Earth Celebrations
Engaging Communities to Generate Ecological and Social Change through the Arts

Performance Bios 2011

1PM – PARADE START- RIVER SPIRITS INITIATION – @ Irish Hunger Memorial @ Vesey Street & Battery Park City Park

“Tribute to the Hudson River,” sung by Rich Flanders, written by Judy Kellersberger

Judy Kellersberger, songwriter, has written music and lyrics for over 100 songs that have been performed in cabaret, commemorative and special events, memorials and benefits, and have been broadcast on radio on 4 continents. Judy’s “Tribute to the Hudson River” and “Tribute to a Firefighter” (co-written with country artist Mike Black), have both received major radio air-play and honors. Hudson river lyrics were published in newspapers, brochures (including Pete Seeger’s Clearwater Festival Brochure on the first page 2007), archives and NYC Poets House Library in 2009. www.judykellersberger.com.

Rich Flanders received The Will Rogers Cowboy Award for his album, YONDERING – Songs of the American West, and his second album, RIDE AWAY, was nominated Album of the Year by The Western Music Association, 2010. He appeared on Broadway in SHENANDOAH and most recently at the Don’t Tell Mama cabaret with Celia Berk and Alex Rybeck in DOUBLE STANDARDS, celebrating “the great American Songbook.” For more, including his recording of TRIBUTE TO THE HUDSON, visit www.richflanders.com

Steve Saari is a pianist and music director who has performed throughout the world with a wide variety of personalities – in concert, in studio, and on and off Broadway. http://www.stevesaari.com/

Stephan Said song “Isn’t There a Dream

BIO: Stephan Said, aka Stephan Smith, is an internationally acclaimed songwriter and activist with albums on Rounder Records, Caroline Records, and Artemis Records. An Iraqi-American with family in Baghdad and Mosul, he’s been called “the clearest voice rising out of the protest movement that rocked Seattle”.www.stephansaid.com

River Aria: Performed by Silvie Jensen Kalung

BIO: Mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen enjoys a wide-ranging career, which includes early and contemporary music, opera and musical theater, and ethnic, improvised, and experimental music. She performs regularly in New York, as well as in Europe and Asia, and has appeared with Philip Glass at Carnegie Hall, with Ornette Coleman at London’s Barbican Centre, with Meredith Monk at Zankel Hall and Teatro Comunale Ferarra, in Handel’s Messiah at Trinity Wall Street, and in classical and contemporary works at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City Ballet, Miller Theater, Ash Lawn Opera, Stonington Opera House, Riverside Opera, American Chamber Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, and One World Symphony. Critically acclaimed by the New York Times and others, Silvie Jensen has made recordings on the ECM, London, Koch, Helicon, and Soundbrush Records labels.

1:30 PM – Rockefeller Park (in front of The Poets House) – MOVEMENT OF THE ESTUARY

“Five Minutes”: Choreography: Amanda Selwyn and dancers. Dancers: Jenny Gillan, Ashkeigh Gurtler, Joori Jung, Louie Marin, Francisco Silvino, Robert Vail

BIO: Amanda Selwyn has a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in performance studies and a B.S. from Northwestern University in theatre, women’s studies, and dance. She founded Notes in Motion Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre in 2000 www.amandaselwyndance.org.

“A Hudson River Poem” A Reading of Poetry Written in the Poets House Children’s Room

BIO: Michael Romanos is the Children’s Room Coordinator at Poets House, a 50,000 poetry library and literary center located in Battery Park City. He has an MFA in poetry from Columbia University.www.poetshouse.org.

2 PM – Pier 25 @ 220 West Street – GLOBAL WATER DANCE : HUDSON RIVER

BIO: Global Water Dance uses participatory art-making to raise consciousness about environmental problems and how to bring people together to work on solving these problems. Using Rudolf Laban’s technique of Movement Choirs (the earliest of flash mobs) choreographers create dances which not only move the participants in unison and individually, but also invite the observers to participate. Visit www.globalwaterdances.orgfor more information and to learn about our upcoming world-wide event on June 25, 2011.

