Artists | Silicon Valley Artist Laureates

Home
Artists

Maria Basile

Performing Artist: Dancer

Maria Basile is a founding member and co-artistic director for sjDANCEco. After earning her BS in Dance from the University of Oregon, she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. She has danced with companies such as ODC/SF and Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers and has also performed independently with choreographers Lisa Burnett, Betsy Kagen, Bih-Tau Sung, and Cathleen McCarthy. Basile is a Balance instructor (posture/ structural integration), certified by the Balance Center in Palo Alto. Since 1996, she has been a prominent teacher of ballroom, modern, and Latin dance at San José State University, De Anza College, and Buddy Party Dance Studio in Cupertino. Basile’s love of dance is rooted in her outstanding gymnastics background. As a member of the 1987 USA Gymnastics Team, Basile competed in The XXIII Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Varna, Bulgaria and in The Konica Cup, the first U.S. international rhythmic gymnastics competition, in Princeton, New Jersey. Following these performances, Basile expanded her work, training top regional athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers and coaches from the Gymnastics Federation of Guatemala. Basile’s greatest passion in life is designing choreography that expresses each dancer’s unique beauty. Recent choreographic creations include Fire and Ice (2001); Business of Love, a West Coast Swing duet with professional Richard Kear (2001); The Upward Spiral (2002); Sea Diamonds (2003); The Elements (2004); and The Little Nothings (2005). While most of Basile’s performance work is done in a theatrical setting, her love of dance has expanded into liturgical services at various churches in the Bay Area, including Stanford Memorial Church, First United Methodist Church, and Transfiguration Episcopal Church. A highlight of Basile’s career took place during the 1997-1998 dance season, when she performed in The Limón Company’s critically acclaimed 50th Anniversary World Tour. Prior to the tour, Basile danced with The Limon West Dance Project of San José, California (1994 – 1998), under Gary Masters’ direction. Another highlight was her three-season involvement with the Cabrillo Music Festival, where she choreographed Philip Glass’s The Photographer (200 I), Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land (2000) and performed in the festival’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass (1999). In 2005, she choreographed for San José Opera’s production of Carmen and was commissioned to choreograph Les Petit Riens, for the Midsummer Mozart Festival, under the direction of George Cleve.

Tandy Beal

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Tandy Beal creates “dance that is exciting, mysterious, theatrical, humorous and energetic” (Seattle Post Intelligencer). “Her stage is a wondrous wayside where mystery unfolds.” (Los Angeles Times). She is “a choreographer of taste and intelligence…with a sure sense of theater.” (New York Times) “Astonishing virtuosity…theatrical savvy…her solos are like jewels, all of which shine…” (Libération, Paris) Tandy began her career at age 16 touring world-wide with Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre, performing off-Broadway, appearing as a guest with Atlanta Ballet, Momix, Remy Charlip, Murray Louis, Oakland Ballet, Carolyn Carlson in France and Bobby McFerrin, with whom she has worked for over 30 years. She has made 100+ works for her own company touring 4 continents. In 2014, she premiered a new show for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City. Her off-the-map career has led her to opera, circus, music videos, corporate events, solo shows, animation, horse spectacles, commercials, and fundraising extravaganzas. A woman of diverse theatrical talent and expertise, Tandy served as Artistic Director for the Moscow Circus in Japan for 2 years and for the Pickle Family Circus for 10 years. Tandy has worked with many composers, including Art Lande, Lou Harrison, John Adams, SoVoSó and for 40 astonishing years with her co-conspirator, Jon Scoville. She was the choreographer for Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, MTV and the Emmy award-winning PBS special, Voice/Dance. She received awards from the American Film Institute to make a film on Hildegard von Bingen, and the San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design chose Beal for their video project Four Dance Icons of the West. Tandy has taught at the Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine (France), 30 years at the University of Utah as an annual guest artist, UC Santa Cruz and chaired the Cabrillo College Dance Dept. She is an articulate and inspiring speaker on creativity, arts, collaboration and arts education. (Dance USA, SF Business Bureau, Cherry Foundation, Arts Council Santa Cruz, Westaff and more.)

