Artist Statement

Kate Watson-Wallace creates site-based performances that re-imagine everyday spaces. A contorted female solo in a bedroom closet, a combative duet in the back seat of a Chevy caprice, a woman covered in a repeating pattern of video graffiti. Her work choreographs spectator as well as performer, taking audiences on intimate, human-scale journeys through a row house, a parking lot, a dance club. Audiences meet the human body up close.

Funders/ Support

Kate Watson-Wallace’s work has been supported by:

  • Dance Advance, a program of the Pew Charitable Trusts administered by the University of the Arts
  • A 2007 Pew Fellowship in Choreography
  • Map Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Rockefeller Foundation
  • The Independence Foundation
  • The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
  • The University of Pennsylvania
  • Indiana University of Pennsylvania Lively Arts
  • Susan Hess Choreographers Project
  • The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival
  • The Community Education Center’s New Edge Residency
  • Whole Foods Market
  • Phiily Car Share
  • Klip Collective
    

Bios

Kate Watson-Wallace

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Kate Watson-Wallace (Choreographer/Director) is a site-based choreographer who lives in Philadelphia. Her movement installations have been housed in a machine shop (The Mentalist), a nightclub (Gone), in a row home (House), a car (CAR), in warehouses, bars, galleries, churches and cabarets, as well as for the concert stage. She is a 2007 Pew Fellow in the Arts in choreography. She has received funding from Dance Advance, a Pew program, the Rockefeller Map Fund, The Pennsylvania Council  on the Arts and the Independence Foundation. Her dancing, choreography and study have taken her throughout Europe, and across the U.S. Her work has been presented at DanceBoom at the Wilma Theater, The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, The New Dance Alliance at The Joyce SoHo, The Walt Whitman Arts Center, and the Wave Rising Series. As a dancer, she performs regularly with Headlong Dance Theater and Scrap Performance Group. She has also worked with Jane Comfort and Company, Carol Brown, Gin MacCallum and Nichole Canuso, among others. She was a member of Group Motion Company for four years, with whom she toured nationally and abroad.  She has been in residence at the Community Education Center in Philadelphia and is a resident choreographer at Susan Hess Modern Dance. She has been a guest artist at Drexel University, The University of the Arts, Franklin and Marshall College, and at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has been a teaching artist at Curatin Call Creations, an after school arts education program, since 2003. 

Collaborators

Alexandra Holmes

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ALEX HOLMES (dancer) received her B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002. She is originally from Makiti City, Philippines, and returns every year to eat mongoes in the sun and be with her family. Professionally, Alex has danced for Paule Turner/ c o u r t and PearsonWidrig Danctheater. In her time at VCU, she had the pleasure of working with choreographers such as David Dorfman, Nicholas Leichter and Joe Goode. She is thriled to be dancing for Kate Wawa. Alex is a Yoga teacher. She is also a mother to a Boston Terrier named DANGER, and two cats, KAI and MILO. She likes to ride her bike, swim in the ocean, and read strange fiction. She also loves tropical fruit and drinking dirty martinis. She thanks her friends, co-workers, pets, family and teachers for their love and support, for showing her how to be a good yoga student, and without whom she would not be so so happy.

David Konyk

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DAVID KONYK (dancer)  graduated from Temple University with a B.F.A. in dance. He has danced locally and abroad with Group Motion Company,  SCRAP Performance Group, Leah Stein Dance Company, The Bald Mermaids and the Reactionaries.

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

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Interdisciplinary movement based artist, JAAMIL OLAWALE KOSOKO creates performances that draw from both visual and literary aesthetics. Poetry and video-art heavily contribute to how KOSOKO renders his ideas and concepts into dance. KOSOKO has performed in the choreographic works of various artists and companies including Ann Carlson, Yoshiko Chuma, Terry Creach, Lisa Kraus, Helen Lesterlin, Richard Siegal, Kate Watson-Wallace, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theater, Leah Stein Dance Company, Emergent Improvisation Ensemble, and, Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako (The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa ). While KOSOKO has shown his own dances and dance-films atBennington College , Dance Theater Workshop, American Dance Festival, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, and Joyce SoHo among other venues, he has also been a resident artist at The Hudson School, Hoboken , NJ ; Community Education Center Meeting House Theater, Philadelphia , PA ; Earthdance, Plainsfield , MA . Currently, KOSOKO is in partnership with Melanie Stewart Dance and the 2008-2009 nEW Festival as a resident artist and is a member of Artists U, a non-profit organization focusing on professional development for Philadelphia based artists. www.kosokoperformance.org

Josh Cicetti

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JOSH CICETTI ((composer/ sound designer) is a composer who has played with a number of Philly bands. He has toured the U.S. and U.K. with the Heartache Disease, Lucky #13 and God Like Diablo, and opened up for Interpol, the Fall and the Liars. He has composed music for Kate Watson-Wallace and Scrap Performance Group. He is currently writing/playing in two new projects, Pink Pix and Dead Churches, and continuing his collaboration with Kate Watson-Wallace He also plays with the Philly band Gildenworks.

