Laura Pawel Dance Company biographies

BAREBONES is Gene Caprioglio and Dr. 88. - The newest Barebones CD, Funhouse, is available at www.cdbaby.com.
STACEY BERKHEIMER grew up in Pennsylvania, then went to Sarah Lawrence where she studied modern dance, among other things. She moved to New York City and joined the Corner Store Dance Company in 1985; then joined the Laura Pawel Dance Company in 1991. In 1995 she relocated to Minneapolis -- she likes the wide-open spaces of the midwest, but it's a long commute to rehearsal. She is very happy to continue dancing with the LPDC, making several trips a year to visit, rehearse, and watch the dances grow.
PETER BRAININ saxophonist and drummer, was born in the Bronx and has distinguished himself over the past 15 years as a member of many important bands, and also as a composer and leader of his own adventurous projects. His work as a sideman includes 10 years with pianist Hilton Ruiz with whom he performed at the Blue Note, Village Gate, and Carnegie Hall, recorded 2 CDs, and appeared at major jazz festivals and concert venues in Europe and the Caribbean. He toured the States and Europe in 1992 with Mongo Santamaria and since 1995 has been a member of the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra.
GENE CAPRIOGLIO was born in Manhattan, but he is a lifelong resident of Queens and damn proud of it. He started to play guitar when he was 11 years old, and he is still learning. He has a BA in music education and was certified to teach junior high school band, but he has been working in music publishing for over 30 years. He is currently the Vice President for New Music and Rights at the C. F. Peters Corporation. Gene has also played at hundreds of metropolitan area venues including The Sunnyside Knights of Columbus, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Bottom Line, The China Club, The American Museum of Moving Image, Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center, P.S. 125, Bistro Les Amis, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and many, many more. He has opened for Robert Hunter and Taj Mahal and once lent his guitar to David Bowie at the China Club. You can hear more of Gene's music, watch video and read his blog at www.myspace.com/thejammeister and www.myspace.com/lenozzedicarlo.
CECILIA COLEMAN, a native of Long Beach, CA and resident of New York, began to play piano at age 5 and at age 15 began to study jazz piano. From 1981-1986 she studied jazz piano with well known vibraphonist and teacher Charlie Shoemake as well as classical studies with Dr. Allan Giles. Coleman has led her own group since 1990 when she formed a trio with bassist Eric Von Essen and drummer Kendall Kay. In 1993 her quintet was formed. She is currently the jazz piano instructor at her Alma-mater CSU Long Beach where she teaches every other week during the school year. On the east coast she is the accompanist for the Modern Dance Center of Westchester in Bronxville. She maintains her regular working quintet on the west coast. She has seven CDs out as a leader:"Images", "Pearl" "The Impostor", "Higher Standards", "Home", "Young & Foolish" and "Words of Wisdom". She is also on three recordings of The American Jazz Institute headed by Mark Masters which feature Lee Konitz, Billy Harper, Jack Montrose, Ray Drummond, Tim Hagans and Gary Smulyan plus many more.
JIM FINNEY has been a member of the LPDC for over thirty years. His poetry and short stories have appeared in Transatlantic Review, Fiction Magazine, RAPPORT, Light Year '85, and Green House. He won a CAPS grant for fiction in 1984 and has completed a book of short stories titled "Lucky Enough." In 1990 his poetry chapbook, "I'm Standing Here Alone," was published by A Musty Bone Press. A second poetry chap book "Last Person Out" will be published by Pudding House Press in 2010.
PAMELA FINNEY is an original member of the LPDC. She has taught children and teens at the Modern Dance Center of Westchester since 1966 and was founder and artistic director of The Corner Store Dance Company, which performed for children in schools and theaters throughout the Northeast for 28 years. She performed with Meredith Monk and other choreographers in the Judson era. She was a visiting artist in dance at Hunter College and also at Wesleyan University where she taught technique, composition and teaching skills for 6 years. She is a founding member of a group of women who collectively administer Singing Eagle Lodge, a two-week girls' camp on Squam Lake in New Hampshire; she has been teaching dance there and helping to run the camp since it opened in 1975. Her first dance teacher was Truda Kaschmann in Hartford, CT. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College; her work there with Bessie Schönberg has influenced all her subsequent dancing, choreographing, and teaching. She studied with Merce Cunningham for 20 years as well as with other NYC teachers, especially Nancy Meehan.
