Li Chiao-Ping (artistic director, choreographer, dancer) was named by Dance Magazine as one of the 25 to watch. She formed Li Chiao-Ping Dance in 1990 and co-directed Dziga Vertov Performance Group from 1992-94. Renowned for her solo work ("Yellow River," "Entombed Warrior," "Chi," "Men's Project" and "Women Dancing") she is equally well known for her multimedia and intergenerational productions ("Odyssey," "Venous Flow: States of Grace," "Painkillers," "Laughing Bodies, Dancing Minds"). Her collaborations with Douglas Rosenberg include dance films such as "De L'eau," "Residues," "Periphery," "Grace," and a suite of dances made for the camera which were co-funded by Wisconsin Public Television and Bravo! FACT of Canada. A prolific choreographer of more than 130 works for stage and screen, Ms. Li's dances have been shown throughout the world, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Paris, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Riccione, and Toronto, as well as at festivals such as Jacob's Pillow, Bates Dance Festival, The Yard, the International Festival of Video and Dance in Argentina, and the American Dance Festival. Ms. Li has received numerous awards, grants and honors, including several grants from the NEA and awards from the Asian Pacific Women's Network, National Arts Association, and the Los Angeles Arts Council first prize awards for performance and choreography. She has also received choreographic fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board and Scripps/ADF Humphrey-Weidman-Limon. Ms. Li earned her Master of Arts degree from UCLA and has been on the dance faculty at Hollins University, Mills College, and UW-Madison where she continues to teach. Professor Li is the recipient of the Romnes Award, the Creative Arts Award from the Arts Institute, the Emily Mead Baldwin-Bascom Professorship in the Creative Arts, the Wisconsin Dance Council Award in Choreography and Performance, and recently the Vilas Associate Award and Artist Fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Kristin Ginther (costume designer) comes from a large family of crafters, designers, and seamstresses. Everything she’s learned about costume design has come from hours spent watching her mother sew! When she’s not at the machine, Kristin works for a product design and development company and plays roller derby with Madison’s Mad Rollin’ Dolls.
Patrick Reinholz (composer/musician) is a cellist who performs many different genres of music, including jazz, avantgarde, contemporary, experimental, and classical music. His teachers include Jane Hollander and Professor Uri Vardi at the University of Wisconsin. Based in Madison, WI, he is a founding member of the postcontemporary electro-acoustic chamber group The Weather Duo, and of the new music ensemble Downbeat Means Attack, and the free improvisation group ELM. He performs with many other groups, varying from rock bands to experimental jazz groups.
Douglas Rosenberg (visual artist) has shown his work in video and video installation both in the United States and internationally in museums, galleries, on public television, and in festivals around the world. He has received numerous grants and awards including an NEA Dance/Film/Video grant (with choreographer June Watanabe), an NEA/Southeast Media Fellowship, two Zellerbach Foundation grants, a Painted Bride Art Center New Forms Grant (co-recipient with Li Chiao-Ping), a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, an IZZIE award for his work with Ellen Bromberg and John Henry on "Singing Myself A Lullaby," and a fellowship from The Project on Death in America for another project with Ms. Bromberg. His video dance, "My Grandfather Dances" with Anna Halprin, was awarded the Director's Prize at the Jewish Video Festival, Judah Magnes Museum, in Berkeley. He has been an artist in residence at The Institute for Studies in the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, and the International Festival of Video Dance in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His writing on dance for the camera has been published in journals including LEONARDO. Recent shows include Dance on Camera Festival, New York; Video Festival Riccione Teatro Televisione, Riccione, Italy; The Contemporary Art Museum in Buenos Aires; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; and Mostra de Vídeo Dansa de Barcelona, Spain. He was the director of the American Dance Festival's video archival program for over a decade and continues to direct ADF's Dancing for the Camera Festival.
Matan Rubinstein (composer) has been active as a composer, pianist and electronic musician, making music in a variety of contexts and venues from works for orchestra and chamber groups (with and without electronics), to Jazz Orchestras and combos, to Electronica, as well as projects for dance, film, television and interactive media. Among his notable credits as bandleader are the Modular Music Ensemble, a Nine-piece Genre-bending group, and the Sada Trio, both dedicated to performing his original compositions. Originally from Israel, Matan has lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY and Madison, WI, where he received a doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin in music composition. He now lives with his wife and three daughters in Marlboro, Vermont, where he is on the music faculty at Marlboro College. His music is on the web at: http://modularmusicensemble. bandcamp.com
Suzanne Rubinstein (costume designer) holds a BA from The Evergreen State College, and went on to study photography and graphic design at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. She has worked in development for over ten years and was the director of development at UW Hillel Foundation. Suzanne studied sewing and garment construction at Madison’s MATC over five years ago and was thrilled to wipe the dust from her sewing machines and design costumes for Li Chiao-Ping Dance. She is married to musician, Matan Rubinstein, and has three wonderful little girls, Mia, Amalia, and Noa.
