alban elved dance company/Karola Lüttringhaus presents live performances of contemporary dance and engages in a broad range of residency activities. Featuring the works of German choreographer Karola Lüttringhaus, the company tours contemporary dance theater works nationally and internationally, from solos to group pieces for as many as 12 dancers. Lüttringhaus creates athletic and theatrical contemporary dance works, which seek to shape meaning from the rich array of emotional experience. Her work is fiercely physical, tracing the changeable electricity of thought and sensation that underlies human interaction and interpersonal relationships. The interdisciplinary nature of Lüttringhaus's works—which frequently incorporate live music, digital media, aerial work, and technologies—expands the boundaries of dance performance, creating startling and evocative psychological landscapes. The company’s repertoire is very diverse, containing works for the traditional stage as well as site-specific pieces for indoors and outdoors. Formed in Berlin, Germany in 1997, the company celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.
The Classical Voice of North Carolina wrote, “… Marked by an unpretentious athleticism and a philosophic quality … the dances are closely reasoned sequences that exploit the physics of movement for its emotional resonance. Not pretty but often beautiful, Lüttringhaus's dances depend on the proud power and flexibility of the dancers' bodies—and their joint and mutual willingness to risk themselves.”
“!Hey!,” presented at this year's Acts To Follow series, is a self-portrait. The creation of “!Hey!” was supported by H.D. Lüttringhaus, Studio 'Fit & Well' (Berlin, Germany), The Thomas S. Kenan Foundation for the Arts, Margaret Scales and Graydon Pleasants, The Academy of Dance Arts and Wanda Plemmons, Bob and Florence Turner, mad duck productions Graphic Designs, Swiftwater Media, and others.

alban elved dance company/KAROLA LUTTRINGHAUS, From !Hey!, Dancer: Karola Luttringhaus, Photo by Jeff Cravotta.

Founded in 2005, Caroline Calouche & Co. developed from a successful independent project called Dimension, which drew an audience of everyone from college football players to professional artists into the University Theater at Texas Christian University to see an evening-length dance work in October 2000. Since then, Artistic Director Caroline Calouche has continued to produce her choreography for festivals and dance companies in North Carolina, Texas, Germany, and Austria. Her unique, genuine, and physical choreographic voice has been praised by many throughout her artistic career.
Caroline Calouche & Co. was formed with the mission of creating an arts organization dedicated to producing and promoting contemporary dance choreography in conjunction with multi-disciplinary artistic collaborations. The goal is to build cross-cultural dialogues with dance as a means to unite and educate the global community through an exchange of philosophies and methods. The company is a non-profit organization recognized under the IRS tax law of 501(c)(3).
Currently, Caroline Calouche & Co. is touring its newest evening-length work, Risk, which has been performed in Gastonia, Charlotte, and Greensboro. The company has also presented repertory works in festivals such as the North Carolina Dance Festival, Piccolo Spoleto, and the ADF’s Acts to Follow series.
Caroline Calouche, Artistic Director, began her training under Pat Wall at Gaston Dance Theatre in Gastonia, NC. She furthered her dance education at Texas Christian University, where she graduated with B.F.A. degrees in Ballet and Modern Dance. In 2004 she received a North Carolina Regional Artist Grant to further her dance and choreographic studies in New York City and Brussels, Belgium. From these experiences, she was accepted into the International Choreographic Exchange Program at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of dance for post-graduate work in choreography. After her studies and work in the U.S. and Europe, Calouche felt that it was time to establish her contemporary dance company in her hometown of Gastonia.
Along with creating new works for Caroline Calouche & Co., she has choreographed for the Dance Department in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, Gaston Dance Theatre, and Contemporary Ballet Dallas. Her work has been performed in the U.S., Austria, and Germany at festivals such as the American Dance Festival, Fort Worth Contemporary Dance Festival, North Carolina Dance Festival (Charlotte only), Piccolo Spoleto Dance Festival, and the Greensboro Fringe Festival. In addition, Calouche has collaborated with talented emerging directors to produce an independent film (Dandelion), a play (Enigma), and an evening-length dance production (Dimension).
Calouche has performed with Martha Connerton/Kinetic Works (Charlotte, NC), Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth (Texas), and Contemporary Ballet Dallas (Texas). She has taught dance, GYROKINESIS®, and Pilates at The School of North Carolina Dance Theatre, The School of Gaston Dance Theatre, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She currently works in the Education/Outreach Department as the main Teaching Artist for NCDT and serves on the Arts Education Committee for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public School System. Calouche is also the creator and director of the Charlotte Dance Festival.

