Kristi Ann & Dancers Kristi Ann & Dancers is a friendly collaborative of dancers who support and motivate each others artistic goals. Together, they create dances and seek venues to share their art: to involve all walks of audience, whether a seasoned attendee or fresh newcomer. By reaching out they hope to increase the level of interest of the newcomers to the performance field. Their work, created by various artists within the ensemble, ranges from a powerful play of dominance to the delicate display of emotional nuances hidden among the character's relationships. Their mission is to extract the subtleties of every day interaction and exploit them through movement.
Kristi Ann & Dancers Biographies of the dancers KRISTI ANN SCHOPFER grew up in the tri-state area training at studios and festivals including the American Dance Festival preceding college, performing with the Dance Ten Touring Company where she danced on Carnival Cruise Lines and other professional venues. Kristi entered the College at Brockport, giving her the opportunity to dance in works both locally and internationally with artists such as Larry Keigwin, Diane McIntyre, Monica Baroni, David Dorfman and Janis Brenner. She recently graduated with her BFA in 2010, performing in dance festivals such as REVERB, the Goose Route Festival and many others along the east coast throughout the summer and fall seasons. Currently residing in Manhattan, Kristi juggles her time rehearsing with emerging and established artists as well as finding time to rock climb and develop her own choreographic experiments with her dancing comrades. CORINA FERRO is a junior at the College at Brockport working towards her BFA in Dance and double majoring in Integrated Arts for Children. With Kristi Ann & Dancers she has performed All My Animals are Broken at the annual Built on Stilts Festival and Your Move at Manhattan Movement Arts Center. This past fall, she also worked with Monica Bill Barnes performing an original site specific work, Possible Weather. Since then she has performed in Brockport's DANSCORE working with Dept. Chair Maura Keefe. In her little spare time she works at Step Up & Dance, her home studio, introducing the modern style to dancers of all ages. She is currently dancing with Alison Bogatay as part of Allonge Dance Variations' 5 th Anniversary Concert, as well as rehearsing and performing with Kristi Ann since 2009. Kristi Ann and JEFF SHORTT met when performing with the Dance Ten Touring Company around 2004. Since then Jeff has studied the Yoga practice at Kripalu, and is now a resident yoga and tumbling instructor at Dance Ten Studios and Dance Progressions in Connecticut. He has also found time to share his tumbling and gymnastics knowledge with the children at the Lutz Museum and Tri Town Gymnastics. Joining the dancing collaborative in the summer of 2010, Jeff performed All My Animals are Broken in the Silk City Arts Festival in Paterson, NJ as well as the Built on Stilts Festival in Martha's Vineyard. Jeff lives and breaths music, dance, and the forever stimulating world surrounding and invading our artistic lives every second of our consciousness. JOHN MERCADO was suggested to Kristi Ann by her principal dancer, Corina Ferro. The three dancers immediately clicked and began creating All My Animals are Broken in the Spring of 2010. Since then, Kristi Ann and John have worked with Sarah Bennett, creating Uxorious, a stimulating duet that juxtaposes the apparently physically dominant against the underlying control through the means of an ambiguous relationship. John performed All My Animals are Broken at the Built on Stilts Festival with Kristi Ann & Dancers, joining the Garth Fagan Dance company shortly after. John currently dances and performs both nationally and internationally with the company, finding time to squeeze in dance performances with Kristi Ann and the occasional New York City venue.
