Highways Performance Space
1651 18th St, Santa Monica, California 90404
4 New Works by 4 Latina/o Choreographers: SOFIA CARRERAS, HUGO DIAZ, JEFFREY GRIMALDO, DORCAS ROMAN
FRIDAY + SATURDAY, APRIL 26 + 27 @ 8.30pm
$20 general admission & $15 members/students/seniors
Buy your tickets online @ www.highwaysperformance.or
Call 310-315-1459 for show information and to reserve.
JEFFREY GRIMALDO / NAKED WITH SHOES
“La Puerta esta Abierta” is a solo for Jeff Grimaldo, choreographed by Naked With Shoes, in which a man explores the relationship between his space and internal landscape. This mix of dance and theatre, brought to spellbinding light by Mr. Grimaldo, is both dynamic and quietly introspective. Coming to grips with his situation, the man takes us on a harrowing and humorous joyride of the human soul.
JEFFREY GRIMALDO is from Newark, California. From 1977 to 1981, he trained with the Oakland Ballet under Ronn Guidi and Howard Sayette. He is a former and founding member of Mobius Stageworks, a multi-disciplinary theatre company in LA, directed by the late Nancy Fenster and Linden Gilbert. He was nominated for the Lester Horton Dance Award in 1992, for his solo performance in Losingthelight, choreographed by Rudy Perez. Jeffrey participated in Rudy Perez’s The Project from 2000 – 2004, funded by the James Irvine Foundation. Jeffrey is a pilates-based personal fitness trainer. He joined his wife Anne in founding their own dance company, Naked with Shoes, in 1993.
For over two decades, Anne and Jeff Grimaldo have been involved performing, touring, and teaching with the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble. As NAKED WITH SHOES, Anne and Jeff enjoy drawing from art, theatre, film, and music to create works of humor, intensity and excitement. Their work has been seen most recently at Highways Performance Space, Electric Lodge, Andrew Shire Gallery and the Glendale Moose Lodge, in collaboration with Steve Moshier’s Liquid Skin Ensemble. Their work has received critical acclaim at the Laguna Arts Festival, Keck Theatre, Fountain Theatre, the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and California Plaza.
SOFIA CARRERAS
Founder and Artistic Director of Intersect Dance Theatre, Sofia Carreras received her early training Beatriz Consuelo at the Ecole de Danse de Grand Theatre de Geneve. She began her professional career at age 13 at the Geneva Opera House, performing alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov, and working under the direction of Patricia Neary and George Balanchine. Sofia’s choreography has been performed at many venues throughout Southern California, at the Varna International Ballet Competition, at the American Grand Prix in New York City, and at the American Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado.
Sofia first conceived the idea of a multi-genre dance company in 2004. Plans to develop the new company were shelved in 2006, however, when Sofia was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to endure a year of medical treatment in the midst of which she gave birth to her son, Sebastian. Two years later Sofia gathered a new group of dancers to re-form Intersect Dance Theatre. The new Intersect an independent, non-profit, professional company in its fifth season and continues to showcase original choreographic work throughout Southern California.
HUGO DIAZ
Like many young boys, Hugo Diaz did not have formal dance training as a child, but discovered the joy of performing while doing skits and musical numbers for his tios and tias after Christmas diner. Born in Hawthorne, CA, young Hugo began his musical training playing the flute, the trumpet and the tuba. While studying music in high school, Hugo started learning salsa and hip-hop, and finally took his first ballet and modern dance classes at California State University, Long Beach. He was in love, and knew that this is where he belonged. Hugo was a Dance Department Scholar and graduated with his B.A. in Dance. He has studied with Keith Johnson, Regina Klenjoski, John Pennington, Susan McClain, Lorin Johnson, Sophie Monat and Andy Vaca. Hugo has also performed works by Keith Johnson, Laura Karlin, Regina Klenjoski and Jim Tsou. He was a part of the Dorcas Roman Dancetheatre and Invertigo Dance Theatre. Hugo choreographed for Catalyst 2011, he was part of the Artists in Residence concert at El Camino College and most recently presented work at the Pasadena Dance Festival.
DORCAS ROMAN / DORCAS ROMAN DANCETHEATRE
Dorcas Román is a dancer, choreographer and actress native to Puerto Rico and the artistic director of Dorcas Roman Dance Theatre – DRDT. She received a BA in theater from the UPR and an MFA in choreography from UCLA Dance Department. Dorcas has been active in dance and theater for over 20 years teaching, dancing, and choreographing around the United States and abroad. The press has successfully received her work nationally and internationally and she has received award recognition as both dancer and choreographer. The company started touring two years ago when they participated in the Maraton de Danza de Madrid, Spain during the summer of 2010. Since then The company has presented their choreography in festivals such as The Dance Galley Festival series in Houston Texas and New York, The Harvest Contemporary Dance Festival in Chicago, as well as in MixMatch and DanceSpot in Los Angeles and Dancing With Long Beach in Long Beach CA. Last year DRDT was extremely excited to be part of the 7Th Annual Wave Rising Series in NY where the company presented 5 choreographies and travel to the big apple with six dancers, making it the companies biggest tour endeavor so far. Fallowing their great accomplishment while in NY DRDT was invited over this Winter to performed at the Cool NY festival 2013, it’s newest work Memories.