2007 Fellows Biographies

Charles Anderson, 35, choreography
Charles Anderson approaches choreography as metaphor for kinetic storytelling or testimony. His work strives to illuminate the ability of African-informed movement to reconcile the physical with the spiritual. In 2001, he founded dance theatre X, where he marries traditional and contemporary Africanist dance styles (African, hip hop, samba, etc.) with the spoken word, and the formal concerns of western dance (postmodern dance and ballet) in such a way as to give contemporary, but historically textured voice to marginalized Africanist perspectives (on the concert stage).Anderson often collaborates with other artists including King Britt, a 2007 Pew Fellow in music composition.

Anderson earned a B.A. in Dance from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. and an M.F.A. with honors from Temple University, were he was a Future Faculty Fellow. He has also received training and mentoring with Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe of South Africa and training with Ronald K. Brown in New York. Anderson has performed at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe; the Wilma Theatre as part of DanceBoom!; Improvised and Otherwise Dance Festival, New York; and International Festival of Modern Dance, Kaunas, Lithuania. Among his awards are grants from Dance Advance, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the Puffin Foundation; and a Center for International Educational Exchange Fellowship to South Africa. Anderson is the 2007-2008 artist-in-residence at the Painted Bride Art Center and he is currently an assistant professor at Muhlenberg College, Pa.

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King Britt, 38, music composition
Ultimately, King Britt says, he is on a journey exploring the patchwork of rhythmic textures from many urban dance music cultures: deep house, hip hop, broken beat, nu-jazz, funk, and afro-tech. He grew up in Philadelphia—the root of his inspiration—and has worked with many of the city’s living legends of soul and R&B such as Grover Washington, Jr., Kathy Sledge, Gamble and Huff, and James Poyser.

Britt studied marketing at Temple University. Last year, he was commissioned by Charles Anderson’s (2007 Pew Fellow in choreography) dance theatre X to score a piece, which will premiere at the 2007 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe. The same year, he scored four original compositions for the documentary film Never Lose Sight of Freedom about the Civil Rights Movement as well as six original compositions for Michael Mann’s film, Miami Vice. Britt conceptualized, recorded, and toured a multimedia live rock project “King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan” in collaboration with Preservation Hall in New Orleans, which was performed around the world including the Whitney Museum and the Nuspirit Festival in Helsinki, Finland. He was bandleader and music director for the Sylk130 collective, produced two albums—When the Funk Hits the Fan (Ovum/Sony, 1998) and Re-Members Only (Six Degrees, 2001). He was DJ for Grammy award-winning hip-hop/soul group the Digable Planets.

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Nicole Cousineau, 37, choreography
Nicole Cousineau makes multimedia dance theater based in strong, rigorous movement investigation. With her husband Jorge, a composer and designer, she founded Subcircle and together they have created eight evening-length works with original scores, five within built environments or installations. By engulfing the audience in a completely created world they encourage a deeper level of audience participation and presence by changing perspective. Cousineau also focuses on collaboration, gravitating toward artists and resources of different disciplines and cultures to inform her work.

She received a B.F.A. from University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She has been awarded several grants from Dance Advance for the creation of new work, a Leeway Window of Opportunity Award, two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and an Independence Foundation fellowship. Cousineau has completed residencies at Schloss Broellin International Center for Performance Research, Germany, and Fabrik, Potsdam, Germany. She has performed locally in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, and DanceBoom!; nationally at the Provincetown Dance Festival, Mass.; and internationally in Berlin and Dresden, Germany. Cousineau has recently been added to the roster of Pennsylvania Performing Artists on Tour. She is currently developing a dance film titled Here, being filmed in both the Philadelphia area and Germany, which will premiere in June 2008 as part of Moving Pictures at the Wilma Theatre.

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Fritz Dietel, 47, craft
The experiences of Fritz Dietel’s life have influenced his work as strongly as his schooling. He was raised on a New England Farm and from a very young age, loved to build, mend, and, rather frequently, improvise when he did not have proper tools or materials to efficiently tackle a project. More recently, he says, the pain and joy of fatherhood are reflected in his work. Other inspiration comes from observation of botanic and aquatic natural forms—egg casings, shells, seed pods, and hives. Dietel’s pieces, quite labor-intensive, are mainly constructed from strips and shards of band-sawed wood.

Fritz Dietel earned a B.F.A. in sculpture at University of the Arts. He has won critical acclaim in Philadelphia and established himself with a reputable gallery (Schmidt Dean Gallery). Dietel’s works can be found in private collections as well as major institutional collections including the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Delaware Art Museum, the Johnson and Johnson Company, The Vanguard Group, and American Bank. He has taken part in competitions including the Portland Museum of Art Biennial, Maine and the Fleisher Challenge Competition. In his 20 year career, he has worked almost exclusively in wood and looks forward to exploring handmade paper, creating a new body of work reinterpreting his vessels and structures with this medium.

