Now in
PHILADELPHIA
Now in
PHILADELPHIA
Sahr Ngaujah (Fela Anikulapo-Kuti) Theatre includes: FELA! (Broadway and West End). Nominated for best actor in a musical both at the Tony Awards in New York and the Olivier Awards in London. Television and film includes: Passing Glory, A Lesson Before Dying, The Signal, Stomp the Yard, Blood Done Sign My Name. For 15+ years he has worked as an actor and director between the US and Europe. A graduate of Dasarts Amsterdam. Other artists and directors Sahr has worked with include Freddie Hendricks, Gerrit Timmers, Del Hamilton (7Stages), Faulk Richter, Tim Habeger (Push Push) and Sierra Leone hip hop act, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew.
Adesola Osakalumi (Fela Anikulapo-Kuti Alternate) Theatre includes: FELA!, Equus(Broadway), Ngwino Ubeho(Sundance Theater Lab), Eyewitness Blues(NYTW), Jam on the Groove(Drama Desk nominee). Films include:Sex and the City 2, Crazy Beats Strong Every Time,The Accidental Husband, Across the Universe, Enchanted, Idlewild. As choreographer: Broadway Bares, ESPN, Old Navy, PBS Kids, Halifax Bank, Advil, the films School of Rock and Marci X. NEA Grant and Bessie Award Recipient. Adesola would like to thank the Creator, the Ancestors, and the Divinities! Special thanks goes to My Family,The Africa I Dance Theatre under the direction of R. Francis, Egbe Omo Nago, The Rhythm Technicians/GhettOriginal Productions Dance Co, Tara Boragine, Lakey Wolff, Jen Krater, Universes, The Rhythmics, and Igi Circus. Thanks to the Producers, our incredible Cast and our Crew for making all of this happen.
Melanie Marshall (Funmilayo)Training: Royal College of Music (Foundation Scholarship for Singing and Piano). Theatre includes: FELA! (National Theatre); Hot Mikado (Watermill Theatre); Simply Heavenly (YoungVic and Trafalgar Studios);The Fat Lady Sings; Elsa Canasta and L’Eveil with the Rambert Dance Company; Carmen Jones,Porgy and Bess, Fame, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Kiss Me Kate (all West End). Television and film includes: Alice in Wonderland, The Wide Sargasso Sea, Ray, “Songs of Praise,” “The Walker” and “Casualty”. Recordings include: Feel the Spirit, A Christmas Festival, Messiah, Distant Land (All Conducted by John Rutter) and Cocktail. BBC Radio includes: “Friday Night is Music Night,” “In Tune” and Stephen Sondheim’s 75th Birthday Concert. Melanie has also appeared with the Royal Philharmonic, Liverpool, the Halle and all the BBC Orchestras, and has performed in concert at Carnegie Hall and all major UK concert venues.
LA based British born Paulette Ivory is one of London”s acclaimed singer/actresses. She created the role of Nala in London”s The Lion King. Went on to play Aida in Elton John/ Disney”s AIDA on the National US tour to critical acclaim securing a Helen Hayes Award nom for best lead actress. Paulette enjoyed a number one single in Japan with the band THINK TWICE on EMI. Theatre: Purlie (NAACP nomination for lead actress), Blues in the Night, Baby It’s You, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, The Hot Mikado, A Woman of No Importance. TV/film credits include: “The Young and the Restless,” “NUMB3RS,” “Girlfriends,” “Strong Medicine,” “Doctors,” “Eastenders,” Lords of Dogtown. Paulette wrote, co-produced and starred in her first short film called In Destiny’s Hands. And most recently FELA! at The National in London playing Sandra Izsadore. www.pauletteivory.com
Rasaan-Elijah “Talu” Green (Djembe) Training: Long Island University. Theatre includes: FELA! (off-Broadway, Broadway and Lagos, Nigeria); Afropop Worldwide Gala, Russell Simmons’ Diamond Empowerment Fund Benefit, Dance Africa, National Black Arts Festival, Bambara Drum & Dance Ensemble, Indoda Entsha Percussion Ensemble, Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn. Talu exhibited his passion for West African percussion music after visiting several African countries where he gained first-hand experience with traditional percussionists.
