Moment's Notice Feb. 23: Performer's bios!

The next Moment's Notice is this weekend:

Saturday, February 23 @ 8pm
Tickets: $8-15 (sliding scale)
Western Sky Studio
2525 8th Street, Berkeley

featuring:

Harmony Gates & TraceyJoy Miller - InterPlay
Cheryl E Leonard - Music
Rhonda Morton - Voice & Movement
Andy Strain & Andrew Wass - Music & Dance
TumbleHeart - Motion Theater

for info & reservations: email momentsnoticeinfo@gmail.com

More information about this month's performers:

Cheryl E. Leonard will present musical improvisations with pendulums, water, and natural objects from the sea. Cheryl is a composer, performer, and improviser of music and interdisciplinary works. Her interests include finding and building instruments, working with natural materials, collaboration across artistic disciplines, and site-specific work. Many of her pieces explore very quiet phenomena and the intricacies of sounds not generally considered musical. Cheryl received a BA from Hampshire College and an MA from Mills College. She has been awarded grants from the ASCAP Foundation, Meet the Composer, and the American Composers Forum; and artist residencies at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Engine 27, and Villa Montalvo. Recordings of her music are available from Great Hoary Marmot Records, Pax Recordings, 23five Incorporated, Apraxia Records, Old Gold Records and the Lab. When not playing with sound, she might be found climbing in the mountains, studying aikido or collecting pinecones with handles. http://www.allwaysnorth.com

Harmony Gates & Tracey Joy Miller will draw on their life experience and body wisdom to create improvisational storytelling and movement. Harmony is a pioneer exploring the correlation between how our bodies move and how we relate to life and to each other. She is a seasoned contact dancer, body worker and movement collaborator. She teaches Body-centered self-awareness and relationship skills, most recently working with individuals facing the challenge of dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD, ADHD or Autism. Tracey Joy Miller is an improvisational healer, facilitating body-centered approaches to Spirit. A long-time Interplayer.

Rhonda Morton is a poet, performance artist, dancer and singer with a particular interest in improvisation in all those roles. Equally at home working as a soloist, as an ensemble member, or as a producer/performer, Rhonda uses the transformational power of creativity-in-the-moment, often integrating the audience and/or the site into performances. In 2005, she formed Alligator Mouth Improv, a multi-disciplinary improvisational collective based in Corning, NY. Browse their website for more information and videos: www.rhondamorton.com/alligator.html For the Moment’s Notice performance, Rhonda will either do solo work or perhaps invite some friends to play!

Andrew Wass has danced in work by Scott Wells, Shelley Senter, and Jess Curtis. His performance work has been shown in San Diego, New York, Tijuana, San Francisco and Marfa, Tx. (http://www.andrewwass.com.) For Moment’s Notice, he’ll be collaborating with trombonist Andrew Strain (http://www.myspace.com/andrewstrain.)

Tumbleheart is a 2 yr-old improvisational autobiographical improv ensemble in the Motion Theater style.

Beth Sperry is founding member. She's performed as actor and dancer in Michigan, New York and Los Angeles, and began studying Motion Theater with Nina Wise five years ago. She says, "Autobiographical improv has liberated me in a way scripted and choreographed work never did. It's an artistic and spiritual practice that will be with me for the rest of my life. And Tumbleheart is a creative collaboration I never dreamt I'd have."

Evan Specter is also a founding member of Tumbleheart, and he is also developing a solo show about eating too much at the spiritual smorgasbord (please visit http://DragonTree.weebly.com). He has been singing and making theater since grade school in New York, and was introduced to autobiographical improvisation through a chance meeting at a mountaintop monastery. Evan has been studying movement, writing and improvisation with Nina Wise and Corey Fisher for ten years.

Jonathan Walker is the third founding member of Tumbleheart who will be performing at Moment’s Notice. For the past six years he has been studying Motion Theater, with Nina Wise and Corey Fisher. In high school, he found his first love for theatrical performance as Bottom in Midsummer’s Night Dream and as Tom in Tom Jones. Several years ago, he was asked to invent a male character and costume for the Mayday festivities for his 11-year old daughter’s Waldorf School. He now embodies the Greenman whenever he can, which is a role of gleeful exuberance and playful mischief that he enjoys very much.