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Ed Bing Lee, 74, craft
Ed Bing Lee has been perfecting his knotting artistry for over 40 years. He started as a commercial fabric designer in New York and Philadelphia and then became an instructor, teaching at Moore College of Art and Design, The University of the Arts, and the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Working with colored thread and thousands upon thousands of knots, Lee transforms a simple material and a common technique into a unique form of contemporary fiber art. Lee will tell you that his attraction to the work of George Seurat and the technical aspects of pointillism—the placement of individual and differing dots of hues, values, and intensity to create a field of color and imagery—became the fountainhead for his knotting process.

Ed Bing Lee received a B.A. from San Francisco College, an M.A. in painting and fine arts from Brooklyn College and an M.A. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania. Lee is the recipient of several Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships, and has twice received the Farelli Award for Excellence in Fiber at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. His work is included in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Daphne Farago Fiber Arts Collection, and the Franklin Mint in Los Angeles, Calif. His work has been exhibited at the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art show in both Chicago and New York, and Men of Cloth at the Loveland Museum, Colo. A solo exhibition of Lee’s work, AT 70, was mounted at the Snyderman/Works Gallery in 2003. He is poised to embark on a new body of work that will be a departure in scale, format, and subject matter from that which characterizes his work to date. His current focus ranges from the intricate patterns of bacteria to the forceful imagery of cosmic phenomena.

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Gerald Levinson, 55, music composition
Gerald Levinson has been increasingly recognized as one of the major composers of his generation. His most recent work, Toward Light, for organ and orchestra, was commissioned and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra for the dedication of the new instrument in Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. He has also been commissioned by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Chamber Music American, Los Angeles Philharmonic to name but a few.

Levinson earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, and a M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He also studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, France. In 1990, he received the Music Award (for lifetime achievement) of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which cited his “sensitive poetic spirit, imaginative treatment of texture and color,” and his “potent and very personal idiom which projects immediately to the listener.” In addition to this award, others received include the Prix International Arthur Honegger de Composition Musicale, multiple National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a residency at Yaddo, a Pennsylvania Council on the Art fellowship, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial fellowship. He is currently a professor and department Chair of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College.

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Adelaide Paul, 46, craft
In 2004, a class in veterinary anatomy changed Adelaide Paul’s work—both what she does to earn a living and the art work she creates. Paul now works as a teacher’s assistant in the gross anatomy lab at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and she is also working on medical illustrations for a guide to the dissection of the goat. Her studio practice has also been greatly influenced by this experience, because while the animal form has been consistent throughout, she now possesses a greater knowledge of its internal structure. She states that “on a pragmatic level, rendering an animal accurately on the outside is vastly facilitated by understanding the organization of the parts on the inside.” Her works pose questions to the viewer regarding consumer/consumed/consummated relationships by juxtaposing found and fabricated objects evoking multiple possibilities for interpretation. Paul’s newest work involves large pieces covered in leather—a dichotomy between skin, clothing, and what lies beneath the skin.

Paul received a B.F.A. in ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, N.Y. where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from Louisiana State University. She is represented by Garth Clark Gallery in New York where she had a solo exhibition in 2004 and has been included in several group exhibitions. In 2006, the Clay Studio mounted a solo exhibition of her work, Anatomies, Animali, Anime, which was the culmination of her residency there. In addition she has been included in exhibitions at Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Mass.; Baltimore Clayworks, Md.; Salinas Art Center, Kans.; and Neuhoff Gallery, New York. She is the recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship and a Leeway Foundation Window of Opportunity grant. In addition to her work at Penn, Paul is also an instructor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.

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Peter Paulsen, 55, music composition
Peter Paulsen is a classical and jazz performer, both of which influence his composition style. Three of his CDs, Tri-Cycle by the Peter Paulsen Trio (Wahbo Records, 2005), Useful Music by the Jeff Baumeister Quartet (Wahbo Records, 2004), and Three-Stranded Cord by the Peter Paulsen Quintet (R&L Records, 1999) received international airplay, Top 10 ratings, and print reviews.

He received a M.M. in double bass performance from Temple University, and a B.M. in the same from West Chester University. He has studied privately with Homer Mensch at Julliard, Rufus Reid and Al Satuffer; taken master classes with Donald Palma, Francois Rabbath, Hal Robinson, Mark Morton and Lawrence Angel; and he also studied fine arts at Kutztown University. He was awarded three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships, and was the Gold Prize Jazz Composition winner in the Songwriters Association of Washington/Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. His most recent release is Change of Scenery for Sextet (Wahbo Records, 2006). Paulsen has been on the faculty at Moravian College, Lehigh University, Temple University and is currently instructor of double bass and jazz studies at West Chester University. He is an active member of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, principal bass of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and has been principal bass with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Spoleto, Italy, the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, and Pennsylvania Symphonia. He is also a free-lance jazz bassist and performs regularly with his own trio as well as many of Philadelphia’s top jazz performers.