Karen Gabay

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Karen Denise Gabay was born in San Diego, California and began her ballet training at the age of eight at the California Ballet School, and later studied at the School of American Ballet in New York City. A principal dancer with Ballet San Jose, Miss Gabay’s diverse repertoire includes Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, the title role in Giselle, Swanhilda in Coppelia, the pupil in Fleming Flindt’s The Lesson, the title role in Roland Petit’s Carmen, the principal female in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Tarantella, and Serenade, the Cowgirl in Agnes DeMille’s Rodeo, and is most recognized for the ballets created for her by choreographer, Dennis Nahat. Always an audience favorite, Miss Gabay has been a guest artist with North Carolina Dance Theater, Ballet Tucson, Ballet Nuevo Mundo, The Eglevsky Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and Los Angeles Classical Ballet and has toured with Cynthia Gregory’s Dance Galaxy throughout South America. She has performed at various galas and festivals that include the Vail International Dance Festival, the Career Transitions for Dancers Gala in New York City, and the Spoleto and Edinburgh Festivals with Rudolph Nureyev. In 2006, she assisted the late Fleming Flindt in rehearsing The Lesson, for the Kings of the Dance with Angel Corella, Johann Kobberg, and Nikolay Tsiskaridze, and later that year performed in the Hungarian Festival of Freedom Tribute with members of the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2011, Miss Gabay was honored by the Arts Council Silicon Valley and was given the Artist Fellowship Award for Choreography. She has created over forty ballets, twenty of those for Pointe of Departure. Miss Gabay has created world premieres for Ballet San Jose,the International Ballet Competition and Gala in Jackson, Mississippi, the Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Ballet, Chautauqua Dance Company, Cuyahoga Youth Ballet, Dancing Wheels, and the Cleveland Composer’s Guild. Miss Gabay enjoys her role as rehearsal assistant for Ballet San Jose, staging and rehearsing the repertoire of the company and teaches company class. She is frequently invited as a guest teacher for many ballet schools across the nation, and is brought in as a guest instructor for master classes in the Bay Area and in the nation. Miss Gabay has worked for the Ford Model Agency branch in Cleveland, Ohio and her film and television credits include the feature film, RENT, The Drew Carey Show, the PBS Emmy-nominated Blue Suede Shoes, the independent film, “Twisted”, the Queen of Denmark’s silver anniversary gala for Scandinavian television and the KTEH show, This is US! , that profiles her career of thirty years as a Prima Ballerina. The summer of 2012 brings delight to Miss Gabay as Pointe of Departure embarks on their annual tour to Northeast Ohio and their presence in the Bay Area.

Judith Komoroske

Educator; Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer; Visual Artist: Painter

Dancer, choreographer and teacher Judith Komoroske is now retired after a 38 year career. She now pursues creative expression through painting and writing.

Mythili Kumar

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Artistic Director Mythili Kumar founded Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose in 1980 to present professional–quality and innovative performances of South Indian classical dance. Now celebrating 35 years of performance and instruction, Mythili has been Abhinaya’s Artistic Director throughout its growth as a regionally and nationally-recognized dance program. She has nurtured over 1600 Indian American girls, training a generation of exceptional dancers. Through Mythili’s direction, Abhinaya Dance Company is known for its adherence to traditional dance as well as its inventive programming and collaborations with other artists, including San Jose Taiko. A dedicated teacher and expressive choreographer, Mythili has garnered many awards, including Choreographers Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1989-1993), Outstanding Artist Award from the Federation of Indo-American Association (1990), the Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award by the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival (2010), and an Isadora Duncan Sustained Achievement award from the Bay Area Izzies Committee (2011).

