lois welk, director

Birthday: April 9
Favorite place in Philadelphia: The Italian Market
Memorable performance: Peloponnesian War by Nagrin

A dance performance by Daniel Nagrin (The Peloponnesian War) inspired Lois Welk to pursue a career in dance. She earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Dance and American History at State University College at Brockport NY, where Richard Bull became her mentor. In 1972, she founded the American Dance Asylum Inc. (ADA), a producing and service organization for the performing arts.

From 1973-1979, she co-directed the ADA (then based in Binghamton, NY) with Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. For more than 25 years the ADA has produced Welk’s artistic projects among them The Parking Ramp Dances, The Train Station Dance, The Carousel Dance, The Hiawatha Island Dance and most recently Moving the Music.

She been a member of the dance faculty at 171 Cedar Arts Center (Corning, NY)and Alfred University (Alfred, NY) and has taught for various arts-in-education programs across New York State. Her work as Executive Director of 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning, NY (1988-2002) earned her a New York State Governor’s Arts Award in 1998. At 171 Cedar Arts Center, Welk developed a nationally recognized presenting program that included concert dance, artists’ residencies, a jazz series, family programming and a world folk music festival. Program growth warranted a capital campaign and expansion project that more than doubled program space adding a 170-seat black box performance space, exhibition space and two additional dance studios.

From 2003-2006, Ms. Welk served as Artistic Director of The Yard Inc., a performing artists’ colony on Martha’s Vineyard. In January 2005, Ms. Welk was appointed the Director of the New York State DanceForce, a network of organizations and individuals working to increase the quality and quantity of dance in New York. As Director, Ms. Welk brought leadership to the re-structuring of the organization and expanded the reach of the programs.

erin foreman-murray, manager of operations

Zodiac Sign: Taurus
Number of Siblings: 2
High school activity: Cross country

Erin Foreman-Murray is a dancer and independent choreographer based in Philadelphia, where she is a resident artist in the Susan Hess Modern Dance Choreographers Project. Erin was a two year artist-in-residence at the Mascher Space Cooperative, where she served as director of Philly Dance COSMOS. Erin's creative work has been presented regularly in Philadelphia, with recent presentations by Susan Hess Modern Dance, the Field/Philadelphia, Here[begin] Dance Company's Current, and in the Philly Fringe Festival. Erin performs as a company member of Ring Dance Theater, as well as with independent Philadelphia artists. Erin holds a BFA in contemporary dance from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance.

Meg Foley, Program Associate

Hidden skill: Winking
Current Hobby: Releasing my inner peacock
High school soccer team nickname: Kamikaze Foley

Meg Foley has been making dances and performing in Philadelphia since 2004. She is the director of Moving Parts, a company through which she aims to create elusive yet emotionally evocative performance experiences that straddle the fine line between focus and freedom and is a second year resident in the Susan Hess Choreographer’s Project. As a dancer, she works with Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Lisa Kraus, and danced with Devynn Emory from 2005-2009. Meg was educated and influenced by the good people at Scripps College and Laban Centre London. She loves to teach both technique and critical theory and has led workshops on whether authentic movement really exists and on locating meaning within and constructing self-referential movement. Some of her favorite dances that she has recently seen are Bird Song by Siobhan Davies, Rammed Earth by Tere O’Connor, Keely Garfield’s Limerance, and Jen Rosenblit’s greatest hits duets.

jaamil olawale kosoko, PROGRAM ASSOCIATE

Favorite Pandora radio station: Maxwell
Hidden skill: Pie Maker Extraordinaire
Languages spoken: Beginning French

