Beloit College Dance

Mika Banks '05
Majors: Theatre Arts-Dance and Acting
Minors: Geology
Study Abroad: Quito, Ecuador

After dancing 3 ½ years at Beloit College, Mika spent her last semester of College in Fall 2005 studying abroard in Quito, Ecuador. During a routine dance class at her new dance school she was invited by the director to take part in his upcoming show. Mika has been dancing as a professional member of Company Frente de Danza Independiente ever since. Her list of shows include "Cuentos del Tercer Cajon," choreographed by Terry Arujo, "Untitled"choreographed my Cecilia Andrade, and "Entre La Hojarasca" choreographed by Ernesto Ortiz. Mika will be touring on the Galapagos Islands and in Colombia in 2006. Mika also makes ends meet as a Hip Hop and Jazz Dance instructor both at Frente de Danza escuela de danza and as a free lance artist. She is unbelievably grateful to Beloit College, Chris Johnson, and Margaret Rennerfeldt for the incredible education that has allowed her to be doing what she is doing today.

Heather Budd '01
Majors: Anthropology and Theatre Arts-Dance.
Clubs and Activities: Dance Club, Womyn's Center, Snowboard Club.
Study Abroad: Zanzibar, Tanzania.
While at Beloit, her choreographic work Sunken Flight was selected for the gala concert at ACDFA 01. More information…

Heather has been performing regularly since graduating in 2001 in Seattle with Crispin Spaeth, AcornDance, Launch Dance Theater and the collective she, in part, began which is called Left Field Dance. Her first show with the collective was in fall '04 and it was loosely based on Alice in Wonderland. They performed in a warehouse/ theater space without seating so the audience was forced to explore the space the entire time. Claire Schroeder '02 was in the piece called The Tea Party. She will be coming to Beloit in fall '05 with Aiko Kinoshita as a guest artist. She plans go to graduate school in an area of body therapy/somatics, and/or physical therapy.

Brad Christensen '00
Major: Theatre Arts: Dance

After graduating from Beloit College in 2000, Brad continued to study dance at North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and attended ADF at Duke University. He had the good fortune of taking class from many talented instructors, including a master class with Twyla Tharp. In January of 2001, he had reconstructive surgery on his shoulder and hasn’t returned full-time to the dance studio since then.

Brad has been living and teaching in Milwaukee for the past 4 years. He teaches 2nd grade at La Escuela Fratney – a unique dual-language (English and Spanish) elementary school in Milwaukee’s river west neighborhood. Last year he was honored by his school and students as they chose him to be included in the book entitled, Men We Love, which “celebrates men throughout the community who make us better people.” The book was published by the Alma Center, a community based non-profit agency in Milwaukee dedicated to eliminating violence and abuse in intimate relationships, families and the community. Brad is involved in Fratney’s professional development, active on committees and serves as team leader for all primary teachers at Fratney.

Outside of his professional life, Brad is involved in a number of things. He volunteers and coaches, 7th grade youth football in Brookfield, WI -- with a great group of kids. To stay involved with and around the arts Brad supports Milwaukee Ballet and the Milwaukee Art Museum. He began his own business, bccworks, in the summer of 2002, through which he sells his own artwork – paintings, hand-stitched journals and photography. (Still very much in the early stages of growth.) His pieces have been displayed at the East Side Open Market and Bucketworks.

Currently, Brad is in the process of completing his Master of Science in Educational Leadership at Cardinal Stritch University and is set to graduate in December 2006. He is also staying active physically by attending yoga and spin classes, and training for next year’s season of triathlons. Brad still feels very young at heart (the students help!) and hopes to one day get back into dance in some way.

Cayte Connell '04
Major: Theatre Arts-Dance

Cayte Connell lives in Durham, NC, and is on the permanent staff of the American Dance Festival, where she is the Office Manager and Special Projects Coordinator. While a student at Beloit she had summer internships at Sperling Green Associates PR and the American Dance Festival. She performed with Anima Dance in different incarnations of the Murakami Cycle in the spring and fall of 2005.

