FEATURED ARTISTS

æmp:dance, Bridge for Dance Company.in.Residence

amiti perry, |Artistic Director/choreographer| a native Texan received her BA in Dance from the University of North Texas. She has produced, choreographed and performed original works consistently over the years as well as co-founded DIP|dance company with collaborator Coco Loupe with which she has presented and performed works in New York, Texas, Louisiana and Ohio. Professionally, she has performed as a guest artist with Rachel Lampert and Dancers (Ithaca, NY) and for four years she performed, taught, assisted and designed nationally and internationally with Skip Costa/CORE movement Project-NYC. Amiti recently returned to NYC after a three-year hiatus during which she received her MFA in Choreography from the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University. At OSU she studied under and was mentored by Bebe Miller and Dave Covey as well as Karen Eliot, Susan Hadley, and Melanie Bales. In addition she performed works by Miller and worked extensively with Michael Estanich, Blake Beckham and Esther Palmer.

the elliott dance company
kim elliott a New York native started dancing hip hop at the tender age of five. She started her technical training at age 15 in Modern and Jazz at Jacqueline K. Onassis High School in Manhattan, where she started her path to choreography. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Communications from The Fashion Institute of Technology, Kim went on to developing a small dance company, The Elliott Dance Company. In 2002 she choreographed, produced and directed her first production in New York City and has been creating ever since. Currently, Kim is attending New York University, Steinhardt School of Education to obtain her Master's Degree in Dance Education. For the past 12 years Kim has been a guest teaching artist at Jacqueline K. Onassis High School. She is also a Hip Hop Teaching Artist for Perry Studios youth program in Harlem. Kim's main goal in life is to develop The Elliott Dance Company, educate children and give back to her community. Over the next year Kim will be working on developing a junior dance company for teenagers, a hip hop dance education program for teenagers and a new production for the 2007-2008 seasons. With nine dance productions under her belt, a passion for educating and diversity of creative insights, Kim will be able to achieve all goals and aspirations.

melanie aceto contemporary dance

melanie aceto |artistic director.choreographer.performer| is a modern dancer, choreographer and educator. Her work has been performed in Toronto, New York, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina, in Ohio as part of the Heidelberg New Music Festival, at Wittenberg University, and in Rochester, NY as part of the ImageMovementSound Festival. Her creative interests are in contemporary choreography and improvisation. Melanie has worked extensively with contemporary composer Mark Olivieri on projects including the ImageMovementSound Festival and the Heidelberg New Music Festival. Her work in improvisation includes a recent project based on Kelly Kaczynski’s Scene from ‘Olympus Manger’ and an Electronic Poetry project with poet, Loss Glazier. Melanie has worked with New York based contemporary choreographers including Barry Blumenfeld, Ellis Wood, Monica Bill Barnes, and Guta Hedewig and is currently performing with Jim Hansen's Assemblage Dance Company and Leslie Wexler’s Buffalo Contemporary Dance. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has been a professor of dance at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo, SUNY Brockport, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and is currently Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo.

nadine martinez

nadine martinez |choreographer.performer| is a native of Puerto Rico. As a performer and choreographer Nadine has presented her works in the US, Portugal, UK, Puerto Rico and recently in Mexico at the Foro Internacional de la Danza. Nadine is also a member of And Dancers a New York City dance collective. She holds a BA in Dance from the University of North Texas and a MA in European Dance-Theater Practice from Laban Centre for Movement and Dance London, UK.