Dancers

   LEONIDES D. ARPON, a Filipino born in Israel, studied at the Bat-Dor Dance School with Rosaline Subel Kassel, before joining the Bat-Dor Dance Company under the direction of Jeannette Ordman and worked with Lucianno Cannitto, Randy Duncan, and Igal Perry. Since arriving in to New York, Mr. Arpon has worked with Arthur Aviles, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Richard Rivera, Matthew Rushing, Nathan Trice, Johannes Wieland and Kevin Wynn. He is a recipient of the American Israeli Cultural Foundation Scholarship from 1995 to 1998 and the Princess Grace Award for 2006. Mr. Arpon has taught workshops throughout Israel, Japan and the United States and he has presented his choreography in various showcases in New York, most recently at the Uptown/Downtown Dance Series sponsored by The Field, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Harlem Arts Alliance and a season at Dance New Amsterdam sponsored by PMT Productions. He first performed with Armitage Gone! Dance in 2004 at the Joyce Theater.

MATTHEW BRANHAM, is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Branham has trained and performed with Cincinnati's School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Cincinnati Ballet, Joffery Ballet of NY, and Exhale Dance Tribe. Mr. Branham has performed and worked with Missy Lay-Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard, John Magnus, Francesca Corkle, Victoria Morgan, Leonides Arpon, and most recently with Ms. Armitage. He has also choreographed and performed in shows across the country and appeared in numerous national television commercials. Mr. Branham resides in NYC and is a 2005 recipient of the Overture Arts Award for Dance. This is his first season with Armitage Gone! Dance.

FRANCES CHIAVERINI, born in Pittsburgh, PA, trained pre-professionally at The Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School and performed several ballets with the company.  Having been accepted into The Juilliard School in 1999, Frances studied in New York for four years specializing in modern technique and choreographic studies.  While working towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, several of her works were produced and performed in such theaters as The Clark Studio Theater in New York and The McGill University Theater in Montreal.  Upon graduation, Frances joined the Netherlands Dance Theater 2 in Den Haag where she danced the works of Jirí Kylián, Hans Van Manen, Ohad Naharin, Shusaku Tekeuchi, Foofwa d’Imobilité, Paul Lightfoot, and Sol Leon.  In 2005, Frances returned to The United States to work independently and has most recently performed in works by Lucas Crandall of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Italian choreographer Luca Veggetti, and Pittsburgh based Attack Theatre.  This is Frances’s first season with Armitage Gone! Dance.

MEGUMI EDA, born in Nagano, Japan, had her professional debut with the Matsuyama Ballet Company in Tokyo where she appeared in many of the ballet classics in repertoire. In 1992 she was invited to join the Hamburg Ballet School, and soon after she joined the company, where she worked with Mats Ek and choreographer/director John Neumeier. In 1997, Ms. Eda joined the Dutch National Ballet where she worked with Twyla Tharp, Hans van Manen, Rudi Van Dantzig, William Forsythe and Redha. In 2001, Ms. Eda moved to London to dance with the Rambert Dance Company. There she worked with Christopher Bruce, Jiri Kylian, Lindsey Kemp and also started exploring her own choreography, creating two pieces for the Rambert company. In 2002, Ms. Eda was awarded "Best New Artist" by Japanese national newspaper, Shinano Mainichi Shimbun. She now lives in NYC where she won a Bessie Award in 2004 for her performance in Armitage's piece Time is the echo of an axe within the wood. She recently worked with Yasuko Yokoshi and film director Abe Abraham.

WILLIAM ISAAC, born on the island of St. Johns, Antigua, began his training at P.S. 158 in the Bronx and at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center in Queens, New York. He was a Fellowship Recipient at the Ailey School and is an alumnus of the High School of the Performing Arts and The Juilliard School. Mr. Isaac was a finalist for ARTS sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement for the Arts and a William Loeb Scholarship recipient at Philadanco. He has danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alonzo Kings Lines Contemporary Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Philadanco. In the fall of 2003, Mr. Isaac performed with the New York City Opera in their production of Handel's Alicina, directed by Francesca Zambello and choreographed by Sean Curran.  After performing with Karole Armitage in her 2004 season at the Joyce Theater, he spent a season with the Ballet de Lorraine as a guest artist where Ms. Armitage was resident choreographer.

MEI-HUA WANG is originally from Taiwan. She trained at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts and received a MFA from the National Institute of Arts. In her home city, she performed as a principal dancer with Capital Ballet Taipei and Taipei Ballet Company. She was also a guest artist with Korea Universal Ballet Company, Peking Central Opera Ballet and Ballet Moderno y Folklorico de Guatemala. Ms. Wang moved to New York City in 1999, and has performed and worked with Igal Perry/ Peridance Ensemble, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Stephen Petronio, Earl Mosely, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, Silver-Brown Dance and WilliamsWorks, among others. Her first choreographic commission premiered in May 2006 for the Capital Ballet Taipei. This is her first season with Armitage Gone! Dance.