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Jamey Robinson, 34, music composition
Jamey Robinson has most recently performed a body of work titled Buffalo Stance, which are vignettes about dreams he has had or the elusive revelations that occur right before sleep. While developing this piece, for three months he recorded one new piece of music a day, in addition to working a day job and touring. He is currently working on a series You are Caught Within a Radiant Light, about marriage—each section is a wedding gift to different friends. One track, for example, reflects on the possibility of knowing you will love someone in advance because of internet dating.

Robinson studied at the Berkley College of Music and the California Institute of the Arts. Formerly with musical art collective Need New Body, he recorded and toured the United States, U.K. and Italy. While with the collective he wrote songs to be performed in the context of that group. One such piece is “Outer Space” –written in homage to Robinson’s local hero Sun Ra. Marshall Allen and Tyrone Hill of the Sun Ra Arkestra recorded “Outer Space” with Need New Body. Robinson currently works for a Philadelphia moving company.

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Kate Watson-Wallace, 28, choreography
Kate Watson-Wallace creates site-based performances that re-imagine everyday spaces. She choreographs for the spectator as well as the performer, taking the audience on intimate, human-scaled journeys through a row house, a parking lot, or a dance club. One may witness a contorted female solo in a bedroom closet or a combative duet in the back seat of a Chevy Caprice. Her current work American Spaces Trilogy began in a row home with the piece “House,” will move to a car, and then to a store. Multiple collaborations with video artist Ricardo Rivera include “House,” which had a sold-out run at the 2006 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe and a glowing New York Times review.

Watson-Wallace has participated locally in Satores (Bulgaria) Lab/Exchange; Artists U; Dance Theater Camp; and nationally in Glenwood Springs Dance Festival, Colo. As a performer, she has danced as part of Jane Comfort and Company, New York; Group Motion, Philadelphia; and Carol Brown, Philadelphia and London, England. In 2006, Watson-Wallace was honored with two professional development grants from Dance Advance and a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council of Arts. She is currently choreographer in-residence at Susan Hess Modern Dance and a dancer with Headlong Dance Theater, and Myra Bazel/Scrap Performance Group.

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Dorothy Wilkie, 62, choreography
Dorothy Gordon Wilkie’s choreography involves the re-staging and re-choreographing of traditional West African and Afro Cuban dances. For example with Yankadi-Makura, a dance of the Susu people of Guinea, which is performed as a social ritual, allowing young people a public outlet for flirting, Wilkie maintians key elements like the rhythmic patterns, and in addition she incorporates hip hop moves. This was the first time that she experimented with hip hop saying “as a performer and choreographer of African-based dances, I have always been aware of the relationship between popular African American cultural expression and African arts.” She approaches her work both as an art form and as an aspect of her spiritual practice as an Orisha (deities) devotee and initiate.

She has been to Cuba five times and has traveled to Africa. She has had a dance residency with Cuban dance company Cutumba; participated in Fiesta del Fuego Conference; studied Orisha dance in Havana and Guinean dance in Guinea with M’bemba Bangoura; West African dance with the Jassu Ballet, James Marshall, Jackie Corley, M’bemba Bangoura and Youssouf Koumbassa. Wilkie has also studied mambo, meringue, Nigerian and Ghanaian dance, and Santeria and Yoruba dance and culture. She most recently choreographed the “Oya” celebration of African Cultures performed by the Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble at Philadelphia’s Penn’s Landing. Wilkie has also created works for the ODUNDE Festival, the Painted Bride Art Center and University of Pennsylvania to name a few. Among her honors are a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship, Leeway Window of Opportunity awards, and grants from the Independence Foundation and Dance Advance, and a Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography/Movement. She has been the artistic director and choreographer of Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble for more than 20 years.

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Julie York , 35, craft
Julie York works in porcelain, glass, and plastic. Through her work, she seeks to make sense of a puzzle in her mind, selecting the appropriate pieces and logically laying them out. Her work is driven by the industrial process; she has toured manufacturing centers in China—documenting first hand the mass production of ceramic objects. That experience has fueled her creative process and reinforced her belief in research through doing, and growth through travel and experience. She hopes to continue this practice through residencies at the Kohler Art and Industry Program in Sheboygan, Wis. and at the European Ceramic Center in Holland.

She holds a B.F.A. from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. and an M.F.A. from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, N.Y. She has received many honors including grants from the Independence Foundation and Canada Council for the Arts, a Leeway Window of Opportunity award and an Evelyn Shapiro Foundation fellowship. York’s solo shows include “Swell” at Fleisher Challenge and “objectsymbolanguage” at The Clay Studio. She was a featured artist at “SOFA Chicago.” Her work can be found in the collections of the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art in Alfred, N.Y., The Clay Studio, and the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, N.Y. She is currently a resident artist at the Clay Studio and from 2005-2007 was an assistant professor at Tyler School of Art at Temple University.

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