:: conduit dance faculty

Gregg Bielemeier
is an Oregon-born dance artist who has worked on the West Coast and in Europe as a featured choreographer, performer and teacher for over 35 years. He is a frequent improvisor/collaborator with musicians, actors and visual artists, creating suave, witty dance works that have been described as "wonderfully inventive," by the Los Angeles Times, and as "marvelously goofy," by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A founding Conduit core artist, Bielemeier's work has been presented in Los Angeles by Dance Kaleidoscope, in Seattle at On the Boards Northwest New Works Festival, at Holland's International Dance Festival, and in Portland by PSU's Contemporary Dance Season, Portland Art Museum, Imago Theater and for White Bird's inaugural subscription series. Bielemeier has been awarded grants from the Metropolitan Arts Commission, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and on two occasions received Individual Artist Fellowships from the City of Pasadena, CA. Recent and upcoming projects include the creation of "As Requested (short solo)," for Skinner | Kirk Dance Ensemble, and a newly commissioned project for White Bird's 11th annual dance series in Portland, Oregon for 2009.

Tracy Broyles (Winter Session II)
is a teacher, dance-maker and performer who has been based in the Northwest for over a decade. She creates rich, psychological and physical dances strongly connected to music and visual setting. As a teacher she combines technical body knowledge with training in subtle energetic systems to encourage clear, attentive, bold dancing. Her most recent work"I want to stop Wanting, " a collaboration with Meshi Chavez premiered at Disjecta in 2009. Tracy will be traveling to Scotland this summer to participate in Deborah Hay's Solo Commissioning Project. She is a certified Pilates instructor, holds a BA in Dance, and is an avid student of the Alexander Technique, Butoh, Yoga and Hip-Hop. Tracy will be showing new work in the spring of 2010, for which this class is research. She has always wanted to be a singer.

Jessica Hightower
Originally from Colorado, Jessica attended North Carolina School of the Arts where she received her high school diploma and BFA in dance. Upon graduating, she spent two seasons touring with the Open Dream Ensemble, a multidisciplinary arts group focused on performance and arts integration. She has performed, choreographed and taught in France, Japan, and all across the United States. Since relocating to Portland in 2006, she has had the pleasure of working with Tere Mathern, Faith Levine and Katrina O'Brien. Jessica is a current member of Mary Oslund's company OsCo, and Suniti Dernovsek and visual artist David Stein's company Hot Little Hands. She is also the jazz and modern dance teacher for the Portland Youth Ballet.

Tere Mathern
co-director of Conduit Dance, Inc., is a choreographer, performer, and educator of over 20 years. She formed Tere Mathern Dance in 2002 to create an ongoing setting for her work. Recent works include, Show Me The Body (June 2007) funded by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and a site-specific work for Keller Fountain, one of the four-part series of dance works for The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin (September 2008), celebrating Halprin’s sequence of Portland open spaces and part of PICA TBA:09. Mathern has as an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on contemporary dance history and performance studies from NYU and is a Certified Movement Analyst (C.M.A.) in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in NYC. Currently adjunct faculty in dance at PSU, she has taught and/ or performed in various venues throughout the U.S. including the Knitting Factory, and Gowanus Arts Exchange in New York, On the Boards/Seattle, Denison University (OH), The Contemporary Dance Season/PSU, in venues in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Alaska, and as an assistant to the faculty for Laban/ Bartenieff certification programs at the Laban Institute in NYC and at Mills College, CA. Her work has received support from the Oregon Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and PSU’s former Contemporary Dance Season, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Past guest artist for Reed Arts Week 2002, a 2003 recipient of a Professional Development Grant from the City of Portland Arts & Economy Initiative, she is a 2009 Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship recipient, and is the focus of an OBP Art Beat special broadcast January, 2010.

Mary Oslund
is Artistic Director of Oslund + Company/Dance. With a BFA/MA in Dance from Ohio State University, she has been on the faculty of The University of Oregon, Lewis and Clark College, and Reed College, founded Dance Works in Eugene, and co-founded Conduit Studio, acting as director from 1995-8. Mary Oslund has been actively producing work seasonally since 1977, and she and the Company are generously funded for creative and operating support through public and private sources both regionally and nationally and have conducted many residencies and tours.