Linda Smyth

LINDA SMYTH, (costume designer) combines the raw and gritty experiences of urban dwelling, creating fashion and make-up designs that create a perfect fusion of urban and contemporary styles. She uses the human form as her canvas. Originally from Richmond, Va., Linda has spent the past six years in Philly, investigating the human condition and the role it plays in our perception of humanity. She received her B.F.A. from Arts In Jewelry and Metals. Under the name of Octopelion, she has shown in Philly and NYC. Her distinctive style has landed in publications such as: D Magazine, American Photo on Campus, Girlfriends and B. Informed.

Madison Cario

Madison's (lighting designer) training comes from experimentation, collaboration and through her work as the Production Manager and Technical Director for several performing arts organizations, including the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Venue 9 and Il Teatro in San Francisco, California. For the past 12 years she has been creating environments using lights, sets and sound. She has done design work for numerous dance and theater companies, including; Tania Isaac Dance, Group Motion, Sebestainne Mundheim, Kate Watson-Wallace, Thaddeus Phillips' Lucidity Suitcase, Scrap Performance Group, Myra Bazell, Silvana Cardell, ASH Contemporary Dance, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Curtain Call Creations, Marianela Boan, Sarah Jones, Opus I, Megan Bridge, ContempraDance Theater, Gwendolyn Bye, Rebecca Malcolm-Niab, Travesty Dance, Passion Y Arte, Martha McDonald, Merge Dance, Hannibal, Greg Giovanni, The Bald Mermaids, Rain Pyror, Rhodessa Jones, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Working Women Theater Festival San Francisco, Integrated Arts and others. MadisonÕs work has brought her to traditional theaters and black box theaters as well as non-traditional and site-specific venues such as warehouses, lots, empty houses, churches and outdoor locations.

Megan Mazarick

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MEGAN MAZARICK (dancer) Born and raised in North Carolina, Megan Mazarick started dancing at age four and “choreographing” at age six (her first piece was a solo improvisation performed at the Wiley Elementary School Talent Show in 1987). She received her BFA in dance from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her MFA in Dance from Temple University. As a performer and collaborator she has worked with numerous artists in Philadelphia including Kate Watson-Wallace, Makoto Hirano, Phil Grosser, Silvana Cardell, Marianela Boan, Paule Turner, Leslie Elkins, Keith Thompson, Olive Prince, Charles Anderson, and many others. In Pennsylvania, her choreography has been presented in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2005, Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2006, with Dance Theater X’s “Restless Native’s” at Silkwerks Theater Outlet (Allentown,PA), and Glue Dance Series (Philadelphia). Most recently she has shown her work, Roadkill, in nEW Festival 2007. Her short film, “Truck Stop Dance”, was shown at Mythinformation, a night of dance on film at Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2006. www.mazaricknation.com

Ricardo Rivera

RICARDO RIVERA (video installation) began experimenting with video in 1998 as a live video performer (VJ Kaboom) and installation artist.  Today, he is founder and principal of klip//collective, a group dedicated to creating high-end, large-scale, site-specific video installations.  His range of work varies from permanent commissions to one-night music events to multimedia performance installations. He has permanent installations in W Hotels across the country, Crobar Club (NYC), Sonar Lounge (Baltimore), China Grille (Chicago), and Electric Factory (Philadelphia), among others. He has done temporary installations at The Philadelphia Museum of Art in a tribute to Salvador Dali  and at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia, in a group show entitled Temporary Cities. www.klip.tv

Sebastienne Mundheim

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SEBASTIENNE MUNDHIEM (dramaturge/ visual consultant/ performer) is a writer, director, designer, performer, educator, and recently filmmaker.  She has created 17 original interdisciplinary works commissioned by institutions including: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rosenbach Museum and Library, and Franklin and Marshall College. Some of her recent works include: Under the Hat: the Life and work of Marianne Moore, Giorgio di Chirico and the Myth of Ariadne, A Potable Joyce: A Watered Down Version of Ulysses, and Currently Franklin: The Story of a Paper Boy. Her work has been performed locally and internationally. She has collaborated/performed with companies including: New Paradise Laboratories, the Reactionaries, Brat Productions, and Thaddeus Phillips/ Lucidity Suitcase, and Kate Watson Wallace.  She has a BA/BFA from Univ. of Pennsylvania and Edm from Harvard.