Tim Russell (musician) began his professional career as a musician at fifteen, playing drums in rock bands around the Chicago suburbs. His passion for music and percussion deepened as he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated with a degree in percussion performance. After college, Tim expanded upon his musical fascination, immersing himself in the world of contemporary movement via accompanying classes and composing music at the University of Wisconsin Dance Department, maintaining his own private teaching studio, establishing himself as a performer/composer both regionally and nationally by means of his group Complexcomplex, and collaborating with artists in Madison, New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Ben Willis (composer/musician) is a bassist currently living in Madison, WI. His affinities lie in collaborative projects, new music, improvisation, and the merging of multimedia elements. He can be seen performing regularly with the electroacoustic chamber outfit, The Weather Duo, and the electro/funk/klezmer band The Shtetlblasters, as well as with various chamber ensembles, jazz combos, and other groups around the Madison area. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from UW-Madison in 2010, studying under the legendary Professor Richard Davis. While at the UW, he participated in many ensembles and was constantly involved with and starting new collaborative ventures, including a free improvisation ensemble, ELM, an electronic jazz project, Lovely Socialite, and an avant-garde ensemble, Downbeat Means Attack. He was featured in the faculty recital of the Richard Davis Foundation 2010 Bass Conference, performing Gunther Schuller’s Quartet for Double Basses, and in a trio with Diana Gannett and David Murray, premiering an arrangement by Inez Wyrick.
Catherine Wilson (lighting designer/stage manager) is currently an MFA candidate in lighting design at Carnegie Mellon University. Some of her past dance experience includes work with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Theatre Group’s Dance This! in her hometown of Seattle, WA. She has also worked with the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY, and Tufts University in Medford, MA. She is very excited to work with Li Chiao-Ping and her wonderful group of artists.
Robin Baartman began her dance training under the instruction of Charlotte Wendel of Southwest School of Dance, Marshall, MN. With this studio, Robin toured the Baltic States and performed her international debut at Red October Hall, Moscow. After obtaining a B.S. in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Robin continued her second season with the nora.new.dance.company. Shortly thereafter, she began performing with Li Chiao-Ping Dance. Since, she has obtained certification in Pilates, served as an adjunct instructor for UW Division of Continuing Studies, and is currently an instructor at Capital Fitness.
Janelle Bentley, a native of St. Paul, MN, is currently a senior with the UW-Madison Dance Department, graduating next week with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (!!!). She has performed in works by Kate Corby, Carrie Hanson/The Seldoms, Kun-Yang Lin, Susan Marshall & Company, Marlene Skog, Scott Wells, Chris Walker, and Jin-Wen Yu. In September she will travel to Galilee, Israel for five months to study with the Kibbutz Dance Company’s professional training program. Among her wilder dreams for the coming years, Janelle hopes to become an impassioned devotee of Martha Graham, continue her research into transnational adoptive identity, investigate volcanology, and eventually get her driver’s license. She is incredibly thrilled and honored to be performing with her mentor, Li Chiao-Ping.
Rachel Krinsky studied dance at the Wisconsin School of Ballet in the 1970s and '80s and was a member of Jazzworks in 1985 before leaving dance for other pursuits. She began dancing again in 2006 and became a member of Li Chiao-Ping Dance in 2007. Rachel is the executive director of The Road Home Dane County, a non-profit agency providing shelter and housing to homeless families. Rachel thanks her husband, Scott Titus, and children, Kenna and Nathan, for their enthusiasm and encouragement.
Emily Miller grew up in Palm Bay, FL and Milton, WI. She took ballet at the age of 3, hated it, and then did gymnastics for most of her childhood up until high school. Movement was always a big part of Emily's life, but she did not begin her formal dance training until she entered the Dance Department at UW-Madison in the fall of 2004. During her undergraduate studies, Emily performed at the American College Dance Festival and received numerous scholarships and awards which allowed her to study in Miami, North Carolina and New York City. She had the pleasure of working with Li Chiao-Ping and other distinguished artists such as Peggy Choy, Larry Keigwin, Luis Lara Malvacias, Jeremy Nelson, Chris Walker, Nina Watt and Jin-Wen Yu. After receiving her BS in Dance, Emily joined Li Chiao-Ping Dance in June of 2008. Emily enjoys the athletic and full-bodied style that Li's repertoire has to offer and is pleased to be performing with LCPD. Emily teaches ballet, hip-hop and modern at Kris Pickar's School of Dance in Sauk City, WI. She would like to thank her family for their constant support of her dance career.
Liz Sexe is excited for her second year with LCPD. After receiving her BA in Dance and Biology from St. Olaf College, she went on to receive an MFA in Dance for Performance and Choreography from Mills College in Oakland, CA. She has performed works by Robert Battle, Rachel Berman, Alyce Finwall, Kimiko Guthrie, Lionel Popkin and, of course, Li Chiao-Ping. Since returning to Wisconsin, Sexe co-founded Dear Heart Dance with a mission to create "fresh, local and seasonal dance." Her own choreography has appeared with Li Chiao-Ping Dance and with Madison's Barebones Dance Collective. She teaches beginning modern through the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, and creative movement for adults at the LCPD Studio Farm in Oregon, WI. She received her Pilates certification from Movement Insights and teaches Beginning Pilates Mat Classes at Mound Street Yoga in Madison, WI. She also teaches dance to all ages at Studio 3-D in Deerfield, WI. Sexe is passionate about dance/movement education as a mode of creative self-expression and healthful living.