ARTISTS

ATREK DANCE COLLECTIVE MANAGING ARTISTS

2007 AFFILIATE ARTISTS

2007 IMPULSE ARTIST EDUCATORS

PAST IMPULSE EDUCATORS

FOUNDER
ANGELA CULBERTSON (founder, artistic advisor)

BIOGRAPHIES


DIANA BARRIOS, (managing director) received her BA in Dramatic Arts, Dance from the University of California, Berkeley where she founded the Annual Outdoor Festival of the Arts, a one day interdisciplinary collaboration of artists designed to generate support and visibility for the arts in a science dominated university environment. After college, She went on to become the senior producer and managing partner of Web Zeit, a small Internet development firm located in Manhattan. Ms. Barrios has choreographed eight works that have been shown in both Berkeley, California and New York City. She danced from 1994-1997 with the Bay Area Repertory Dance Company, touring throughout California and Mexico. Additionally, Ms. Barrios has extensive experience as a stage manager and lighting designer. Ms. Barrios has had the opportunity to study dance with Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, Susan Marshall, Margaret Jenkins, Joe Goode, Stephen Petronio and Robert Moses, and with company members from Alvin Ailey, Margaret Jenkins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Trisha Brown, Oberlin Dance Company, Elizabeth Streb, and Isaacs/McCaleb & Dancers.

SUMMER BEASLEY received a BFA in Dance from Webster University and an MFA in Theater w/an emphasis in movement from Lindenwood University. She has choreographed and performed in Washington D.C., Seattle, Kansas City, MO and extensively in St. Louis. She was production manager and senior company member of the Modern American Dance Company. She has produced, directed, and choreographed Summer Beasley, In Concert, 2004 and has collaborated with other St. Louis choreographers to produce Gramo Danse, 2006. She currently teaches dance at MICDS, Leaping Lizards Performing Arts Studio, Stages Performing Arts Academy and St. Margaret’s of Scotland.

BETSY BRANDT (aTrek managing artist) returned to her hometown of St. Louis in the spring of 2003 after attending Kenyon College, where she received a BA in modern dance and political history and performed in works by choreographers including Balinda Craig-Quijada, Kristina Isabelle, Julie Brodie, and Bebe Miller. A four-time performer at the American College Dance Festival, she also presented her own work there in 2003. Betsy is now an active choreographer, performer, teacher, and administrator with the company. During the last three IMPULSE Festivals, she had the opportunity to study with an exciting range of artists and to participate in the creation of new works choreographed by guest artists Kim Epifano and Lisa Race. To make a fast buck, Betsy has been known to moonlight as a Development Associate for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

ANGELA CULBERTSON (founder) has had extensive training in improvisation and modern dance. Currently, Ms. Culbertson performs solo dance programs, conducts educational residencies and improvisation workshops. Her career began in 1987, receiving a Creative Artist Project Grant from the Missouri Arts Council. Two years later, Ms. Culbertson founded Atrek Contemporary Dance Theatre and has since developed over 30 dances for Atrek. She has also been guest choreographer for Dimensions Dance Company, COCA Dance, Saint Louis Academy of Dance, Ballet Conservatory of Saint Louis and the Saint Louis Ballet. Most recently, Ms. Culbertson conceived, produced and directed In The Beginning There Was Dance, a collaborative effort that resulted in three world choreographic premieres. Most notable in this evening length work, Of the Fruit Thereof, incorporated dance, film, and live vocal music into a suite of dances about the role of Eve in the Garden of Eden and its correlation to the role of women in contemporary society. Ms. Culbertson’s work has received grant support from the Missouri Arts Council, the Regional Arts Commission of Saint Louis, the Arts and Education Council of Greater Saint Louis, and the Whitaker and Gateway Foundations.

KIM EPIFANO has been working in the Bay Area for 20 years as a choreographer, director, singer, solo performer and improviser. She is the artistic director of Epiphany productions a sonic dance theater company. Kim has been a main collaborator and performer with such dance companies as Contraband and The Dance Brigade both of which have toured Nationally and internationally. She continues to present her work at performance venues throughout the U.S. and abroad. She has been recognized five times as a Bay Area Isadora Duncan Dance Award (IZZIE) recipient. Kim was an Artist in Residence at the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, California. She premiered her newest show, "Einstein's Daughters" at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco in January, 2003 and at Sushi Performance space in San Diego. She has been a guest professor at UCLA, Sonoma State, Stanford, San Diego State, Mills College, University of Montana and Goucher College. She received the National College Choreographers Initiative to set work on the UC Santa Barbara Dance Company in 2004 and taught during the summer at the West Coast Contact Festival and the Impulse Dance Festival in St. Louis where she also performed and set a new work called “Cawville”. She also just finished a year professorship at San Diego State in the Music Dance Department. She will be presenting “Trolley Dances” this October in San Francisco. She continues to collaborate as an Artist in Residence with Sally Davis at the Storefront School in Harlem New York. For more information visit her website at www.epiphanydance.org.