ISMAEL KOUYATÉ (Ismael) Ismael hails from a family of renowned artists and praise singers in Guinea, West Africa. He performed with Guinea’s national companies, Les Percussions de Guinea and Les Ballets Africains. Currently residing in New York City, he teaches dance and sings with his band, Ismael Kouyaté: Waraba Band.
(J.K. Tap Dance, Egungun) Originally from Miami, FL, of Haitian descent. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School with a B.F.A. in dance. Began his formative training at Dancexchange Inc. and New World School of the Arts. He also trained at The Ailey School, Broadway Theater Project, The Joffrey Ballet School and School of American Ballet. His professional credits include The Martha Graham Dance Company, Sean Curran Company, Fosse (1st National Tour), A Christmas Carol (Madison Square Garden Theater), Encores Golden Boy, NYC Opera’s Alcina/Turandot, and a featured performer for Jacob’s Pillow Katherine Dunham Tribute conceived and directed by Reginald Yates. He has presented solo concerts at Jacob’s Pillow, Stella Adler Studio (Resident Artist), Florida International Univ. and George Faison Firehouse Theater. His awards and honors are: Martha Hill Prize from The Juilliard School, National Foundation for Advancement of Arts-1st Place, Presidential Scholar for the Arts, National Society of Arts and Letters–1st Place and Jerome Foundation Fellow. A principal artist and assistant to Reginald Yates. He has danced the works of Alvin Ailey, Hinton Battle, Margie Gillis, Jiri Kylian, Jose Limon, Donald McKayle, Mia Michaels, Reginald Yates and others. Ayo!
SHERINNE KAYRA ANDERSON (Ensemble) Training: Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Theatre: Sakoba Dance Theatre and BBC Philharmonic Africa. Television/Film: “Kiss Ident,” “Top of the Pops,” “The X Factor,” “The Brit Awards,” Singh is King, Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Music Videos: Boyfriend (Alphabeat), I’m Not Your Toy (La Roux). Events: Summertime Ball and choreographing for Glastonbury.
JONATHAN ANDRE (Ensemble) Training: Bush Training: Kingston University (winner: AETC Creative Students competition). Theatre includes: FELA!, Sound Like Hackney. Radio includes: From Silk Road to Carnival. Jonathan plays djembe, dunduns, congas and other percussion instruments as part of a percussion ensemble playing traditional West African and Cuban music. He teaches West African djembe drumming, song and dance.
CINDY BELLIOT (Ensemble) Training: Dance Academy Lucia Marthas (Netherlands). Theatre includes: The Hurly Burly Show (Garrick Theatre London); FELA! (National Theatre London), Wicked (Apollo Victoria London), Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre London), Bubbling Brown Sugar (Dutch tour), Cats (Dutch tour), The Lion King (Netherlands). TV/Film: Feestje.
Nandi Bhebhe (Ensemble) Training: Liverpool Institute of performing Arts. Theatre includes: FELA! (National Theatre, Sadlers Wells Theatre), 5,6,7,8 (Royal Court Theatre, London), Episodes of Blackness (Vocal Dance Company), Frusted (The place, and Paris); Wayne Hemmingway’s Late at the Tate (Tate Liverpool), Points in Synthesis (Movema Dance company), Spice (Biennial Dance Festival, Bangalore), and The Wombats: Live on tour (Echo Area, Liverpool). Music videos include: Gabrielle Cilmi’s “Hearts Don’t Lie.”