Rasika Kumar

Performing Artist: Dancer

Rasika Kumar is the daughter and student of Mythili Kumar, Artistic Director of Abhinaya Dance Company. She began studying at the early age of four and performed her arangetram in 1996. Additionally, Rasika has studied abhinaya with Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan for several years and has trained under Sri C.V Chandrasekar. She has also attended workshops by several acclaimed artists including Smt. Bragha Bessel, Sri Madurai P Muralidharan, and Smt. Rama Vaidhyanathan. Rasika performs regularly as a soloist and as part of Abhinaya Dance Company’s ensemble in the greater Bay Area. She began performing as a company member in 1996, with major roles in several of Abhinaya’s productions from 1996 till 2000. In 2000, she moved to Cambridge, MA to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, as a member and later president of Natya, MIT’s classical dance club, Rasika organized, choreographed, and performed in various events in the greater Boston area from 2000 until her graduation in 2005. Rasika spent the fall of 2004 living and training in Chennai, India, studying under Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan and Sri C.V. Chandrasekar, and performed in the annual Chennai music and dance festival to critical acclaim. In 2005, she returned to Bay Area and continued performing with Abhinaya. Rasika has been a featured soloist since 2005 and assistant choreographer since 2006 for many of Abhinaya’s productions. While working as a software engineer at Google, Inc, Rasika continues to perform and tour both as a soloist and as part of Abhinaya’s ensemble in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the United States. Under the guidance of Mythili Kumar, Rasika has been choreographing solo and group pieces for Abhinaya since 2006. Her choreography has been featured in several performances and company productions including Saatvika (2006), Ritusamhara (2006), Poetic Splendor (2007), Prithvi (2007), Dharma Yuddh (2008), Rivers: A Mystical Journey (2008), and Nritya Sangati (2009). Rasika’s choreography and performance have garnered attention from beyond the Indian dance community. “Varsha: the Rainy Season,” jointly choreographed by Rasika Kumar and Mythili Kumar and performed by members of Abhinaya, was chosen to be performed at the 2007 Ethnic Dance Festival and also received an award and commision for the 2008 Festival. Additionally, “Prithvi Sooktam, ” choreographed by Rasika in 2007, has been selected to perform at the 2010 Ethnic Dance Festival. Rasika has been selected to perform her solo choreography for sjDANCEco’s Annual ChoreoProject Award in 2007, 2008, and 2010 and for the WestWave Dance Festival at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2008. She is also the recipient of the Arts Council of Silicon Valley Performing Arts Fellowship for Dance Choreography in 2008.

Dennis Nahat

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Dancer, choreographer and artistic director American, born in Detroit, Michigan on February 20, 1946… Dennis Nahat studied dance at the Juilliard School and at the School of American Ballet in New York. He made his debut with the City Center Joffrey Ballet in 1965. Between 1968 and 1971 he was principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, where it premiered The River (1970) by Alvin Ailey and Texas Fourth (1976) of Agnes de Mille. Soon it began as a choreographer, and his first creations include: Brahms Quintet (Brahms, 1969), Monumentum (Tchaikovsky, 1969), Ontogeny (Husa, 1971), Some Times (Ogerman, 1972) and Mendelssohn Symphony (Mendelssohn, 1973). He worked for the London Festival Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, this last group played in the IX Festival international de Danse de Paris his Brahms Quintet. In 1974 he was appointed resident choreographer and artistic director of the Cleveland/San José Ballet, a company which he himself had founded with Ian Horvarth. Subsequently he served as artistic director of the group as well as the associated school. Among his latest creations for this formation is Blue Suede Shoes (Presley, 1995) and Go Daddy-0 (Duncan, 1998). The last time that you took to a stage was in 1994 to participate in the revival of the ballet The Overcoat, created in 1990 by Flemming Flindt for Rudolf Nureyev.

Gary Davis Palmer

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Gary Palmer began his career in the 1970s as a San Francisco–based dancer with the Lucas Hoving Performance Group, the San Francisco Opera Ballet, and Christopher Beck & Company Dance Theater. In the late 1970s, he performed in numerous works by Beck, from “Night Vision” (1976) to “Unspoken” (1979). In 1977 Palmer set up the nonprofit Centerspace Dance Foundation to support Centerspace, an alternative dance venue that he founded at Project Artaud. He also organized his own troupe, Gary Palmer Dance Company, for which Centerspace served as home base until the early 1990s.[2][3] Palmer’s choreography for Gary Palmer Dance Company is highly kinetic, featuring open balletic movement in tension with tighter gestures. He developed his dance sequences in response to his dancers’ individual strengths rather than setting predetermined movement on them. The result is choreography with strong theatrical values and frequent speed changes reminiscent of the work of Lucinda Childs. By the late 1990s, he was being called a “key performer and innovator in the San Francisco contemporary dance scene”. Over the years, Palmer has worked with many musicians, including Jay Cloidt, Pamela Z, Paul Dresher, and Christopher Fulkerson. Dancers in his company have included Betsy Ceva, Jonny McPhee, Robert Allen, Charles Chism, and Melissa Moss. In 1982, Palmer inaugurated a series called “Men Dancing” that featured only male dancers and choreographers in order to “give male dance artists a creative space outside of traditional roles (as partners to ballerinas) or archetypes (heroes or villains)”. With works by such luminaries as Remy Charlip and Jose Limon alongside lesser-known choreographers, it became a popular annual event in the Bay Area, offering a forum for meditations on gay culture ranging from the oblique to the confrontational to the formal. In 1993, Palmer received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for founding this long-running series, which lasted through 1998. In 1991, Gary Palmer moved his company from San Francisco to San Jose, where he performed at various South Bay venues such as the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. He toured his company to Lima, Peru, in 1996 and subsequently collaborated with the Ballet Nacional de Peru on the ‘Americas Series’, which premiered at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose in 1997. In 1997, Palmer was hired to be the executive director of the nonprofit San Jose Dance Theatre, which he subsequently merged with his own company to form a combined entity that included both a professional company and a classical ballet school intended to serve around 150 students.

