Danspace
Project

THANK YOU FROM STACY MATTHEW SPENCE 

DANCERS 

Stacy Matthew Spence is a New York City based choreographer, dancer, and teacher. He  was born in Lake Charles, LA. and received an M.F.A. from New York University Tisch School  of the Arts. Stacy’s choreography has been commissioned by The High Line, Vega as North  Star (El Norte es Sur) 2019 collaborating with visual artist Ronny Quevedo; The New School,  This is how we got here 2017; Danspace Project, This home is us 2017, and Eden as we recall 2012; Tisch School of the Arts, among the scapes and fields 2009; Edge at London  Contemporary Dance School, I just wanted to be close to you 2006; The University of New  Mexico, Adjusted Space 2007; and the OtherShore Dance Company, small earthquakes along  the way 2008. His work has been included in Ishmael Houston-Jones’s Platform 2012:  Parallels for Danspace Project, and in co/motion directed by Margeret Peak as part of Jason  Moran’s Whitney Biennial: Bleed. As well Stacy has performed with Joanna Kotze’s BIG  BEATS 2021, at The Museum of Modern Art, NY in Deborah Hay’s Blues, as part of Ralph  Lemon’s Some Sweet Day; and in Polly Motley and Molly Davies’ Critical State at The Helen  Day Arts Center, VT. His most recent work I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves,  premiered at Danspace in March 2024. Stacy is currently working on a film version of I am,  here in collaboration with videographer Iki Nakagawa. 

Stacy has received grants and residencies that include Gibney Dance in Process  Residency (DIP) 2022-23, Movement Research Artist Parent Residency; Workspace  Artist-in-Residence, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council NY; Manhattan Community  Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY; New York Live Arts Studio Series  Residency; Artist Residency at Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers,  France; Movement Research Artist-in-Residence.  

Stacy danced with The Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1997-2006, was Education  Director 2018-2021 and he continues to be involved with the company through teaching  and the re-staging of Trisha’s work. He has also taught nationally and internationally at  institutions such as The New School, Juilliard, Barnard College, Tisch School of the  Arts, Manhattan Marymount College, London Contemporary Dance School, Centre  National de Danse Contemporaine, and Movement Research. Stacy is currently an  instructor at The New School in New York City. 

Tim Bendernagel grew up in Brooklyn, New York where he continues to live and  dance. Most recently, he has collaborated with the choreographers Stacy Spence, Anna  Sperber, Ryan McNamara, Maya Lee Parritz, Sharleen Chidiac, and John Jasperse,  among others. Tim began his dance training at Dancewave in Park Slope, Brooklyn  under the direction of Diane Jacobowitz. He then went on to graduate from The Ohio  State University in 2017 where he earned his BFA. When he’s not dancing, Tim works  as a landscape gardener for Gay Gardens in The Pines on Fire Island.

Joanna Kotze is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, dancer and educator who has been  part of the New York dance community since 1998. She creates highly physical dance  performances through a collaborative, multi-disciplinary process, presenting ways to  look at effort, labor, humor, violence, unpredictability, and beauty through movement as  well as the body’s relationship to sound, light, physical materials and space. Her last  evening-length piece, lectric Eye, premiered at The Space at Irondale, in Brooklyn, New  York, in February 2022, was reprised at New York Live Arts Live Artery in January  2023, and toured to the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina and  UtahPresents in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her large cast, outdoor dance, BIG BEATS, has  been set on six casts in six different communities and continues to others in the near  future. 

She also recently finished a short film project called Nothing’s changed except for  everything with Tallahassee-based filmmaker, Chris Cameron, and New York-Based  composer, Ryan Seaton, and collaborated with writer Lauren Slone on a book that  includes observations, reflections and creative writing about the process of making  ‘lectric Eye. 

Joanna received a 2024 Grant to Artists from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the  2013 New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Outstanding Emerging  Choreographer, and her 2018 evening-length work, What will we be like when we get  there, was nominated for a Bessie Award for Outstanding Music Composition and  Sound Design by collaborator Ryan Seaton. Her work has also been supported by the  Nathan M. Clark Foundation, City Artist Corps, New Music USA, the Jerome  Foundation, Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation, New York Foundation for  the Arts BUILD, Brooklyn Arts Council, Yellowhouse, and the Foundation for  Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Her choreography has been presented by  UtahPresents, the American Dance Festival, Wanås Konst Sculpture Park in Sweden,  The Irondale Center, Summer on the Hudson, The Yard, Bates Dance Festival,  Stonington Opera House, New York Live Arts, The Wexner Center, Velocity Dance  Center, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project,  American Dance Institute, Bard College, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Dance New  Amsterdam, Dixon Place, 92nd Street Y, Movement Research at the Judson Church,  and other venues and galleries. 

