dance @ barking legs

Ann Law

Ann Law is a professional dancer, choreographer, dance educator and arts activist. She has been dancing since the age of three, beginning her dance studies in Southern California. As a young dancer, she moved to San Francisco, receiving her BA in Dance from Mills College, where she performed professionally with a modern dance company, choreographed many independent solos, and studied with a broad range of dancers and dance educators. Her first dance education opportunity took her to Miami, Florida where she taught modern dance for Dance Miami (a modern dance company) and started a small alternative dance space, Mary Street Dance Theatre in Coconut Grove. Moving from there to Philadelphia, she continued to study with dancers and dance educators at Temple University and other private dance studios. Following Philadelphia, she spent six years dancing and performing in New York City where she immersed herself in the training, performing and viewing of dance. She performed in many different venues from outdoor performances in Brooklyn to the DIA Art Foundation in New York City. In 1988, after seeing a performance by Dana Reitz (now director of the dance program at Bennington College), she began to investigate improvisational dance. Since then, she has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for her work as an improvisational performer.

Eventually, she and her husband moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she has continued to teach and perform in various cities and countries. In 1993, she founded the Barking Legs Theater, a professional dance performance and studio space whose mission is to support the work of artists living in the southeast and beyond. Barking Legs Theater wraps itself in the fabric of what makes Chattanooga unique, and continue to push artistic boundaries. In 2001, she became certified in Pilates from Romana Kryzanowska (New York City), who was chosen by Joseph Pilates to carry on his work. She has also spent many years studying Kinetic Awareness from founder and master teacher Elaine Summers. Both these movement systems support her growth as a teacher.

As a dance educator, she has developed many dance curriculums, and recently completed her MA in Dance Education from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2002, she began to develop and implement a progressive dance curriculum at Chattanooga School for Arts and Science for their kindergarten students. Since then, the program has expanded and grades K-4th grade have received a brain-based conceptual learning dance curriculum. Through her studies at UNCG and with leading dance educator Anne Green Gilbert (Seattle, Washington), her dance teachings continue to develop and grow, transforming students into critical thinkers capable of social change.
Committed to connecting individuals inside dance, education, and community, Ann has had a strong dance influence in her community. Her goal at Chattanooga State is to create a Dance Program for students which can address the dancer as performer, choreographer, educator and community activist. She believes that this progressive dance curriculum at Chattanooga State will make dance a leading component of art education in the 21st century. Her teachings are designed to transform students into critical thinkers capable of social change, connecting students inside dance, information and community.

She has been honored with the Tennessee Association of Dance Outstanding Dance Educator Award in 2004, the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Dance in 2001 and Professional Artist Development Award in 2002. She has served on many dance panels in the states of Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama. Currently, she is performing Passion Flower, an original, evening-length dance that synthesizes her kinesthetic and holistic experience with breast cancer. She is also a very active board member for the Tennessee Association of Dance.

Ann Law's Passion Flower Project:
www.passionflowerproject.com

Ann Law's Dance Program at Chattanooga State:
Chattanooga State Dance New Dance Program

Lauryn Peterson, RYT  Bellydance Workout

Lauryn is a registered and certified yoga teacher at the 230 hour with a special certification in prenatal and postnatal yoga. Lauryn is certified by Bellydance Superstar Ansuya Rathor in Cabaribalusion technique.  Lauryn has studied various interpretations of Near Eastern Dance with long-standing masters in the field: Morocco, John Compton, Dalia Carella, and Artemis Mourat. Lauryn has also studied with members of the Bellydance Superstars Company Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes, Moria Chappell, and Ansuya Rathor. In 2009, Lauryn completed a weeklong performance seminar with internationally renowned Mira Betz and a pedagogy institute with lifelong dancer Donna Mejia, who is artist in residence at Smith College. Lauryn has studied with myriad instructors in what we typically call "bellydance" and has branched out within the last two years to study modern dance (Ann Law, Monica Coates, Margi Cole), aerial dance (Amy Powell), jazz/hip hop (Cornelius Heard, Lindsay Fussell), and ballet (Amanda Walker Gray).  Lauryn is indebted to the Chattanooga State Dance Program and Ann Law for helping her develop her creative process.  Lauryn began teaching bellydance in 2006 at Zanzibar Studio and became a full Zanzibar instructor in 2008, where she continues to teach weekly technique classes. Lauryn taught Continuing Education at Dalton State College in 2009 and has offered dance workshops to Baylor School, Mercer University, Montessori School, Grace Arts Camp, Yoga East, and Girls Incorporated of Chattanooga, among others.  Lauryn is a founding member of creative collective Mirabai Bellydance, who offers the annual Fringe Benefit concert.  In addition to performing as a solo artist, Lauryn has performed with Dandasha Dance Company, Tribe Zanzibar, Bard College Bellydance Collective, and comedic duo "Lala" with Amberetta. 