David Popalisky

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

David Popalisky teaches dance history, modern dance and choreography. He has a MFA in Choreography from Mills College and an MA in Theatre Arts/Dance Emphasis from San Jose State University. Former artistic director of DaaPo, based in New York City, David has choreographed, performed and taught throughout the United States. He choreographed and performed for the Belize International Dance Festival in 1998 and in 1999 returned to set a work on the Belize Junior National Dance Company. In the past year he presented Enter Softly, CrossQuickly in San Francisco and San Jose and was commissioned to create Flames of Prayer for the Western Ballet Company. He has performed with Tandy Beal throughout California in Outside Blake’s Window and other productions including a concert with Bobby McFerrin. With the Throne Dance Theatre he toured Korea and Japan and performed in concert with the Dave Brubeck quartet. David has taught dance in Italy and Korea and has worked as a Master Dance teacher for the Bay Area California Arts Project and other summer arts workshops. David is married and has two sons. His relationship with his boys inspired “Dads Don’t Dance,” three summers of workshop for dads exploring issues of fatherhood through dance.

Bih-Tau Sung

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Bih Tau Sung is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Dancing Sun Foundation, and is an acclaimed interpreter and choreographer of ballet, modern, and traditional Chinese dance opera techniques. Her professional career started in 1974 when she was recruited to join the prestigious Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Taiwan’s first professional modern dance company. In the decade that followed, she performed, instructed, choreographed and danced with recognition throughout major artistic centers in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Bih Tau independently continued her artistic quest after she moved to Cupertino in 1986. In addition to receiving her MA in Dance Emphasis from San Jose State University, she is also a certified Pilates instructor and Laban Movement Analyst, and has taught private and college level classes. In 1999, Bih Tau founded the Dancing Sun Foundation where she is the artistic director and has performed in the San Jose Downtown Arts Series and San Jose Performing Arts Series. In support of Dancing Sun Foundation, she has received numerous awards and grants.

Margaret Wingrove

Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Margaret Wingrove has created over 80 works for her dancers. She has also been a frequent guest choreographer for other dance companies. These hosts have included the Palo Alto Ballet, Berkeley Ballet, San Jose Dance Theater, Janlyn Dance Company, and dancers from the San Francisco Ballet and the San Jose Cleveland Ballet. Wingrove has performed and studied extensively on both the east and west coasts with modern dancers Paul Sanasardo, Norman Walker, Lucas Hoving, and Richard Gibson. She also trained at the San Francisco Ballet School.

