EDGE Boston - Nut/Cracked Review

David Parker founded The Bang Group in 1995 as a choreographic laboratory in rhythm, rigor and humor. Pressing through boundaries which once separated high and low art, comedy and tragedy, vaudeville and concert dance, The Bang Group has developed a solid reputation in both Europe and North America for its uncompromising wit, innovative movement and ribald approach to gender and sexuality. Parker gradually evolved a fusion style all his own in early works such as Bang and Suck which received a finalist prize at the Fourth International Competition for Choreographers of Contemporary Dance in Groningen, The Netherlands in 1994 and was a special citation of the Kurt Jooss Prize jury in Essen, Germany in 2001. Parker was also recently cited as a notable emerging artist by the jury of the 2002 Nijinksy Awards in Monte Carlo and his collaborative work with Dutch designers Melanie Rozema and Jeroen Teunissen received a 2002 Bessie Award for Design.

KATE DIGBY
KATE DIGBY is founder/director of Digby Dance. In addition to working with David Parker & the Bang Group since 2004, she has performed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company as an apprentice, Prometheus Dance, and in works by Alexandra Beller, Seán Curran, and Julie Ince Thompson. Digby was awarded choreographic fellowships at Summer Stages Dance in 2003 and 2005, a Company Residency grant from The Yard in 2005, and was a finalist in the Massachusetts Cultural Council's 2004 Choreography Awards. She has received grants from the Boston Cultural Council, the Putnam Foundation, the LEF Foundation, and the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. Her choreography has been performed throughout the Northeastern United States, in Ecuador and India. She has served on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music, Roxbury Community College and Walnut Hill School and has held residencies at Dartmouth College, Emmanuel College and Dana Hall School. www.digbydance.org

KATHY KAUFMANN
KATHY KAUFMANN (lighting designer) loves working with David Parker and The Bang Group and is very happy to be here at The Thalia with the company. During the past year she has taken The Bang Group's Nut/Cracked to Edinburgh, Tampa, Red Bank, Concord and New Haven. Her recent projects at Danspace, where she is a resident designer, include Curt Haworth's Descent, Luis Lara's Badman, Gina Gibney's Unbounded, Heather Harrington's Devils Playground and Jordan Fuch's The Almost and the Nearly. She also designed Ben Munisteri's Tuesday 4am at DTW and Jody Oberfelder's LineAge at the Clark Studio Theater. She is the recipient of a 2004 New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award, is the production manager for the River to River Festival and enjoys relaxing in Guilford with her family whenever possible.

JEFFREY KAZIN
JEFFREY KAZIN is a founding member of The Bang Group. In addition to his slapping, thudding and pointe responsibilities he is the General Manger and Factotum for TBG. In the world beyond TBG, Jeff, as a guest artist, has appeared in Italy the title role of the Arena di Verona production of Dylan Dog choreographed by David Parker and as an evil step-sister in New York Theatre Ballet's Cinderella. Jeffrey is a board member of the Peculiar Works Project theater company and a graduate of Connecticut College and the National Theater Institute.

DAVID PARKER
DAVID PARKER grew up in the Boston area and studied tap and ballet in Boston as a teenager. He later attended Bard College where he was introduced to modern and post modern dance. He spent over a decade performing with a wide variety of choreographers and companies in New York City ranging from contemporary to folk, tap and classical dance. One of his first works, Bang and Suck won a finalist prize and was first runner-up for the audience prize in The Fourth International Competition for Choreographers of Contemporary Dance in Groningen, The Netherlands in 1994. It was also a special selection of the jury of the Kurt Jooss Prize (which included Pina Bausch) in Essen, Germany in 2001. Parker was recently cited as an emerging choreographer of distinction by the Nijinsky Awards panel in Monte Carlo in 2002 and his collaboration with Dutch designers Melanie Rozema and Jeroen Teunissen received a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award for design in 2002. His work has appeared on numerous ten-best lists in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal and Antwerp. He is currently on the faculty of the Alvin Ailey School and Barnard College where he teaches dance composition. Parker also on the board of directors of The Field and Danspace Project. This fall he will create a new work for the freshman class at The Juilliard School. He continues to make select guest appearances as a performer and is a founding member of The Pink Ribbons Project: Dancers in Motion Against Breast Cancer.

NIC PETRY
NIC PETRY holds a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University and received his MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois where he focused on choreographing, performing, teaching, and making dances for the camera. While in school, he danced for Sara Hook, Ze'eva Cohen, RenŽe Wadleigh, and in works by Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch, Chamecki/Lerner, and Bill Young. Nic first worked with David Parker and The Bang Group at Summer Stages Dance in Concord, Massachusetts in 2002 and rejoined The Bang Group this past spring touring to Amsterdam, Kaatsbaan, Summer Stages Dance, and New Haven in Nut/Cracked as well as creating new roles.

AMBER SLOAN
AMBER SLOAN has had the good fortune to dance for David Parker as a member of The Bang Group for the past four years. She has created several new roles and danced most of the company's repertory. She has also worked with Keely Garfield, Sara Hook Dances, and Chris Elam and The Misnomer Dance Theater. Ms. Sloan's choreography has been presented in Virginia, Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and in various venues in New York including Danspace Project's Food for Thought at St. Mark's Church, 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Center, Dance Space Center, the Dancenow/nyc Festival, and DancemOpolitan at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. Originally from Virginia, she received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ms. Sloan is a certified yoga instructor for all ages and currently serves as guest faculty at Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

EMILY TSCHIFFELY
EMILY TSCHIFFELY received her high school diploma and BFA from the North Carolina School of the Arts and an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Her dances and songs have been produced in New York at the Food for Thought Series at Dancespace Project, Carmine's Gym, the Context Theater, One Arm Red, the 92nd Street Y, Fridays @ Noon Series, the West End Theater and Ur. As well, her work has been seen in many spaces, including outdoor gardens, in Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. She has enjoyed a residency at the Yard as a dancer and choreographer and been thrilled to teach composition and repertory during the inaugural year of the young dancers program at Summer Stages Dance in Concord, MA in 2003. She currently teaches dance, fitness and the creative process to children and adults at New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Emily has gratefully performed for many talented artists and is dizzyingly elated to be a part of David Parker's work. She joined TBG in 2004 as an original cast member of Nut/Cracked and has also created several roles and danced much of the company's repertory. Her mom is also great.