Faye Driscoll was hailed as "1 of 25 to watch out for in 2008" by Dance Magazine. Her recent work, 837 Venice Boulevard, was named "one of the top 5 dance shows of 2008" by the New York Times. Driscoll’s video flip book dance, Loneliness, was featured in Younger Than Jesus the first edition of the New Museum’s new signature triennial in which fifty select artists from twenty-five countries are presented. Driscoll began creating There is so much mad in me this summer through a commission from the American Dance Festival and has continued it’s creation through the support of residencies at Kaatsbaan, University Settlement and The Joyce SoHo. In addition to creating her own work, Driscoll is inspired by her collaborations with several theater artists. She is currently choreographing for Cynthia Hopkins new show, The Truth: A Tragedy, premiering at Soho Rep in 2010. Recently she directed and choreographed for Taylor Mac's 5-act epic extravaganza,The Lily's Revenge, a sold-out hit at HERE Arts Center in October 2009. In the recent past she choreographed for Jennifer Miller's Cracked Ice, the National Theater of the United States of America'sChautauqua! and Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment and Church.

Driscoll is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Joyce SoHo, was a member of the HERE Artists Residency Program 2007-2009 and a BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist-in-Residence 2005-2007.Driscoll was a member of Doug Varone and Dancers, performed extensively with Yasmeen Godder and was choreographic assistant to David Neumann in his creation of The Common Foreign Language of the Red-Haired People with Mikhail Baryshnikov. She holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School for the Arts. www.fayedriscoll.com

Hilary Sweeney: After dancing ballet for over 20 years around Massachusetts and later in New York, Hilary attended her first Cirque du Soleil show and was so inspired by the high flying artists that she decided she wanted to learn to dance in the air.  Shortly after, she traded her ballet shoes for a pair of wings and set out to train intensively with some of the top aerialists in the field including Elsie and Serenity Smith and Ivo Georgiev (Cirque du Soleil), Kevin O’Connor (National Circus School), Laura Witwer (Imaginaerial), Bobby Hedglin-Taylor (Streb), and Terry Beeman.  She approaches her aerial training with the same discipline and precision that comes with being a ballerina.  As a result, Hilary’s acts are executed with superior technique, clean lines, and grace.  Her signature style extends beyond spectacle and tricks as she brings authentic emotion and character to the stage.  Hilary has performed in Cirque le Masque’s “Carnivale”, the off-broadway aerial showcase “Above the Belt”, Evolve Dance Festival, Imaginaerial’s “Luminarium” and more.  She also performs regularly for special events.

Now, as the founder of her own company, she hopes to serve as an inspiration to her community.  Through teaching, Hilary challenges her students to believe in themselves and follow their dreams no matter what the obstacle.  Hilary teaches aerial and circus arts to children through adults in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Westchester, NY, and is on the teaching artist roster for Arts Westchester.  She is also a coach for Cirque du Soleil’s social circus program, Cirque du Monde, in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.   She has pioneered aerial arts workshops and programs for schools, community centers, and at-risk youth.  

Lander Patrick de Andrade was born in Rio de Janeiro (BR). At the moment he works in Guimarães with the choreographer Joana Antunes for the opening performance of Guimarães capital of culture 2012. As choreographer he won the 1st prize of the 15th Festival of Coreographic Miniatures (SRB) with 'Noodles never break when boiled' and the 1st prize of the 6th New Choreographers Meeting (PT) with ‘--- - --- --- ----?', also choreographed in collaboration with artists from different disciplines in European Roots Movement '10 and '11 (GR). His work has been presented in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Serbia and Germany. Permanently, he lives in Lisbon (PT) where worked as a dancer with Tânia Carvalho, Luis Guerra, Margarida Bettencourt, John Romão and CeDeCe Dance Company. In Austria he worked with Tomaz Simatovic (SLO). As performer, he integrated the Persona Company (PT) where he collaborated with Von Magnet (FR). As a student, he graduated in Superior Dance School (PT). Lander also studied in the National Conservatory (PT) and in ArtEZ Hogeschool von den Kunsten (NL).

A bit more of him: Philosophy, René François Ghislain Magritte, experimental music, vegetarianism, trysexuality, ioga, surrealism, smoke, brain masturbation, echological, community work, chris cunningham, super strings theory, hypnosys, breathe in & breathe out, untitled and unfinished stuff. 