For photos of Anima Dance go to ... http://www.animadance.org/main/ladyfest.htm

Kate Corby '99
Major: Theatre Arts-Dance and Women's Studies.
Clubs and Activities: Beloit College theatre productions, Chelonia, Womyn's Center.
Study Abroad: Budapest, Hungary.

Kate Corby, Assistant Professor of Dance, began choreographing and dancing as a Beloit College undergraduate student in 1997. Since then she has shown her work in Wisconsin, California, Canada, Illinois, Taiwan and Hungary. In Hungary she taught at the Hungarian Dance Academy and carried out choreographic research as a Fulbright scholar in 2006. Kate received an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana in May of 2007, where she was awarded a University of Illinois Fellowship and the Wanda M. Nettl Award for student choreography. In addition to pursuing choreography at the University of Illinois, Kate was also an instructor for non-major and major dance classes and performed in numerous faculty and student works. From 1999-2004 she was a San Francisco, California-based choreographer and dancer and established Kate Corby & Dancers in 2001. The ensemble performed in numerous San Francisco venues, including five self-produced events from 2001 - 2003, and received grant support the Zellerbach Family Foundation, CA$H of Theatre Bay Area, and Meet the Composer. Kate currently lives in Chicago where she continues to both choreograph and perform. She joined the Beloit College faculty in the fall of 2007.

Allisa-Zee Hartmann '04
Majors: Theatre Arts-Dance and Acting.
While at Beloit her choreographic work Get in the Ring was selected for the gala concert at ACDFa '04 and chosen as alternate for the national festival. More information…

Since graduating from Beloit College last May and returning from the very successful dance trip to Russia (More information), Zee has been living in Chicago and dancing with a multi-generational dance company called Perceptual Motion, under the direction of Lin Shook. Zee is also dancing with an up-and-coming dance company called Rebound Dance, working with independent choreographers and performing at such venues as the Hamlin Park Field House Studio Theatre, the ChicagoTheatre Building and the Harold Washington Library Theatre. Zee performed in critic's choice Our Velocity, a work by Rachel Thorne Germond of RTG Dance at Links Hall in July 2005. Zee is also teaching dance for StageCoach Theatre Arts school and keeping busy with her own choreographic projects. She hopes to be a certified teacher in yogicarts (a fusion of yoga and martial arts) by the end of the 2005 summer.

Marcus Hayes '99
Major: History and Theatre Arts-Dance

Marcus Hayes, Beloit College Class of 1999, is assistant professor of dance at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. He received a dual Bachelors of Arts in history and dance from Beloit College and his Master of Fine Arts in dance with a concentration in choreography from Mills College in Oakland, CA. Marcus danced and choreographed with the Without Shoes Dance Company in Rockford, IL and has taught various dance techniques at the School for the Rockford Dance Company, Rockford College, the University of Wisconsin Extension, and the Chicago Park District. Marcus has studied with and performed the works of Chris Johnson, Margaret Rennerfeldt, Anne Westwick, Kathleen McCormick, June Watanabe, Michelle Shear and Molissa Fenley. Marcus joined the faculty of APSU in Fall 2006 and can be reached at hayesma@apsu.edu.

Clare Hogan '03
Majors: Spanish and Theatre Arts-Dance.
Clubs and Activities: Dance Club, International Club, Chelonia.
Study Abroad: Spain

After graduation Clare lived in Thailand for six months where she was involved in sustainable building projects. She then moved to Seattle where she now works as a nanny and attends dance classes at Velocity Dance. Currently she is working with choreographer Pablo Cornejo and is also volunteering at Refugee Women's Alliance. In summer 2005 she worked with Strictly Seattle as well.

Samantha Johnson '02
Majors: International Relations and Theatre Arts-Dance

Samantha currently works in Environmental and Product Liability Litigation for an economics consulting firm in Washington, DC. Due to the lack of free time (80 hr work weeks largely responsible), she hasn't been dancing since she left Beloit, but has attempted to substitute her inactivity with monetary contributions to various arts programs in the DC area (i.e. Shakespeare Theatre, Kennedy Center, DCWit etc). She is well on her way to having enough cash saved up to open her own dance studio in 2010 (location yet to be determined), which is why she is working in the first place. Because of this plan and her current work-related professional development, she enrolled part-time in business and law classes at Georgetown University, beginning in the winter of 2005.

