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. Meet Leo!

KRISTINA BETHEL-BLUNT, is a native of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, but grew up in Houston, TX. Her dance career began on the living room coffee table where she put on performances for her stuffed animals. Shortly after, her mom enrolled her in dance class. Her training includes The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, The Alvin Ailey School, American Dance Festival, and she has received a BFA in dance at the University of Oklahoma. Kristina’s credits include Alvin Ailey 2, The Lion King (1st National Tour), Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company, The Lion King on Broadway, The 62nd Annual TONY Awards and can be seen on VH1: To Legit (the story about the rise and fall of M.C. Hammer).

MEGUMI EDA (on leave), 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. Meet Megumi!

SEAN HILTON has recently left River North Chicago Dance Company after three seasons. While with the company he performed works by Lauri Stallings, Kevin Iaega Jeff, Harrison MacEldowney and Lynne Taylor-Corbett amongst others. Prior to River North he has danced with The Bay Area Houston Ballet under the direction of George De La Pena, and the Columbia Classical Ballet under the direction of Radenko Pavlovich. In addition to his company work Sean teaches and choreographs extensively throughout the U.S and has been on faculty at the University of South Carolina, the Northwest Florida Ballet, Ballet Tennessee, Thodos Dance Chicago, River North Chicago Dance Company and the Lou Conte Dance School. This is Sean's first season with Armitage Gone! Dance.

ABBEY ROESNER , born in Maryland, she began her dance training in her hometown at The Baltimore School for the Arts. After graduating second in her class, Abbey continued her studies at the Juilliard School where she received her BFA in 2006. To start her professional career, Abbey freelanced with several companies in New York City including the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and the Chamber Dance Project. In 2007 she moved to Canada to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. There, she danced works by Ohad Naharin, Stijn Celis, George Balanchine, and Fernand Nault while touring throughout Canada and Europe. She joined Armitage Gone! Dance in June of 2008 as a guest artist for the Lincoln Center Out of Doors performance of Summer of Love. This is Abbey's first season with Armitage Gone! Dance.

BENNYROYCE ROYON, born in the Philippines, started professional dance training at age 16, under the tutelage of Wade Walthall, at the Evergreen City Ballet Academy in Auburn, Washington. In 2006, Bennyroyce received his BFA degree from The Juilliard School where he danced notable works by Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris and world premieres by Jessica Lang, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Ron Brown, Eliot Feld, Alan Hineline, and Jill Johnson. He has freelanced with numerous companies in New York City such as the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Nilas Martins Dance Company, Chamber Dance Project, Sidra Bell Dance NY, and Rasta Thomas' Bad Boys of Dance. Bennyroyce recently danced and toured in Canada & Europe with Cas Public, a Montréal-based contemporary dance company. He has taught ballet & contemporary classes in Seattle, New York City, Montréal, and Jacob's Pillow. His choreographic works have been presented in Montréal, Maryland, Seattle, New York City, and at Jacob's Pillow. This is his first season, as a Guest Dancer, with Armitage Gone! Dance.

MARLON TAYLOR-WILES was born in Houston, TX where he trained with the Margo Marshall School of Ballet under the direc- tion of Margo Marshall and Mary Elizabeth Arrington. He graduated from Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and in 2007 received his BFA degree from the Boston Conservatory. While attending the Boston Conservatory on full scholarship, he performed works by such notable choreographers as José Limon, Paul Taylor, and Luis Fuente. For the last five years Taylor-Wiles has dedicated himself to Tony Williams’ Urban Nutcracker; a show promot- ing diversity and dance within the inner city com- munity while mixing Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker suite with Tchaikovsky’s. In 2009 he had the pleasure of performing at the Africa and International Friends Inaugural Ball in National Harbor, MD, honoring the inauguration of President Barack Obama. This is Taylor-Wiles’ first season with the Company.

EMILY WAGNER, trained under scholarships at the Flint Youth Ballet, Virginia School of the Arts, and the American Ballet Theatre School. Her most influential training came from Sabrina Pillars, friend and mentor from the NYCB. Wagner has performed nationally with Ballet Austin, Eglevsky Ballet, Ballet Noir, Aseid Contemporary Dance Company, International Bal- let Theater, and BalletX in Philadelphia. In 2005 she performed Peter Breuer’s Bolero in Salzburg, Austria with the Salzburg Ballett and from 2005 to 2007 she danced as a soloist with the Move- ment Network of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. While in Europe, she also received an international Pilates certification with Body Arts and Sciences International. Wagner dances as a tango artist with The New Generation Dance Company and is a guest artist with the Pennsylvania Ballet. Wagner is very happy to be dancing with Armitage Gone! Dance. This is her first season with the Company.

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 third season with Armitage Gone! Dance. Meet Mei-Hua!

MASAYO YAMAGUCHI, was born in Nagano, Japan. She started ballet training under the direction of Ms. Tamae Tsukada. She performed in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Japan. In 1998, she performed a "Pas de Trios" in Swan Lake as a part of Leningrad Ballet's tour in Nagano, Japan. She studied and graduated with BFA in Dance Education from the University of Central Oklahoma. She was a member of Kaleidoscope Dancers Company and also received the Kaleidoscope Dance Award at UCO in 2003. She moved to NYC in 2003 as a member of the Faune Dance Troupe. She performed with Armitage Gone! Dance as a guest dancer at The Duke on 42nd Street Theater in 2005, at the Joyce Theater in 2007 and most recently at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in August, 2008. This is Masayo's first season with Armitage Gone Dance.