COMPANY BIOS

Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre
Conceived in 1984, Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre (MSDT) expresses contemporary culture and values through the creation of original movement driven interdisciplinary works of dance and theatre. MSDT has designed programming goals that expand the creative territory of modern dance through collaboration with artists across various disciplines. This cooperative inquiry remains focused on the theatrical possibilities inherent in the human body and the human experience. MSDT creates and produces innovative, theatrical performances, mentor peers, and educates young artists serving as a collaborative center for artists to co-produce and present their work. The company values and depends upon the basic idea of community and wishes to share its work with diverse audiences of college-aged youth, young professionals, and adults in Philadelphia and internationally.

Melanie Stewart, Artistic Director
Melanie Stewart is the founder of Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre (MSDT). She has been invigorating the Philadelphia dance scene by producing works for live performance, broadcast media and in education both nationally and abroad since 1984. Critically acclaimed as a choreographer, she has won numerous awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dance Advance/Pew Charitable Trusts, and The PA Council on the Arts. Melanie has been choreographer in residence at The American Dance Festival, Jacob Pillow’s Winter Pillow, and a resident artist at The Commedia School in Copenhagen. Her work combines European physical theatre and American Modern Dance in original dance theatre hybrid performance. Out of this lineage, she has created and produced works including Lilith, Cocktail in the Sky, Claire, The Messenger, Perfect: A Bouffon Musical, Underlife Cabaret, Kieko and Fan, Love After Death, Hard Candy, The Gathering, and Babel. Melanie holds two degrees in dance; an MFA from Temple University and a BA from Webster College. She is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rowan University and sits on the Advisory Board of Dance/Philadelphia, a branch of Dance/USA the national service organization for professional dance.

PLUCK
Karl Schappell
Karl Schappell recently has returned to Philadelphia to re-establish the performance company PLUCK. Schappell spent the last 15 years as a performer in Europe. His time there included working with Michel Laub/Remote Control Productions on four productions that were shown in Theatre Am Turm, Frankfurt; Dansenhuis, Stockholm, and The Hebbel Theatre, Berlin. Schappell worked closely with Laub both as a creator and performer in critically acclaimed performances that were selected to be shown such International Festivals as Spring Dance, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Zurich Summer Festival, Switzerland; and The Salzburg Festival, Austria. Schappell most recently worked with Raz/Hans Tuerlings, a Netherlands-based dance theater company, creating and performing in eight works that toured The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain. Schappell also has choreographed for the Deutsche Shauspeilhaus, Hamburg, Germany. After graduating from Temple University in 1987, Karl went on to work with many of the city’s dance companies, including Terry Beck Troupe and Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre. He looks forward to bringing his own personal blend of European and American performance traditions together for the Philadelphia public.

Niall Rea
Niall Rea, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, has worked all over the U.K. and Ireland as well as in the rest of Europe and U.S. Some of his credits include Ghosts (Fru Emilia Theatre, Iceland); La Dispute and Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); and Sweet Charity (Battersea Arts Centre, London). In the mid ’90s, he relocated to Amsterdam to work with several large avant-garde theater companies, including Remote Control Productions and Company RAZ, designing Planet Lulu, Daniel and the Dancers, Frankula, Angelo senza Angelo, and Grand Massala Slammer, and working with Marina Abramovic, the renowned international performance artist. Niall often collaborates with choreographers to stage experimental dance pieces. He has worked the Puerto Rican National Ballet, Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre, and Theatre Encorps in London amongst others. Niall also directs and designs for his own company, PLUCK, having performed to critical acclaim in Philadelphia, Amsterdam, and London.

Tania Issac
Originally from St. Lucia, West Indies, Tania Issac is currently based in Philadelphia, PA where she continues to explore the esthetic, kinesiologic, cultural, and political bases of contemporary dance. Her work has been presented at venues throughout the U.S., England and the Caribbean and is also a part of Urban Bushwomen Repertory in Soul Deep to the Bone. Her collaborative video work has been screened at the ADF Dancing for the Camera Festival of International Film and Video Dance in North Carolina, at the International Festival of Video Dance, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and at the Prince Theater in Philadelphia. Tania is a former Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and a former member of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Urban Bush Women, and Li Chiao-Ping Dance. She is a recipient of 2004 Rocky Award for her solo work in Rennie Harris’ Facing Mekka and her own production home is where I am. Tania Isaac Dance is part of the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT) Artist Roster, and Tania is a founding board member of the newly established Dance Coalition of Philadelphia.

Myriam Herve-Gil/Cie Herve Gil
Myriam Herve-Gil is a choreographer and a teacher striving to develop the creativity of each dancer, student, or member of the dance company she founded in 1985, LA P’TITE CIE. Though she later changed the name to CIE HERVE-GIL in 1991, her objective remained the same — to explore and refine the sense of movement interpretation in order to obtain a maximum technical precision, through gesture and expression. Space, time, and a rapport with the public are elements which are particularly present within her choreographic work as well as her teachings. Between 1985 and 2006, Herve-Gil created 35 works, 18 for her company and 17 commissioned by other companies, including CNDC, Euro Disney, La Couple Scène National, the CREA, the American Dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, The University of the Arts, Rowan University, Drexel University, and Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre.

DANCEHOUSE ARTISTS
Meghan Durham/Merge Dance, founded in 2004 by Artistic Director Meghan Durham, is a Philadelphia-based company that fosters creativity, collaboration, and community through movement and dance. Merge supports physical and aesthetic inquiry through the medium of dance and advocates access to dance for diverse populations, inviting the integration of dance and multiple artistic media in a collective excavation of meaning through art. Merge acknowledges and embraces the audience as essential participants in the rendering of art and meaning. Durham has choreographed and performed nationally, and Meghan Durham/Merge Dance has performed throughout Philadelphia at the Arts Bank, Painted Bride Art Center, Drake Theater, Mum Puppettheatre, CEC Meeting House Theater, Spirit Wind Internal Arts, and the Fringe Festival Cabaret. Durham’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, STAR Educational Foundation, the Michael Foundation, the Eccles Foundation, and the Philadelphia Foundation, among others. Merge Dance company members include Marie Brown, Melissa Chisena, and Kate Jordan, as well as past members Carrie Brueck, Suzanne Chi, Erin Foreman-Murray, and Danielle Kinne.

Megan Mazarick
Born and raised in North Carolina, Megan Mazarick started dancing at age 4 and “choreographing” at age 6. She received her BFA in dance from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is receiving her MFA in Dance from Temple University. As a performer and collaborator she has worked with numerous artists in Philadelphia including Kate Watson-Wallace, Makoto Hirano, Phil Grosser, Silvana Cardell, Marianela Boan, Paule Turner, Leslie Elkins, Keith Thompson, Olive Prince, and Charles Anderson. In Philadelphia her choreography has been shown in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2005, Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2006, and Glue Dance Series. Her short film Truck Stop Dance recently premiered at Mythinformation, a night of dance on film at Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2006.

SCRAP Performance Group
SCRAP has long been a presence on the Philly dance scene and is now being reinvented as a women’s collective of five of Philadelphia’s most innovative artists. In its new configuration, SCRAP consists of choreographers Myra Bazell, Silvana Cardell, and Kate Watson-Wallace, lighting and set designer Madison Cario, and filmmaker Joel Ludovich. After more than 20 years of creating an array of cutting-edge international performance pieces as individuals, SCRAP is currently embarking on its first collaborative work.