Sasha Soreff - Creative Director
Sasha first performed in “Feeding the Ducks” as a 5 year old in Portland, Maine. Her first choreographic efforts involved wearing a purple leotard and tights and dancing to new age music at the Maine Festival when she was in 6th grade. Since then, Sasha’s choreography has been seen at venues throughout New York and New England, most recently at Dixon Place in Manhattan and Soundance in Brooklyn with “the Shoelace Project.” Her company has had two seasons at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, in June 2009, with the premiere of “The Other Shoe” and its predecessor, “The Dancer Who Wore Sneakers and Other Tales,” in December 2005. Sasha’s choreography has also been featured on WNET’s MetroArts television station as well as venues throughout New York and New England, including the American Living Room Series at HERE and at the Off-Broadway, ArcLight Theatre, where she set the choreography for “Tartuffe” for the Gad’s Hill Theater Company. In 2004, the company was commissioned to bring an evening of five original pieces to Portland, Maine's Casco Bay Movers Theater.
Sasha's work has also been presented at Long Island University, the 92nd Street Y, P.S. 122, White Wave (John Ryan Theater), Dance Space Center, One Arm Red, Portland Dances! Chester College and at the Cunningham Studio Theater. Sasha was honored to dance with Isabel Gotzkowsky and Friends from 1998-2004. She has also performed in works by Sean Curran, Laurie DeVito, Rachel Thorne Germond, Stephen Koplowitz, Holly Twining/Delicious Biscuit and Kevin Wynn. She is a faculty member of Dance New Amsterdam, where she teaches modern dance. A Maine native, Sasha graduated from high school at North Carolina School of the Arts and received a BA from Barnard College.
Masanori Asahara - performer
Masanori Asahara, a native of Japan, has been living and dancing in New York since 2004. He studied at Dance New Amsterdam. He has performed with Butoh Rockettes, Company SoGoNo, Erin Dudley, Duhon Dance, Isabel Gotzkowsky & Friends Dance Company, Janis Brenner & Dancers, Ko-Ryo Dance Theater, Vissi Dance Theater and Wendy Osserman Dance Company.
Desira Barnes - performer
Desira Barnes began her dance training in San Jose California. She recieved her B.A in dance from San Jose State University; under the directon of Gary Masters and Fred Matthews. She recently moved to N.Y this past February and has danced for Faye Driscoll, Dajhia Ingram Dance, and this will be her first season with Sasha Soreff Dance Theater.
Sarah Fried - performer
Sarah Fried thrives on dancing, writing, good conversation, and baking. A recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago, she has studied dance across and throughout the country, literally, from Maine to San Diego. She has performed works by Twyla Tharp, Doris Humphrey, Ryan McNally, Kim Portis, Erica Wilson-Perkins, and Adrienne Hawkins. Originally from Yarmouth, Maine and now having lived throughout the country, Sarah is (presumably) settling here in New York. Here she is adding on to her dance degree with a license in Massage Therapy because she believes that touch, dance, and cookies can heal the world.
Akiko Furukawa - performer
Akiko Furukawa was born in Kyoto,Japan. Her choreography has been presented in New York at St. Mark's church by DanSpace Project, Aaron Davis Hall, Japan Society, the Evolving Arts Theatre,Merce Cuningham Theater, One Arm Red, CRS Theater and The Play Room in the Fringe festival where she and her partners received “the Fringest show” award for their piece. Her work “Black Crow” has been commissioned by Aaron Davis Hall's fund for new work supported by the Jerome Foundation and Phillip Morris Companies, Inc. As a performer, she has worked with various choreographers in NY, and now, she is working with Erica Essner Performance Co-Op, and Jenni Hong Dance.
Isabel Gotkzowsky - performer
Born and raised in Germany, Isabel came to New York City in 1988. She has worked with a variety of artists in the New York area and has guest-performed with Jennifer Muller/The Works in New York as well as during a seven-city tour through China in 2000. Isabel founded Isabel Gotzkowsky and Friends in 1998 and has presented six evening-length New York seasons as well as performing her work in California, Massachusetts and New Jersey and, internationally, in Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, Canada, Kenya, and Mexico. Isabel has taught throughout Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and Canada and serves on the faculties of Dance Space Center and at Dance Loft in Rorschach, Switzerland. She was awarded a company residency at The Yard in Chilmark, MA, in 2001 and, in 2004, an Artward Bound Artist Residency at The White Oak Plantation in Florida. Additionally, Isabel was invited to be one of 33 renowned international choreographers chosen to create a short solo for "Mayim – Mayim: Miniatures of Remembrance" in Fuerth, Germany, November and December, 2007.
