NDNC 2023 Program

GUEST CHOREOGRAPHERS

NIK OWENS Nik Owens began his movement experience as a competitive gymnast for 15 years and began his dance training in his senior year of high school and continued at Wesleyan University, where he received a BA in Dance and a certificate in Environmental Studies. He has worked with Nicholas Leichter, Tania Isaac, and Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion and has performed works by The Dance Exchange, Raja Kelly/The Feath3r Theory, Bryn Cohn and Artists, Helen Simoneau Danse, The Bang Group, Kayla Farrish-Decent Structures Arts, Dual Rivet, 10 Hairy Legs, and others. He has worked on several duet projects and has been commissioned to create works at Rivertown Dance Academy in New York and The Wooden Floor (under David Dorfman Dance) in California. He currently collaborates and performs with Tiffany Mills Company, Kyle Marshall Choreography, and David Dorfman Dance. In 2021 he began working on a solo of his own creation called The Right Kind and plans to continue that project’s choreographic journey. GINA PATTERSON A 2021 Bogliasco Fellow, Gina Patterson has won such honors as the Choo San Goh Award, a nomination for an Isadora Duncan Award, the Hubbard Street 2 National Choreographic Competition, New Choreographers on Pointe, the National Choreographic Initiative, and a commission by The Cowles Center / SOLO Commissioning Program, funded by the McKnight Foundation. During her long career as a principal artist, she was known as a versatile, consummate performer, dancing with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Ballet Austin, Ballet Florida, and as a guest artist in North America and Europe. Ms. Patterson has been a prolific dance maker since 1998, creating choreographies for companies, universities, and international audiences. Multi-disciplinary full- evening productions include Liquid Roads for MADCO, a contemporary adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for CoDa21, and a one act Hansel and Gretel created for the Croatian National Theatre. Her work appears in the repertoire of companies across the US and has been presented internationally in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Slovenia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Spain. She educates through classes, creativity workshops and multi-disciplinary collaboration with young artists, working with University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Dancers’ Workshop, Interlochen Arts Academy, Point Park University, Goucher College, Mercyhurst University, and the University of Iowa. Ms. Patterson advocates for empathy and compassion, searching to uncover the authentic and vulnerable – the voice within. She uses her art to examine our humanity and interconnection, believing in the art form’s power — to heal; and through the creative process, build unity and community.

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