Oslund's work is frequently created in collaboration with artists in music, visual art, film, literature, photography, performance, and lighting, set and costume design. She has been commissioned and presented by Oregon Ballet Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) with support from Leslie Durst Fund for New Work, Portland Art Museum, On The Boards,Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA), Bumbershoot Festival, and Jefferson Dancers. Individual awards for her choreography include a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship; an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in Dance; a New York Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts award given annually to ten artists internationally; a Regional Arts and Culture Council Individual Artist Fellowship, one of two in the program's inaugural year; and funding for new work and administrative support from the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with funding from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, additional funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Philip Morris Companies Inc.

class schedule :: descriptions :: workshops :: faculty ::		conduit 2010 faculty Gregg Bielemeier is an Oregon-born dance artist who has worked on the West Coast and in Europe as a featured choreographer, performer and teacher for over 35 years. He is a frequent improvisor/collaborator with musicians, actors and visual artists, creating suave, witty dance works that have been described as "wonderfully inventive," by the Los Angeles Times, and as "marvelously goofy," by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A founding Conduit core artist, Bielemeier's work has been presented in Los Angeles by Dance Kaleidoscope, in Seattle at On the Boards Northwest New Works Festival, at Holland's International Dance Festival, and in Portland by PSU's Contemporary Dance Season, Portland Art Museum, Imago Theater and for White Bird's inaugural subscription series. Bielemeier has been awarded grants from the Metropolitan Arts Commission, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and on two occasions received Individual Artist Fellowships from the City of Pasadena, CA. Recent and upcoming projects include the creation of "As Requested (short solo)," for Skinner \| Kirk Dance Ensemble, and a newly commissioned project for White Bird's 11th annual dance series in Portland, Oregon for 2009. Tracy Broyles (Winter Session II) is a teacher, dance-maker and performer who has been based in the Northwest for over a decade. She creates rich, psychological and physical dances strongly connected to music and visual setting. As a teacher she combines technical body knowledge with training in subtle energetic systems to encourage clear, attentive, bold dancing. Her most recent work"I want to stop Wanting, " a collaboration with Meshi Chavez premiered at Disjecta in 2009. Tracy will be traveling to Scotland this summer to participate in Deborah Hay's Solo Commissioning Project. She is a certified Pilates instructor, holds a BA in Dance, and is an avid student of the Alexander Technique, Butoh, Yoga and Hip-Hop. Tracy will be showing new work in the spring of 2010, for which this class is research. She has always wanted to be a singer. Jessica Hightower Originally from Colorado, Jessica attended North Carolina School of the Arts where she received her high school diploma and BFA in dance. Upon graduating, she spent two seasons touring with the Open Dream Ensemble, a multidisciplinary arts group focused on performance and arts integration. She has performed, choreographed and taught in France, Japan, and all across the United States. Since relocating to Portland in 2006, she has had the pleasure of working with Tere Mathern, Faith Levine and Katrina O'Brien. Jessica is a current member of Mary Oslund's company OsCo, and Suniti Dernovsek and visual artist David Stein's company Hot Little Hands. She is also the jazz and modern dance teacher for the Portland Youth Ballet. Tere Mathern co-director of Conduit Dance, Inc., is a choreographer, performer, and educator of over 20 years. She formed Tere Mathern Dance in 2002 to create an ongoing setting for her work. Recent works include, Show Me The Body (June 2007) funded by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and a site-specific work for Keller Fountain, one of the four-part series of dance works for The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin (September 2008), celebrating Halprin’s sequence of Portland open spaces and part of PICA TBA:09. Mathern has as an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on contemporary dance history and performance studies from NYU and is a Certified Movement Analyst (C.M.A.) in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in NYC. Currently adjunct faculty in dance at PSU, she has taught and/ or performed in various venues throughout the U.S. including the Knitting Factory, and Gowanus Arts Exchange in New York, On the Boards/Seattle, Denison University (OH), The Contemporary Dance Season/PSU, in venues in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Alaska, and as an assistant to the faculty for Laban/ Bartenieff certification programs at the Laban Institute in NYC and at Mills College, CA. Her work has received support from the Oregon Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and PSU’s former Contemporary Dance Season, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Past guest artist for Reed Arts Week 2002, a 2003 recipient of a Professional Development Grant from the City of Portland Arts & Economy Initiative, she is a 2009 Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship recipient, and is the focus of an OBP Art Beat special broadcast January, 2010. Mary Oslund is Artistic Director of Oslund + Company/Dance. With a BFA/MA in Dance from Ohio State University, she has been on the faculty of The University of Oregon, Lewis and Clark College, and Reed College, founded Dance Works in Eugene, and co-founded Conduit Studio, acting as director from 1995-8. Mary Oslund has been actively producing work seasonally since 1977, and she and the Company are generously funded for creative and operating support through public and private sources both regionally and nationally and have conducted many residencies and tours. Oslund's work is frequently created in collaboration with artists in music, visual art, film, literature, photography, performance, and lighting, set and costume design. She has been commissioned and presented by Oregon Ballet Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) with support from Leslie Durst Fund for New Work, Portland Art Museum, On The Boards,Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA), Bumbershoot Festival, and Jefferson Dancers. Individual awards for her choreography include a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship; an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in Dance; a New York Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts award given annually to ten artists internationally; a Regional Arts and Culture Council Individual Artist Fellowship, one of two in the program's inaugural year; and funding for new work and administrative support from the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with funding from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, additional funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Philip Morris Companies Inc.