Company Members

Bios

BLUE MOON DANCE COMPANY – Artist Profiles 2009

PAT CONNELLY (Director) moved to Boulder in 1974, and worked for many years as an individual performer and choreographer before founding Blue Moon Dance Company in 1995. Three consecutive entries, commissioned by three different dance companies, were awarded a place in the Colorado Choreographers Showcase and her work was chosen for the 2001 Aspen Dance Festival, a juried showcase. Denver Contemporary Dance Theatre, Turning the Wheel Productions, Interweave Dance Theatre and many other organizations commissioned her work. She was a board member for the Boulder County Arts Alliance for six years, serving as Treasurer from 2007 through June 2009. She returns to the annual YWCA Benefit “Dancing with the Boulder Stars” in October 2009 for the third year. She is a member of Nancy Cranbourne’s “40 Women Over 40”, whose next concert is in November 2009. Currently, her original choreography for “Nearly Invisible”, commissioned for Turning the Wheels Productions, is being produced in several cities throughout the United States. She teaches independently through Kakes Studio and has been working in the Boulder Valley School District LifeLong Learning program since 1999. She specializes in partnering, acrobatic lifts and social dance forms.

ADJEI ABANKWAH, a native of Ghana, is the co-producer and director of the BaoBao Festival and co-founder of Enkambum. He was a principal dancer and choreographer with The Ghana Dance Ensemble for eleven years.  In addition to dancing, he is an accomplished musician and composer.  He plays a number of traditional African instruments including the flute, xylophone, bass marimba and drums.  In addition to teaching dance and music; he also composes for, and performs with, his band Charlie Sounds.  This is his fifth season with Blue Moon Dance Company. 

SOL BENSON began dancing at an early age, studying ballet, modern & jazz dance. At age 18, she moved to Alaska where she performed with Dance Theater North, a modern dance company.  She owned and operated her own dance school and has performed in many productions across the United States.  After moving to Boulder, she joined Turning the Wheel Productions and enjoyed the world of improvisational movement before finding a new love - ballroom dance. She has been a member of Blue Moon Dance Company for the last five years and teaches at O Dance Studio as well as private classes.

YING CHANG began training in hip-hop at Motion Underground, but had his modern dance performing career jump-started in 1999 when he was chosen for the David Dorfman Community Project, sponsored by the Colorado Dance Festival and then joined the company in 2000.  He continues to expand his exposure to different dance styles, finding frustration and enjoyment in the endeavor.  In 2003, Blue Moon Dance Company received a BCAA/Addison grant to stage his multi-media work “STROKES” which premiered at the Carsen Theatre, Dairy Center for the Arts in April 2004 and was also performed at the Longmont ArtWalk. 

BETH MOGER, a Boulder native, began her career as an acrobat. She studies and teaches circus arts with Imagination Circus Arts. She was accepted into the company in December 2007, and performed for Katie Elliott in a modern dance project for the Global Warming Expo in April 2008.  Currently she works as a manager at Gateway Park Fun center and attends the University of Colorado, Boulder Campus, as a theatre and astronomy major.

COURTNEY MURRAY, a Colorado native, studied with Dance Dimensions in Longmont for twelve years before moving to Grand Junction. She continued her training in jazz, pointe, modern, tap & hip-hop with the Grand Junction Academy of Dance.  Now back in Boulder, she takes class with Boulder Ballet and the Schiff Collective.  She is a member of the Schiff Collective Training Company and recently performed with Adjei Abankwah at the Streetside Studio concert. 

CHRISTOPHER NUERNBERGER, an ardent salsa & Latin dancer, brings years of experience in dance partnering to the company. Originally trained as a gymnast, he also competes in soccer leagues and jujitsu. With Sol Benson, he is co-choreographing for the 2009 concert. He also teaches salsa at the O Studio in North Boulder. This is his second year with the company.
 
JULIUS REINANTE, a native of the Philippines, began studying ballroom dance with Pat Connelly, joining the company in 2002. He trained in competitive ballroom dance at Booth DanceSport Studio, Denver and performed in the Turning the Wheel 2005 production of “Nearly Invisible”. He teaches through the Lifelong Learning Program for the Boulder Valley School District. In 2007, he won the first annual YWCA benefit, “Dancing with the Boulder Stars”, with his partner, Wendy Reynolds, and repeated the win in 2008 with Kathe Stainton. He is returning for the next round with a new partner in October 2009.

ARTHUR SIEGLE danced with Pat Connelly at the debut performance of Blue Moon Dance Company in 1995 at the Denver Art Museum in conjunction with the Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra.  He specializes in swing dance styles and has won many dance contests during his career.  A dedicated amateur dancer, he performs with the company for charity events and community dance performances.