Catia Mota Da Cruz (Ensemble) of Cape Verdian origin. Training: Academie Internationale de la Danse, Paris and Conservatoire de Montreuil (under star dancer Mr. Toma). Theatre includes: FELA! (National Theatre); Gone With the Wind (France) and The Ten Commandments (France and Far East Tour). She has also featured in fashion shows and numerous French TV commercials.
Nicole Chantal de Weever (Ensemble) St. Maarten N.A, graduate of New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Fairfax Ballet and Motiance. Performed at the Afro Pop Hall of Fame Awards, AUDELCO Awards, Black Film Festival, Dance Africa, West Side Story World Tour and FELA! Off-Broadway. Worked with such choreographers as Katherine Dunham, Bill T. Jones, Joey McKneely, George Faison, Rob Ashford, Maria Torres, Abdel Salaam and Jamel Gaines. Principal on commercials on the Oxygen channel, featured dancer on PBS special Dancing with Life: Katherine Dunham, American Library of Congress Documentary DVD on Katherine Dunham Technique and American Gangster. Performed with such companies as Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Creative Outlet of Brooklyn, Prophecy Dance Works, Seventh Principles and Ballet Noir. Thanks to my family and friends. NMHRK Ashe. nicoledeweever.com
JACQUI DUBOIS (u/s Fumilayo/Ensemble) Trained London Studio Centre. Credits inc: FELA!, The Harder They Come, Fame, Lion King, Full Monty, RENT, Sophisticated Ladies, Children of Eden, Blues In The Night, All You Need Is Love amounts other roles. She has appeared in TV, Film, and Documentary as a session vocalist for various artists.
POUNDO “SWEET” GOMIS (Ensemble) French from Guinea Bissau and Senegal. Training: Conservatoire National de Region de Boulogne (Paris), worked with choreographers such as Bruce Taylor, Georges Momboye, Lionel Hoche, Ebale Zam, Opera de Paris star dancer Marie-Claude Petragalla, Raphaelle Delaunay, film director Anne Fontaine and stage director Jerome Savary. Choreographer with her company, Cie 12 02. Previous on FELA! Europe tour.
Wanjiru Kamuyu (Dance Captain/Swing) Education: MFA, Temple University. Musical Theater: The Lion King, A la recherche de Josephine, St. Louis Woman. Companies/Choreographers: Urban Bush Women, Molissa Fenely, Nathan Trice, Tania Isaac, Dean Moss etc. TV and Film: Fais Danser la Poussiere (TV France 2) and Homeage a Grace Jones (Louvre Museum, Paris). Founder of the dance company, WKcollective.
Thierry Picaut (Ensemble, Swing, U/S Ismael) Training: Academie Internationale de la Danse, Paris. Musical Theater includes: HAIR (Principal role, Hud); The Lion King (Lead singer and principal cover roles, Simba and Banzai); Fame, Swingin Life, Angels in America. Dance Company: George Momboye Dance Company (France). TV: “Chante” (a French sitcom). Catwalk model.
Oneika Phillips (Sandra U/S, Ensemble) From Grenada, West Indies, Oneika holds dual degrees in Dance Performance and Business Management from Shenandoah University, Virginia. Formerly a featured member of Abdel Salaama’s Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Oneika’s theatre credits include the workshop, FELA! A New Musical, “Anita” in the 50th Anniversary International Tour of Jerome Robbins’s West Side Story, directed by Joey McKneely and nominated for The West End’s Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, winning the Theatergoer’s Choice Award in the same category. Oneika is thrilled to return home to the shrine with the FELA! family for her Broadway debut.
Jermaine Rowe (Ensemble) Theatre credit: Fela! (National Theatre and European tour): Positive, Un Chant D’Amor and The Lion King. He has worked with Dance theatre of Harlem, The Ailey School and National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. He is also a trained and seasoned Television Broadcaster and holds a BA in Journalism and Education from UWI, Mona.
