Moveo Performing Company

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JESSICA DOWLING
Jessica – aka, Duchess – has been a member of Moveo Performing Company since August of 2006. Though she enjoys many genres of dance, Jessica’s focus lies heavily in lyrical and tap. She loves lyrical because “it just feels good in my body,” and describes tap as “invigorating and a mental workout. Tap is exciting, energetic, and makes me smile!” Jessica hopes to reach her full potential as a performer, but also enjoys teaching dance and hopes to further develop her choreography. Jessica is an Elementary/Middle Education Major at the University of Portland, specializing in mathematics. In her spare time she enjoys watching Scrubs and playing Mario Kart. She wishes to “thank God for everything He has given me; for every trial and every blessing thereafter.”

SAM CROSSLEY
Sam, who grew up in Kelowna B.C., is beginning her first year with Moveo. After dancing for six years, Sam says that her main passion for dance is shared by both lyrical and hip hop. Lyrical gives Sam the opportunity to “tell a story” to the audience, where as hip hop appeals to Sam because of its “strong attitude and style.” Sam has been aspiring to become a member of the company for the past year, and now that she’s joining Moveo Performing Company, Sam says she is ready to take her dancing “to the next level.” Sam loves performing, teaching, and choreographing, and one day hopes to return to her hometown dance studios as a teacher. Apart from her dancing, Sam also enjoys event planning and organizing for her family and friends.

COLBY NIELSEN
Colby – aka, Mummbles – has been dancing for seven years and is now entering his second year with Moveo. Colby, who wants to be a well-rounded dancer, enjoys all styles of dance because “each one allows you to bring out a different type of emotion.” For Colby, dance is more than just a hobby; he wants to make a career of it. Apart from dance, Colby enjoys playing basketball and editing music and photos. One day he wishes to go back to school to study calculus, physics, and foreign languages.

DON FLORES
Don is beginning his first year with Moveo as a member of the part-time hip hop company. Self taught for three years, Don’s background in dance lies heavily in freestyle forms of hip hop including popping and locking. He appreciates lyrical and contemporary forms of dance, but his passion lies in hip hop styles. He says “I enjoy smooth moves, isolation, and all the old school hip hop styles.” Don’s goals this year are to gain a better knowledge of other dance styles to further develop his freestyle and to become an overall better performer. Don’s other passions include animation and photography. He earned his undergrad from the Art Institute of Portland and currently works at Laika, an animation studio in Northwest Portland. Don enjoys recreational sports such as dodge ball and ultimate Frisbee; “you know, the real sports . . . oh, and I like giving high fives!”

LAUREN FLORES
Lauren is part of Moveo’s full-time repertoire company. Though this is Lauren’s first year with the company, she has been training since the age of seventeen. She teaches dance as well, but has currently put her teaching career on hold to more seriously concentrate on establishing herself as a dancer. Lauren loves lyrical and hip hop because “I feel they most accurately represent my personality.” Lauren hopes to reach her fullest potential as a dancer. She wants to “learn to dance for myself first, and hopefully move some people with my dancing along the way.” Lauren is also the owner of two businesses; a traveling dance program for young children as well as a photography business with her husband Don. She loves sports and traveling and says she is open to try anything at least once.

BRIAN BAKER
Brian – aka, Mighty – is beginning his first year with the Moveo Performing Company as a part-time hip hop company member. As a b-boy, Brian brings with him over ten years of free style and performing experience. He is most passionate about b-boying, but has also recently developed an interest for other styles such as popping, locking, house, and other forms of hip hop. He says he is also developing an interest in free movement and lyrical variations of hip hop styles. Brian wishes to expand his repertoire of styles and “become comfortable in dancing in styles that I am not used to.” Brian is a double major in Marketing and Advertising at Portland State University and spends his spare time developing his skills as a DJ. He looks forward to creating “friendships and bonds with the company members” and hopes to get everyone into a cipher “and go until we drop.”