Choreographers
(1995 to present)

1. Adjei Abankwah – 2007 to present
2. Michelle Badgeley - 2007
3. Sol Benson - present
4. Ying Chang - 2002/2004/present
5. Pat Connelly - 1995 to present
6. Thomas Dixon (posthumously) - 1996
7. Rachel Grote - 2005
8. Landon Gustafson – 2004 to 2007
9. Seth Gustafson – 2003/2004
10. Karen Howard – 1996 to 2000
11. Tobi Johnson-Compton – 1997 to 2002
12. Sarah Leversee – 2003/2004
13. Debra Mercer - 1995
14. Chris Nuernberger – 2008/2009
15. Yuki Ojika – 2003 to 2005
16. Dreah Pentell - 2005
17. Julius Reinante – 2004 to present
18. Stephen Schroeder – 1997 to 2001
19. Ben Schultz – 1997
20. Jessica Simpson - 2005
21. G. Webster Smith – 1996 to 1999
22. Larry Southall – 1999
23. Franca Telesia – 1995 to 1997
24. Alison Yoder - 2004
25. Colleen Young – 1997 to 2001

"You have to love dance to stick to it. It gives nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on the walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive." Merce Cunningham

Company Members/Guest Appearances:
(current members in bold face type)

Adjei Abankwah, Tyffanie Ammeter, Gemma Asir, Sol Benson, Michelle Ballard, Andrew Berry, Jeni-Sue Briggs, Ying Chang, Marty Connell, Pat Connelly, Laurie Coulis, Cindy Davis, Heather Davis, Eric Donovan, Sue Yoon Farabaugh, Bruce Feistner, Rachel Grote, Landon Gustafson, Seth Gustafson, Lisa Harris, Camille Hensley, Karen Howard, Rita Jenkins-Gaynes, Tobi Johnson-Compton, Joel Kelly, Kit Kyle, Desiree Lanz-Ewertz, John LeRoux, Sarah Leversee, Allen McCowan, Kara McRae, Scott McLane. Debra Mercer, Hope Welles Meyer, Beth Moger, Courtney Murray, Carrie Noel, Christopher Nuernberger, Yuki Ojika, Karen Panasewicz, Dreah Pentell, Laura Rains, Julius Reinante, Stephen Schroeder, Ben Schultz, Arielle Schwartz, Arthur Siegle, Jessica Simpson, G. Webster Smith, Jason Smith, Larry Southall, Tiffany Stone, Sara Stranovsky, Justin Taggart, Franca Telesia, Gustavo Vargas, Cheryl Vick, Alison Yoder, Colleen Noelani Young.

Members in the News

Former company member Marty Connell is now Dr. Marty Connell Ingram. She and her husband, Dr. Glenn Ingram, are moving to North Carolina to set up a naturopathic clinic.

Julius Reinante and Eva Kovacs were married in April 2008 in the Philippines and are now living in Firestone, Colorado.

Rachel Grote has returned from France and is now living in Oregon. Jessica Simpson has moved back to Boulder from New York and is teaching at Dance Dimensions in Longmont. Tyffanie Ammeter is married and living in Chile.

Landon Gustafson graduated from UNC and moved to Redding, CA to join her brother and former company member, Seth and his wife.

Sarah Leversee has returned to Boulder from Seattle and reactivated her multi-media company, Art as Action.

Tobi Johnson-Compton, Ben Schultz and Colleen Noelani Young are all dancing in Denver, separately and sometimes together.  Colleen & Tobi founded a dance company "Legacy" and all three performed in the 2007 "Dance is for Every Body" in Boulder.

For the 2007 concert, "Love is Strange," local musicians Mike Valenti and Matt Davis performed with the company in "Wegobe" choreographed by Adjei Abankwah.

Stephen Schroeder is currently located in Minneapolis, MN where he dances with Zenon Dance Company. His choreographic works have been performed in Colorado, Minnesota and Illinois and he has toured Russia several times with Zenon to teach and perform.

Kara McRae & Eric Donovan are married and have become avid tango dancers/performers in the Denver metro-area.

Yuki Ojika is back in Japan and has set up her Rolfing practice in the beach community of Kamakura. She welcomes visitors.

G. Webster Smith was back in Colorado in August 2006 to teach at the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop and choreograph for Interweave Dance Theatre.

Debra Mercer is teaching ballet at Colorado College in Colorado Springs and also in Boulder for Ballet Arts.

Ying Chang and his wife Agnieszka are the proud parents of a baby girl, Alexandra, who was born in February 2006.

Joel Kelly in associate vice president (development) of the Hale Center Theatre in Utah. He continues to act and direct in theater productions.