BIOS

 

 
 




Jenny Mair
Jenny is a second year MFA Dance student  at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in performance and choreography.  This project was her fifth choreographic work while at UH.  The conception for this work was derived from the personal experiences she has been going through for the past five years, and most recently, the past four months.  As life is often chaotic and out of control, outside forces manipulate situations that affect each individual life.  The actual movement ideas were generated during rehearsal time, giving the dancers the resistance bands, and then having them develop manipulative movement, first on themselves, and then in groupings.  As movement came together, it generated more ideas, and the dancers began to manipulate each other, and at one point break free from the bands, and then trying to recapture each other inside of that again.  The music is very contemporary, by Bartholamaus Traubeck.  Jenny resides in Honolulu with her three daughters.

Lorenzo, Aleca, Asako, Monica, Andrea, and Ariel

Aleca Borsuk
Aleca is a Bay Area native, and trained under Ronn Guidi at the Oakland Ballet Academy as well as with Alonzo King in the LINES Contemporary Ballet Pre-Professional Program.  She has danced professionally with the New Dance Group Company in New York, and in productions with emerging choreographer Katrina Phillip.  She is currently studying mechanical engineering and hopes to pursue her love of science while licking back with pirouettes and jetes.

Working on the "manipulation" piece was a full experience, physically and mentally.  The elastic nature of the resistance bands created constant physical tension; combined with imagery and analogy derived from Jenny's writing exercise, it made for seemingly novel forms of introspective movement.  Working en pointe also heightened the "manipulative" aspect of the experience, requiring deliberate intention with each step and increased effort in expressing a modern aesthetic.  IN all, it was an interesting and rewarding experience.

Ariel Gazarian
Ariel Gazarian was raised her entire life on Bainbridge Island; a small island just off of Seattle, Washington.  She has been classically trained in ballet since she was 4, while also dancing jazz, modern, pointe, and other varying styles.  She danced at both small dance studios on the island, but when she needed higher quality training, she commuted four days a week, on a 40 minute ferry ride, to Seattle to Cornish College of the Arts.  This was during her junior and senior year in high school. 

Ariel was so delighted to be asked to be in Jenny's piece.  Being her first semester and only a few ballet classes in, it was such an exciting thought to already have rehearsals scheduled.  The concept of the bands controlling you, not you controlling the bands was such a unique inspiring thought.  One thing that really stood out in the piece was how unlike anything else it was.  Using thera bands and on pointe created such a different depth to "contemporary ballet" and Ariel love to be given the opportunity to be a part of it.

Asako Kurosawa
Asako was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan.  She came to UH Manoa as an exchange student from Waseda University.  She started ballet at the age of five, and continued until seventeen.  She also trained in baton twirling for sixteen years and jazz dance for ten years.  Her major in Japan is International Liberal Studies, but in Hawaii she is a dance major.

Working on this piece was a challenge at first, because she hasn't worn pointe shoes for over four years, and the resistance bands were harder to control that she imagined.  Letting the bands manipulate her body was the most difficult par, but once she learned to let go of her control and really let the bands pull her, it became more comfortable working with them.  The idea of resistance bands being the source of manipulation was very unique and she really enjoyed working on this piece.

Lorenzo Acosta
Lorenzo received early ballet training from Ballet Hawaii under artistic direction of Pamela Taylor Tongg.  Throughout his dance journey, he has had the opportunity to dance with other local dance companies such as Onium Ballet Project, HOT, Convergence Dance Theatre, Tau Dance Theatre, Ballet Hawaii, Samadhi, and Honolulu Dance Studio.  He has recently appeared in Septime Wevre's Peter Pan as a dancing Lost Boy.  He is currently a BFA dance major at UHM.  Lorenzo worked with Jenny in this piece and is excited to perform this piece for others to see.

Monica Mariiko
Monica is a ballet dancer and teacher, who has been studying dance for eighteen years.  She began her ballet training at the Pacific Ballet Academy with Lee Olsen in Honolulu.  Monica found her passion to dance and perform at an early age.  She grew to enjoy classical ballet, jazz, modern, and character dance.  By age twelve, she performed Sleeping Beauty in the Woods as Aurora.  In 2003 she moved to Canada and continued her dance studies at West Edmonton Ballet Academy with Stacey Buffie.  Monica was awarded Highly Commended and Honors for her Advanced Cecchetti examinations.  She continued dancing with Margaret Dalwood at Cecchetti DanceTheatre, where she performed the lead role in Giselle, Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella, and Firebird variations. 
Monica's experience spans from summer intensives at the Banff Center for the Arts and Notional Ballet School of Canada to Royal Winnipeg's Ballet Professional Division program, where she was a scholarship recipient.  In 2009 she performed a solo variation at the Bartholin International Ballet Seminar in Copenhagen and in 2012, she danced in Ballet Hawaii's Nutcracker.
Monica returned to Hawaii, and now dances at The University of Hawaii at Manoa and teaches ballet classes to children at the Page Academy of Dance.

Andrea Unzueta
Andrea was born in Cali, Colombia where she began her dance training with Isabel Rodruiguez from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.  In 2007 she received a scholarship to train at Boston Ballet School's Pre-professional division under the artistic direction of Margaret Tracy.  In Boston she performed in Boston Ballet's, The Nutcracker, and in Boston Ballet School's Next Generation.  Her training includes summer intensives at Orlando Ballet School, Miami City Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, and Boston Ballet School.  In 2012 she graduated from high school and decided to on to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to work on a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology.  She was accepted as a scholar in the Maximizing Access to Research Careers program in 2014.  She is now doing research on marine bacteria in a microbiology lab.  While at UH Manoa, she continues to dance as a hobby and is able to perform in various productions.