Heidi Duckler | Collage Dance Theatre


		LILLIAN ROSE BARBEITO is the co-director of bodyTRAFFIC. She is originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she worked with Santa Fe Opera, Southwest Ballet and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. After graduating from The Juilliard School, Lillian worked with Agnes deMille Project, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Terrain and Zvi Gotheiner. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has performed with American Repertory Dance Company, Helios Dance Theater, John Malashock and Raiford Rogers. Lillian has taught progressive ballet and modern technique internationally, including Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet, Halifax Dance Theater, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Lyon Opera Ballet, UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures and Westside Academy of Dance. Lillian recently toured with Strange & Elegant Productions for Dom Perignon, Aston Martin, W Hotel New Orleans and the 2007 Grammy Awards. She enjoys judging for Celebrity Dance Competitions and is an accomplished free-lance choreographer. Lillian lives in Venice with her husband Grant Anthony Barbeito.

		PAMELA DEBIASE, born and raised in South Africa, graduated with a BTEC Professional Development Award from The Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, United Kingdom. She toured the UK with Verve 99 performing work by Simon Birch. In South Africa she worked with the Helen Seaman Dance Company, ELGT Dance Company, Candice Johnstone, Gary Gordon and Christopher Kindo, and in Taiwan for Arts Orient Entertainment and Encore Gardens. Since immigrating to America she has performed with Toezeye Dance Company, FUSION Dance Theater and Collage Dance Theatre. She is currently Education Director and Principal Dancer for the Regina Klenjoski Dance Company and directs RKDC’s youth performance group X-Factor Dance Project. Pamela was nominated for “Outstanding Female Performance” in 2006 and 2007 at the Lester Horton Awards.

		MERRIDAWN DUCKLER is a writer whose fiction has appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Georgia State Review and Main Street Rag among other literary magazines. Her original scripts have been preformed on stages in Los Angeles and in New York and she was selected for a Composer/Librettist Studio workshop presented by Nautilus Music Theater in Minneapolis. Her word-based installations have been featured at Blackfish Gallery and Marylhurst Art Gym and on All Things Considered. She’s the recipient of two Society for Professional Journalist Awards and has been a writer in residency at Centrum in Washington, Walden and Caldera in Oregon and Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs. She is the winner of the Bertha Anaolic 2007 Israel Travel Scholarship to study aesthetics in Tel Aviv and she was a finalist for the Wesleyan Writers Workshop and the non-fiction Honorable Mention winner at the 2007 Writers at Work Conference in Salt Lake City.

		MARISSA LABOG has been a member of Collage Dance Theatre since 2003. She is a Lucille Morrison scholarship recipient and has received the Palm Desert Solo Award, an Ovation Award, and several nominations for Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Performer and Outstanding Ensemble with Collage Dance Theatre. Having earned her BA in Dance and English from Scripps College, Marissa has gone on to perform with the John Pennington Dance Company and the L.A. Philharmonic, Fusion Dance Theater, Marie de la Palme, Assistant Choreographer and performer for J.O.B., and was Associate Director for the Regina Klenjoski Dance Company. She is currently Associate Artistic Director of Hassan Christopher’s Company of Strangers, a member of Rosanna Gamson Worldwide, and is founder and director of the performance group One Step Ahead, which works with inner- city youths. Commercially, Marissa has worked with such artists as Sean Paul, Christina Aguillera, Slum Village, L.L. Cool J, and N’Sync. She has appeared on the television shows The Drew Carey Show, Jimmy Kimmel Show, That’s So Raven, commercials Nike, iPod, Hyundai, Virgin Mobile, AOL; movies Time for Dancing, Bring It On Yet Again, Bratz”; and choreographed for The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show, and dance films Knock Knock and Ring Ring.

		TINA FINKELMAN grew up in New York City. She attended Barnard College, Columbia University where she performed the works of Martha Graham, Jose Limon, and Paul Taylor and was a featured soloist in the works of Lila York, Ted Thomas, and Aszure Barton. Tina also performed with dance companies including The Notario Dance Company during their season at the Duke Theater and ASH Contemporary at The Jazz Dance World Congress. Upon graduation, Tina joined the ASzURe & Artists Dance Company as a soloist and has performed throughout the United States, including at the renowned Jacob’s Pillow and Spoleto Festivals. In Los Angeles, she has danced with Evolution Dance Company and Strange & Elegant. Most recently, Tina was a founding member of Hell’s Kitchen Dance, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s new contemporary dance company. While on tour she had the honor of performing a duet with Mr. Baryshnikov himself.

