world. She has traveled to Senegal on Babacar & Cheick M'Baye's "Going Home" Trips and more recently to Guinea to study with the Ballet of Matam, and other local African Ballets in Conakry, Guinea West Africa. Amina performs with Les Mervielle De Guinea African Ballet and has been an instructor and guest artist with the all-Guinean Tokounou All-Abilities Dance Company (a company of variously abled African dancers and drummers). She performed in Rome and Grosseto at La Farfala(Butterfly), a festival showcasing artists with disabilities. In addition to her extensive outreach and work with at-risk children, she teaches Jazz dance and African dance, song, drum, and folklore in many after school programs, dance schools, and community centers. She has received a 2001 Sam and May Rudin Foundation Community Service Fellowship in Arts Education and is a four time recipient of The Citizens For New York's Building Blocks and New Neighbors Grant. Amina created a 7-day concert production with M'Bemba Bangoura's, G'Bassikolo Dancers And Drummers for Dance Dimensions, in Toronto. Both her own company and Les Mervielle De Guinee have been regularly featured at The African Film Festival in NYC. Her company premiered Remember Me, Africa at New Dance Group Theater in NYC. Amina can also be seen dancing in Afro-Punk, European/ Nigerian artist, Wunmi's new video, Crossover from her album, A.L.A. - African Living Abroad. For more into visit www.balletintlafricans.com.

Daniela Hoff

Daniela Hoff (Artistic Director, Daniela Hoff Dance Company) was born in Germany and studied at the School for the Arts in Amsterdam. In Europe and the US, Daniela studied and worked with members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal/ Pina Bausch, and many choreographers including Michele Ann de Mey, Christina Briggs, Edward Winslow, Mary Seidman, Erica Essner, and Peggy Peloquin. She has received many scholarships, support for residencies. Her choreography has been presented internationally at many festivals and venues including the Plankgas Festival, ITS-Festival, Phillip Morris Dance Theater, Cathedral Arts Festival/NJ, Dancespace, Cunningham Studio, d.u.m.b.o. Dance Festival, Cool New York Dance Festival, Triskelion Arts, CT meets NY Dance Fest, DancenOw/NYC, DTW, Flea Theater, DNA, Mulberry Street Theater, Clark Studio Theater/ Lincoln Center, Joyce Soho, and DTW.

She has recently been featured on public TV. For more info please visit www.danielahoff.com.

Katayoun Kamyab, Afshin Goodarzi

Katayoun Kamyab, Afshin Goodarzi (Musicians) are students of Iranian Classical music. Katayoun studied Tasnif, the singing of rhythmic songs and Afshin studied Iranian instrumental radif on the setar with Ostad Reza Derakhshani. They have performed at many cultural and benefit concerts in Connecticut and New York. Katayoun and Afshin have been married for 26 years.

Nikole LaChioma

Nikole LaChioma (Artistic Director, The Parker Project) has a BFA Cum Laude in Ballet Performance from Marymount Manhattan College. She is artistic director of The Parker Project and company director and faculty member at the Performing Arts Center of Connecticut. Her work has been seen at the New York International Dance Festival, BCEFA/DRA's Solstice in Times Square, City College, SUNY/Purchase, City Center, CT Dancers For Good, The Slipper Room, CT MEETS NY Dance Festival and other venues in the tri-state area. A choreographer for musical theater productions, she recently staged two works on Florida Dance Theatre. The Parker Project was created in the memory of Steve Merrihew in the hopes of continuing his legacy. In the short time that he was with us he made an outstanding and everlasting impression on the world around him. The artistic director, company members, and board of The Parker Project, Inc. wish to emulate his values, wit, perseverance, drive, and passion close to them when they create. Our hope is to be as bold and as clever as him.
Visit www.theparkerproject.org.

Anabella Lenzu

Anabella Lenzu (Artistic Director, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama) is a dancer, choreographer and teacher with 18 years experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy and the US. She completed her classical ballet training at the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, and traces her modern dance formation to her studies of Humphrey/Limòn and Graham techniques and repertory of Anna Sokolow. She also studied tango and the folk and traditional dances of Argentina, Spain and Italy. In 1994, she founded and directed L’Atelier Centro Creativo de Danza, her own dance school in Argentina. Since arriving in NYC in 2005, she has conducted classes at Dance New Amsterdam, Peridance, Mark Morris Dance Center, and Sarah Lawrence College, while also giving lectures, master-classes and residencies at Universities throughout the US and abroad. She is also a regular writer for a number of dance and arts magazines. For more info visit www.anabellalenzu.com.

Jessica St. Vil-Ulysse

Jessica St. Vil-Ulysse (Director, KaNu Dance Theater) received her BA in Mass Communications and Dance from Lehman College. She received a scholarship and completed the independent study program at the Alvin Ailey School. Jessica teaches workshops and classes in Ballet, Modern, and Afro-Caribbean dance, in many schools, studios and programs, including Pratt Institute, the NAACP, NYC Sports and Arts, and the Dance New England Foundation in Maine. Currently a teaching artist for the Alvin Ailey School, she is also a founder and co-owner of Danse Xpressions in Valley Stream, NY. She has worked with choreographers Christopher Huggins, Martial Roumain, Marcea Daiter, Sean Curran, Kayoko Sakoh Kwame Ross and Dyane Harvey, and danced with Feet of Rhythm, Joan Peter’s Dance Company, Vissi Dance Theater, Tamboula D’ayiti, Opus Dance Theater and Rod Rodgers Dance Company. She collaborated with Unimix films as choreographer for One More Try. Her company’s mission is promote change and peace in Haiti by sharing Haitian heritage, history and culture with audiences, and raising awareness of current conditions in Haiti through contemporary modern and Afro-Haitian dance. Ka Nu is short for “Ka pa Nou” which in Haitian-Kreyol means ”Our Situation.” Her choreography has been presented at Summer Dance Series at Morgan Park, Dance in America Series at Henry Street Settlement, NY Empire State Plaza in Albany at the Festival of Nations, 2007 Children’s Black Dance Conference tribute to Katherine Dunham, and most Brooklyn Libraries’ 2008 Haitian Flag day celebration. Grateful for all opportunities she has been given, she aspires to continue to enrich her life and the lives of others through the arts.