Hana van der Kolk (Project Director) is a dancer, choreographer, writer, and facilitator of movement experiences. Her choreographic projects combine elements of conceptual practice with the techniques of postmodern choreography and take place in a wide range of sites, including the stage, studios and galleries, in writing, on film, and in outdoor, public spaces. Hana brings to Genesis her experience with daily investigation as a body-based artist as well as her commitments to building community and considering her work as an artist in a wider social context. She is highly influenced by her long-time engagement with the work of legendary post-modern choreographer Deborah Hay, whose work she has been learning and adapting since 2000. Hay’s methods for rigorous daily practice deeply shape Hana’s work as an artist and inspire her as a teacher and director of Genesis Project. Her various adaptations of Hay’s The Ridge and Boom, Boom, Boom have been performed/screened throughout the country. Hana has collaborated with Jesse Aron Green, Robby Herbst, Emily Mast, Carolina San Juan, Adam Overton, Cassia Streb, and many others. She maintains a vibrant private yoga teaching practice in Los Angeles and has taught dance/performance at UCLA, Fritz Haeg’s Sundown Schoolhouse, Earthdance, Movement Research, Skidmore College, The National Dance Museum in upstate New York, and at several public and private high schools. Hana completed an MFA in choreography in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures.
Advisory Board
Adam Overton, Carol McDowell, Alison O’Daniel, and Cheryl Banks-Smith
Made up of a diverse array of Los Angeles-based artists, the advisory board aids the project director in the design and implementation of Genesis. The members of the board, coming from a range of artistic backgrounds, offer feedback on the nature of the project and insight into their needs as practicing inter-disciplinary artists. The group also serves as a network for attracting a diverse pool of applicants to the residency, assists the project director as the screening committee for applications, and contributes to finding sources of support in the city of Los Angeles. At the start of each Genesis Project the advisory board meets the resident artists and makes themselves available to participants throughout the month for practice session visits, which may include feedback, dialogue, and potential collaboration.
Arturo Vidich (Associate Director Genesis, Los Angeles/Project Director Genesis, Philadelphia) is an inter-disciplinary artist from New York City. His approach to experimental performance uses technology and movement to identify and reflect upon the way we process information through the senses. He is interested in treating the performer’s body and sculptural materials as interchangeable objects, and in the possibilities that emerge out of resistance and limitation. Arturo likes doing projects that demand learning new skills.
In 2007, Arturo started an art organization called Culture Push, with Clarinda Mac Low and Aki Sasamoto. The mission of the organization is to create links between people and support artistic endeavors. We use and go beyond the world of specialization so that people of all backgrounds gain boundless access to life-changing ideas.
Arturo is a Movement Research Artist-in-Residence 2008-2009. He has collaborated with lower lights collective since 2004 at the Chocolate Factory as part of the Visiting Artist Residency, and through Movement Research. He has shown work in Dublin, where he was the first Red Stables International Artist-in-Residence in 2007, funded by Dublin City Council. Since apprenticing with Genesis Project in Dublin, Arturo teamed up with Hana van der Kolk to start Genesis Project, Los Angeles. In 2009, there will be a Genesis Project in Philadelphia at Base Kamp. In 2004 and 2005, Arturo participated in two of Deborah Hay’s Solo Performance Commissioning Projects, performing them in New York and various locations in Europe. He has taught mask making and performance to children and adults. Arturo has also worked with Yvonne Meier, Daria Faïn, Allison Farrow, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Hari Krishnan, Eiko & Koma, Clarinda Mac Low, Christopher Williams and Nami Yamamoto. His writing has been published in two Movement Research Performance Journals. Other interests include Dog Training and writing short fiction.