2:10 PM – Boardwalk between Vestry St. & Watts St. – DANCE OF THE RIVER GRASS

BIO: Aaron Shragge (trumpet, shakuhachi) is greatly influenced by the study and practice of North Indian vocals and the Shakuhachi (Japanese Flute). He has performed in the NY area for the last seven years and will be launching his new CD The Key Is In The Window a duo record with guitarist Ben Monder this spring.www.aaronshragge.com

Choreography: Carmen Mojica mujerinterrumpida.tumblr.com

Dancers: Sudha Kailas, Meghan Kennedy, Alyson Perry, Marine Sialelli, Khloe Sunga

Grass for skirts provided by Union Square Grass Man

2:20 PM Pier 32 Pile Field (@ Watts St.) – TRIBUTARY RIVER DANCE

“Tributary” Performed by Jacob Garis Dance Theatre. Choreography: Sabrina Jacob, Art Direction: Rachel Garis, Percussion: Chris Coluzzi, Bass: Dan Turkos

Bio: Jacob Garis Dance Theatre is a collaboration of dancer and artist, Rachel Garis, and choreographer, Sabrina Jacob, whose recent work has been seen at Triskelion Arts, Joe’s Pub, DNA, The American Theatre of Actors, and The Ohio Theatre. Both have also trained and worked extensively in Europe and hold bachelors degrees from Emerson College in theatre. For more information on Sabrina’s work as a teacher and choreographer, visit www.sabrinajacob.com.

2:30 PM – Holland Tunnel Vents @ Canal Street – RIVER “WRAP”

Join Sludge and the “Trash Wrappers” in a lively river rap. Become part of a gigantic oil spill that menaces marine life!

Grumbling Gryphon’s Traveling Children’s Theater, winner of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Governor’s Arts Award is renowned for interactive environmental theater weaving marvelous masks, music, mythology and extensive audience participation. In Florida, The Grumbling Gryphons were instrumental in helping to get Amendment Three passed, which enforced the banning of net fishing. Other Grumbling Gryphons’ productions focus on multi-cultural awareness. Directed by Leslie Elias www.GrumblingGryphons.org

2:40 PM – Pier 40 (Southside Pier) – PADDLE BOARD DANCE

BIO: Alice Farley, the Bessie Award winning dancer/costume designer features a choreographed dance of kayaks and paddleboards with giant elemental river puppet-masks. Boat participants include: New York Kayak Company, The New York Harbor School and independent kayakers and paddle boarders.

BIO: Alice Farley Dance Theater creates theatrical productions, dance extended through sculptural costuming, illusion, puppetry, stilts and circus skills. Outdoors they create imaginary landscapes for public spaces, a dream life for architectural and natural environments. They have performed for World Financial Center, The Whitney Museum, The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater as well as festivals around the world.www.alicefarleydancetheater.com

Paddle Boarders:: Franco Talavera, Jeremy Grovsner, Susan Skinner, Iam Berger, Brien Reidy, Liz Glines

2:50 PM – Queen of Hearts Boat @ Leroy St. – HENRY HUDON VIGNETTE

“Henry Hudson and the Myth of the Crying Clouds”Created by Drew Vanderburg and The New York City Street Players

BIO: Drew Vanderburg is a Brooklyn based director, designer, poet, and musician. He makes art that jumps, jives, bumps, breathes, and yells. He reminds you that you are made of love. The New York City Street Players are humans who play in the streets. They stage events throughout the city to challenge society’s relationship to its surroundings, and to point out that the theater is not a place but a voice.