Daniel Soto (Ensemble, Assistant Dance Captain), born in Brooklyn NY and from a large family, has blossomed to become a respected artist and communal developer. At the age of sixteen, Soto was introduced to the professional world of dance, becoming a company member of Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn and later attending SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Soto toured internationally and nationally with various dance companies. He feels honored to share the language of art with others and feels blessed with the guidance of great artistic pioneers (Shirley Black Brown Coward, Jamel Gaines, Lakai Worreal, George Fasion) that have molded his career today. Mostly giving thanks to the creator, Soto feels extremely honored to be part of FELA!
Adé Chiké Torbert (Ensemble) Theatre credit: Fela! (National Theatre and European tour): Positive, Un Chant D’Amor and The Lion King. He has worked with Dance theatre of Harlem, The Ailey School and National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. He is also a trained and seasoned Television Broadcaster and holds a BA in Journalism and Education from UWI, Mona.
JILL VALLERY (Swing, Dance Captain) is exceedingly beholden to all those who have contributed to her journey. Trained at the Alvin Ailey School, became a national teaching artist for Ailey Arts in Education & Community. Off-Broadway: FELA! Film: Lifted. Dance: Balance Dance Company, Opus Dance Theatre, Prophecy Dance, ADTC. She is grateful to Bill T. Jones, all artists and creators of FELA! and her family. jillmvallery.com
Iris Wilson (Ensemble): dance educator at P.S./I.S. 268Q, co-founder of It’s Dance, dance school, author of children’s book Boys Dance Too. (www.authorhouse.com). Iris performed nationally and internationally with various dance companies: Opus Dance Theater, Bosou African Dance Company, Dinizulu African Dancers and Drummers, Speak, Haiti Dansco and KaNu. Short Film credits: Earl’s Post Prison Playdate (OGB Productions), Love Train and Coco’s Way (Oreh Productions). A part of the third FELA! workshop and the Off-Broadway run, Iris is happy to return to the cast as it makes its journey to Broadway. This is her Broadway debut. Iris thanks her family and friends for all their love and support. All praises to God. Ase.
Aimee Graham Wodobode (Ensemble) Enthusiastic Broadway Debut! Aimee was part of the original cast of FELA! Off-Broadway. She received her dance training from choreographers Laura Scozzi, Stefanie Session and Christian Bourigault while attending University of Paris XII. When she moved to New York in 2001 Aimee started to study African dance with Abdel Salaam. She has been touring the country with Forces Of Nature Dance Theater for the last four years. In France Aimee has toured nationally with Steffie Session for Reebok and with Opinioni in Movimiento Dance Theater on such renowned stages as L’Opera de Paris Garnier, Le Ballet du Nord, the Theatre of Bakou, Le Theatre de Suresnes Jean Vilar and Le Theatre de Paris. Aimee thanks her Ancestors for guiding her way from Bangui to Broadway. www.aimeegrahamdance.com
Yoshi Takemasa (percussion) hails from Kobe, Japan and is based in NYC. In addition to Fela!, Takemasa has appeared on several national TV programs including The 2010 Tony Awards, The View, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and The Colbert Report. Takemasa has also worked extensively as a freelance musician in the New York music scene since 1998. He has worked with such renowned artists as Patti LaBelle, Beyoncé Knowles, TV on the Radio, Lauryn Hill, Angelique Kidjo, The Roots, JadaKiss, Seun Kuti, Vampire Weekend, Lee Fields, DJ Logic, and Julian Velard.
New York-born guitarist Bryan Vargas was a founding member of Antibalas. In addition to performing with the FELA! band, he’s done time with pianist Arturo O’Farrill, Felix Sanabria & Los Afortunados, jazz saxophonist Melvin Butler, drummer Robb DiPietro, songwriters Christopher North & Katie Elevitch, singer/poet Mayra Vega, Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra, Amayo’s Fu Arkestra, Heavy Merge, Trio Noir, acid-jazzer Topaz, alt rockers Baby Gopal, and more.
