Resilience Project Performance

Joe Goode is a choreographer, writer, and director widely known as an innovator in the field of dance for his willingness to collide movement with spoken word, song, and visual imagery. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and the United States Artists Glover Fellowship in 2008. In 2006, Goode directed the opera Transformations for the San Francisco Opera Center. His play Body Familiar, commissioned by the Magic Theatre in 2003, was met with critical acclaim. Formed in 1986, JGPG tours regularly throughout the United States, and has toured internationally to Canada, Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Goode is known as a master teacher; his summer workshops in “felt performance” attract participants from around the world, and the company’s teaching residencies on tour are hugely popular. He is a member of the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in the department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Damara Vita Ganley is a Bay Area dance artist. She is grateful to have worked with JGPG since 2009. She loves sharing movement with others as the Director of Dance at Kirby College Preparatory School and an Education Coordinator at JGPG, as well as through her work teaching dance for people with Parkinson’s. She graduated from UC Santa Cruz with degrees in Anthropology, Women’s Studies, and Theater Arts. She has also had the opportunity to work with Bandaloop, Fog Beast, EmSpace Dance, Jo Kreiter/FlyAway Productions, Lisa Townsend, Nancy Karp, Shift Physical Theatre, and RJ Muna.

Patricia West is an Oakland based dancer, choreographer, and elementary school teacher. She earned a B.A. in English, Dance, and Education at University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in Education at San Jose State University. Patricia has worked and performed with Bay Area Repertory Dance, Capacitor, Levy Dance, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Robert Moses KIN, The Alayo Dance Company, and Zaccho Dance Theater. Patricia is currently an Education Coordinator at JGPG and has been a member since 2006.

Marit Brook-Kothlow joined JGPG in 1990. She collaborated and performed with the company for seventeen years, during which time she was nominated for an Izzie Award for her role in JGPG’s Hometown. She has also danced with Tandy Beal and Company and has collaborated musically with composers Erik Ian Walker, Beth Custer, and Mikel Rouse. She has also collaborated with Kathleen Hermesdorf, Robert Arnold, and RJ Muna on dance video projects. After an extended hiatus, Marit is happy to be back dancing with the company again. She teaches workshops and dance classes in the Bay Area and currently lives in Berkeley, CA with her husband and ten-year-old daughter.

Wailana Simcock was born in the Philippines and raised in Hawaii. He became a professional contemporary dancer when he moved to San Francisco in the mid 1990’s. He is also an aerial artist, hula practitioner, and surfer. And before all that, he was a nationally awarded figure skater in Hawaii when he was eleven years old! Now back in San Francisco after a seventeen year hiatus, he is dancing with Bandaloop, KAMBARA + DANCERS, Steamroller, and JGPG.  He is excited to be here and honored to share dance with the community that first gave him his start. 

Molly Katzman started dancing in middle school at Nevada City School of the Arts and then danced all through high school in the Nevada Union Theatrical Dance program. She attended Cabrillo College where she won the Roberta Bristol award for dance in 2009, and then went on to earn her B.A. at University of California, Santa Cruz. While living in Santa Cruz, she has danced for choreographers such as Cid Pearlman, Cat Willis, Dixie Shulman, and Gerald Casel, and is a member of FLEX dance company. Molly and Sierrah Dietz, who started their own company, HOMEbodies, debuted their first show in April 2012, presented their second show in 2013, and entered the New Orleans Fringe Festival in 2014 where they were nominated for the Outstanding Choreography (New Work) award. Molly currently teaches in Santa Cruz at Motion Pacific.

James Graham is a San Francisco-based choreographer, performer, and teacher. In 2017, he received an Izzie Award for Ensemble Performance (with Sebastian Grubb) for Grahams “Homeroom.” In 2015 he received an Izzie for Individual Performance (for his Full Season). He started his company, James Graham Dance Theatre, in 2010 to present original dance-theatre work that deals with universal experiences in order to provide a space for audiences to understand themselves and others in new ways. Graham produces DANCE LOVERS, an annual event of duets around Valentine’s Day. Graham is a Certified Gaga Instructor (Ohad Naharin/Batsheva) and took part in Naharins pilot training program of international Gaga teachers. He has taught Gaga extensively in the United States, as well as in Canada, France, South Korea, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, and Israel. He is currently on faculty at University of California, Berkeley and Dominican University/LINES BFA Program. Graham holds an M.F.A. in Dance from The Ohio State University and a B.A. in Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies from University of California, Berkeley. In addition to JGPG, he performers with Lisa Wymore & Sheldon Smith.

Felipe Barrueto-Cabello is a native of Chile and grew up in the Bay Area. He received a degree in Mathematics from Cornell University. Felipe has performed with JGPG since 1996 and currently serves as Rehearsal Director. He teaches JGPG Technique Class regularly at the Joe Goode Annex, and has taught at Mills College and University of California, Berkeley in the department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.