Monica Alicia Ellison, Modern Dance

Monica Alicia Ellison was born and raised in Baltimore, MD.  She began her formal dance training in middle school at the Baltimore School for the Arts and continued training extensively in ballet and modern as a high school student.  She earned a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.  She later became a member of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2 in Dayton, Ohio.  After a season with DCDC2, she moved to New York and became a member of Balance Dance Theatre of Brooklyn, NY under the direction of Obediah Wright.  Her first project with the company was as an ensemble dancer in the independent film Lifted.  Monica quickly gained principal dancer status with Balance performing at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center Out of Doors, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.  In addition to her work with Balance, Monica danced the lead in the Earth and Me with Shadowbox Theatre of New York.  She was a guest dancer with Sudden Enlightenment Theatre of Queens, New York participating in the 10th anniversary season at Symphony Space and was also chosen to travel to Seoul, Korea to perform in the Korean Performing Arts festival as apart of the Nam June Paik exhibition.  Monica enjoyed her musical theater debut as an ensemble member of the off Broadway production of CONTACT at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA in June of 2008 with direction by Tome Cousin and original choreography by Susan Stroman.  After relocating to Chattanooga, TN, she has performed with Contrapasso Modern Dance and currently co choreographs and performs with fellow dance teacher and performer Cornelius L. Heard.  In addition to performing, Monica teaches Modern Dance at Chattanooga State.  She also teaches ballet at Cleveland City Ballet and serves as it resident ballet choreographer.

Angela Sweet

Angela Youells Sweet began her dance training studying
ballet, tap, and jazz in Clinton Twp, Michigan, where she
was a member of The Macomb Ballet Company. She
went on to study modern dance at the Interlochen Arts
Camp, and then earned her BFA in choreography and
performance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
She was a member of the Peter Sparling Dance Company
for 2 years before moving to Chattanooga to start Niedlov’s
Breadworks with her husband John. A brief hiatus from all
things dance ensued, but now she’s back, choreographing
for local contemporary dancers, and getting her feet wet in
Chattanooga’s musical theater community with the ETC’s
production of “The Threepenny Opera” in February 2011,
and “By Jupiter” with actor/director Doug May.

Mary Sartain began formal dance training at the age of 10 studying jazz, tap, ballet, and gymnastics at the Academy of Performing Arts, Chattanooga Ballet, and Iron Horse Academy. At age 16, she began sharing her love of dance and gymnastics by starting her own business teaching children in Jasper, TN. She received a BA in Theatre with a minor in dance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and opened her own dance studio in 1992 where she taught students from ages 3 to adults. At this time, Mary also began acting, choreographing, and directing in local community and professional theatre and received awards for Best Director at the Backstage Dinner Theater and Best Supporting Actress at the Chattanooga Little Theater.  She also began training at the Dance Theatre Workshop where she met Ann Law and was introduced to modern and improvisational dance. This proved to be the missing link in her dance training and her teaching methods and choreography became more creative and the artist in her began to bloom. She has been seen in several Barking Legs productions, most notably for her trapeze work in Red and Pierrot Lunaire at UTC. Unfortunately, while performing a pratfall in a farce, Mary herniated a disc in her back giving her no choice but surgery and spinal fusion of the two vertebrae.  After surgery, she worked as a preschool art, music, and dance teacher at The Learning Center in Jasper while rehabilitating her back by taking Pilates classes with Ann Law, Colleen Carboni, and Kim Butters. She received her mat certification from Power Pilates in 2007.  In 2010, Mary realized that she hadn’t had a satisfying artistic outlet in years, so she began taking dance and visual art classes at Chattanooga State with a concentration in painting.  She will receive her associate degree in fine arts this semester at CSTCC and currently has three paintings showing at the Ned McWherter Cultural Arts Center in Jackson, TN. She is now continuing to search for ways to let the artist in her grow by merging her pursuits of dance and visual art.