Interdisciplinary movement based artist, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko creates performances that draw from both visual and literary aesthetics. Poetry and video-art heavily contribute to how Kosoko renders his ideas and concepts into dance. Kosoko has performed in the choreographic works of various artists and companies including Ann Carlson, Yoshiko Chuma, Terry Creach, Lisa Kraus, Helen Lesterlin, Richard Siegal, Kate Watson-Wallace, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theater, Leah Stein Dance Company, Emergent Improvisation Ensemble, and, Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako (The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa). While Kosoko has shown his own dances and dance-films at Bennington College, Dance Theater Workshop, American Dance Festival, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, and Joyce SoHo among other venues, he has also been a resident artist at The Hudson School, Hoboken, NJ; Community Education Center Meeting House Theater, Philadelphia, PA; Earthdance, Plainsfield, MA. Currently, Kosoko is in partnership with Melanie Stewart Dance and the 2008-2009 nEW Festival as a resident artist and is a member of Artists U, a non-profit organization focusing on professional development for Philadelphia based artists.

gabrielle revlock, program associate

Favorite Pandora radio station: Phil Collins
High school achievement: Valedictorian
Number of housemates: 4

Gabrielle Revlock is a native Philadelphian and local performance artist. After earning a BA in Art History from Vassar College she returned to her hometown to be a part of its vibrant dance community. As a freelance dancer she has worked for many choreographers including Lisa Kraus, Myra Bazell, Willi Dorner, and Jérôme Meyer & Isabelle Chauffaud in addition to being a company member of Jeanne Ruddy Dance. Beyond dancing Gabrielle creates interdisciplinary works for her company, Mano/Damno, responsible for the annual holiday, Wear Your Wig to Work Day. In 2006 Gabrielle was both a New Edge Mix grant recipient and the Vassar College Alumnae Choreographer. In 2009 she was awarded a grant from the PA Council on the Arts. She recently finished a year and a half long residency with the nEW Festival. Gabrielle has worked for Dance/USA Philadelphia since its founding and was the administrative assistant for the Dance Coalition of Philadelphia.

Michelle stortz, program associate

Favorite Magazine: The Sun
Neighborhood you live in: Mt. Airy
Hidden skill: Cutting a card deck

Michelle Stortz is a Philadelphia based dance theater artist who holds an MFA in Choreography from the Ohio State University and a BFA in Dance from the University of Texas at Austin. She formed Ring Dance Theater in 2007 as a container for her inquiries into performative states, movement practices and choreographic methodologies. Previously based in San Francisco, Stortz's work has been presented at numerous venues including A Voice of Her Own Women's Theater Festival, San Francisco's Summerfest, Max10 in Los Angeles, and The Substation in Singapore. Since her move to Philadelphia in 2005, her work has been presented at the Philly Fringe Festival, the Community Education Center's New Edge Dance Mix, the Glue Performance Series and Festival 42. West Chester University and Dance Dimension Project in Singapore have commissioned her choreography and she has received funding support from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship at the Ohio State University and the Zellerbach Family Fund among others.

Kathryn tebordo, Development Specialist

Memorable performance: Description d’un combat by Maguy Marin
Neighborhood you live in: Center City

Kathryn Tebordo has 6 years marketing and fundraising experience for performing arts non-profits, with focus on Membership, Annual Fund, and Event Planning, and she thoroughly enjoys using this experience to develop opportunities for individuals to contribute to the future of dance in Philadelphia. Kathryn is also Artistic Director of Workshop for Potential Movement, a collaborative performance company creating new collisions of dance and theater. Along with founding members Debra Disbrow and Betsy Herbert, Kathryn co-wrote and performed in the comic plays Speak! Mascot (2006), and Meet Your Replacement (2005). Other recent projects include dancing with Devynn Emory/Beast Productions, in J. Makary's dance film Wanna Kiss Myself, and in Jérôme Bel's The Show Must Go On. Kathryn has a BA from Bard College and an MA in Dance Education from SUNY Brockport. She took part in Deborah Hay's 2002 Solo Performance Commissioning Project (Beauty). Kathryn took part in the 2009 danceWEB Europe scholarship program, situated in the ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna. She is a member artist at NEXUS Foundation Gallery and currently lives with her husband Christian, a novelist, in Center City. www.potentiallymoving.org