CHRIS HANEY was born in Xenia, Ohio. He has been living in New York City since 2002. Chris holds a Bachelors of Music from Ohio State University, and a Masters of Music from SUNY Purchase. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. Chris has recorded or performed with Brad Leali, Mickey Roker, Greg Tardy, Wessell Anderson, Bobby Porcelli, Joe Magnarelli, Eliot Zigmund, Ray Vega and many others. He can be seen performing regularly at jazz clubs such as Smalls, Fat Cat, and Smoke in New York City.
EMILY KISTLER is an original member of the LPDC who was with the company from 1968 to 1979 and since 2004. She is an operating room nurse.
MAKI KUROKAWA started dancing almost 30 years ago. He is often thankful that he made this choice because of what dancing has brought to his life. This season marks his twelfth year with the LPDC. He is also a musician-composer, photographer, fine-art craft and model maker and translator.
ROBERT LA SARDO (Dr. 88) was born and raised in New York City. He now resides in Brooklyn Heights with his wife Clare, who runs a design studio. He was influenced at a very early age by black gospel, blues and R&B, and was drawn to the amplified harmonica sound of Little Walter, Rice Miller, and Paul Butterfield. He learned tenor sax from jazz saxophonist Pete Yellen. Robert played R&B with The Full Spectrum Band on sax, harp and vocals. He has played most of the New York City clubs from The Village Gate and The Lonestar Roadhouse to Le Bar Bat. Bobby's new band is called The Huckleberries. He says it's roots music with an attitude: "too high strung and playin' for blood."
Jazz trumpeter KERRY MacKILLOP is a native of Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, he spent the next several years touring extensively worldwide as featured soloist with The Artie Shaw Orchestra and The Woody Herman Band. This invaluable experience afforded him the honor of performing with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Buddy DeFranco, Dick Johnson, Billy Eckstine, Rosemary Clooney, Joe Lovano, Frank Sinatra Jr., Helen Forrest, Margaret Whiting, and Helen O'Connell to name just a few. Eventually settling in Manhattan, Kerry maintains an active schedule as a free-lance performer and teacher. In addition to fronting his own groups, he appears frequently with such notables as The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, The John Fedchock New York Big Band, The Howard Williams Orchestra, and The Harry James Band among others. He also currently serves as road manager for the Artie Shaw Orchestra.
ELAINE MYRIANTHOPOULOS has studied dance at Wesleyan University and in New York with Laura Pawel and Pam Finney. She has been dancing with the LPDC since 1987, and also performed with The Corner Store. She is an instructor in the Early Childhood Program at Dutchess Community College and lives in New Paltz, New York.
LAURA PAWEL began dancing with Betty Jones of the José Limón Dance Company and has studied with Merce Cunningham, Nancy Meehan, Elaine Summers, Cynthia Babat, Jimmy Kichler and Christine Wright among others. She formed the LPDC after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied dance composition with Bessie Schönberg and poetry with Jane Cooper. Pawel taught dance for ten years at Wesleyan University and has taught in private studios in New York. Since 1968 she has choreographed over sixty dances for her company. Together the LPDC has developed choreographic and performing techniques which use highly personalized movement vocabularies, spoken words, and original music within improvisational structures.
PHIL STONE studied experimental music at Wesleyan University, where he had the great good fortune to meet and learn composition for dance from Pam Finney and Laura Pawel. In addition to his many enjoyable years of solo work with the LPDC, he is a member of The Hub, a San Francisco-based computer network ensemble. The Hub's latest recording, Boundary Layer, is available on Tzadik as a special three-disc set. Phil lives in Davis, California and writes software for the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. Some of his latest compositions may be enjoyed for free at www.pkstonemusic.com.

Laura Pawel Dance Company member biographies

Dancers

Composers & Musicians