ARTISTS

Diane Coburn Bruning
Artistic Director, Choreographer
Diane was recently awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in choreography (her second) and was named by Dance Magazine as one of “25 to Watch in 2003.” She has worked with Atlanta Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Boston Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Joffrey II, Nashville Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Daghdha Dance, Juilliard Dance Ensemble, Pittsburgh and Glimmerglass Operas among others. She has received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, Sundance Film Institute, Meet the Composer, Harkness Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts, Heathcote Foundation, McKnight Foundation among others. Diane serves on grants panels, leads choreographic workshops, and has served as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute and New York City Ballet. She is a graduate of Butler University’s Jordan College of Fine Arts, from which she received their 2003 Alumni Achievement Award, and New York University’s Gallatin Division. She attended Yale University as a special fellow studying with renowned stage designers Jennifer Tipton in lighting and Ming Cho Lee in scenery, Diane designs lights for some of her ballets. Diane is a founding member of CDP.

(photo credit: Don Hamerman)

Christopher Collins Lee
Principal Musician, Violinist
Christopher holds B.F.A. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School, a Doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook, and five honorary doctorates from foreign institutions. He holds the State Department title of Official Musical Ambassador of the United States and has toured the world many times under its auspices. Chris has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright. He has performed as soloist with Leopold Stokowski and Arthur Fiedler among other conductors, and has recorded for the CBS, RCA, Desto, Everest, Arista, Delos and Quattro Corde labels. He plays a violin made in Cremona, Italy by Francesco Ruggieri in 1680, which once belonged to Leopold Mozart. His recording of Grieg’s complete works for piano and violin was released this spring. He plays lead violin on Linda Ronstadt’s and Stevie Wonder’s albums. Chris is a founding member of CDP.

Wally Cardona
Guest Choreographer
Wally, recipient of a 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in choreography, has been recognized nationally and internationally for creating vast yet intimate landscape works that use the performance setting itself as an integral partner in making a movement language unique to each piece of choreography. Brought up in California and New Mexico, he was a competitive gymnast and clarinetist before moving to New York City at age 21 to study dance at The Juilliard School. Cardona’s first work, SOLO ALONE/ADD ONE, was presented at the Festival de Danse de Cannes in 1992. In 1995, MADE IN VOYAGE was commissioned by Danspace Project in New York City and a solo-version was performed in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Chile, Argentina, Korea and France. In 1997, Wally Cardona Quartet (WC4) was founded and, in 1998, debuted at The Joyce Theater’s Altogether Different festival. Since then, Cardona’s work for WC4 has been commissioned by several venues throughout the U.S. including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Helena Presents/Myrna Loy Center, Sushi Performance, Danspace Project, and Dance Theater Workshop. In 2006, he was commissioned to create new works for Ricochet Dance Productions, London; Paradigm, New York City; University of Kansas; University of Texas PA; and Chamber Dance Project. A performer with the Ralph Lemon Company from 1987-95, Cardona has also appeared in Hervé Robbe’s V.O. U.S., Jochen Ulrich’s GET UP EARLY, and Deborah Hay’s THE MATCH. He is a member of Danspace Project’s Artists Advisory Board and resides in Brooklyn, NY. This is his first work for CDP.

Jennifer Chicheportiche
Dancer
Jennifer was born in Bordeaux, France. She trained at the Academie Besso Ballet de Toulouse and completed her studies in Paris. At the age of 19, she joined the Jeune Ballet International de Rosella Hightower in Cannes before becoming a member of Balletto Teatro Di Torino for two years. While in the Italian company, she toured Europe and performed at the International Ballet Festival of Miami. In 2004, she moved to Scotland to dance with The Ensemblegroup where she performed contemporary works by international choreographers. Jennifer continued her career in the UK with Opera North, doing the national tour of "One Touch Of Venus". Having just moved to New York, this is her first season with Chamber Dance Project.

Laura Feig
Dancer
This is her first season with Chamber Dance Project.