MINDY KOBATA
Mindy – aka, Koala – is beginning her first year with Moveo as a member of the part-time hip hop company. Mindy has been doing hip hop for the past year and also has many years of experience in tap and ballroom. Mindy is excited to gain more experience in hip hop with the company and wishes to improve overall as a performer. Mindy attends Portland State University and enjoys cooking, playing tennis, and riding her dirt bike in her spare time.

VALERIE DITCHFIELD
Valerie Ditchfield is entering her first year with Moveo as a part-time hip hop company member. Valerie, who has been dancing since the age of five, enjoys lyrical, jazz, and hip hop the most. She says, “There is a breadth of knowledge and experience between the directors and company members. My goal is to take full advantage of this and absorb as much as I can, and dance as much as I can!” Valerie works from home as an executive child maintenance engineer and in her free time enjoys sewing and spending time with her family.

Company Directors

	Lorena Aranda Hailing from Torreon, Mexico, Lorena was the artistic director and choreographer of the dance studio “Spazio di Ballo,” leading the first Mexican dance company in 25 years to be invited to the elite dance festival TANZSOMMER in Vienna, Austria. Lorena has worked with choreographers such as Tymme and Aury Reitz, Adam Parson, Eddie Garcia, Billy Goodson, Alex Magno, and Mandy Moore. Her video appearances include performing in the films “Angel Baby” and “Steps”, as well as the television special “In Miami.” She has danced with Latin artist “Brenda,” and R&B artist “Joaquin.” She has also performed at Project Dance in LA and NY, the Choreographers Carnival 2000 in LA, the Lose Angeles Dance Invitational, and the 2007 Mt. Dew Tour. Official Website for Lorena Aranda
	Damon Keller Damon “Dae Dae” Keller has been dancing for 15 years and teaching for 11 years. He started dancing at a performing arts high school taking jazz, modern, ballet, tap and african styles. What kept Damon connected in dance was tap. Upon graduating high school; auditioned for the Broadway touring company Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk. After a year of teaching tap and hip hop at over 6 local dance studios, Damon landed a job in Los Angeles with TapSoundsUnderground under the direction of Gregg Russell. Moving to LA, Damon was on faculty at the EDGE Performing Arts Center, a dancer with Disney Entertainment as LaFeet at Disney California Adventure and doing numerous industrials in the industry. When he moved back to Portland he started a performing company now known as Moveo, coached the Junior Blazer Dancers for Several Seasons and did industrials for Nike, Columbia Sportswear, Oregon Lottery and Macy’s. Recently Damon performed at the Van’s Invitational Mt. Dew Tour, with Super Cr3w, season 2 winners of America’s Best Dance Crew, opened up for recording artist Jay Sean and in the works with choreographing for a local recording artist. He also works as a music engineer, editing music for dance studios and performing companies, on top of DJing for weddings, private events and birthday parties. When Damon is not dancing, he’s at home spending time with his wife and brand new baby girl Arianna Grace.

MOSAIC SHOW

Moveo Performing Company. A group that was something of a chance meeting that continues to yield nothing but positive occurrences and prove again and again what a dance company should be.

It’s a typical action to have expectations when heading into any experience, especially a performance in a milieu you’re familiar with. Even more so when you already are a fan of the troupe you will be seeing.

Yesterday evening was Moveo’s larger scale dance production: Mosaic, held at the Artist Repertory Theater on SW Morrison in Downtown Portland, Oregon. This evening was comprised of seven different performance labels (Moveo, The Source. MVP Dance Elite, Souldiers, Defcon 5, Groove Nation and “The Prophet” Ibrahim Mustafa). Having a hand in almost every performance were members of Moveo itself, most notably Damon Keller and Lorena Aranda who head up Moveo and yes, those names should sound familiar. To say the least, my expectations were high.

Most dance productions run, typically, one of two ways. There is either an introduction between each number, adding an extra minute to each segment and considerable length to the production; or there is a seamless transition between acts and you simply must pay attention to get the full value and experience. The latter was thankfully the chosen format. Two hours long with an intermission is a good portion of time for anything, especially a dance performance.