Joshua Holden - performer
Joshua Holden is an actor, storyteller, dancer, singer, puppeteer, & a teacher. He has been living in NYC for the past four months where he has fallen deeply in love with someone, moved twice, been fired from two day jobs, and has lived for weeks at a time on pizza & free samples from Tasty D-Lite. Before he adventured to the big apple, he was living a very stable life in Chicago working as a professional actor where he lived in the same three bedroom apartment for eight years with a landlord who made him dinner on occasion and did his laundry for him... all for $300 a month. He worked with The House Theatre of Chicago, The Chicago Children's Theatre, American Theatre Company, The Moving Dock, & Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Joshua uses his dance training to feed his work as a physically dynamic actor and is passionate about creating characters that involve the use of dance as a means for storytelling. This Massachusetts native has a BFA in Theatre from The Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University & is a proud alumni of Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
Alaine Handa - performer
Alaine Handa is a global nomad with a B.A. in World Arts & Cultures w/ a concentration in Dance from UCLA in 2005. She is the artistic director of A.H. Dance Company and has worked with The Movement Collective, Yvonne Rainer, Stephanie Liapis, Keigwin + Company, Mandala Danceworks, Open Floor Dance, Space + Movement Exchange, and Sasha Soreff Dance Theater, among others. Her own work has been shown at Electric Lodge (Venice, CA), University Settlement, Teatro la Tea, Merce Cunningham Studio Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research, Dance Forum, Abrons Arts Center, among others. For more information about Alaine please visit www.alainehanda.com
Anna-Louise Herzog - performer
Anna-Louise Herzog was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She received her BA Dance from the Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne, Australia in May 2009. During her time there she worked with choreographers Phillip Adams (Balletlab), Rebecca Hilton, Neil Adams and Anna Smith. While at college Anna-Louise did internships with TasDance, Lucy Guerin Inc and Australia Dance Theater. Anna-Louise is currently working on projects with SSDT and choreographer Malcolm Low.
Nhan Ho - Performer
Nhan Ho is a 2008 graduate of the Dance Program at San Jose State University in California, where he was “Outstanding Graduating Senior.” Under the guidance of Kellye Dodd and direction of Gary Masters, he had the opportunity to perform José Limón’s masterwork, The Unsung, as part of the Around the World Festival at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theatre in CA in 2002. Nhan has been a scholarship recipient at the Limón Summer Dance Workshop and sjDANCEco’s Modern with the Masters. At SJSU Nhan was the recipient of the Legacy Scholarship (in honor of José Limón), the Mina Garman Award for Excellence in Choreography, and the Carol Ann Haws Award for Excellence in Performance. Professionally, Nhan has performed with Facing East Music & Dance of Berkeley, Margaret Wingrove Dance Company of San José, Push Dance Company of San Francisco, and sjDANCEco of San José in California. And most recently, he has worked with Bodyart, I-Danse, and Sasha Soreff Dance Theater in New York.
Megan Krauszer - performer
Megan Krauszer received her early dance training at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and went on to attend The Boston Conservatory on scholarship, earning a BFA in Dance Performance in 2006. Megan has danced professionally with choreographers Mark Morris, Seán Curran, Daniel Pelzig and Laura Scozzi at The Metropolitan Opera and Santa Fe Opera, with Murray Louis at the ADF Scripps Ceremony, and with Ellen Cornfield, BODYART, Prometheus Dance, tompricedance, Noel Macduffie and The Free Radical Collective. Megan has been a member of Sasha Soreff Dance Theater
since 2008.
Jerly Marquez - performer
Jerly Marquez is a native of Venezuela who began her dance studies at age 6 with Russian Ballerina Nina Nikanorova. At the age of 16, she moved to New York City where she continued her dance career and completed a B.B.A in Advertising. She now splits her time and heart between a business career and dancing. Her repertoire includes Giselle, Carmen, and El Bolero de Ravel, among other works. Jerly has performed in the Ace Awards, Aa Ab Laut Chalen motion picture, various videos for Japan MTV and in works by Antolino Alvarez, Diane McCarthy, Akiko Tomikawa, Irene Ruiz-Riveros BLISS dance-theatre company and Sasha Soreff Dance Theater. Currently, Jerly is studying Simonson Technique at Dance New Amsterdam.
Pam Wagner - performer
Pam Wagner is interested in using the arts to explore universal human experience. To this end, she has worked in experimental arts with Swimming with Her, film artist Victor Faccinto and Felix Ivanov's Wheel Theatre Company. She has also received several grants for her own choreography, which has been performed in North Carolina, Berlin, London, and across Southern England. While living in England, Pam performed with Alban Elved, the Bath Dancers Co-op and Rich and Famous Dance Company. In New York City, she has worked with Troika Ranch Dance Company, macduffie performance and the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company. In the fall of 2004 she was an understudy for the Limon Dance Company.
Jon Zimmerman - performer
Jon Zimmerman studied acting for two years at Virginia Tech, and then transferred to James Madison University, where he obtained a BS in Dance in 1994. Since moving to New York City in August of 1997, Jon has performed with Aviva Geismar, Randy James, and Guido Tuveri. Currently he may be seen performing with The Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Isabel Gotzkowsky and Friends, fiona marcotty/beat upon beat, and Sasha Soreff Dance Theater. He participated in The Yard's Bessie Schonberg Choreographers and Dancers Residency on Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, where he worked with B.J. Sullivan and Chung-Fu Chang. Jon’s choreography has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop's “Fresh Tracks” Dance Now Downtown, New Dance Group Arts Center, The Evolving Arts Theatre, Dixon Place, Saint Michael's Church, and most recently at the Williamburgh Arts neXus. Jon teaches Pilates on Manhattan Upper West Side and one day hopes to be able to hurl himself at the ground...and miss...