Christopher M. Lynch, Instilled Images
Resident Photographer
Christopher was a junior in high school when first overtaken by the desire to create images that linger in the mind. He has been shooting advertising, fashion and music in New York since 1998, having been brought to the city by Young & Rubicam to create their first digital studio working with clients such as AT&T, Citibank, the Bronx Zoo, and Sony. He struck out on his own in 2001 and has worked with clients as Inter-Continental Hotels, A&E Biography, Women Who Rock Magazine and Helen Wang. His collaboration with Diane and CDP began in the Summer of 2005. www.instilledimages.com

Melissa Morrissey
Dancer
Melissa was born in Concord, NH and trained on scholarship at Boston Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and graduated from the National Ballet School in Toronto. She danced with the National Ballet of Canada for four years and with Dance Theatre of Harlem from 2000-2004. She has also performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Dances Patrelle, Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY, Ajkun Ballet Theatre, Sensedance, Lorraine Graves and Friends, C. Eule Dance, Configuration, Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, BalletMet and as a guest artist in the Balanchine/Ashton Gala with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. This is her second season with Chamber Dance Project.

Eduardo Patino
Photographer
Eduardo has been a professional photographer for over two decades, serving an international clientele spanning the world of the performing arts to the corporate arena. With a unique background as a football player turned theater director and professional dancer, Eduardo brings to his work a passion for his art and an extraordinary understanding of the human figure, whether for corporate portraiture, advertising, or promotional photography for dance and theater. His understanding of the athleticism and artistic sensibilities of dance come from his former career as a dancer, when he appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, the New Jersey Ballet, and numerous other regional ballet companies. A career-ending injury redirected him to his earliest pursuit - photography. www.epatinophoto.com

Philip Payton
Violin
Philip received a B.M. from the University of Michigan and a M.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He attended the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and the National Youth Orkest in the Netherlands as one of the first Americans to participate. Philip served as a concertmaster and principal second violinist in the New World Symphony in Miami Beach playing under conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas. He taught through the New World Symphony Outreach Program, and the New World School of the Arts. He currently teaches at the Bloomingdale House of Music on the Upper West Side, and in the Opus 118 program in East Harlem. He is a member of Ensemble Sepia and the Argento Chamber Music Ensemble. This is Philip's fourth season with CDP.

Juan Carlos Peñuela
Dancer
A native of Cali, Colombia, Juan began dancing at the age of 12, and has danced with Incolballet and Ballet de Cali. From 1993 through 1998, Mr. Peñuela danced with Ballet Arizona in Phoenix and Dance Theater of Harlem. From 1998-2004 he danced with The Pennsylvania Ballet, where he received critical praise for dancing the role of The Moor in Josè Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane. In September 2001 and 2002, Mr. Peñuela was selected to represent his native Colombia by performing in the Festival Internacional de Ballet de Miami. During 2005, Mr. Peñuela has worked with Miami’s Maximum Dance Ballet Gamonet. This is his second season with Chamber Dance Project.

Matthew Prescott
Dancer, Choreographer
Matthew was born in Idaho. He received his initial ballet training at Interlochen Arts Academy in northern Michigan and went on to train for a year at the Joffrey/New School University before accepting a contract with the Joffrey Ballet. After leaving the Joffrey, Matthew danced with Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Ballet NY, Dances Patrelle and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. This is his first season with CDP.

Victor Quijada
Guest Choreographer
Victor was breakdancing when he was eight years old. He began his formal training at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and performed with mentor Rudy Perez' Performance Ensemble in Los Angeles, Twyla Tharp Dance in New York, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal. As Artistic Director of Rubberbandance Group, he has created works for stage, film, various companies, and received the UK's Peter Darrell Choreographic Award in 2003. Victor was a founding member of CDP.

Abbey Roesner
Dancer
Abbey was born in Baltimore Maryland where she began her classical training at the Baltimore School for the Arts. She continued her dance education at the Juilliard School, and graduated with her BFA in May 2006. Abbey has performed repertoire with the Juilliard Dance Ensemble in New York, Chicago and LA; including works by William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Eliot Feld, Ronald K. Brown, and Adam Hougland. This fall, Abbey will be dancing in La Gioconda with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. This is her first season with CDP.

Lisa Tachick
Rehearsal Director
Lisa graduated with a B.F.A. from Marymount Manhattan College. She has since performed with Berkshire Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, Dances Patrelle, Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas and Dance Galaxy. Lisa is a founding member of CDP.

Hiroko Taguchi
Violin
Hiroko, aka Coco, has performed on stage in her native Sapporo since the age of four. She received her training at The Juilliard School and has performed in concert and solo at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. She has performed on Broadway in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and recently in the musical Wicked. Coco can be heard on Sheryl Crow’s C’mon, C’mon and Lou Reed’s The Raven. She has toured with The Speak Easy String Quartet at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival in New York City, the New Zealand Jazz Festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She has appeared with rockers Trans-Siberian Orchestra on NBC’s Today show and can be seen in the band’s video, The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, on MTV. With rock band Scrumptious, Coco has performed at Joe’s Pub and Fez, and Maxwell’s in Hoboken. She has performed with the Barry White Orchestra as well as the Dave Brubeck Orchestra and played with Rod Stewart at the Grammy Awards. Coco recently toured with The Dixie Chicks and is featured on their Top of the World Live double album. This is her first season with CDP.

Andrey Tchekmazov
Cello
Andre has been hailed by critics as an "extraordinary musician" (Washington Post). He is the Grand Prize winner of the Vittorio Gui International Chamber Music Competition in Florence and Trio de Trieste, Italy, He has performed extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Russia and Asia appearing at the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Osaka Symphony Hall in Japan, New York's Alice Tully Hall and Brazil's Sala Cecilia Mereles with orchestras such as Sao Paolo Symphony, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic and Teatro Alfa Symphony. Among his other prizes and awards are the Koussevitzky Cello Competition in New York, Stadt, Artist International, Premio Della Critica in Triest, and Russian National Competition in Moscow. Ever since his critically acclaimed debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Andre had been enjoying the active career of a recitalist and Chamber Musician, performing at such renowned venues as Barge Music, Rhode Island Chamber Music Series, Bar Harbor Festival, Merkin Hall in New York City and Hampden Sydney, where he was invited to perform by the members of Emerson Quartet. Mr. Thekmazov is a regular performer with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and Philips Collection in Washington, DC. He studied at Moscow State Conservatory and the Juilliard School with Nataliya Shakhovskaya and Harvey Shapiro. This is Andre's first season with CDP.

Ramon Thielen
Dancer
Mr. Thielen was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. He began his ballet studies at the Casa de la Cultura and continued in the Gustavo Franklin Ballet School in Caracas. He joined the Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas and later the Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas under the artistic dirention of Zhandra Rodriguez, where he was promoted to Principal dancer in 1991. In 1991 Mr. Thielen joined the Cleveland San Jose Ballet and received outstanding reviews for such roles as Apollo in Balanchine’s Apollo , and Raymond in the Dennis Nahat’s movie "Blue Suede Shoes". In 1998 he was invited to join Dance Theater of Harlem and was promoted to Principal dancer in 1999, becoming the first Hispanic man to become a principal dancer with that company. He has been featured in many principal roles in both the classical and contemporary repertoire including The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Le Corsair Pas de Deux, Don Quixote Pas de Deux , Carmina Burana, Mysteries and Raptures, Manifestation, The Sphinx, Ecuas, Passion of The Blood, The San Luis Woman, The Four Temperaments, Serenade, and Concerto Barroco. As a national and international guest artist he work with the Broadway show “A Good Few Men Dancing” in New York City, and los Gigantes de la Danza” in Mexico, Ballet Rox, Victoria ballet Theater, and SENSEDANCE. He has also toured and performed in Venezuela, Colombia, Curacao, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Australia, Russia, and China. This is his second season with Chamber Dance Project.

Artists updated 3/15/07
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