Chris Johnson GLCMA - Associate Professor of Dance

Chris Johnson has a B.A. in dance from Luther College, an M.A. in dance from California State University in Sacramento, and an M.F.A. in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana. She has studied with Bella Lewitzky, The Joffrey Ballet, Gus Giordano, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Risa Steinberg, Alan Danielson, and Stephen Koester. She taught for the Sacramento Ballet and performed and choreographed professionally with Dale Scholl's Dance/Art in Sacramento. She won the Laureate and Grand Prix at the Seventh International Competition: Festival of Choreographic Collectives "Unity of Russia" in Moscow, Russia in 2004.  Her dance Wreath of Memories was performed by special invitation at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC in 2002. Her work, as well as her students,' has been regularly selected for the gala concerts at the American College Dance Festival Association regional festivals. She was awarded the James R. Underkofler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2002.  She completed graduate level certification in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals at Columbia College, Chicago in 2007. Her areas of specialty are Modern Technique, Choreography, Dance Kinesiology and Jazz Dance. She is the director of the Chelonia dance company.

 

 

Chris Johnson
johnsnc@beloit.edu
608-363-2713

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Esteban Donoso - Assistant Professor

Esteban Donoso, is a choreographer, performer, scholar and teacher. He holds a Clinical Psychology degree from Universidad Catolica, Quito, Ecuador and an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research includes Psychoanalytic Theory, Cultural and Cinema Studies and Choreography.  Esteban has performed for Frente de Danza Independiente, Compania Nacional de Danza, Ballet Ecuatoriano de Camara, Ernesto Ortiz, and Klever Viera (Ecuador) John Dayger, Rebecca Nettl Fiol, Sara Hook and David Parker, Tere O’Connor, and Linda Lehovec.  Esteban’s choreography has been shown in Quito, Boston, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana IL. In summer 07 he became part of the dance-Web Europe Scholarship Programme and attended ImpulsTanz Festival in Vienna. He recently performed his own work as well as Rebecca Nettl Fiol’s in Frente de Danza Independiente, Quito, Ecuador.

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Dmitri Peskov - Instructor of Dance

Dmitri Peskov is the recipient of the 2008 Illinois Arts Council Grant for Choreographic Achievement and of 2006 Dance Chicago Festival Choreography Award. He serves on the dance faculty of Beloit College and is a guest artist with Tatiana Timofeeva Dance Centre in Moscow, Russia. Having previously performed with Borealis Theatre, Chicago Ballet, Chicago Festival Ballet, Salt Creek Ballet, DanceLoop Chicago (which he directed for five years) he now works as a principal dancer with renown choreographer Paul Sanasardo under the auspices of Joel Hall and Dancers. His choreography has been set on Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, DanceLoop Chicago, Northern Dance Theatre and Nash Dance Theatre in Moscow, Russia where he also assisted American director Paul Kindlon in setting the first English language production of John Guarre's play The House of Blue Leaves. He is currently choreographing a new work for Madison Ballet.
 
Having lived in Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal, before settling in the United States, Dmitri Peskov holds a Masters Degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures from Northern Illinois University, where he also worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Philosophy Department. According to Chicago Tribune Peskov is "Bold...brave and feisty,...an original emerging dancemaker....like Nijinsky ... who takes the art form to another level without losing sight of impeccable technique or emotion."