Maggie Koller '06
Majors: Psychology and Dance, Graduated with Departmental Honors, Summa Cum Laude

Before graduating, Maggie was awarded the Chavey Family Endowed Award in Dance and the Delta Psi Delta Prize for Outstanding Female Theatre Students for her work at Beloit College. After graduation, Maggie moved back to Oak Park, IL, the first suburb directly west of Chicago. She has a full-time position as a Jr. Copywriter for Central Coast Advertising, also located in Oak Park, where she gets to be creative with words (www.centralcoastagency.com). To be creative in a medium that transcends such words, Maggie is dancing with The Dance COLEctive (www.dancecolective.com), The Space/Movement Project (www.thespacemovement.org), and ecnDANCEWORKS (www.ecndanceworks.com), 3 wonderful modern dance companies based in the Chicago-land area. Maggie is happy to be dancing, is living well, and hopes you will come to see her perform someday!

Benjamin Law '05
Majors: Theatre Arts – Dance, Psychology
Minor: Mathematics

Benjamin Law has been a member of Instruments of Movement (www.instrumentsofmovement.com), a Hip-Hop/Modern dance company, since 2005. In January of 2006 he joined Mordine & Co. Dance Theatre (www.mordine.org), another Chicago-based modern dance company. Since moving to Chicago, he has also performed with the Dance COLEctive and Hedwig Dances, as well as doing performance work for artist Nick Cave. While an undergraduate, his choreography was presented at the American College Dance Festival in 2004 and 2005. Upon graduation from Beloit in 2005 he was awarded the Beloit College Department of Theater Arts Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Choreography.

Sarah McCalister '98
Major: Theatre Arts-Dance

Sarah McCalister, is currently Assistant Professor of Dance in the Department of Communication Arts at Valdosta State University. While at Beloit she served as both dancer and choreographer for Chelonia Dance Company and was honored to be a McNair Scholar, receiving support and funding to conduct independent psychological research at the Milwaukee Women's Correctional Center, which she presented at the University of California, Irvine.

Ms. McCalister received her MFA in Contemporary Dance at Case Western Reserve University. She has taught Modern Dance at Case, and co-directed and choreographed two seasons of Mather Dance Collective (MaDaCol) productions. During her tenure at Case, Ms. McCalister was honored to receive a Baker Nord Center for the Humanities Research Grant to study in Turkey. She also received a School of Graduate Studies Faculty Mentor Grant. With this funding, she co-presented on the integration of Dance and Technology at the International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities in Italy with Professor Gary Galbraith. Their co-authored paper has been accepted for publication into the International Journal of the Humanities. In addition, she received scholarship monies from Friends of Mather Dance Center and Non-Solo Danza to participate in a dance workshop in Milan, Italy.

Prior to teaching at VSU, Ms. McCalister taught and Modern, Jazz, Tap, Choreography, Improvisation, and Ballet in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and California. Her teaching style of any technique incorporates both classical and contemporary forms, with a focus on proper alignment, kinesthetic awareness, and a clear sense of space, time, energy, and dynamics.

Ms. McCalister's Modern Dance training has focused on the techniques of Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins, Jose Limon, Lester Horton; her ballet training was primarily in the Vagonova school, with influences from Laura Alonzo and the Cuban school. She studied the jazz and musical theater styles and techniques of Joe Tremaine, Gus Giordano, and Bob Fosse; her Tap studies were influenced by Al Gilbert, Freddy Finn, and Gil Stroming. Somatic studies include Bartenieff Fundamentals, Laban Movement Analysis, and Alexander Technique. She has performed the works of Martha Graham, Pascal Rioult, Gary Galbraith, Richard Dickinson, Judith Moss, Chris Johnson, Jane Hawley, Augustine Bolanos, Linda Kahn, Paloma McGregor, and Liz Young.

In addition to teaching, choreographing, and performing, Ms. McCalister has a great passion for research. She is currently studying the relationship between depression and disordered eating in college-level dancers, and will present this research at the Conference for the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science in Stockholm, Sweden.