3 PM – Pier 45 @ Christopher Street – OYSTER PLANTING CEREMONY

Dance “Forest”Performed by Art of Motion Ensemble, www.artofmotion.org

Choreography by Lynn Needle/ Costumes: Annie Hickman and Lynn Needle/ Dancers: Austin Jarred, Jessica Lavorgna, Kent Lindemer, Lynn Needle

Oyster Planting Ceremony with the River Project http://www.riverproject.org/

3:15 – Bow Notch Bridge @ Tenth Street Hudson River Park – RIVER CLEANSING

“Tainted Love: Tamgin of the Trash Tricksters” Written and directed by Cindy Sibilsky.

Synopsis: The Little Mermaid meets Romeo and Juliette in our twisted tale of“Tainted Love: Taming of the Trash Tricksters.” When the worlds of the Trash Tricksters and River Maidens collide, mayhem could transpire! But with the compassionate power of the Recycling Rebels, tragedy becomes transformation and rebirth!

BIO: Cindy Sibilsky is a Director, Producer, performer, and visual artist who lives and works in NYC and internationally. She is co-founder and director of The Dharma Players Theatre Company and President of InJoy Entertainment LLC, an artist’s representation and production company. This is Cindy’s third year to proudly participate in Earth Celebrations Hudson River Pageant.

BIO: The Dharma Players: ”Enlightened Entertainment”: The Dharma Players’ mission is to bring dynamic, thought-provoking art and theatre inspired by timeless wisdom traditions, mythology, and ancient cultures, to modern audiences who hunger for bold, uplifting entertainment with a higher consciousness in mind. www.dharmaplayers.blogspot.com

3:30 PM – Pier 46 @ Charles Street – LIVE FISH RELEASE

Song “Mamma Ocean”Written and performed by: Kai Altair, Vocals & Doumbek: Renée Renata Bergan, Dancers: Angelys Liranzo, Serena Spears

Bio: Kai Altair is a Brooklyn based songstress, dancer, and dreamer. Her ethereal, spellbinding voice, and heartfelt, mysterious songs lead us happily into temptation, while exuding the strength of femininity. Often seen bellydancing barefoot on stage, Kai’s entrancing performances bring fantasies to the air, and transport audiences between the worlds. http://www.kaialtair.com/

Fish Release Song by Renée Renata Bergan and Amy Bonnaffons.

BIO: Renée Renata Bergan is a filmmaker, dancer, percussionist and vocalist. She was a prominent member of UC Santa Barbara’s Middle East Ensemble for 10 years as a dancer, percussionist and solo vocalist. In July 2010, she had the opportunity to perform with them at the Opera House in Cairo, Egypt. She has also studied and performed Persian and Balkan music.

BIO: Amy Bonnaffons is a writer and musician based in New York. She has sung with the Yale Women’s Slavic Chorus, Ukrainian Women’s Voices, and Slavic Love Telegram at venues such as Galapagos ArtSpace, HERE Arts Center, and LaGuardia Center for the Performing Arts.

Elizabeth Ruff- Fish Queen

Ali Luminescent-Mermaid

3:45 PM – Pier 49 Semi-Circle Bridge Over Water @ Bank Street – HONORING OF THE LENAPE INDIANS

The Silver Cloud Singers, an intertribal Native American singing & dance troupe weaving the traditional with the contemporary of native song & dance will perform a song and dance piece to honor the river.

BIO: The Silver Cloud Singers are an intertribal Native American singing & dance troupe weaving the traditional with the contemporary of Native song & dance. Silver Cloud has been honored to perform at the commemoration ceremonies for the Year of the Indigenous People’s at the United Nations, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, The Public Theater, The Apollo, Roseland, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Trinity Church, The American Museum of Natural History, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the American Indian College Fund Flame of Hope Gala. Silver Cloud was also proud to open for Midnight Oil and Joan Osborne at the Ritz as part of Earth Day celebrations held in Los Angeles and New York City in March 1993. http://www.silvercloudsingers.com/

STEWARDS OF THE RIVER CEREMONY

Hudson River Park Trust, Friends of Hudson River Park, The River Project,Riverkeeper, Solar One, Clearwater, Gaia Institute, and Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

4:00 PM – Water area between Pier 51 @ Jane Street and Shoreline @ Gansevoort Street – BOAT DANCE & HARMONIC CHANT CONCERT

Harmonic Chant Concert: Music by David Hykes, Award-winning composer, and contemplative music and meditation teacher. Founder, Harmonic Chant and the Harmonic Presence work.