		RYAN HEFFINGTON is an accomplished choreographer, dancer, and designer. Ryan has been teaching contemporary movement in L.A. since 1995, and has taught all over the world including Japan, Germany, Canada, and Nicaragua. Some commercial credits include Legally Blonde, My Wife and Kids, the Academy Awards, and The American Music Awards. Ryan joined CDT in 2003 and in addition to performing has designed costumes for the company. Ryan is also a founding member of Hysterica Dance Company, in which he was nominated for best male Performance (2001) and best costume design (2004) by the Horton Awards. in 1999 he launched his clothing line "Rock 'N Sissy" and immediately clothed rock stars such as Gwen Stefani, Britney, J-Lo, Beck, Navarro, and Jagger. His other local design credits include Mizraney Dance!, Lisa Lock, recording artists Mount Sims, Young People and The Nervous Return.

		CHRISTOPHER KUHL is a designer based out of Los Angeles. Currently he is the resident lighting designer at REDCAT, and assists at Hartford Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage, the Kirk Douglas Theatre, and the Geffen Playhouse. Chris is originally from New Mexico and a graduate of CalArts. His recent work includes Lighting Design for My Beowulf, C’Opera receiving a Horton Award nomination (Collage Dance Theatre); Monster of Happiness (Theatre Movement Bazaar); Drums of the Waves of Horikawa (Theatre of a Two Headed Calf); Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! (REDCAT); Moonlight (Lost Studio); Because They Have No Words (Lounge Theatre); Trace (Hand 2 Mouth Theatre); Termen Vox Machina (Filament); The Cherry Orchard (evidEnce Room); and Associate Design for Mycenaean at BAM Next Wave; and Lighting Director for The Actors’ Gang National Tour of The Exonerated.

		JACOB “KUJO” LYONS has been active in the B-Boy/Breakdance scene for 15 years. Almost entirely self-taught, he is a founding member of the B-Boy crew Soul Control. Kujo’s credits include work in music videos with hip hop artists Run DMC, KRS-1, Eminem, Pharaoh Monche, and Naughty by Nature. He has performed onstage with Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, and the Wu Tang Clan. He has performed and competed internationally at such B-Boy events as Germany’s Splash, England’s UK B-Boy Championships, Korea’s World Hip Hop Festival, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s 24th birthday celebrity celebration in Hollywood. Kujo was the first American B-Boy accepted into Montreal’s Cirque Du Soleil, and has most recently worked with them as a consultant on a creation project for their Las Vegas The Beatles: Love show. Kujo has conducted workshops and master classes internationally including teaching Breaking to the performers of Cirque Du Soleil’s Quidam. Currently he teaches at The Edge Performing Arts Center in Hollywood.

		CARLOS RODRIGUEZ, a native of El Salvador, was raised in California since the age of ten and started his dance training at age 17. He trained at Santa Ana College and at the ADF School in North Carolina. While at school he performed works by David Doorfman, Donald Mackayle, Gail Gilbert and Andrea Woods. Carlos also performed works by Heather Gillette as an American College Dance Festival Finalist. Other credits include performances with Dance Touring Ensemble from Orange County, Notoriety Inc., Pasadena Civic Ballet, APAP in New York City, Dancers Responding to AIDS in NYC and Fusion Dance Theater. Carlos teaches in residency with Regina Klenjoski Dance Company at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center in the city of Torrance and is currently also a member of Oni dance.

		EVA WILDER received a BA in dance and music history from UCLA. In addition to dancing with Collage Dance Theatre, she has worked with Maria Gillespie, Victoria Marks, Helios Dance Theater, and Cid Pearlman. She is a founding member of IN/EX Dance Project, and has presented her own work at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, Highways Performance Space, and Jacob's Pillow. Eva is currently finishing her studies at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance.


		Other Performers & Collaborators Lou Becker, Dancer Robert Een, Composer Dan Evans, Designer Matt Henley, Dancer Amy Knoles, Composer BJ Krivanek, Designer Rawbzilla, Dancer Chris Stanley, Dancer Jones Welsh, Dancer Terry Wolverton, Writer HK Zamani, Designer