ELLEN HINKEL began her training in Lexington, KY, before moving to St. Louis to attend SLU. While at SLU, Ellen directed the student ensemble Phases of Motion. With aTrek, Ellen performed a work by Germaul Barnes (Bill T. Jones) at Impulse Dance Festival and SIUE. She also participates in aTrek's elementary school performance/residency program "Moving Through Math". Along with the aTrek Dance Collective, Ellen dances with The Slaughter Project, a modern company under the artistic direction of Cecil Slaughter. After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Psychology in 2006, Ellen began SLU's doctoral program in Experimental Psychology. She is also currently the dance instructor for Saint Louis Gymnastic Center.


AMY MARSHALL (IMPULSE guest artist) was born in Kyoto, Japan, and raised in Sandwich, New Hampshire, where she began her formal dance training. In 1992 she received a B.A. in Dance and Theater with Honors in dance from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. Moving to New York City shortly thereafter, Marshall has performed in the companies of esteemed choreographers Paul Taylor and David Parsons. While a member of these companies, she taught master classes and residencies throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Marshall has also taught in New York City helping to develop a new program installing performing arts into the public school curriculum. She formed the Amy Marshall Dance Company in 2000. Marshall has set her repertoire on colleges around the country, including Goucher College, Stockton University, Webster University, Plymouth State University, Winthrop University, The Hartt School, and Dartmouth College. In 2002, Winthrop University commissioned the creation of Marshall's Sentido de Mujer for for a gala honoring the venerated Broadway costume designer, William Ivey Long. Marshall has served on the panel of adjudicators for the American College Dance Festival, Joyce SoHo Presents, and DanzJam, and has also served on the faculty at Hofstra University. For more information about Amy Marshall see amymarshall.com.


TESSA REED is a recent graduate of SIUE with a major in Dance and a minor in Religious Studies. She performed in SIUEs main stage productions of Dance in Concert, and in SIUEs spring dance production, Opus. Tessa began her relationship with aTrek as a student participant of the IMPULSE Dance Festival in 2003. She has been performing and working with aTrek ever since. Tessa also performs and teaches aTrek’s educational program, Moving Through Math.

BRITNEY RUTHERFORD is a recent graduate of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she majored in dance and physics.  At SIUE, she was a recipient of the FOTAD Merit Award, Provost Fine Arts Scholarship, and Alcine Wiltz Choreography Award.  She has performed at the American College Dance Festival twice.  She also performed in SIUE's Dance In Concert and Opus from 2003 to 2006.  Other credits include a performance at the St. Louis Dance Festival at Washington University’s Edison Theater. A Chorus Line, part of SIUE's Summer Showbiz 2006. 

MITSU SAITO (cello) grew up in Tokyo where he received classical training from Mr. Yoshio Sato, ho initiated Suzuki Method, cello division. He has been exposed to a wide variety of music such as: the new tango composer, Astor Piazzola; Bossa Nova musicians, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sergio Mendes; Jazz pianist, Bill Evans as well as classic composers such as Bach and Ravel. After moving to St. Louis, he expanded his music vocabulary from classical to jazz and improvisational music. Mr. Saito is also a member of the cello and keyboard duo "Sublimation," and performs African and Brazilian percussion and collaborates with dancers and theatrical artists.

TODD WILLIAMS (IMPULSE guest artist) currently dances for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet at Lincoln Center, where he recently performed in a new version of Le Sacre Du Printemps, choreographed by Doug Varone for a historic revival of an all Stravinsky program. From 1995- 2002, Todd danced with the Stephen Petronio Company, and was the Assistant Artistic Director from 1999-2002. Previously, Todd danced with the New York City Ballet for four years, and had the opportunity to perform pieces by George Balanchine and work with Jerome Robbins. In addition to his performing career, Todd has conducted master classes in many cities throughout the U.S and Europe for almost ten years. Todd's has been making dances since 1990 which fuse ballet with contemporary modern dance technique. As a choreographer he has shown his work at Danspace/St Marks Church, the Clark Studio Theater in Lincoln Center, and Williamsburg Arts Nexus. He recently completed a new work for NYC based Cedar Lake Ensemble, and plans to reform his dance company and present a NYC season in the Fall of 2004. Todd was trained at the San Francisco Ballet School, the Alabama School of Fine Arts with Dame Sonia Arova, the School of American Ballet, and the Merce Cunningham Studio. He has received several awards including a Level 1 from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, a medal from the Prix de Lausanne Ballet competition in Switzerland (1990), and the Mae L.Wien Award from SAB. Additionally, he has studied various forms of energy and release techniques including, Klein Technique, Alexander Technique, Qi Kung/Tai Chi, and Zero-Balancing.