Dance-Is-It Core Members

Helena Birecki, Instructor

Helena Birecki is one of the original Dance-Is-It members. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and is a certified Pilates instructor. In addition to her work with Dance-Is-It, Helena choreographs, and performs throughout the Bay Area with High Release Dance, DanceVisions, SDT-Bay Area and the Lively Foundation. Helena sees contact improv classes/jams as the perfect forum for finding new movement possibilities-- for each individual's body as well as in the way the duet/trio/group works together.

Karin Cabello-Moriarty - Artistic Director

Karin is a native of Chile. She moved to the Bay Area in the late 70s and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1986 with a BA in Dramatic Arts and Dance. Karin danced with the Ellen Webb Dance Group from 1989-1991. She has spent the last four years teaching Contact + Improvisation and is currently the artistic director of the Dance-Is-It Contact Improvisation Group. She has collaborated with many Bay Area artists and dances regularly with DanceVisions. Somewhere along the way she managed to get married and give birth to a daughter.

Karin is currently working on her new dance piece which will be part of a co-produced show with Janet Negley -- LOST AND FOUND: Dances of remembrance and resilience on Friday and Saturday, October 15th and 16th at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

Katja is a student, performer, and teacher of many movement arts. She is an ex-gymnast and a student of modern dance, capoeira, and contact improv. She combines this background with her experiences in Movement Theater, authentic movement, and Nita Little's Mind in Motion in her teaching. She has been teaching Contact Improvisation throughout Northern California since 1997 and teaching at the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival since 2000. She currently teaches and performs with Dance-Is-It in Palo Alto.

Guest Instructors

Felipe Barrueto

Felipe Barrueto has been dancing full time with the Joe Goode Performance Group for the past 3 and half years. During these years Felipe has taught modern technique classes as well as partnering classes across the US. His partnering classes are derived from his work as a member of the JGPG, which has been recognized internationally as a dance theater company that has successfully integrated text, voice, and dance. The partnering classes emphasize ease and finesse over brute strength. Problem solving and trusting build towards a unique and pleasant experience regardless of gender and size. The exploration of movement in contact with other people fascinates Felipe. This is why he teaches and also how he has found Himself dancing with the likes of Lizz Roman, Potreziebie, RAPT, Lea Wolf and Steamroller among others.

Kim Epifano

Kim's work is the integration of body, breath, theater, and voice in versatile and thought provoking styles. Epifano's 20-year history in the Bay Area spans the roles of teacher, choreographer, solo performer, and key collaborator with the influential dance companies, Contraband and the Dance Brigade. Kim Epifano has been recognized by the Bay Area Isadora Duncan Dance Award (IZZIE) four times; won the SF Weekly's Black Box Award for Dance Ensemble (1998); and placed second in Mexico's BiNational Competition. She has taught, choreographed and performed at dance festivals and universities throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. During Spring 2000 she was a guest professor at UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures teaching advanced modern technique, choreography and contact improvisation.

Her last work includes "Below Zero", and amazing work of art inspired by Ernest Shackleton's 1914 treacherous journey across the Antarctic. "Below Zero" is a gripping, multilayered work contrasting the desolation of the South Pole against the warmth of human compassion in the face of adversity.

Jenniffer Hoogstrate

Jennifer holds an MFA from Mills College in Dance Choreography. Her background includes formal study in anthropology, dance therapy, authentic movement, ropes course facilitator and life coaching. She is a life coach in training at the Coaches Institute of San Rafael. She is currently developing s coaching practice that explores life coaching through body wisdom. In addition, she is the founder of the Canyon Dance Theatre and has been dancing and performing in the Bay Area for the past two decades.

Tony Kramer

Tony joined the Stanford faculty in 1986 as a teacher of modern dance, jazz,composition, and improvisation. A composer as well as a dancer, he has created many original musical scores for dance. Tony has been a great supporter for our group and conducted several Contact/Improv workshop series for us since we started a year or so ago. Tony creates a safe and encouraging environment for beginners and an exciting playtime for dancers of all levels.

Jo Kreiter

Described by the New York Times as "a wonder of equilibrium," Jo Kreiter is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, aerialist, and the Artistic Director of Flyaway Productions. With a background in political science, she creates performances that infuse social and political urgencies into the dance arena. Kreiter's achievements include a long-term company membership in Joanna Haigood's ZACCHO Dance Theatre, three California Arts Council Artist-in-Communities Residency Awards, and a Grant Award from the San Francisco Arts Commission. Kreiter has taught classes and workshops highlighting her unique approach to inverted motion at, Duke, Sonoma State, Ohio State, and in the Improvisation Festivals/ NY, The Annual West Coast Contact Festival and Seattle's Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation. Articles written by Kreiter have been published in Contact Quarterly, In Dance and Window on the Works, an arts education manual published by Lincoln Center. She is one of a few women worldwide to have gained expertise in the art of Chinese pole acrobatics and was a 1999 Isadora Duncan Dance Award Nominee for her performance on steel poles.

Carolyn Stuart

"Attention and Allowing" by Carolyn Stuart. Do you want to know more? Here it is: "You can't not have your solo! The questions are: What are you doing with it? What else is there to do with it? How can you contact with a partner to expand the possibilities of your solo? What if Contact Improvisation were the sharing of one body to support and enhance the expression of both solos? Bring your self-consciousness (blindfolds provided)." Carolyn Stuart is a founding and perpetuating member of the TOUCHMONKEY process. TOUCHMONKEY began as a studio, a place to be in the dance. It evolved into TOUCHMONKEY, a group of 2 or more investigating, teaching and performing Contact Improvisation. From there it has become TOUCHMONKEY, a particular way of perceiving and practicing Contact Improvisation.

Scott Wells

Scott Wells has been doing contact for 17 years and teaches in the US and Europe. He is an award-winning choreographer and directs a company that is critically acclaimed for its "physical audacity" and "casual virtuosity" (SF Sentinel and SF Examiner). He teaches Contact/Improv as a common language of expression that is playful and fun. Scott is known to develop a sense of safety in his workshop and ease the participants into it. His workshops are ideal for beginners and very engaging for experienced dancers.

Mark Zemelman

Mark is a well-known contact instructor in New England. He is the Associate Director of the Wire Monkey Dance Company. His training includes Contact, Modern Dance, Yoga, Body Mind Centering, and Authentic Movement