Trombonist Aaron Johnson also does double-duty as the Musical Director of FELA! Born in Iowa City and raised on Long Island, Aaron Johnson began studying music at the Mannes Prep program in New York, and continued at The New School, where he now teaches. He has become an in-demand trombonist, arranger, and composer in the New York music scene, and has recorded and performed with such artists as Paul Simon, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, TV on the Radio, The Roots, Wu-Tang-Clan, Angelique Kidjo and Femi Kuti. He joined Antibalas in 2000, and began conducting the band in 2001. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and sons.
Saxophonist Alex Harding hails from Detroit, where he studied music in his early years with Yusef Lateef, Beans Bows and Herbie Williams, and played with Wynton Marsalis and Donald Byrd while still in high school. Alex went on to win music scholarships to the University of Massachusetts and the Aspen School of Music. Alex’s first European engagement in 1990 was in Porgy and Bess. A year later, he went to Mexico to the Arts and Music Festival with percussionist Francisco Mora. He has played with Sun Ra Arkestra, The Mingus Big Band, and Aretha Franklin, to name a few.
Beauty, sensitivity and force radiate through the drumming of Greg Gonzalez. For nearly twenty years Greg has been one of New York City’s most versatile and sought after musicians. His resume includes performance and recording credits with top artists in virtually every genre of music including: Beyonce, Patti LaBelle, Teddy Geiger, Jazz Mandolin Project, Cecil Taylor, Sonya Kitchell, Danielia Cotton, Antibalas, Femi Kuti, Bernie Worell, Don Braden, and many more.
New York freelance trumpet player. Recent performances with Lee Fields and the Expressions, Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band, Julian Velard, Chin Chin, Afroskull, Akoya Afrobeat, Fela! Broadway, Fela! Nigeria, Fela! US Tour.
FELA! Bassist/keyboardist Jeremy Wilms did a six month stint as guitarist in jazz legend Chico Hamilton’s band, multiple performances with Butch Morris’ Orchestra, and performed and recorded with rapper/producer EL-P. He’s played on tracks with Bebel Gilberto, TV on the Radio, Christina Rosenvinge, and members of Sonic Youth. Jeremy has been an alternate member of Antibalas for over 6 years. He is also a founding member of the bands Chin Chin and Big Mono. Soundtrack credits include Iconoclasts series music, CNN documentary “Far From Home”, 2004 Nike Lab website sound design (winner of Flash Forward and Cannes Awards).
Ricardo Quiñones began playing guitar at the age of ten on a three-string Brooklyn garage sale find, thus beginning a lifelong love affair with the instrument and it’s possibilities. This fascination with the guitar eventually found him playing, writing and collaborating with a wide range of musically kindred spirits including Alicia Keys, India Arie, Sade, Luther Vandross, Brooklyn-based Afro-beat band Antibalas, and others. Ricky has been playing with the production of the musical FELA! since it opened on Broadway, November 2009.
Percussionist Dylan Fusillo cut his teeth performing in Atlanta with artists like Michelle Malone and the Atlanta Rhythm Section. While studying classical music during college, he performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Gloria Estefan. He briefly moved to Nashville, where he worked as a staff musician at Opryland, backing up dozens of established and up and coming artists, from George Jones to Boots Randolph. In 1996, he moved to New York City to study jazz. He soon found himself sharing the stage with the likes of Joe Lovano and Al Jarreau. Developing his interest in world music, Fusillo went on to become a founding member of the seminal afrobeat band Antibalas. He backed Femi and Seun Kuti, as well as Baaba Maal. Recent years have found him broadening his horizons further, working with pop artists such as Beyoncé, Patti Labelle, and Babyface. He continues to perform and record with artists such as Meshell N’Degeocello, The Roots, Roy Hargrove, Art Neville, Taj Mahal, Charlie Hunter, Sharon Jones, The Stills, Michael Franti, Prozaak, and Bill T Jones.
