Krista leads organizational vision & programmatic direction, provides overall staff management, oversees Marketing & Development efforts, and with the Board of Directors, and the Associate Director, engages long-term & strategic planning for the organization. She is delighted to work with such an incredible staff team to manifest the Earthdance vision! Krista is a choreographer, director, performer, writer, educator and arts administrator. She has worked in San Francisco CA, New York City, New Mexico, Colorado, Western Massachusetts, and internationally. From aerial dance to clown, post-modern dance to interview-based theater projects, and lots in between, she is committed to constantly evolving the forms of work she presents, and to the development of interdisciplinary thinking & creation of performance forms within and between the fields of dance & theater. CONTACT, conceived & directed by DeNio, is an interactive performance installation, in collaboration with Matt Mitchell's 100Faces ofWarExperience.org. Written & performed by a mixed ensemble of veterans of war & civilians, the audience is both directed and invited to be interactive of their own accord. Krista is devoted to making work that engages communities at large or small, re: issues of social justice & the contemporary human experience. www.kristadenio.com
Earthdance Staff
Jessica is a community development practitioner and ballroom dancer. With a professional background in permaculture, agroecology, ecovillage design and strategic financial management, Jess has aided communities and civic organizations in resilience planning and implementation. Jessica has designed and taught courses on photovoltaic engineering in Mexico, permaculture in Costa Rica, public health and nutrition in Nicaragua, Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Senegal, and environmental awareness and conservation in the United States. She was awarded an MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and a dual BA in Economic Anthropology and Psychology from Humboldt State University. She continues to explore the practices of environmentally conscious communities, linking best practices to form models for sustainable community and economic development. As Associate Director of Earthdance, Jessica is focused on building organizational resilience by leading in the development of financial and business planning, facilities and land use planning, and rental programming. She is thrilled to become part of the creative community that is Earthdance.
Rachel loves laughing, dancing, singing, eating, star gazing, and living at Earthdance. She is an artist, herbalist, and social worker, holding an MSW from Boston College, studying with Blazing Star Herbal School, and practicing many forms of dance over the past 30 years, including ballet, modern, and contact improvisation. Rachel moved to Earthdance from Southern Maine, where she choreographed and performed with several groups, including Collective Motion Dance Company, InnerMotion Dance Ensemble, Bell and Buoy Physical Theater, and many improvisational performers. In supervising the operations of Earthdance, she draws on her experiences as a transformative mediator and a program supervisor for youth with criminal behaviors in foster care. She is fascinated by the overlap of somatic experience, therapeutic practice, art, activism, and healing of the body, mind and spirit.
As the Operations Director she oversees the day-to-day operations at Earthdance, including administration, housekeeping, the kitchen, and repair and maintenance. The Operations Director works in conjunction with the Office Manager, the Executive Chef, and the Buildings and Grounds Coordinator to maintain daily operations. Rachel selects, trains, and supervises Earthdance's Seasonal Staff members and monitors the residential life at Earthdance. She also serves as host and point person for rental groups. Altogether, the Operations Director helps to create a constructive environment for work and play at Earthdance.
In addition to being a chef, Andreas Wittstock is a painter, sculptor, and furniture maker. He was born in Mexico City to French and German parents and as a youth he worked as a scuba diver on the Pacific coast of Mexico in Zihuatanejo. He first came to the Berkshires to study yoga and bodywork, and in 1999 moved to New York State where he studied 'faux' painting with a master painter. He worked on restorations for two years, and subsequently produced decorative backdrops for opera companies in the Berkshires, Mexico. He has been a professional chef at Kripalu and The Omega Institute, and brings a strong sense of professsionalism and passion to the Earthdance kitchen. To see his artwork, visit: http://www.andreaswittstock.com.
As the Executive Chef Andreas is responsible for daily oversight of the kitchen, ordering and shopping for food, menu planning, serving as solo or lead cook for workshops and rental groups, hiring assistants, and coordinating kitchen work study. Adreas strives to provide delicious, nourishing cuisine featuring vegetarian food in harmony with the seasons and local agriculture whenever possible.
Hilary most recently graduated from Harvard Divinity School with an MDiv in Buddhist Ministry that brought her passions for dance, Buddhist practice and philosophy, ritual, yoga, sustainability, community development and improvisation in all areas of life together. She had been living in cooperative houses and working in the non-profit and social service realm for the last 6 years while exploring the art of movement and spirituality after living in various communities in Thailand studying sustainable development and Buddhism. Following the completion of her BA in Comparative Religion at Kalamazoo College she worked at the Fetzer Institute, that is aimed at promoting the power of love and forgiveness to make lasting change.
