TANDEM SESSIONS

Gregory Dolbashian 

AND

Loni Landon

10/18, 10am-1pm

$10

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 280 Broadway, NYC
Entrance 53A Chambers

The Playground NYC allows dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved. In turn, established choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movement with professional dancers, and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.  

Bios:

Loni Landon, born and raised in New York City, received her training from the NYC High School of Performing Arts, Dance Theater of Harlem, The School at Jacob's Pillow and The Scholarship Program at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Before entering Juilliard, Loni was a NFAA Young Arts Finalist. In 2005, under the direction of the late Benjamin Harkary and Larry Rhodes, she received her BFA in dance from The Juilliard School. After graduation, she worked with Aszure Barton on the opening of the Baryshnikov Arts Center before joining Ballet Theater Munich, under the direction of Phillip Taylor, under who’s guidance she began to explore her own choreography, until 2007. From 2007-2009 she performed with Tanz Theater Munich, under the direction of Henning Paar. During her time in Munich, she was exposed to a variety of European choreographers: Jiri Kylian, Stephan Thoss, Rui Horta, Robert North,Tony Rizzi, Cayetano Soto, Mirko Hektor, and Marco Goecke to name a few. She currently dances at The Metropolitan Opera, working with Crystal Pite, Itzik Galili and Ben Wright. Her work has been shown at The Joyce Theater as part of Working Women, Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out series, APAP at City Center, The Ailey Theater , Dance Now at Joe's Pub, HT CHEN'S NewSteps Choreography Series, The Dumbo Dance Festival, and The State Theater of Munich. She has also been a finalist in the Hannover International Choreographers Festival and to represent the US in the International Solo Tanz Theater Competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Most recently, Loni is a recipient of the 2013 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship, nominated by BODYTRAFFIC. Loni was the winner of Hubbard Street 2 International Choreographic Competition as well as the 1st place winner in Ballet Austin's New American Talent Competition. She was also chosen by Northwest Dance Project's for their "Pretty Creatives'" Choreography Competition, and the "Next" commission from CityDance Ensemble, in Washington DC. She has created works for Northwest Dance Project, Ballet X, The NYC High School for Performing Arts, The Hartt School, The Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, and SUNY Purchase. Loni Landon was a participant in the 2012 Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab made possible through the generous support of the FordFoundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Loni, along with Gregory Dolbashian, founded "THE PLAYGROUND". The Playground is a new choreographer's initiative designed to give emerging choreographers a place to experiment, while allowing professional dancers to participate on a donation basis. The Playground was recognized by Dance Magazine as a 25 To Watch for 2013.

Gregory Dolbashian - Born and raised in New York City Gregory made his professional stage debut at the age of eight with the Glimmerglass Opera Company. Soon after, he was cast in the Philip Glass/Robert Wilson world tour of Einstein on the Beach. Gregory received his dance training at the Alvin Ailey School on a fellowship scholarship and then graduated cum laude from SUNY Purchase dance conservatory where he studied composition with Kazuko Hirabayashi. Since then he has gone on to dance and choreograph with a variety of artists, performing with Patrick Corbin, Nelly van Bommel, Sylvain Emard, and The Chicago Ballet. He was resident choreographer for both Chicago Ballet’s spring season in 2008 and CorbinDances in 2007. He was selected as one of four emerging choreographers in the Springboard Montreal intensive run by Alexandra Wells, where he created and premiered his first international work. Dolbashian is a recipient of The Bessie Schoenberg Residency at The Yard, winner of The Pretty Creatives Competition for Northwest Dance Project, and of The Hubbard Street 2 International Choreographic Competition. He also placed second in Ballet Austin's New American Talent competition, and has received commissions from Atlanta Ballet, TU Dance in Minnesota, Northwest Dance Project, CityDance Ensemble in D.C, and was the Resident Guest Artist at The Hartt School for the Spring 2013 semester under the direction of Stephen Pier. He has created school commissions at SUNY Purchase, Point Park University, University of Minnesota, DeSales University, NYU Tisch and the Juilliard School. He has held faculty positions at SUNY Purchase and The Hartt School. He debuted his own company, The DASH Ensemble, in December 2009 at JOYCE SoHo. The company has gone on to present works at the Skirball Center, DTW, The Gershwin Hotel, Guggenheim Works and Process Series, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, The Sheen Center, Riverside Theater, Summer Stage Central Park, Joe’s Pub, Musikfest presented by DanceNOW and The JOYCE Theater. The DASH received the audience award at NYC’s DanceNOW challenge at Joe’s Pub in 2013. The DASH also premiered “DAYWALKING”, a film at New York's Tribeca Cinemas in collaboration with fashion film director Charlie Wan and was a featured act in Dance at Bryant Park summer of 2014. The company also participated in ABT Principal Daniil Simkin’s INTENSIO, collaborating on a work with Gregory Dolbashian for principals and soloists of ABT which premiered at Jacob’s Pillow Ted Shawn Theater in 2015. In addition to his choreography, as a performer Gregory created a one man show titled Awkward Magic which had its debut at Joe’s Pub in 2014 and then was commissioned by American Dance Festival for the summer of 2015 performance series. Alongside Loni Landon, Gregory is the co-founder of The Playground, a choreographic initiative that was voted 25 to Watch in 2013 by Dance Magazine.