Morgan Price hails from Rockville, Maryland. He attended Indiana University, where he studied under NEA Jazz Master David Baker and saxophone professor Tom Walsh, and received his Bachelor of Music diploma in 2007, along with being awarded a Performers Certificate. Moving to New York City shortly thereafter, Morgan began his big city career by playing in the subway with NYC tourist band favorite, The Drumadics. Morgan is also the baritone saxophonist for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He has performed all around the world with them, including concerts with the Utah and Pacific Symphony Orchestras, for the King of Thailand, for the bicentennial celebration of Mexican independence, a tour of China, and many other engagements worldwide. He’s also performed or recorded with Beyonce Knowles, Jean Grae, James “12″ Andrews, Seun and Femi Kuti, Brian McKnight, Mulgrew Miller, and many others. He also co-leads Ikebe Shakedown.
Bill T. Jones (Director & Choreographer) is a 2007 and 2010 Tony Award® winner and the recipient of the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation CALLAWAY Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening, the recipient of the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship, the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the prestigious 2005 Wexner Prize, and the Aaron Davis Hall Harlem Renaissance Award. He is also a MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient in 1994, named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2000, and was awarded The 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for which recipients are considered trailblazers who have redefined their art and reshaped the cultural landscape. He began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living in Amsterdam, Mr. Jones returned to SUNY, where he became co-founder of the American Dance Asylum in 1973. Before forming Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, Mr. Jones choreographed and performed nationally and internationally as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane.
In addition to creating more than 100 works for his own company, Mr. Jones has received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Axis Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berkshire Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and Diversions Dance Company, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’ The Flight Project. He has also received numerous commissions to create new works for his own company, including premieres for the American Dance Festival, the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and for St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra. In 1995, Mr. Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, commissioned by Lincoln Center’s Serious Fun Festival and with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do! which premiered at New York’s City Center in 1999 as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers New Visions series. The Breathing Show, Mr. Jones’s evening-long solo, toured for three years, and his second solo show, As I Was Saying…, toured for more than two. He has directed and choreographed for theatre and opera, most recently choreographing Off-Broadway for the New York Theatre Workshop’s production of The Seven for which he was awarded the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Choreography and for the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, for which he received the Tony Award® for Outstanding Choreography.
Mr. Jones has received honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College, Yale University, as well as the SUNY Binghamton Distinguished Alumni Award.
Jim Lewis (Conceiver/Book Writer/Additional Lyrics) In 2008, Jim received a Lucille Lortell Award for “Outstanding Musical” for FELA! and two Drama Desk nominations for “Best Book” for both FELA! and This Beautiful City (w/ The Civilians). Selected works. B’WAY: Chronicle of a Death Foretold (TONY, Drama Desk nominations), and Dangerous Games (both w/ Graciela Daniele). OFF B’WAY/REGIONAL: Tango Apaisionado, Ionesco’s The Chairs, Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea. OPERA/DANCE: Paul Dresher’s The Tyrant, Ballet Hispanico’s Nightclub; Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terribles, PastFORWARD (w/ Mikhail Baryshnikov). DRAMATURG: House Arrest (Anna Deavere Smith), Drawn to Death (Art Spiegelman),; Cymbeline and Waste (w/ Bartlett Sher), Lincoln Center’s WOZA AFRIKA Festival. Previously w/ Bill T. Jones: Dream On Monkey Mountain, Chapel/Chapter and Still/Here (20th Anniversary Season).
Antibalas (Arrangements/Musicians) Credited with introducing Afrobeat to a new generation, this Brooklyn-based collective has released four critically-acclaimed albums since forming in 1998, and can been heard on numerous Afrobeat compilations. Antibalas has performed more than 700 concerts around the world including appearances at the Coachella, Newport and the Montreux Festivals.
