Valerie Green Dance Entropy

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About Valerie Green/Dance Entropy

Dance Entropy founded in 1998, is a professional modern dance company that performs in NYC, tours and teaches both domestically and abroad. Dance Entropy abstracts the potential chaos of the body and creates order through expressive movement reflecting the world within which we live. The word “Entropy” refers to the tendency towards disorder in a social system and chaos in motion. Dance Entropy supports my vision as Artistic Director whereby I create stage and site-specific work. A significant part of my mission is to use creation, performance, and education in locations and communities where the content of the work will have the greatest impact. The community we engage shifts, depending on the specific project, and has included under-privileged youth, adolescents, those with chronic illnesses, immigrants, first generation ethnic groups, and aspiring/professional dancers.

The performances, workshops, and collaborative creations of Dance Entropy and Green Space, the company’s New York City and community home, maintain the following goals:

Create a platform for multicultural understanding through dance
Nurture connections between dance creation and education
Build community amongst dance artists in Queens
Build ties between artists, students, audience, and community supporters

Artistic Director Biography

Valerie Green became interested in dance as a child growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1998 she formed Valerie Green/Dance Entropy, adding a permanent home for the company in 2005 - GREEN SPACE- in Long Island City, Queens.

Ms. Green’s choreography has been presented at festivals and venues throughout New York City including La Mama, Performance Mix and Dance Now @ Joyce Soho, Movement Research at Judson Church, Draft Work at St. Mark's Church, Oasis at Chashama, Mulberry St. Theater’s New Steps, Dance Now @ Dance Theater Workshop, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, University Settlement, the 92nd St. Y, Hunter College, Context, The Flea, Cunningham Studio, Dixon Place, Hudson Guild Theater and St. Sava Cathedral. Additionally her work has appeared in less formal venues and public spaces such as parks, art galleries, and studios.

Valerie spent several years working on the International circuit. Among the festivals where she taught and performed are: Chandigarh Institute of Performing Arts, India, Italy’s Meeting Anti-Razista, Trulo Arts Center, Ostuni, Le Regard du Cygne, Paris, The Avignon Fringe Festival, and Toronto, Canada’s Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. Her company, Dance Entropy, toured her evening- length show, Homeland-Inner Side throughout Serbia in 2001, which led to additional teaching engagements with various cultural institutions in Belgrade. Additional work in Europe includes a teaching engagements as part of Croatia’s TEST! Theater Festival in Zagreb and performances at The National Theater in Mostar, Bosnia, The National Theater of Belgrade, Serbia, the World Dance Congress in Argos, Greece, and the Body Navigation Festival in St. Petersberg, Russia.

As a guest artist, Valerie has received commissions from Texas State University, BITEF Theater in Belgrade, Serbia, and Theater Alternativa in Tirana, Albania. She has also taught at the University of Las Vegas, Texas State University, LaGuardia Community College, University of Nanterre, France, and at the Faculty of Drama & Art in Belgrade, Serbia and Sarajevo, Bosnia. She has received funding from the SOROS Foundation, CEC ArtsLink, the American Embassy’s of Serbia and Bosnia, The Puffin Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, The Queens Community Arts Fund, The New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the Queens Independent Artist Initiative.

Valerie’s choreographic work and teaching style is influenced by her formative years working with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company and her undergraduate work at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Valerie has performed for many New York based choreographers, including H.T. Chen & Dancers, Poppo & the GoGo Boys The Wellspring Project, Dura Mater, Nancy Meehan & Dancers, Katherine Howard, Gloria McClean/LifeDance and The Phyllis Rose Dance Company.

Additionally she is a movement coach for John Robert Powers Talent Agency and is in the process of recieving her certification in Body/Mind Fitness.