Joanna has upcoming residencies at Jacob’s Pillow and Loghaven and has had  residency support from Milvus Artistic Research Center, Wanås Konst, Maggie Allesee  National Center for Choreography (MANCC), the Alan M. Kriegsmann Creative  Residency, Dance Program Malmö, Exploring the Metropolis, Loghaven, The Bogliasco  Foundation, The Yard, New York Live Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC),  Movement Research, The 92nd Street Y, Jacob’s Pillow, Bennington College, Sedona  Arts Center, Marble House Project, The Camargo Foundation, Baryshnikov Arts Center,  and Djerassi. She has had commissions to create new works on Gibney Dance  Company, Toronto Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury, Zenon Dance, and the James 

Sewell Ballet and has created original works on students at The Ailey School, University  of the Arts, Barnard, The New School, Purchase, Long Island University, Ohio  University, Southern Utah University and Miami University.  

Joanna currently dances for Kimberly Bartosik/daela (2009-present) and Stacy Spence,  and has worked with Annie-B Parson, Donna Uchizono, Tendayi Kuumba, Wally  Cardona, Kota Yamazaki, Netta Yerushalmy, Sam Kim, Sarah Skaggs, Christopher  Williams, the Metropolitan Opera ballet, Daniel Charon, Nina Winthrop and others. She  is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and has taught at Amherst College,  Melbourne University, Toronto Dance Theatre, The Ailey School, Gibney Dance, Sarah  Lawrence College, University of the Arts, Barnard College, NYU’s Tisch School of the  Arts, The New School, LIU, Southern Utah University, Ohio University, Miami University,  The Field Center, Salt Dance Fest, Bates Dance Festival, and the American Dance  Festival. She is originally from South Africa and has a BA in Architecture from Miami  University. joannakotze.com  

Hsiao-Jou Tang was born and raised in Taiwan where she studied ballet, modern,  traditional Chinese dance, and Tai Chi. She moved to New York to continue her training  and received her B.F.A. in Dance from SUNY Purchase in 2008. As a freelance  performer, Tang has had the great pleasure of working with Trisha Brown Dance  Company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Netta Yerushalmy, Joanna Kotze, Annie-B  Parson, 2nd Best Dance Company, Stacy Spence, John Jasperse, Donna Uchizono,  Tendayi Kuumba, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Nancy Bannon,  Luke Murphy- Attic Projects (Ireland) and Every Body Meeting, among others. In  February of 2024, Hsiao-Jou became the inaugural recipient of the Viola Farber Award  given by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. 

Hsiao-Jou was also a company member of Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion (2010- 2012) and Doug Varone and Dancers (2012-2019), where she also acted as the  rehearsal director (2017-2019). 

MUSICIANS 

A Belgian-born vocalist, composer, and recording artist now based in  Brooklyn, Charlotte Jacobs is known for her avant-pop works that blend elements of  visual art, poetry, and contemporary dance. Her distinctive vocal manipulations,  employing sampling and loops, create a unique blend of warm melodies and glitchy  textures. Her critically acclaimed EP The Shape of Wandering was hailed by NPR Music  as “a sonic adventure,” described by WNYC as a “musical headfake,” and compared to  “a book of shadows” by Atwood Magazine. 

Charlotte has collaborated with a range of artists including Hannah Epperson, Zubin  Hensler, Joanna Kotze, Željka Blakšić, Raf Vertessen, Charlotte Greve, and Rosanne  Cash. She recently released a spoken word album with poet Alex Deforce on the 

renowned underground label Stroom. In October 2024, she debuted her full-length  album a t l a s via the Grammy-winning New Amsterdam Records, premiering it at  National Sawdust on November 13. She has toured extensively and will join Half Waif  for an international tour in February 2025. 

Raf Vertessen is a Belgian drummer, percussion player and composer based in  Brooklyn. He’s involved in New York’s avant-garde and improvised music scene.  Vertessen has performed and/or recorded with artists such as Charlotte Jacobs, Ingrid  Laubrock, Joe Morris, Joe McPhee, Ches Smith, Anna Webber, Nick Dunston, Will  Greene, Elias Stemeseder, Dan Pencer, Jesse Heasly. 

Shortly after his move to Brooklyn in 2016 he founded the Raf Vertessen Quartet with  Anna Webber, Adam O’ Farrill and Nick Dunston. Their next release is scheduled for ‘25  on Clean Feed Records. This quartet uses Vertessen’s graphic scores, characteristics  and modules as a means of structuring improvised music. 

Vertessen is also active as a solo artist where he focuses on his own  projections/figures, no input mixing, contact mics, and objects. 

COSTUMES 

Athena Kokoronis is an interdisciplinary artist whose work expands across art, food,  dance, pedagogical engagements, and design. Born out of motherhood, her art brand,  Domestic Performance Agency (DPA) is a creative protective container for process,  hospitality, and experimentation. She was recently awarded a Cynthia Hazen and Leon  Ponsky Rome Prize with Jasmine Hearn for their design collaborations. DPA is  represented by Lydia Rodrigues Collection, LRC.  

www.domesticperformanceagency.com  

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