Deborah Slater Dance Theater

Kerry Mehling holds an MFA in Choreography from UC Davis and a BFA in performance from the University of Utah. Kerry has performed and toured in the companies of Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Sideshow Physical Theatre, Della Davidson Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, and numerous other Bay Area companies.  In her travels, Kerry has had the opportunity to teach and choreograph nationally as well as internationally.   Kerry continues to teach throughout Northern California, while creating her own works and collaborating with Deborah Slater Dance Theater and Della Davidson’s Sideshow Physical Theatre.  Ms. Mehling formed her company Talismanic Physical Theatre in 2005.

Shannon Preto is a SF choreographer, dancer, producer and dance teacher. Shannon dances for Scott Wells & Dancers and Smith/Wymore's Disappearing Acts.  He has been seen in performances with Nancy Karp + Dancers, Kim Epiphano's Epiphany Productions, and has presented his own work at DanceGround Keriac and ODC’s Pilot 51.  Currently, Shannon is on the teaching staff at SF School of the Arts Theater Department and has taught at Temescal Arts Center (Oakland), at CounterPULSE, at the ODC/School (SF) and at the SOLA Contemporary Dance Festival (Torrance, CA).  Shannon has an MFA in dance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. This is his third year with Deborah Slater Dance Theater.  Body-Mind Centering® has heavily influenced his somatic and creative research for the past 11 years.Special thanks always to the support of his wife Salying Wong.

Wendy Rein has been dancing and breaking furniture since age 3. With a BA from Brown University, she migrated from RCJ Dance in Providence to Misnomer Dance Theater in NYC before finally settling in SF and co-founding RAWdance in 2004. In addition to her work with RAW, she has had the privilege of dancing with many local artists including Alma Cunningham, Melissa Hudson, Maxine Moerman, Nancy Karp, and Todd Eckert, and is excited to be working on new projects with Deborah Slater, Mary Carbonara, and photographer RJ Muna. She draws constant inspiration from the rain, dark coffee & chocolate, and the curves and crevices of the human body.

Travis Rowland holds B.A. degrees in both Drama (Popular Theatre) and Dance (Performance & Choreography) from SFSU, where he received his training in Modern dance, served as Student Artistic Director for the University Dance Theater in 2005/6, and was honored by the School of Music & Dance with the award of “Outstanding Student in Performance”.  His solo performance and choreography of Residual Sugar (2006) was featured in the American College Dance Festival Association’s Southwest Regional Conference Gala Awards Concert in January 2007.  He began his training in Hip Hop dance, and later went on to study Contemporary and Modern forms of dance. His active background includes competitive gymnastics, wrestling, football, track, baseball, swimming, volleyball, and kickboxing.   Travis presently performs and collaborates as a company member with Paco Gomes & Dancers, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, and TalisMANIC Physical Theatre.  Additionally, he has guest performed with Anne Bluethenthal, Stacey Printz, and Emily Keeler.  This is his third season with DSDT.

Deborah Slater (director, choreographer) has been performing, choreographing and directing in theater and dance for over 25 years.   In 2008, she was awarded a CHIME Mentorship grant and in 2007 and DSDT was awarded an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for HOTEL OF MEMORIES. She has been selected by TBA to have Tony Taccone as her Mentor on her next major project, MEN THINK THEY ARE BETTER THAN GRASS.  She has worked with selected theater and dance companies including the Magic Theater, A Traveling Jewish Theater, Dell 'Arte, Theater Works and San Diego Repertory Theater.  Selected commissions include the Yerba Buena Gardens Art Festival, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, The Cocteau Centenary in Los Angeles, the Kings County Arts Commission in Seattle and the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Selected residencies include Red Cinder Creativity Center on the Big Island in Hawaii and Djerassi Resident Artist Program in California.  Ms. Slater co-founded CIRCUIT NETWORK, an arts management consortium; was a founding board member of the People’s Theater Coalition (Life on the Water Theater) and was on the Dance Bay Area Board for 5 years.  In 1989, she founded ART OF THE MATTER, a non-profit dedicated to the idea that art and everyday life are not, in fact, separate events. Ms. Slater serves as a Mentor for the Vision Series for High School and Emerging Choreographers, is an advisor to the Marketing Committee for National Dance Week/Bay Area and recently completed 6 years as a member of the Executive Committee of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program Board.

Breton Tyner-Bryan is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BFA in Ballet Performance.  She has performed with Hartford Ballet, Utah Ballet, Kunst-Stoff, Project Agora, Labayen Dance, and Deborah Slater Dance Theater.  Additionally she has performed works by Robert Moses, Alonzo King, and Charles Moulton.  Breton received her training at the School of the Hartford Ballet and Ballet West Academy.  Breton also holds a Certificate in Baking and Pastry from the California Culinary Academy. An avid photographer, her work has been used by various dance companies and artists in the city.  She is working to establish her own image company.   Breton currently teaches in the Dance Mission Youth Program and has been a guest teacher at ODC, SOTA and the San Francisco Dance Center.

Shaunna Vella danced for the Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo from 1995-1999. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from St. Mary's College where she double majored in Dance and Psychology. She was the recipient of the Louis LeFevre Award for Performing Arts in 2003. She currently teaches dance at St. Mary's College and has taught at USF, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Volee Dance, and at public schools around the Bay Area through Young Audiences. This is her fourth season with Deborah Slater Dance Theater. Shaunna has also danced with Liss Fain Dance, Paufve Dance, Agora Dance Project, Dance Ceres & Davalos Dance Company. She is currently serving as a member of the Isadora Duncan Committee. Her choreography has been seen at ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, and The Ashby Stage.