Jordan McLean (Assistant Musical Director) has been active as a composer, band leader, trumpeter and music educator for over 15 years. He has brought his unique performance style to stages and recording studios throughout the US and twenty countries, having collaborated with a multitude of musicians, ensembles and arts organizations. As a charter member of Antibalas he has performed in hundreds of clubs and dozens of the world’s major music festivals. He currently leads his “play anywhere chamber ensemble” Piano Music & Song Trio, and is a founding partner of Sound Chemistry Records. Jordan graduated summa cum laude in composition from SUNY Purchase.
Niegel Smith (Associate Director) is the Artistic Leadership Associate at The Public Theater and a founding member of 425D, a directorÂ’s lab. As PERMISO with Co-Artistic Director Todd Shalom, Niegel has co-conceived and staged so you’re one of them now?, this was the only place i knew to go, December 31, Procession and Fallout, mass rituals in public settings. New York directing credits include We Declare You a Terrorist, Rainy Days & Mondays, Maude The Madness, One For The Road and LIMBS: A Pageant. Niegel has received grants and fellowships from Theater Communications Group, the Van Lier Fund, the Tucker Foundation and Dartmouth College. He grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont, fishing with his dad, shopping with his mom and inventing tall-tale fantasies with his two younger brothers.
Maija Garcia (Associate Choreographer) Since 2006 Garcia worked alongside Bill T. Jones to develop FELA! Off and on Broadway, at the Royal National Theatre in London, Afrika Shrine/EKO in Lagos, Nigeria and for the international tour premiering in 2011. Stage direction/choreography credits: Neighbors at The Public Theater; Not Wanted on the Voyage at Northwestern. Film credits: Music videos for Seun Kuti (“RISE”); Angelique Kidjo (“Move on Up”) and PBS special. Performing artist with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company 2004-09. She currently teaches at NYU graduate acting and offers contemporary dance theater workshops in the United States, Europe and Africa. Founding director of Organic Magnetics, Garcia binds theater arts to create urban folklore for the future. www.organicmagnetics.com
Marina Draghici (Scenic/Costume Design) Marina was born in Bucharest, Romania. She emigrated to the United States where she graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 1988. Prior to FELA! Marina has collaborated with Bill T. Jones on Dream on a Monkey Mountain (Guthrie Theatre) and 24 Images Secondes (Lyons Opera). Her work has been seen at the Paris National Opera, Zurich Opera, Grand Theatre de Bordeaux, Opera de Nice, NYCO, Edinburgh Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, National Theatre of Prague, Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center among many other venues in the US and abroad. Awards: Lucille Lortel, Obie and numerous nominations. Film/TV: The Grey Zone, Heights, Dexter, Twelve and Holding, S.O.P., Rage, The Cake Eaters, Precious: based on Sapphire’s novel Push.
Robert Wierzel (Lighting Design) has collaborated with Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company for more than 23 years including work at the Lyon Opera Ballet; Berlin Opera Ballet and The Louvre Museum (Walking the Line). Broadway: David Copperfield’s Dreams and Nightmares.
Off-Broadway: New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons. Regional: Chicago Shakespeare, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf,Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, MarkTaper Forum. He has collaborated with Grace Jones (Hurricane Tour), the composer Philip Glass and with opera companies of Paris (Garnier), Tokyo, San Francisco,Seattle, Houston, Washington, Chicago and New York. He is the recipient of numerous awards including several Bessie-Dance and Performance Awards for his collaborations with Bill T. Jones.
Robert Kaplowitz (Sound Design) Current projects include a collaboration between Pilobolus Dance Company and Art Spiegelman entitled Still Moving, music and sound for the Chloe Moss play This Wide Night, directed by Anne Kauffman for Naked Angels, and It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman at Dallas Theater Center. Other sound design and/or music credits include: John Beluso’s The Poor Itch, Tracy Scott Wilson’s The Story, Lemon Anderson’s County of Kings, plus a handful of others at the Joseph Papp Public Theater; David Adjmi’s Stunning (Lincoln Center 3); Kia Cor