Dancer Biographies

	Amy Tennant Adams was born and raised in Kinnelon, NJ, where she began dancing at a young age and attended the Governor's School of the Arts for Dance. Amy graduated from Connecticut College with honors degrees in Dance and Human Development, where she was the recipient of the Connecticut College Dance Department Award and the Creative Dance Continuum Service Award. Amy has danced in the Beijing Cultural Arts Festival in China and performed her own work in Calcutta, India. In New York she has performed with Heidi Latsky, David Dorfman, Stefanie Nelson, Faith Pilger, Ellen Stokes Shadle, Erin Malley, Betsy Miller, Ani Javian, and is featured in a dance film by Diego Agull. Amy now lives in Brooklyn, and currently works with Regina Nejman (since '06) and Company, with whom she toured twice to Brazil and performed at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She is the co-founder of the Propel-her Dance Collective, having presented her own choreography and produced three shows in NYC. Amy is Pilates mat certified and teaches dance and choreographs for children of all ages in Queens and New Jersey.Amy has been dancing with Valerie Green/ Dance Entropy since 2007).
	Andrea Brown grew up in Boulder, Colorado and trained at the Boulder Arts Academy. She performed with the Boulder Ballet, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with her B.S. in Exercise Science and Dance from Skidmore College. Since moving to New York, Andrea has performed with Riedel Dance Theater, Skylight Dance Theatre, Ariel Grossman, and Misty Owens, and has appeared onstage with Pilobolus. Andrea is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and has recently launched Virtuoso Fitness, a company dedicated to personal training and injury prevention education. She is also very involved in the community of dance medicine and science practitioners, and has presented multiple research projects at conferences of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science.
	Sarah Ann Hartley is a Rhode Island native who received her first dance and gymnastics training under the direction of Paula McCormick. Sarah earned a B.F.A. in 2008 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is certified in beginning and intermediate levels of Labanotation. She has attended the American Dance Festival as a student in 2008 and in 2009 as an assistant to choreographer Mark Dendy where she performed two site specific works Would You Please Restate The Answer in The Form of The Question? and Golden Belt. Currently, Sarah is a principal dancer for Dendy Dancetheater which includes a performance for Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2009. This is Sarah's second season with Valerie Green/Dance Entropy and would like to thank her friends, family, and Kevin for their never ending support and love.
	Joanie Johnson, originally from Pennsylvania, earned a BA in dance from Slippery Rock University and is a certified Health Coach through The Institute for Integrated Nutrition. She is a dancer, dance educator, certified pilates instructor and the founder of Motivated Nutrition. (http://www.motivatednutrition.net) She dances professionally with Valerie Green/Dance Entropy and H.T. Chen & Dancers. She is involved with the non-profit organization, House of the Roses, as a full time movement teacher, dancer, and member of the Artistic Advisory Committee. She teaches various dance, health and fitness workshops for adults and children throughout NYC.
	Kristin Licata has a BFA from Fordham University/Alvin Ailey, where she performed works of Alvin Ailey and Joyce Trisler as well as working with choreographers William Forsythe, Robert Battle, Sean Curran, and Elise Monte. Post graduation, she danced for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company II, Vox Lumiere, Felice Lesser Dance Theater, and in the film Jaaneman. Currently, she is freelancing with Covenant Ballet Theatre, Matthew Westerby Company,Regina Nejman and Co., and VaBang!. This is Kristin’s third season with Dance/Entropy.
	Jen Painter is originally from south Florida and holds a degree in theater from Florida State University. Since moving to New York in 2001, she has had the pleasure of working with artists such as Skip Costa, Te Perez, Jana Hicks, Marijka Eliasberg, and performing with companies such as Wobble and Seen Performance. Jen is also a choreographer who’s work has been shown at the Boogie Down Dance Series at BAAD! (2009), as well as part of Queens Dance underGROUND at Queens theatre in the park (2009). She has debuted new work at the HATCH performance series, and at Green Space’s Fertile Ground series. She has participated in an artist residency at the Art Mill in Jeffersonville, NY (2010), hosted by QUAAD. Jen is currently a certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis instructor, and is a faculty member at Steps on Broadway.
	Ashlea Palafox comes to New York City from Forth Worth, Texas pursuing her love and passion for dance. She graduated with a BS in Dance at Texas State University, where she worked with Valerie Green during a guest artist residency in 2006. She moved to the big city in the fall of 2007 in order to train and apprentice with Dance Entropy and is now happy to be a member of the company. Ashlea would like to thank Valerie for this amazing opportunity and would also like to thank her family and friends for their overwhelming support.