Natalie Greene works in dance and theater as a performer, teacher and choreographer. She studied at Jacob’s Pillow and received her BFA from Arizona State University.  Natalie has performed for Mary Armentrout, Kim Epifano, Emily Keeler, Kelly Kemp, Leyya Tawil and is thrilled to be working with Deborah Slater Dance Theater. Natalie is Adjunct Faculty at the University of San Francisco and co-director of the USF Dance Generators with Amie Dowling. She also teaches through ODC School and choreographs for the SFArtsED Players. Natalie’s dance theater works have appeared in Italy, Spain, New York, Arizona and in several theaters throughout the Bay Area.

Elizabeth Morales started actively pursuing the performing arts in high school; although, according to her mother, she danced before she could walk.  Elizabeth graduated Magna Cum Laude from Saint Mary¹s College in 2007 with a B.A. in Communication and Performing Arts: Dance. At graduation, she was awarded the Louis LeFevre Theater award for academic excellence in the Performing Arts Department. In the summer of 2007, she traveled to Prague, Czech Republic with the Saint Mary¹s and University of Michigan theater departments to present Nilo Cruz’s Lorca in Green Dress at an international theater festival. Currently, she is a faculty member at Saint Mary’s College High School and is pursuing her teaching credential. She is excited to be working with DSDT.

Brandon Freeman better known as “Private”, hails from Colorado and has been with ODC since 1996. He started dancing in College and with Canyon Concert Ballet, while serving in the Army National Guard for seven years. In the Bay Area, Private has also worked as a guest artist with Berkeley Ballet Theater, Marin Ballet, Western Ballet, Peninsula Ballet, Stephen Pelton, Mark Foehringer, Kevin Ware, and Sonya Delwaide, and was a principle dancer in ‘The Matrix II: Reloaded.’ Mr. Freeman earned an Isadora Duncan Award, with Brian Fisher, for Ensemble Performance in 2002, and received a nomination for Individual Performance in 2004 for his role in Brenda Way’s “Investigating Grace.” Over the last few years, Private has taught master classes in the ODC style in the Bay Area, on tour with the company, and at Stanford University. Private would like to gratefully acknowledge all who have influenced his dance career, specifically Brenda, KT, Sonya, and Randy.

Thom Blum (composer) has been composing electroacoustic and computer music since 1972.æ His works have been presented in concerts, festivals and radio broadcasts internationally. He studied composition at California Institute of the Arts (1972-74), where his teachers included James Tenney, Ingram Marshall, and Curtis Roads. He is a Co-founder of the International Computer Music Association (1977), and served as Associate Editor for M.I.T. Press Journals Computer Music Journal (1987-1996). Residing in San Francisco since 1978, he has worked as an audio software engineer for LucasFilm/DroidWorks, a researcher and software architect for Yamaha Music Technologies, and is a Co-founder of Muscle Fish, a sound analysis and processing software company.æ In 2001, he joined the five person collective known as the New San Francisco Tape Music Center (2001), which also includes composers Matt Ingalls, Joseph Anderson, Cliff Caruthers, and Kent Jolly.æ In 2002-2003,æhe was named Artist for Lake Technology, Inc. (Australia) and was awarded a Huron sound spatialization system for his personal use in composing.

Jonathan Segel (composer) is a composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist. He plays guitar, violin, computer, electric bass and sings. Born September 3rd 1963, grew up in Davis, California (with a couple years‘ side trip to Tucson, AZ.), went to college at UCSC in Santa Cruz, CA, studying with Gordon Mumma and Peter Elsea. In Santa Cruz he hooked up with Camper Van Beethoven, apparently for life. He moved up to San Francisco in 1989, moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to work for Dane Davis at Danetracks, a film sound post production facility, then back to Oakland in 2001, where received a Master‘s Degree in Music Composition at Mills College, studying with Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, and Joelle Leandre. While in Santa Cruz, he played with Camper Van Beethoven. A new Camper Van Beethoven cd will be out in the fall of 2004. In the world of improv and electronic music he has been performing improvised music for instruments and computer around the world for the past few years, including shows in the SF Bay Area, New York, Europe and Japan. 2003 saw the cd release of several improv collaborations with notable artists such as Fred Frith and Joelle Leandre, and with Shoko Hikage, and one electronic music cd. 2005 & 2007 featured CDs with singer Dina Emerson in a new duo, Chaos Butterfly.

Erling Wold (composer) is a prolific composer versed in a variety of musical styles and media. He is currently working on a Mass for the Dom Cathedral in St Gallen, Switzerland, an autobiographical opera with the help of James Bisso, a dance opera on a true crime story with Palindrome Dance in N?rnberg Germany, and a solo opera for tenor John Duykers. He recently premiered his opera Sub Pontio Pilato, an historical fantasy on the death and remembrance of Pontius Pilate in San Francisco and Austria.æ He has written a number of solo piano works, including Albrechts Fl?gel, premiered by Finnish pianist Marja Mutru and more recently Veracity, which he premiered. He has worked extensively with dancers in the US and Europe. He has written a number of pieces for a dancer-controlled interactive video and music system for Palindrome dance in N?rnberg. He has also worked with Nesting Dolls in Los Angeles and San Francisco on several theater and dance projects, including 13 Versions of Surrender and I brought my hips to the table and has co-composed the scores for several Deborah Slater Dance Theater projects with Thom Blum.