Chris Becker - Composer
Composer Chris Becker lives and works in New York City composing, arranging, and recording music for a wide variety of solo and collaborative projects including music for dance, mixed-media installations, and film. He studied composition at Capital University with Dr. Rocky J. Reuter (Assistant Dean, Conservatory of Music) and Stan Smith. Becker’s music has been featured on WNYC’s New Sounds (hosted by John Schaffer) and Overnight Music (hosted by Helga Davis). He has received grants from The Louisiana Division of the Arts, Meet The Composer, The American Music Center and The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP).
He is a longtime composer for choreographer/director Rachel Cohen. Their most recent collaboration Like Dirt (2008) premiered in Long Island City, New York at The Secret Theatre and included work by clay artist Patty Rosenblatt. Becker composed sixteen individual compositions for Cohen’s evening length work If the Shoe Fits (2005). New York Times dance critic John Rockwell called this work "…lavish and fully realized…" and included If the Shoe Fits in his end of the year list of the best dance performances of 2005. If The Shoe Fits went on to be performed at the Winter Garden in New York’s World Financial Center. Cohen and Becker’s ongoing collaborative work Thrown has shown at Harvard University and SUNY Purchase College, as well as other venues in New York City.
Becker’s collaborative work with visual artists includes his CD composition 200 Birds (1999) which served as a continuous sound accompaniment for New Orleans artist Jacqueline Bishop’s mixed-media installation Terra. From 1999 through 2008, Terra with 200 Birds as its soundtrack showed in several galleries and museums across the U.S.
In March 2007, in a concert realized in part through Meet The Composers’ Creative Connections program, the trio of Becker (laptop), Lewis ‘Flip’ Barnes (trumpet), and Lynn Wright (electric guitar) performed works with Rachel Cohen’s Racoco Productions and poet Sharrif Simmons. Subsequent performances by the trio included collaborations with several filmmakers in concerts of improvised music for contemporary silent films. In October 2007, the trio premiered Becker’s Caribbean inspired Shh…anty Town Suite.
Becker’s CD Saints & Devils (2006) is a suite of 10 tracks inspired by songs, stories and icons of the Deep South. Composed, recorded, and mixed by Becker over a five year period and mastered less than two weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Saints & Devils includes performances by musicians from New York City and New Orleans including guitarist Eyal Maoz, Reverend Vince Anderson and trumpeter and Dr. John’s long time music director Charlie Miller. Saints & Devils also utilizes samples from recordings made by Alan Lomax as an integral part of the overall mix.
Dawn Marcoccia - Costume Designer
Dawn Marcoccia (Costume Designer) designs have been seen in plays, musicals, off Broadway and off Broadway tours. She has assistant designed with costume designers Bruce Harrow, Laura Crow, Toni Leslie James and William Ivey Long. In addition, Dawn spent many years at the Public Theatre constructing costumes for numerous shows such as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with Kathleen Turner, “On the Town” and “Bring in Da Noise Bring in Da Funk,” and was the associate designer for the national tour of “Swing.” Dawn has a Masters Degree from New York University in Costume History.
Carrie Wood - Lighting Designer
Carrie Wood (Lighting Designer): Is so excited to be joining Sasha Soreff again to tie the other shoe. Select design credits include: Dover Beach: Sarah Michelson (The Kitchen), Sonya and Layla go Camping (The Kitchen), Daniel Charon: Conduit (Joyce Soho), Helen Simoneau (Joyce Soho), VIA Dance: Lullaby in Surrealism (Ailey Citigroup Theatre), A Dream Play (St Ann’s Warehouse), Ivy Baldwin: Could be nice (La Mama), The Boy in the Bathroom (45th street Theatre), Ivy Baldwin: Its only Me (Dance New Amsterdam), The Siege of Corinth (Baltimore Opera), New York is Here! (Sitelines NYC), The Money Show (Dance New Amsterdam), Wonder of the World (The Lion Theatre), The Geranium on the Window Sill just Died (Urban Stages), Stones in his Pockets (Penguin Rep), Snake in Fridge (14th Street Y), Erica Essner: Malestrom (Joyce Soho), Dr. Faustus and the 7 Deadly Sins (Chocolate Factory), Hamlet (Underground Opera), Beyond the Horizon, Burning the Old Man (Center Stage), Naked (Gene Frankel Theatre), The Substance of John (Center Stage). Carrie has been the assistant lighting designer on various shows including: West Side Story (Palace), Cry-Baby (Marriot Marquis), Wicked (Pantages Theatre, LA), The Threepenny Opera (Studio 54). Carrie is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts.