Valerie Green Dance Entropy

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About Valerie Green/Dance Entropy

Dance Entropy founded in 1998, is a professional modern dance company that performs in NYC, tours and teaches both domestically and abroad. Dance Entropy abstracts the potential chaos of the body and creates order through expressive movement reflecting the world within which we live. The word “Entropy” refers to the tendency towards disorder in a social system and chaos in motion. Dance Entropy supports my vision as Artistic Director whereby I create stage and site-specific work. A significant part of my mission is to use creation, performance, and education in locations and communities where the content of the work will have the greatest impact. The community we engage shifts, depending on the specific project, and has included under-privileged youth, adolescents, those with chronic illnesses, immigrants, first generation ethnic groups, and aspiring/professional dancers.

The performances, workshops, and collaborative creations of Dance Entropy and Green Space, the company’s New York City and community home, maintain the following goals:

Create a platform for multicultural understanding through dance
Nurture connections between dance creation and education
Build community amongst dance artists in Queens
Build ties between artists, students, audience, and community supporters

Artistic Director Biography

Valerie Green became interested in dance as a child growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1998 she formed Valerie Green/Dance Entropy, adding a permanent home for the company in 2005 - GREEN SPACE- in Long Island City, Queens.

To date Ms. Green has created 21 dances and 6 evening length works. Her choreography has been presented at festivals and venues throughout New York City including La Mama, Performance Mix and Dance Now @ Joyce Soho, Movement Research at Judson Church, Draft Work at St. Mark's Church, Oasis at Chashama, Mulberry St. Theater’s New Steps, Dance Now @ Dance Theater Workshop, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, University Settlement, the 92nd St. Y, Hunter College, Context, The Flea, Cunningham Studio, Dixon Place, Hudson Guild Theater, LaGuardia Performing Art Center, Jamaica Performing Arts Center, Queens Theater in the Park, Queens Botanical Garden, St. Sava Cathedral and Green Space. Her work has also toured to various venues throughout the US and to less formal spaces such as parks and art galleries.

Valerie has worked extensively on the International circuit. Among the festivals where she taught and performed are: Chandigarh Institute of Performing Arts, India, Italy’s Meeting Anti-Razista, Trulo Arts Center, Ostuni, Le Regard du Cygne, Paris, The Avignon Fringe Festival, TEST! Theater Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, and Toronto, Canada’s Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. Her company, Dance Entropy, toured her evening- length show, Homeland-Inner Side throughout Serbia in 2001, which led to numerous teaching residencies with various cultural institutions in Belgrade. She has also performed at The National Theater in Mostar, Bosnia, The National Theater of Belgrade, Serbia, the World Dance Congress in Argos, Greece, and the Body Navigation Festival in St. Petersberg, Russia.

As a guest artist, Valerie has received commissions from Texas State University, BITEF Theater in Belgrade, Serbia, Theater Alternativa in Tirana, Albania, and LaGuardia Community College. She has been a guest artist at the University of Las Vegas, Texas State University, LaGuardia Community College, University of Nanterre, France, Florida Gulf Coast University, and at the Faculty of Drama & Art in Belgrade, Serbia and Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Valerie’s choreographic work and teaching style is influenced by her formative years working with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, her certification in Body/Mind Fitness and her undergraduate work at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dancer Biographies

	Amy Tennant Adams was born and raised in Kinnelon, NJ, where she began dancing at a young age and attended the Governor's School of the Arts for Dance. Amy graduated from Connecticut College with honors degrees in Dance and Human Development, where she was the recipient of the Connecticut College Dance Department Award and the Creative Dance Continuum Service Award. Amy has danced in the Beijing Cultural Arts Festival in China and performed her own work in Calcutta, India. In New York she has performed with Heidi Latsky, David Dorfman, Stefanie Nelson, Faith Pilger, Ellen Stokes Shadle, Erin Malley, Betsy Miller, Ani Javian, and is featured in a dance film by Diego Agull. Amy has worked with Regina Nejman and Company since 2006, with whom she toured twice to Brazil and performed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. She is the co-founder of the Propel-her Dance Collective, having presented her own choreography and produced three shows in NYC. Amy is Pilates mat certified and teaches dance and choreographs for children of all ages. Amy has been dancing with Valerie Green/ Dance Entropy since 2007.
	Joanie Johnson, originally from Pennsylvania, earned a BA in dance from Slippery Rock University and is a certified Health Coach through The Institute for Integrated Nutrition. She is a dancer, dance educator, certified pilates instructor and the founder of Motivated Nutrition. (http://www.motivatednutrition.net) She dances professionally with Valerie Green/Dance Entropy and H.T. Chen & Dancers. She is involved with the non-profit organization, House of the Roses, as a full time movement teacher, dancer, and member of the Artistic Advisory Committee. She teaches various dance, health and fitness workshops for adults and children throughout NYC.
	Kristin Licata hreceived her BFA from the Ailey School- Fordham University. After graduation, she danced with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company II, Felica Lesser Dance Theater, and Vox Luminere. She can be seen in the film Jaaneman and Newspeak's music video "sweet light crude". Currently, Kristin is freelancing with Covenant Ballet Theater, Matthew Westerby Company, Regina Nejman and Company, Vabang!. Kristin is also on the modern and ballet faculty at CBTB Academy and Fancy Feet. Kristin has worked with Dance Entropy since 2008.
	Jen Painter is originally from south Florida and holds a degree in theater from Florida State University. Since moving to New York in 2001, she has had the pleasure of working with artists such as Skip Costa, Te Perez, Jana Hicks, Marijka Eliasberg, and performing with companies such as Wobble and Seen Performance. Jen is also a choreographer whose work has been shown at the Boogie Down Dance Series at BAAD! (2009), as well as part of Queens Dance underGROUND at Queens theatre in the park (2009). She has debuted new work at the HATCH performance series, and at Green Space's Fertile Ground series. She has participated in an artist residency at the Art Mill in Jeffersonville, NY (2010), hosted by QUAAD. Jen is currently a certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis instructor, and is a faculty member at Steps on Broadway.
	Julia Sabangan was born and raised in New York City. She received her BA from Vassar College and has worked most recently with Jessica Gaynor Dance, Beth Soll, Lindy Schmedt, Susan Vencl, Jeanette Stoner, MELD Danceworks, Brittany Antle, Kimberly Portis, Janis Brenner, Susan Hefner, Mvt. 109, and Coastline Dance Company. Julia co-founded VaBang! Dance Company in 2007, a bi-coastal modern dance company born out of New York and San Francisco with her longtime friend Jessie Feller. When she is not dancing, Julia enjoys teaching pilates throughout NYC. She was thrilled to join Dance Entropy in 2011.
	Yayoi Suzuki a native of Tokyo, Japan, holds an MA in Dance and Dance Education from NYU. She has performed repertory of American modern dance masters such as Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, José Limón and Anna Sokolow. She has worked with choreographers such as Douglas Dunn, Renata Celichowska, Yuki Hasegawa, Janaki Patrik, Rae Ballard, and Alan Danielson. In summer 2010, Yayoi toured in Switzerland with Anne-Sophie Fenner's flowingdancecompany.
	Raleigh Veach holds a B.F.A. in dance & a minor in Anthropology from SUNY Purchase, as well as a certification in Pilates Mat & Reformer from Smart Workout and Megaformer training from Sebastien Lagree, and teaches various group classes and private sessions around NYC. In 2004 Raleigh toured Spain with Ballet Contemporaneo de Burgos under the direction of Kazuko Hirabayashi. She has had the honor of performing with Nina Winthrop, Yung-Li Chen, Sudden Enlightenment Theatre, Anabella Lenzu DanceDrama, Lane & Co., York Dance Works, Ashley Browne Kinetic Project, Roxanne Lola Movement Machine, & is currently the Associate Artistic Director of isadora NOW. Raleigh began her exhilarating journey with Valerie Green Dance Entropy in the 2011.
	Daniel Zapata was born and raised in south Texas and received a BA in Theatre Arts from Marquette University in Milwaukee WI. There, he minored in dance composition under the guidance of Roxanne Kess and Darci Brown Wutz. Danny moved to NYC to pursue a career in acting and soon rediscovered his love for dance and contemporary movement. He has worked with Jana Hicks and Marijke Eliasberg (The Next Stage Project), Carol Fonda and The Corpus Christi Ballet. Danny is ecstatic to be working with Dance Entropy’s fierce ladies.
	Photos: Sharon Harsa, Yi-Chun Wu, Todd Burnsed