She's thrilled to be a part of the Earthdance community, which integrates her passions. Hilary holds down the main office and hosts most of the Earthdance workshops and events with a deep attention to the connections and needs of the community.
Kalyan is a builder with 10 years experience working mostly with other carpenters in the dance community. Home schooled with a yogic/health-oriented background and primarily self-taught questioning the viability of sustainability on the community level. Discovered Permaculture after several years of study identifying the individual aspects required for sustainability in an effort to put them together into a system that could be modeled and replicated. He is actively asking the question: How do we go about having a wholelistic relationship with the larger world and the Earth in a manner that is conducive of regeneration on a local and global scale? As the Building and Grounds Manager here at Earthdance he is excited to steward this land and find new and beautiful ways to encourage Earthdance to bloom and grow.
Shaina is committed to uniting her desire for proactive response to the earth and its communities with creating and witnessing art. She believes that the making of live art challenges us to recognize our humanness and fosters humor, honesty, compassion, and wonder, which in turn motivate and nurture community. Shaina is interested in creating dance-theater performances with ensembles, and for audiences, new to dance.
Shaina is certified by the National Theatre Institute (2009) and graduated summa cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa in dance from Kenyon College (2010). Cantino’s choreography was chosen for performance at the Kennedy Center for the American College Dance Festival in 2010. Cantino has studied at American Conservatory Theater and Bates College Dance Festival; played Ophelia in the film Kitchen Hamlet (2009); choreographed and produced the site-specific dance-theater show “Room by Room” (2011); and performed with Double Edge Dance at the Cleveland Public Theater (2011).
Hannah hails from Yarmouth, ME and grew up dancing in Portland or exploring the wilderness. She graduated magna cum laude from Goucher College in 2011 with a BA in Dance and Biology concentrating in Choreography and Dance Science with honors in Dance Performance. At Goucher College, Hannah received the Schon Scholarship in Dance Science in addition to other academic awards. During the spring of 2011, Hannah attended the Accademia Dell'Arte in Arezzo, Italy where she investigated dance, choreography, and performance studies. Hannah has performed and studied in Canada, Ghana, Italy, and France, and has worked with dance artists such as Sean Curran, Larry Keigwin, Leslie Seiters, Jennifer Archibald, Lily Susskind (Baltimore), Michael Foley, David Dorfman, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and Giorgio Rossi. Hannah is also dedicated to her studies of Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. Hannah is a self-proclaimed force of nature and has an infinite number of nicknames.
Maria is a dance artist originally from Sweden who previous to Earthdance lived and worked mainly in London and Limerick. Maria is interested in how and what dance can do in society and the world as a whole, how choreography can be an aesthetics of change. She works mainly with improvisation, combining different expressions as well as collaborating with others, such as priests, therapists, sound artists, musicians and architects. Maria has done projects and developed dance in the communities via classes and workshops with people from all ages but also through performance work and lecturing. During 09-10 she partook in the mentoring program with Daghdha Dance Company in Limerick, Ireland, and had the opportunity to create and research her own artistic voice, create events and partake in other artist’s processes. At Earthdance she has the possibility to learn more about food, the art of cooking and assisting the creation of making things together.
Julia is an artist, writer and organizer who makes objects, site specific installations and performance. Her work explores the intersection of embodiemnt, ecology and public space. She draws dismantling buildings, lives in a cabin off the grid, plays in porcelain and paper and travels by bike and hitch. She is learning to articulate how each of these things are improvisational and site-specific in their own right. Most recently she has been occupying wall street and continuing to develop www.valleyartshare.com.
Julia coordinates marketing for Earthdance, is editor of The Score, Earthdance's monthly e-newsletter, and creates most of the center's print and digital design. www.juliashoe.com
Shelley Etkin is a queer feminist and a dancer and believes that all are integral parts of her life, health, politics, and work. With a B.A. in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Shelley’s focus has been on arts-based activism, education, and therapy. She centralizes the body, dance, and movement in her work fostering gender-based empowerment with folks ranging from toddlers to mothers. She has worked as an educator/advocate for the Everywoman’s Center in Amherst, as a dance, music, and English language teacher and spent a year interning with Women of the Desert in her home country of Israel. This Arab-Israeli Bedouin Feminist coalitional space was created by single mothers to empower themselves through creating works of traditional embroidery and is a continual inspiration.
Shelley is dedicated to the study of Contact Improvisation, Authentic Movement, Contemporary Dance and Performance and believes strongly in improvisation as an alternative pedagogy for community small and large.
As the Executive Intern at Earthdance, Shelley is involved with developing policy, protocol, and education around sexual misconduct as well as managing and producing events such as the annual Gala and the E|MERGE Interdisciplinary Artists Residency. She is grateful to have found such a vibrant home and community at Earthdance.