That being said, the show glided along, providing twenty nine different performances from the various crews (some dancers actually crossing from one group into another for different pieces). It was mainly an evening of varying styles of Hip Hop and Contemporary, two styles both at the front line of dance innovation at the moment and two of my personal favorites.

The range of choreography stretched from touching contemporary numbers and your current standard “Zombie Dance” lyrical piece (that was done so well and with such a large cast that it was anything but standard), to impressive feats of strength of the b-boys, old school to new lyrical inspired hip hop and finally to numbers of tap that showed you what tap dance could be. One number simply drew me in and I didn’t want to leave, a sort of contemporary jazz number set to a high energy song that inspired a combination of 1920’s juke joint and very Bob Fosse rambunctiousness. A number that literally enveloped my area of vision and all that could be seen was a party of color and sound, with a simple and captivating choreography.

There were a few rocky points. Brief moments of either shaky leg, blank face or simple short slip ups that for just under a second took you out of an excellent performance. Having been on that stage floor myself and having known just how sticky and awkward the surface is, I commend each performer who could hold a pirouette or any slide based movement of any kind, without the snapping of knees. With there not being a single bad seat in the house, you are close and clear enough to pick up on such things. Luckily, the rocky moments were few and the highs many.

Overall, an evening that left me wanting more in the greatest way. I kept finding myself saying “I would love to be in their crew”. It was the perfect kind of dance production. It didn’t just make me want to dance, it had the fire and talent to drive you to do so.

For more information about Moveo Performing Company, please check out:

http://www.moveopc.com

Also, check ART’s summer line up here for more great shows: http://www.artistsrep.org/

Andrew Slac

Watch Your Step LLC.

The title reflected exactly what it was, a mosaic of smaller pieces of art that each had definition of their own, but yet when put together as a show, became a larger work with a broader yet cohesive theme of modern and cutting edge hip hop dance.

Great pieces and incredible talent that kept me enthralled from beginning to end – there was no mediocrity here!

Really cool stuff and variety as well, all the way from the larger groups to the single guy in white – of course my favorite was the tap!

Claudia Graver

Mosaic Review by Claudia Graver

The title reflected exactly what it was, a mosaic of smaller pieces of art that each had definition of their own, but yet when put together as a show, became a larger work with a broader yet cohesive theme of modern and cutting edge hip hop dance.
Great pieces and incredible talent that [...]

The title reflected exactly what it was, a mosaic of smaller pieces of art that each had definition of their own, but yet when put together as a show, became a larger work with a broader yet cohesive theme of modern and cutting edge hip hop dance.

Great pieces and incredible talent that kept me enthralled from beginning to end – there was no mediocrity here!

Really cool stuff and variety as well, all the way from the larger groups to the single guy in white – of course my favorite was the tap!

Claudia Graver
Moveo’s season 09-10

We are very excited to start our new season!
We want to welcome the new members for this year: Sadie, Kacey, Whitley, Kayla and April.
We will have new bios and pictures soon so stay posted!
We also want to congratulate our Director Damon Keller and his wife Akesha for their new baby girl that was born on [...]

We are very excited to start our new season!

We want to welcome the new members for this year: Sadie, Kacey, Whitley, Kayla and April.

We will have new bios and pictures soon so stay posted!

We also want to congratulate our Director Damon Keller and his wife Akesha for their new baby girl that was born on September 2nd!

Many more performances and a great new production are lined up for this year!

Stay tuned for more information.

Moveo, Kryptic, LDT

Kickball Game!!!
These 3 crews came together to partake of good times and fun that is setting the ground for a joint Benefit Production coming to you soon in 2010.
Everyone had a blast while breaking all the typical crew vs. crew taboos.
Now there is talk of repeating this again but instead of kickball it will be [...]

Mosaic Review by Claudia Graver

Moveo’s season 09-10

Moveo, Kryptic, LDT