Kristi Ann & Dancers 2010 Performance Season OPEN PERFORMANCE DTW David R. White Studio, New York. Performed Uxorious, a duet choreographed by Sarah Bennett & Dancers that contemplates the role of a wife; exploiting dominance and vulnerability. Dancers: Kristi Ann and John Mercado. December 15, 2010. WAXworks Triskelion Arts Center, NY. October 24, 2010. Performed the self-choreographed new work in progress, Effeminate Delinquents for feedback at the WAXworks showing. Dancers: Kristi Ann and Rebecca M. Sproul. YOUR MOVE! Performed self-choreographed work All My Animals are Broken at the Manhattan Movement Arts Center, October 10, 2010. Dancers: Kristi Ann, Justin Dominic, Anysia Lombardo, Corina Ferro and David Covington. BUILT ON STILTS FESTIVAL Martha's Vineyard, MA. Kristi Ann performed Flora Foe Femme and excerpts of A Mermaid's Guide to Living on Land under Rebecca M. Sproul and Dancers August 12-15, 2010. Martha's Vineyard, MA. Kristi Ann & Dancers performed All My Animals are Broken August 20-22, 2010. Dancers: Kristi Ann, Corina Ferro, John Mercado, Jeff Shortt and Caitlin Bowers. SILK CITY ARTS FESTIVAL Paterson, NJ. July 23-25, 2010. Kristi Ann & Dancers performed All My Animals are Broken. Dancers: Kristi Ann, Danielle Farrelly, David Covington, Jeff Shortt and Caitlin Bowers. GOOSE ROUTE DANCE FESTIVAL Shephardstown, West Virginia. Kristi Ann performed A Mermaid's Guide to Living on Land under Rebecca M. Sproul and dancers, July 17-18, 2010 at the Goose Route Dance Festival. DRUMCLIFFE IRISH ARTS Rochester, NY. Kristi Ann and John Mercado performed a quartet choreographed by a College at Brockport professor, Edward Murphy. This work was part of the premier performance of the Edward Murphy Dance Company at School of the Arts, May 22, 2010. DANCE HARTWELL Brockport, NY. The premier performance of All My Animals are Broken and the impetus of the collaborative. March 25-27, 2010. Dancers: Corina Ferro, John Mercado, David Covington, Ashley Hacker, Chrissy King and Caroline Murray.
Kristi Ann & Dancers Repertory Effeminate Delinquents (2010/2011) Length TBD, Choreographed by Kristi Ann Schopfer Effeminate Delinquents is a funky female trio that was inspired by the question "who are you when you're uncomfortable?" By maintaining awareness throughout social interactions and tough classes throughout the day, the dancers have found their most confident selves in times of unease. This trio plays with the idea that poise can be a graceful display of total discomfort. All My Animals are Broken (2010/2011) Length TBD, Choreographed by Kristi Ann Schopfer All My Animals are Broken is an animated, deceivingly engaging work that redefines the relationships of its characters by being ruthless and personal while remaining indifferent. The rhythmic density of the work invites the audience into the dancers' broken world as they rely on each other to fit the puzzle pieces of their lives back together. This work began as an excerpt, its first piece regarded as the middle of a larger work. Kristi Ann & Dancers will extend All My Animals are Broken during their rehearsal process throughout 2011, premiering the finished work in 2012 with all of its choreographed segments. Uxorious (2010) 7 minutes, Choreographed by Sarah Bennett Uxorious was originally created as a pointe solo for Kristi Ann as a BFA senior solo, but felt as though an element was missing. Soon adding John Mercado to the mix, Sarah Bennett crafted the duet and exploited the dancers' dynamic personalities by using specific movement vocabulary to capture the unique, underlying dynamic of a husband and wife and peripheral parties; preserving the integrity of a traditional relationship while presenting the exchange of responsibilities. It juxtaposes the apparently physically dominant against the underlying control, presenting a struggle for power that draws the audience into the dancer's mysterious relationship. She's a Knife (2010) 8 minutes, Choreographed by Kristi Ann Schopfer She's a Knife was originally created in the spring of 2010 on and with the generous assistance of Kate Dylan, who is currently completing her final year at the College at Brockport. Inspired by a riveting monologue, this quirky yet dark solo leads the audience down the broken tracks of this girls' graphic mind.
Where can you find us? UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES Fertile Ground showing April 3, 2011 at GreenSpace Studios. 7pm. Showing new excerpts from our work in progress All My Animals are Broken. Green Space Blooms Festival April 15, 2011 at GreenSpace Studios. Kristi Ann will be performing a new solo in progress created by Rebecca M. Sproul Allonge Dance Variations 5 th Anniversary Concert, April 22-23, 2011 at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Kristi Ann, Corina Ferro and Anysia Lombardo will be performing Step Lightly (2006). Contact us kristiann.dancers(at)gmail.com our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kristianndancers?feature=mhum or follow us on twitter! http://twitter.com/kasndancers Kristi Ann in A Mermaid's Guide to Living on Land by Rebecca M. Sproul