Photo by Michael Church.

A Durham native, Allison Daniels blends modern, contemporary, jazz, ballet, and ethnic dance to create a unique choreographic style which reflects her interests in performing arts as a choreographer, performer, and educator. Training at a local studio as a child, Daniels had the opportunity to perform with Chuck Davis’s African American Dance Ensemble and take David Howard technique classes at Duke University. Dance became her outlet to worlds and cultures besides her own. Twenty-four hours after high school graduation, Daniels made the life-changing decision to attend the ADF, bringing modern dance into her life. At the ADF, she studied with Donald MacKayle and was chosen to perform in Talley Beatty’s repertory. Daniels attended Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City on a talent-based scholarship and learned the intricacies of modern dance from luminaries such as Ana Marie Forsythe, Denise Jefferson, and Joan Peters. While at Ailey, Daniels was selected for a solo choreographed by legend Kelvin Rotardier. She returned to North Carolina during breaks to choreograph and teach for various organizations and schools, including the Durham Arts Council. Allison left New York City to become a member of Durham-based Laura Dean Musicians and Dancers.
Now residing in North Carolina, Allison is a freelance choreographer starting nosi dance theater, teaching daily at Legacy Studios, and performing at various venues. Her goal is to get dance the exposure it deserves by creating works of relevance, rawness, and excitement to engage a broad spectrum of audiences.
Allison Daniels will premier “promise...”, a choreographic work that blends dramatic movement and heartfelt soul as it contradicts itself by interweaving introverted contractions with extroverted releases, supple theatrics with energetic purpose, and soft expression with raw music. As an emotional journey, “promise…” opens with disappointment as two Women find themselves facing the demise of their individual dreams of love. As anger sets in, more Women join them to figuratively smack their past lovers thru each musical accent, creating a struggle to remain in control. They quickly delve into self-loathing and ultimately give up on themselves. Meanwhile, other Ladies have been watching them and appear onstage during the musical transition. The Ladies try to explain and convince the Women that sacrificing themselves is not an option. Both Ladies and Women grow together in their support of one another and realize the promising optimism in their own lives.

Photo by Dominique Reade.

Lauren Winslow Kearns is the Artistic Director of the recently formed kearns dance project, a professional company dedicated to making new dance, multimedia performance, and dance for the camera. She was the former artistic director of bodytalk dance, a Los Angeles-based repertory dance company that toured from 1999-2006. Kearns is a national and international choreographer, having choreographed over forty professionally produced pieces and receiving twenty-two grants and fellowships to support her artistic and scholarly projects. Her second dance video, Everywhere I Look, is part of the permanent collection at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City. As a performer, she has danced for numerous New York and Los Angeles-based choreographers and received her Screen Actors Guild card for principal work in a national commercial. In addition to her choreographic career, Kearns is the Coordinator of the Dance Program and Assistant Professor of Dance at Elon University in Elon, NC. Prior to this appointment she was the Director of Dance and a tenured faculty member at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, CA, where she received the 2004 California Dance Educator of the Year Award and was featured in the July 2004 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine. Kearns has an M.F.A. in Dance and an M.A. in Dance Education from UCLA and holds national certifications in Vinyasa Flow Yoga and Classical Pilates.
Seeing. Meeting. Connecting. These words describe “Swinging on a Bench,” a new duet choreographed by Kearns and presented at Acts to Follow.

For more information on kearns dance project, please go to www.womenarts.org and search on Kearns.

Photo by Sallie DeEtte Mackie.

Christine Kiernan graduated from Columbia College in Columbia, SC, with a B.F.A. in Ballet. She was a founding member of Random Dance Company, Columbia’s only modern dance company at the time, and adjunct faculty at Columbia College. After the company disbanded, she performed with the Power Company, a new modern dance company in residence at Columbia College. While pursuing her M.F.A. in Performance and Choreography at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro she was the recipient of a graduate teaching assistantship, teaching ballet, modern, and jazz technique, as well as dance appreciation. She was awarded her M.F.A. in Performance and Chorography in 2005. Currently, Kiernan is adjunct faculty at UNC-Greensboro, works for the North Carolina Dance Project as an arts administrator, and teaches at Weaver Academy of Performing and Visual Arts. In addition to performing and choreographing independently, she performs with the Jan Van Dyke Dance Group and has been a member of John Gamble Dance Theater since 2003. Most recently, her choreography has been shown in Physical Initiation at the Greensboro Cultural Arts Center and in The Greensboro Fringe Festival.
Kiernan will present “Besides,” which features an original score created by Matt Snellgrove.

Photo by Allan Anderson.