Mana Kawamura  grew up studying dance at the Izumi Kawamura Dance Studio, a dance school her grandmother established in 1953. In 2001 she traveled to Germany to study under Dominque Merci and Malou Airaudo (both members of Pina Bausch Dance Company) at the Folkwang Hochschule, Germany until 2003. She then returned to Japan and started dancing as a member of the Izumi Kawamura Dance Company. In addition to this, she choreographed and performed her own solo for the All Japan Modern Dance Competition in Akita, and received 1st prize. Continuing to the national competition in Tokyo, she placed 7th. She then applied for and received a scholarship from the Agency for cultural affairs in Japan to further studies abroad, and traveled to New York in 2006. She has received first prize at the Yokohama competition choreographic department 2010.

In New York City, she has choreographed a new solo which she has performed several times in the city. Furthermore, she has been selected by the "Audition for New Steps: an emerging choreographer series" Spring of 2008 and 2009 to show a new work for drive dancers. Her choreography also has been presented at Dance Theatre Workshop, Joyce Soho, 92nd Street Y, Movement Research at Judson Church, Bric Studio, Cunningham Studio, The Chocolate Factory, and the Flea Theater. She is a current Artist-in-Residence at Dance New Amsterdam 2010-2011.  In 2010, she received a space grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and also the Emergivng Artist Commissioning Program at STREB Lab for Action Mechanics 2011 to create a new work.  www.manakawamura.com


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Daniel Gwirtzman  Daniel Gwirtzman, an established producer, director, choreographer, teacher, and critically acclaimed performer, celebrates seventeen years as a New York City choreographer.  He has earned praise for the creation of a diverse repertory known for its humor, stylistic versatility, musicality, inventiveness and accessibility,  “A flair for the entertaining,” says dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer. “Mr. Gwirtzman does know that in dance less can be more.  And that’s a good thing for any choreographer to know” says The New York Times.  After touring internationally with Garth Fagan Dance and the Mark Morris Dance Group, Daniel co-founded Artichoke Dance Company, a repertory company hailed by The New York Times as “a welcome addition to the New York dance scene.” His choreography has been performed at venues throughout the country and abroad.  Among other places, Daniel has been awarded residencies by the Joyce Theater Foundation (NY), The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard), Raumars Artist-in-Residence Program (Finland), the Sacatar Foundation (Brazil), and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (CA).  As a dancer he has been described as a willowy John Travolta, sensual, playful, a rag doll, unusually supple, and one who moves like the wind.  He has toured nationally and internationally with Garth Fagan Dance and the Mark Morris Dance Group among other companies.  Since 1998 he has directed Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, a nonprofit performing and teaching organization, “founded upon a philosophy that dance should celebrate human achievement through a combination of discipline and unbound optimism” (The New York Sun). Daniel has been a guest choreographer at various institutions, including the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, North Carolina Dance Theater, the University of Tulsa, the University of Michigan, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Fordham University/The Ailey School, Princeton University, New York University, Barnard College, Duke University, The University of the Arts, The Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts.  Encore, a signature evening-length production of the Company’s was an official selection of the 2009 New York Musical Theater Festival and has been produced to strong acclaim since its premiere in 2007. Describing this piece The New Yorker wrote, "The dancers can't help but smile."  In 2010 Daniel was one of six choreographers selected by the DanceBreak Foundation, supporting the “next generation of great Broadway choreographers” and his evening-length solo The Lecture was presented at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. This year the Company was awarded a Performing Arts Recovery Initiative Grant from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, based on its long-standing commitment to education, and a prestigious SPARC grant.  Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide is a collaboration among the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging, and the City's five local arts councils. This program is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.  In 2012 Encore will be set on the Rochester City Ballet as well as at two New York City arts high schools thanks to funding from Tony Bennett’s Exploring the Arts foundation: Talent Unlimited and the Frank Sinatra School for the Performing Arts. Visit www.GwirtzmanDance.org to learn more about the Company and its programming.

Max Pollak is a 2011 Hoofer Award winner, 2011 Bessie Award nominee , 2010 Individual Artist Grantee of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and 2008 fellow in Choreography from the New York Foundation of the Arts. One of the most prestigious names on the international tap scene today, he is recognized worldwide for his superior musicianship and his highly individual style as the first person to merge authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance with American rhythm tap and body music to create RumbaTap. 

Originator of Cuba's first tap festival, he has been teaching and performing there since 1998, and has worked with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba's top Rumba group, Chucho Valdés, Lila Downs and jazz legends Ray Brown, Phil Woods, Paquito D'Rivera, Slide Hampton and Danilo Perez. He is also recognized for making European and South American classical music more accessible by playing with classical ensembles in prestigious venues like Vienna's Konzerthaus, Musikverein, Havana's Teatro Nacional and Teatro Amadeo Roldan. He has performed with members of both the Vienna Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic as well as the Duluth Superior and Plano Symphony Orchestras, with the latter two as soloist in the Morton Gould Tap Dance Concerto.