Boat Dance: Alice Farley, the Bessie Award winning dancer/costume designer features a choreographed dance on the river with costumed kayaks and rowboats.

Boat participants include: The Village Community Boathouse, New York Kayak Company, and The New York Harbor School.

SILENCIOSA MARAVILLA (Silent Miracle), Song by Jose Conde

BIO: Alice Farley Dance Theater creates theatrical productions, dance extended through sculptural costuming, illusion, puppetry, stilts and circus skills. Outdoors they create imaginary landscapes for public spaces, a dream life for architectural and natural environments. They have performed for World Financial Center, The Whitney Museum, The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater as well as festivals around the world.www.alicefarleydancetheater.com

BIO: Award-winning composer-singer and film composer David Hykes is the founder of Harmonic Chant, a vocal music of the spheres. He has collaborated with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Mind and Life Institute, exploring sacred sound, healing and meditation, and has presented and performed in countries, festivals and spiritual centers all over the world. He founded the Harmonic Choir, the western world’s preeminent overtone ensemble, in NY in 1975 and released 12 albums of music, including the best-selling overtone album of all time, “Hearing Solar Winds.” Esteemed collaborators and long-time Harmonic Choir members Timothy Hill, Seth Markel and Joel Bluestein, and percussionist extraordinaire Evry Mann will all be joining in. For more information, please visit http://www.harmonicpresence.org/

BIO: Brooklyn singer songwriter José Cónde reimagined the Latin conjunto. He blazed through salsa and son. He unleashed long trippy jams and massive brass sections. He dug deep into his Cuban heritage and Miami upbringing. He’s done the world music and Latin alternative thing, won the awards, and played to jubilant, rain-soaked crowds. A fixture on the alt Latin scene, Cónde has indeed experimented with a multitude of formats, approaches, and projects, as a markedly independent musician. His music has been featured on the BBC and Californication. He won Best Latin Album at the Independent Music Awards (2008) and has gotten crowds hopping from the Montreal Jazz Festival to DC’s Kennedy Center, including a recent Central Park SummerStage show that got thousands of damp but dancing listeners in a downpour. Cónde seriously spiced up kid’s music as the musical director and singer forBaby Loves Salsa (Rope a Dope Records/Sony; 2008). Cónde’s video, “Respondele a Obama,” which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, became an anthem of the U.S. 2008 presidential campaign. As a songwriter and bandleader for his big band Ola Fresca, Cónde developed a striking instinct for merging his Miami upbringing, Cuban roots, and New York’s Latin underground. In two critically acclaimed albums, Ay! Que Rico (PiPiKi/Universal; 2004) and the award winning (R)Evolución(Mr. Bongo Records UK; 2007), Cónde drew on Puerto Rican bomba and Haitian compas, Cuban son and New Orleans swamp-funk. Five songs from these albums have been featured on Putumayo and Rough Guide Recordscompilations. www.joseconde.com

PARADE BANDS:

MANHATTAN SAMBA: New York’s longest-running authentic Brazilian samba drum ensemble, directed by Ivo Araujo, a master percussionist who has performed with leading samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, and was founded in 1990 by Ivo and Amy Duncan, jazz pianist, composer and leader of the band Brass Tacks. http://www.manhattansamba.org/

LA TIMBA DE AYER: This group is a force of vibrations responding sympathetically to the preservation of the drum culture in America. With a New York attitude we bring you fascinating rhythms from Africa to the Caribbean to the Bronx to you. Conga Santiaguera, Comparsas and Guaguanco will be the marching rhythms you will be dancing to. Come and celebrate the preservation of Mother Nature with us. http://www.myspace.com/angelrrodriguez