Leah Raffanti '05
Majors: Theatre Arts – Dance, Women's and Gender Studies
Study Abroad: Ghana

Since graduating from Beloit College, Leah has worked with RTG Dance, Equilibrium Dance Chicago, John Lehrer of Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, and Adler Danztheatre Project (where she is also a full company member). She has kept up her passion for choreography by creating work for Equilibrium Dance Chicago, Adler Danztheatre Project , and co-creating work with Beloit alumni Allisa-Zee Hartmann. Leah will début a new work in December 2006 for ADP's/ The Voices Project,/ and is planning a production of original work, with co-conspirator and choreographer Allisa-Zee Hartmann, for the fall of 2007. Leah is currently taking a break from teaching dance to spend some time doing social work. She is now working with teen-aged girls at a Transitional Living Program in Oak Park, a near suburb of Chicago, and is planning on pursuing a Master's degree in social work starting in 2007.

Jaime Scott '04
Majors: Psychology and Theatre Arts-Dance.
Study Abroad: Morrocco-Estonia

Jaime has a home in the lovely mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. She has been hired to develop the modern dance program and to teach other jazz, ballet and tap classes at a professional school in the area. She really loves teaching. She plans to get involved with Asheville contemporary dance and do some performing and choreographing. She will also be volunteering at a sexual assault counseling center. She plans to go on to graduate school for a master's degree in applied social psychology in several years.

Heather Seabury '02
Major: Biochemistry
Minor: Performing Arts
Clubs/Activities: Theta Pi Gamma, Chelonia

After graduating in 2002, Heather put her dance aspirations on hold to secure a job in the pharmaceutical industry. Upon completion of that goal, she has spent most of herfree time continuing to dance wherever she can. At first that was as a guest artist with a small school in Warwick RI. While there she also started taking open ballet classes in Narragansett and Newport. After getting to know some of the teachers she was able to audition for Nutcracker with Island Moving Company of RI in 2004 and has been performing as a guest each season since. In the spring of 2007 she was asked to jump in last minute to a productionof Princess and the Pea with Spindle City Ballet of Fall River MA. This experience opened up a new set of regular performance opportunities and has allowed her to start creating works as well. Most recently her piece BEING was performed by Spindle City Ballet dancers at "Arts around the Block" an outdoor artsfestival in downtown Fall River. She hopes to continue dancing and developing her choreographic voice for years to come.

Liz Young'99
Majors: behavioral biology and theatre arts-dance.
Clubs and Activities: Chelonia, softball, resident assistant.
Study Abroad: Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Post-College she has performed and choreographed professionally in Phoenix, Tucson, and Seattle, WA with companies and choreographers such as Alexandra Bellar, Guido Tuveri, Garner/Guittierez Dance, Robin Prichard, Cheronne Wong, Pablo Cornejo, Collabolab, New ARTiculations, and other independent projects. Liz's work has been presented in Seattle by Velocity Dance Center, Open Flight, Rockhopper Dance Company, On the Boards, Seattle Fringe Festival, and has been funded by Allied Arts of King County, Rockhopper Dance Company, and IBM. Her work additionally was selected as runner-up for The Field Seattle/Chicago/ New York Tri-city Exchange in 2003. Liz is thrilled to present work at the American College Dance Festival in 2005 and also remains active in the professional community in both Tucson and Seattle.

Liz will complete her MFA at Arizona State University in May '06. She continues her artistic curiosity and growth through her new Dance for the Camera and animation creations and is further exploring collaborative arts investigations, community exchange, and theoretical research. ASU awarded Liz the Eireen Peggy Lamb Graduate Fellowship, the Katherine Herberger Fellowship, and a Graduate Tuition Fellowship for artistic excellence. Liz has presented theoretical research in Florida at Congress on Research in Dance 2005 (CORD) and will be presenting and publishing the work at CORD in Montreal in Novemeber 2005. Liz is further inspired by her community dance involvement as she works with Dance Arizona Repertory Theatre (DART), a community based company and the Phoenix Arizona Survivors of Torture (PAST) program, and in teaching and learning at ASU.