Carolyn Hall is a freelance dancer originally from Los Angeles. She has performed with numerous choreographers/directors and was awarded a Bessie for performance in 2002. She has been a company member of the Bessie award winning Then She Fell with Third Rail Projects for over three years and is currently working with Lionel Popkin, Rebecca Davis, Clarinda Mac Low, and Shannon Hummel/CORA Dance. She has also performed in the works of Sally Silvers, Carrie Ahern, Heather Kravas, Jordan Fuchs, Amanda Loulaki, Allyson Green, Ori Flomin, Jimena Paz, Abigail Levine, Sarah Maxfield, Ralf Jaroschinski, Sam Kim, Nina Winthrop, Karl Anderson, and Helena Franzen. Additionally, Carolyn is a marine ecologist working as a research assistant with author Paul Greenberg and is an instructor with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. To combine her two interests, she is a board member of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Arts, Nature and Dance (iLAND).

Omagbitse Omagbemi received her BFA in dance at Montclair State University. In 2012 she was awarded a Bessie for Sustained Achievement in Performance. She has performed nationally and internationally with Heather Kravas, Jon Kinzel, Neil Greenberg, Vicky Shick, Deborah Hay, Ralph Lemon, Wally Cardona, Jeremy Nelson, Keely Garfield, Anna Sperber, Walter Dundervill, David Gordon, David Thomson, Bill Young, Gerald Casel, Pearson/Widrig Dance, Urban Bush Women, Barbara Mahler, Shapiro & Smith, Christopher Williams, Sean Curran, and Kevin Wynn. Omagbemi has performed in the Punch Drunk production Sleep No More as Lady Macbeth.

Kayvon Pourazar is of Persian origin, and was raised in Iran, Turkey and England. He graduated with a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase in May 2000. He has performed in the works of Juliana May, Juliette Mapp, Yasuko Yokoshi, Donna Uchizono, Gwen Welliver, Beth Gill, K.J. Holmes, RoseAnne Spradlin, John Jasperse, Doug Varone, Levi Gonzalez, Wil Swanson, Gabriel Masson, Jennifer Monson, Jodi Melnick and in The Metropolitan Opera productions of Les Troyens and Le Sacre du Printemps. Pourazar’s own work has been shown in New York City at The Kitchen (Dance & Process), PS122 (Hothouse), The Cunningham Studios, Roulette (DanceRoulette), Center for Performance Research, Catch, AUNTS, Dixon Place, Sacramento State University and the University of Vermont. In 2010 he received a New York Dance & Performance “Bessie” Award for Performance. He has served as Adjunct Faculty at The New School (currently) and Bennington College. He teaches regularly for Movement Research and has taught as a guest artist for Tsekh Russia and the Universities of Nebraska, Vermont, Maryland and Sacramento State. He currently dances in the works of Juliana May and Heather Kravas.

Movement Research is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and their vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike. movementresearch.org

Simone Forti is a dancer/choreographer based in Los Angeles. In 1955 she began dancing with Anna Halprin, who was doing pioneering work in dance improvisation in the San Francisco Bay Area. After four years of studying and performing with Halprin, Forti moved to New York City. There she studied composition at the Merce Cunningham Studio with musicologist/dance educator Robert Dunn, who was introducing dancers to the work of composer/philosopher John Cage. In these classes she began her association with choreographers including Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton. In the spring of 1961 she presented a full evening of what she called Dance Constructions at Yoko Ono’s loft studio. These pieces were seminal to the Judson Dance Theater, which revolutionized dance in New York in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1970s Forti’s improvising was anchored in observations of animals’ movements, both for varieties of ways of moving, and for what she came to think of as the roots of dance behavior. She has often performed in collaboration with musicians, including Charlemagne Palestine and Peter Van Riper. In the early 1980s Forti started improvising speaking while moving. Working with newspapers, she began performing News Animations, giving expression to images, memories, and speculations sparked by the news media.

Forti has performed and taught throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and in Japan, Korea, Australia, and Venezuela. She has received various grants and awards, including a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship in dance and a 2011 Yoko Ono Lennon Award for Courage in the Arts.

Simone Forti is a dancer/choreographer based in Los Angeles. In 1955 she began dancing with Anna Halprin, who was doing pioneering work in dance improvisation in the San Francisco Bay Area. After four years of studying and performing with Halprin, Forti moved to New York City. There she studied composition at the Merce Cunningham Studio with musicologist/dance educator Robert Dunn, who was introducing dancers to the work of composer/philosopher John Cage. In these classes she began her association with choreographers including Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton. In the spring of 1961 she presented a full evening of what she called Dance Constructions at Yoko Ono’s loft studio. These pieces were seminal to the Judson Dance Theater, which revolutionized dance in New York in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1970s Forti’s improvising was anchored in observations of animals’ movements, both for varieties of ways of moving, and for what she came to think of as the roots of dance behavior. She has often performed in collaboration with musicians, including Charlemagne Palestine and Peter Van Riper. In the early 1980s Forti started improvising speaking while moving. Working with newspapers, she began performing News Animations, giving expression to images, memories, and speculations sparked by the news media.

Forti has performed and taught throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and in Japan, Korea, Australia, and Venezuela. She has received various grants and awards, including a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship in dance and a 2011 Yoko Ono Lennon Award for Courage in the Arts.