People

MEET THE MIDDAY MOVERS

MARISSA MOLINAR (founder & curator) is a professional dancer, freelance consultant, and community activist working to engage and support Boston's dance community. As a dancer, Marissa began training at a young age in Folklórico Mexicano and Bharatanatyam (classical South Indian dance) and was introduced to modern dance & composition in high school under the direction of Daniel McCusker -- but she fully intended to pursue a career as an environmental scientist. After attending Summer Stages Dance/Concord Academy in 2009, Marissa was opened to the world of professional-level dance training, and she decided to work toward a career in dance and refocused her training on modern/contemporary techniques. She has since studied extensively with teachers throughout the Boston area and has been taking at least 5 classes a week since 2009. Marissa is currently taking a minimum of 3 classes a day.

Marissa is currently rehearsing and performing with Anna Myer and Dancers, Ruckus Dance, and Lorraine Chapman, The Company. In addition to dancing, she had the pleasure of working as the Administrative Assistant/Membership Coordinator at Boston Dance Alliance for nearly five years. From that experience, and in her current work as a consultant and community activist, it has become Marissa's personal mission to effect positive and long-lasting social, communal, and personal change through the power of dance.

MICHAEL FIGUEROA (long-term teacher) is a Cambridge based performer and performance maker. In September 2015, Michael founded Ruckus Dance, a community based in physical rigor and reconstructing the choreographic ideologies of [x]. He has premiered three solos in the Greater Boston area, and has been commissioned as a choreographer by the Dance Complex, the Mobius Artists Group, and Outside the Box Boston. He has taught workshops at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School and NACHMO Boston. Michael has worked closely with Margo Sappington, Mark Dendy, Peter Dimuro, Nicole Pierce, Joy Davis, Prometheus Dance, Sarah Mae Gibbons, Cathy Young and Margot Gelber. Michael completed a BFA in Dance at The Boston Conservatory.

CALLIE CHAPMAN KORN (long-term teacher) is a dancer, choreographer, freelance designer, and studio owner, and she graduated from The Boston Conservatory in 2002 with a B.F.A. in dance. Callie is the artistic director of Zoé Dance and has presented her work throughout the greater Boston area in festivals, self-produced concerts, and shared concerts, and has toured with Zoé regionally and internationally for the past fifteen years. Her work has been presented as part of WorldMusic/CRASH Arts 10's the Limit series, Somerville Arts Council's ArtBeat Festival, Dance for World Community Festival at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, Illuminus Festival, Dance Complex's CATALYSTS, Shared Choreographers' Concerts, I-ARE Residency, Ten Tiny Dances, and Corporacion Cultural de Las Condes. Callie has received numerous project and fellowship grants and awards from the Somerville Arts Council, and was recently awarded a choreography residency as part of the Boston Center for the Arts residency program where she premiered her latest evening-length work, "Becoming Undone," which integrated projection technologies, various projection surfaces, and non-traditional use of the theatre space. In addition to directing the company, Callie has been a member of Natick-based Prometheus Dance for the past fifteen years. With Prometheus she has toured locally, regionally, and internationally. In 2016, Callie founded Studio@550, an artist exchange center located in the heart of Central Square, Cambridge which promotes the interchange between art disciplines. Callie is also a freelance graphic designer (web + print), projection designer (credits include Odyssey Opera and Prometheus Dance), and is the mother of two young (energetic) boys.

IRENE HSI (long-term teacher) is a performer, dancemaker, and teacher based in the Boston area. She has been making movement-based performance for twelve years, primarily based in CA and NYC. Other artists she has worked with include Jill Sigman/thinkdance, Anneke Hansen Dance, Michele Torino, E.K.K.O Dance Collective, Ming Wong, and Allyson Green Dance. She also developed multiple theater/installation works with NYC-based theater company The Nerve Tank. Irene has performed at Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, Roulette, The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Gibney Dance Center. She has also been in site-specific performances at Museum of the Moving Image, World Financial Center Winter Garden, The New School, and Brooklyn Bridge Park. Recent projects include "meisyou" at the Trident Gallery in Gloucester, MA and teaching contemporary/modern dance classes at Green Street Studios and Dance Complex in Cambridge, MA.

LONNIE STANTON (short series teacher) is a Northern California native, based in Boston. Previous to her formal training, she danced around the outdoors of the rural Sierra Nevadas and her family homestead in Hawaii. Lonnie graduated with honors from the Boston Conservatory with a BFA in Dance. She is thrilled to return from NYC and have the opportunity to work with students at the School of Classical Ballet and Pembroke School of Performing Arts, as well as perform with Prometheus for her 7th season with the company. She has also performed with Boston based: Ballet Rox, Bosoma, Zoe Dance, Angie Moon Dance Theatre, and Anna Reyes Dance. She worked with NYC based Kinesis Project Dance Theatre for their 2015-2016 season focusing solely on site specific performance. She has a growing passion and purpose in sharing dance in unconventional, often outdoor spaces where a broad audience can be reached. Lonnie has produced movement for film for Neoscape (advertisement), Moe Pope (hip hop artist), Linda Tegg (photography), and Tamara Al- Mashouk (film artist). Her teaching credentials include Ballet Academy East and Brookline Ballet among others. She is a 200 hour certified yoga instructor through Yogaworks. Her work in public schools has been especially rewarding bringing dance education into the classroom through Notes in Motion and the New York City Ballet.

JESSICA SMITH (Operations Manager) grew up in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. She started dancing at her local studio as a youngin’ and has pursued movement as a disciplinary and experiential practice ever since. Jessica received her BFA in dance performance from East Carolina University in 2010. Since graduation she has studied and performed with Jan Van Dyke and Virginia Freeman Dupont in North Carolina; Roberto Villanueva in New York City; most recently, with Grant Jacoby, and Michael Figueroa in Boston. Outside the dance studio, Jessica is a full-time classical Pilates instructor, nature nerd, and rhythm and blues enthusiast.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Midday Movement Series would like to thank the following for their contributions to the program. Thank you to Callie Chapman for creating the Midday Movement logo and for her contributions to branding. Thank you to Jennifer Roberts for coming up with the title "Midday Movement." Thank you to Molly Hess for the initial idea for rotating workshops by community members; to Katharina Schier and Tara Lynch for a similar idea and for their creative contributions to the program now known as "Midday Shuffle." Thank you to Michael Figueroa for coining the title "Midday Shuffle." Thank you to Jordan Jamil Ahmed for creating the website. Additional thanks to Marcus Schulkind, Ruth Birnberg, Alicia Molinar, and Jenny Oliver for their invaluable support.

We would also like to thank Green Street Studios for hosting the inaugural season of Midday Movement and The Dance Complex for hosting us in our current season.

The Midday Movement Series is made possible through the generous support of the Cambridge Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Assets for Artists program from MASS MoCA.