Yong Yao

Educator; Performing Artist: Choreographer, Dancer

Mr. Yao is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and dance instructor from Beijing. He began dancing with the Hubei Province Dance Company at the age of twelve. In this company he was trained in Chinese classical and folk dance technique as well as ballet basics. In 1980 Mr. Yao won a first place individual dancers award for Hubei Province and third place in the China National Dance Competition. Later that year, Mr. Yao was chosen for college level training at the Beijing Dance Academy, the most prestigious dance school of China. Even as a student in a select group trained by master to become masters themselves, Mr. Yao demonstrated his talents not only as a performer, a leader, but also a choreographer full of refreshing ideas in presenting a theme, a style, a tradition. Upon receiving a degree with honors in the teaching of Chinese dance from the Beijing Dance Academy, Mr. Yao was invited to join the academy faculty. During this period, besides his teaching responsibilities as a lecturer, Mr. Yao choreographed and performed a number of works, including the first place choreography and performance prize winning “Gallop”. In 1986, Mr. Yao was choreographer and director to China Young Children’s Company which toured New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. He was then appointed choreographer and principal dancer of the China Premier Dancers Delegation on it 1987 tour to Singapore and 1988 appearance at the World Arts Festival in Utah, Idaho and Montana. He returned to Singapore in 1988 as choreographer and principal dancer for the Beijing Dance Academy Young Artists Delegation. The Delegation also performed in Hong Kong to rave reviews for his new work, “Yellow River Suite,” a contemporary piece which adopted modern dance techniques in depicting Chinese historical themes. “Yellow River Suite” won first place in choreography at the Beijing Dance Competition later that year. In 1989, “Yellow River Suite” was awarded first place in performance by the Ministry of Culture of China, while his classical piece “Goddess Luo” won third place in the same competition. In 1990, Mr. Yao came to the United States to study modern dance at Cunningham Dance School in New York. He then received an International Dance grant and taught Chinese folk dance and ballet at Snow College, Utah, until joining CPAA in 1991. In the capacity of Artistic Director, Choreographer and Principal Dancer of CPAA since its founding, Mr. Yao both provides artistic direction and choreographed many new works for the company. In the “Chinese Performing Arts Festival” of the past four years, Mr. Yao displayed his superb talent as a choreographer by a wide range of themes, techniques and flavor in his works: “Music in the Moonlight” and “Flower Drum Festival” in 1992;”Drums of Thunder” and the “Dandelion” in 1993; “Dream of Shangri-La” and “Anhui Lion Dance” in 1994; “Nocturne of the Muses,” “Princess Sweet Fragrance” and “Sorrow of the Great Wall” in 1995. “Sorrow of the Great Wall,” a dance drama, was especially well receive by critics and audiences alike. It was hailed as one of the most outstanding Chinese dances in recent years. In addition, Mr. Yao taught master classes at De Anza College, San Jose Dance Theater and CPAA’s own South Bay Dance Academy. His choreography for the tremendously popular Theatre Works production of M. Butterfly won high critical acclaim and was nominated for Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s “Choreography in a Drama” Outstanding Achievement Award in 1993. In the same year, he awarded a fellowship by the Arts Council of Santa Clara County for his choreographic achievements. In 1994, China awarded Mr. Yao the highest honor for a choreographer. In a nationwide critical evaluation of dance in 20th Century China, jointly held by China Dancers Association, Arts Research Institute of China, China Literary and Artistic Alliance and other prestigious arts organizations with the endorsement of the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Yao’s “Yellow River Suite” was voted one of 32 “20th Century Masterpieces by Chinese Dancers,” from 3,300 outstanding dances created in the past 100 years. CPAA is very fortunate to have an artist of his caliber at the helms to guide and insure high quality of it repertoire, artists and performances. Mr. Yao is listed in Who’s Who of Contemporary China. Mr. Yao and Dennis Nahat, Artistic Director of Ballet San Jose, jointly choreographed a full length dance drama “Middle Kingdom Ancient China”, which premiered in February of 2005. Mr. Yao also choreographed “Moon Reflection on Crystal Spring” for Ballet San Jose in April of 2006. He received the Santa Clara County Asian Hero Award in 2006, which was featured on ABC’s “Profile of Excellence” in 2008. He joined Hubei Opera and Dance Drama Theatre as Dance Director in 2010.

Farah Yasmeen Shaikh

Performing Artist: Dancer

Farah Yasmeen Shaikh is an international kathak artist. Kathaka is a dance form from ancient India. She is a renowned performer, choreographer and instructor, and the Founder/Director of Noorani Dance. Known for her evocative storytelling, technical precision, delicacy and grace, Farah’s unique artistic voice focuses on topics of historical, social and political relevance, whilst simultaneously maintaining the classical elements of kathaka. Farah performs her own traditional and innovative works, most notably, The Forgotten Empress, and The Parting Farah has received support and recognition for her work from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, and San Francisco Foundation and Dancers’ Group. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and training the next generation of Kathak artists in the U.S., Farah also performs and teaches in Pakistan throughout the year.

Find An Artist

Search by Keyword

Search by last name:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z